TJ: 2006 build up from stock

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Got my Aux fuel tank fitted. 45Lt more fuel for those long range adventures. Photos will be up later

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Well,

After the Jeep sitting in the shed for over a year now and me being to busy to put in the wench time I thinks its time i find a pro to get the beast back on the road. So on my last trip up in Darwin I may have had a CV on the prop shaft forward out of balance at 110kmh which equals a transfer case shot to (*&# if anyone was wondering. After installing a new one and getting a new prop shaft from the states I installed the transfer case and lost steam. Now I have a prop shaft, a new aircon unit, 2" lift kit and a good service to do... Which probably only adds up to a weekend of work but with out a work shops now (thanks Sydney unit living) I think its just easier to find someone else to do it.

Anyone out there with a spare weekend or know of someone who is good with Jeeps? Its a 2006 TJ Wrangler

Failing the refit I think it will just end up another project car up for sale.

Cheers

Matt

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If anyone is interested in a mechanic in Sydney give Mike Connolly automotive a call. They are based in Zetland and he does a brilliant job. I dropped my Jeep off with half a dozen things to be done and by this afternoon he had either fixed them or had the parts on order.


Mike Connolly Automotive Engineering - 2017

801 Elizabeth St, Zetland, NSW, 2017

Waterloo Sth, NSW, 2017

Australia Business Number Workshop Service Manager
88 002 933 511 Mike Connolly



Phone Calling: 1300 789 083 --> WORKSHOP DIRECT LOCAL CALL SERVICE COST

Emailing Link: mikeconnollyauto@servautogroup.com.au

Web Site Link: http://www.car-services-zetland.servauto.com.au

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Well after a self imposed gap in my time off road and the effort that it took to get the Jeep back on the road and ready to go I am stoked with my two little modifications I did today.

I installed a HID upgrade to the headlights and I installed a new head unit for my radio.

Now before everyone starts hacking on me for the radio modification I have to say that after my recent trips up to Fraser and back the stock unit just does not cut it for long distance driving. All I wanted was a IPod input so i could play my tunes when the radio was either boring or had no coverage. The Wireless transmitter I had just did not cut it and I had to charge the IPod somehow as well. So I jumped online to Quadratec and purchased the Sony IPod compatible head unit and the connection kit.

I thought this mod would take me a couple of hours of swearing and complaining about how hard Jeep seems to make everything. In the end the only difficulty I had was the stupid retaining bold that Jeep has in the 06 model to make it more difficult to steal the radio. I dont think that Jeep had it in mind that the owner may want to remove the radio and that the Jeep would have been converted to Right hand drive so the easy option of going through the glove box is out of the equation. However once you do get this bolt out the whole install took me an hour at most and 35 minutes of that was spent on the one bolt.

The outcome.... Its like chalk and cheese, the sound quality is amazing and so much better then the stock head unit. As for ease of access and the finish. With the install kit it just looks like it was meant to be there and the harness is simply plug and play. I wish every Mod went this well and looked this good.

The second Mod was the switch from the standard headlights to Delta's HID's. This one was also a simple case of plug and play with the change over taking me less then an hour. The one thing I had to trouble shoot is that you do need to still connect the earth wire from the stock wiring harness to the earthing bolt or your indicators will play up.

Apart from that the high low beams work well and they were easy to adjust. I have lost the use of the "city lights" as the Delta manual called them which are the dim lights that come on before the main head light and are based in the lower half of the light. I Dont think I need them but time will tell.

The last job for the day was installing the new floor mats I brought but I dont think this one quite counts as a Mod.... But it is nice to have stuff that actually really fits and is not just a best fit which you have to settle for in Oz...

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Well how time fly's. I have been a busy bloke today doing some more work on the Jeep. Since the last update I have fitted an ARB air compressor in the rear draw setup, finished the wiring for the dual battery set up with a CTECK DC-DC battery charger included and solar panel on its way. So the Thumper battery pack now gets all the juice it needs on the road or in camp.

I also upgraded the draw slides to some heave duty ones rated to 250kg's. I doubt I will ever exceed that rating.

I have moved the hilift jack from the bonnet to the rear tailgate but its a bit high as I have the long one over the shorter option. I might look at replacing the jack with a smaller one and leave the big one for the shed.

Tomorrow I have the 50" light bar up front and the 6" rear one to install. For some reason I think this will be a bigger job then I anticipate.

I will also check my wheel bearings tomorrow with the shake test to make sure they are still good to go. It should be a fun day playing on the jeep all in all.

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Today was a productive day and I am now another two steps closer to the big trip.

I was up in arms if I was going to grab a LED lightbar or not. I knew that the performance was amazing and they are the latest thing but I dont tend to do my wheeling of a night on my trips as i hope to be in camp and cooking up a feast by the time it gets dark. I did want to get an awning however and Tigerz 11 had an offer where I got a 6" light bar for free with the awning and mozzie netting. SO I bought that lot and was having a play around with the light. The performance was great and I thought it would look quite nice on the back of the jeep once I got around to it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and 4WD action call asking if I would like to renew my subs. I asked what offers they had on and in the end I got a 50" Tigerz 11 light bar and 12 months subscription for $800 delivered. Now I had to work out where to mount it... I knew that the rack would be the only real spot but how could I mount it with the brackets that come supplied and get a good angle on my wind deflector. Trial and error would suffice luckily enough.

I had to mount the light bar at the top of the wind deflector due to the overhang at the back of the light bar not allowing me to get the light level and in the end I had to satisfy myself with 1 degree down angle.

I am yet to try there offroad but my theory is the HID headlights are good for onroad, the spotlights are good for the distance and the lightbar will just light up the middle of it all.

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I have an interesting electrical question for anyone that's keen. I have a power distribution block behind the steering wheel that I use to power all my switches and the LED light bar on the roof, the rear LED light bar and the activation solenoid for the Aux battery system. The power to the distribution block is fused with a 40amp breaker (so I can also isolate the system for long term storage with the flick of a switch) which is on the battery end of the power cable. Now the LED light bar stopped working the other day so I had a look and found the distribution block fried! But on the earth side not the positive. Bloody lucky I never had a fire I know! I am trying to work out how this happened. Judging by the melting I am thinking I must have never tightened the bolts enough. I am re building the system with a new solution and would love some input into if there is a better way.
This is the old one

Note how the bolt has moved as it melted through the plastic.

The plan for the new setup with have two blocks with the bus bar in place and a 20amp fuse on the positive. I know the fuse should be as close to the battery as possible but the cable I have run is rated to 50amp so the circuit breaker should go first. The second fuse is just to stop stuff melting at this end of the wire so to speak. I would love to go for a SPod and simplify everything but my budget says no at the moment.

Any thoughts?