The MandiWagon: This ain't yo mamma's mall machine. . .

Postby **OldGreen** » Sat May 03, 2014 9:36 pm

JK Lance wrote:
OldGreen wrote:What rear end?

8.25

I may have an 8.25 Spartan available soon.

Postby **Livin4Today** » Sun May 04, 2014 9:18 am

OldGreen wrote:
JK Lance wrote:
OldGreen wrote:What rear end?

8.25

I may have an 8.25 Spartan available soon.

Verrrry Nice, she might be interested. Right now I'm looking for a donor 30 for the unit bearings and better ball joints...

Postby **Roman** » Sun May 04, 2014 9:29 am

JK Lance wrote:
Roman wrote:https://www.ballisticfabrication.com/mobile/home.asp#page-103

Jose, did you mean these?

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/Offset-Leaf-Spring-Shackles_p_1650.html

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/XJ- ... _1542.html

Postby **Mandi** » Sun May 04, 2014 1:03 pm

We picked a Name....with a little help from a baby names list beginning with "X' for "XJ'....and chose Xaria Pronounced with a "z" which apparently means Princess of the Forest......so aptly named since the MandiWagon is forest green....
but at home we were calling it the Doggywagon and then Jimmy called it the Mandiwagon, so hey, she has multiple personalities...

Postby **Mandi** » Sun May 11, 2014 7:30 pm

New Shoes

We grabbed Lee's old 33" tires and a set of rims from BryansFab, thanks to both, and Xaria is again stepping up into more of a Jeep...

Then Lance ran it over to Bryan's and they got the exhaust patched up, so she purrs less violently. While he was over there Lance decided to add a little more clearance to the fronts as they were contacting when turning. He also put on what was left of Bryan's old front flares to tide me over until we can find another set of TJ fronts...

He hasn't had time to clearance the rears yet I kept him busy on Mother's Day (Cleaning the garage, and chasing an electrical problem with the lights), but hopes to get them done this week.

Finally here's a shot of our girls parked at home together...

Postby **Livin4Today** » Sun May 11, 2014 7:46 pm

Electrical Demons...

So I noticed the turn signals weren't working last night, turns out neither were the brake lights. So I do a little interweb searching and track it down to the 20A Maxi fuse under the hood. No biggie replace and before I get home same thing no lights.

So not wanting to own stock in maxi fuses, I devised a little tester using a circuit breaker, and ATC fuse holder. Everything works, so I swap it out for an ATC 20A fuse and have Mandi run through the indicators and brakes and everything works, until she hits the brakes and indicator together, fuse blows...

I'm at my wits end, so I put the circuit breaker back in and notice the indicators stop when the brakes are applied. Must be the brake switch right? Nope, after replacing it same thing, luckily I haven't yet gone back to the Maxi fuse.

So oh wise ones any thoughts? My best guess is the junk trailer/tow wiring that was put in previously, I plan to track it this week. Any other ideas advice is welcomed...

Oh, and to kill the obvious I did not knick or harm any wiring when doing the hatchet job on the front fenders... :tomates

Postby **iaccocca** » Sun May 11, 2014 8:28 pm

I had the same problem with a short in my trailer wiring. No problem 'til I hit the brakes.

Postby **OldGreen** » Mon May 12, 2014 5:33 am

Yeah, it sounds like you are on the right track. The two circuits are separate in an XJ until you put a trailer harness on.

Postby **Wrench** » Mon May 12, 2014 6:29 am

JK Lance wrote:Electrical Demons...

So oh wise ones any thoughts? My best guess is the junk trailer/tow wiring that was put in previously, I plan to track it this week. Any other ideas advice is welcomed...

That's my guess. Since the Cherokee uses separate blinkers from brake lights, someone either installed an adapter (that has gone bad) or just plain wired it without one. Trailer wiring always uses blinker/brake light wires together in the same wire.

Postby **iaccocca** » Sun May 18, 2014 8:39 pm

Seen it in person tonight... under 'flash light' light. Looking clean and sharp. Gonna be a fun wheeler.

Postby **Livin4Today** » Sun May 18, 2014 8:48 pm

JK Lance wrote:Electrical Demons...

So I noticed the turn signals weren't working last night, turns out neither were the brake lights. So I do a little interweb searching and track it down to the 20A Maxi fuse under the hood. No biggie replace and before I get home same thing no lights.

So not wanting to own stock in maxi fuses, I devised a little tester using a circuit breaker, and ATC fuse holder. Everything works, so I swap it out for an ATC 20A fuse and have Mandi run through the indicators and brakes and everything works, until she hits the brakes and indicator together, fuse blows...

I'm at my wits end, so I put the circuit breaker back in and notice the indicators stop when the brakes are applied. Must be the brake switch right? Nope, after replacing it same thing, luckily I haven't yet gone back to the Maxi fuse.

So oh wise ones any thoughts? My best guess is the junk trailer/tow wiring that was put in previously, I plan to track it this week. Any other ideas advice is welcomed...

Oh, and to kill the obvious I did not knick or harm any wiring when doing the hatchet job on the front fenders...

So I tracked down Xaria's Brake light issue! YAY! :thu:

Turns out the 3rd eye brake light, that was missing had the two wires conveniently wrapped together, cause a short... :banghead

My fix with the circuit breaker was a temp fix that allowed things to function, but poorly, and an extra benie was that it allowed a complete meltdown of these wires. But I was able to seperate the wires for now and will rewire when I get another 3rd eye assembly to remount the light... :roll:

Postby **Livin4Today** » Sun May 18, 2014 8:52 pm

I still have one question, the second socket down is for what exactly (it seems to be in the brake/tail area) and how is it supposed to be wired? Currently it appears to be wired into a tow behind (as in flat tow) harness only, so I have no idea where those wires should be going or connecting as they are currently only attached to that system.

Postby **OldGreen** » Mon May 19, 2014 5:13 am

I think that they originally had separate tail and brake lights. None of mine have anything in that hole.

Postby **Livin4Today** » Thu May 29, 2014 7:58 am

HELP!!!

Okay so now after correcting my pan gasket error, Mandi's rig leaks from the (bonus from the donor WJ engine) low oil level sensor in the pan. I'm guessing it got jarred during the gasket fix.

Does anybody any experience with replacing these with a bolt? If so can one just remove the leaky one without dropping the pan again?

Desperately trying to get her rig ship shape so she and it can get better acquainted by road tripping to Seattle and back...

Tomorrow night... Only needs a gear and axle swap front, gears in the rear plus a few other little things....

Postby **Livin4Today** » Fri May 30, 2014 10:40 am

Fixed with a 3/4 bolt... Also got trailer lights all rewired (PIP), rewired the 3rd eye brake light, still need one, and reattached the rear washer tube. EVERYTHING works...

However the shocks are shot so it's hard to determine the ride just yet, but we have some plans to rectify that soon.

Couple of recent shots

Postby **TJDave** » Fri May 30, 2014 12:39 pm

Very nice! Great looking Cherowagon.

Postby **wonderwoman823** » Fri May 30, 2014 1:17 pm

Lookin' good:)

Postby **Livin4Today** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:21 pm

Recent upgrades include, some heavy duty sliders, front and rear bumpers and a winch, that saw limited use on Aardvark Hill this past weekend... (Cheeze Squeeze).

An auto locker was intended for the front D-30 however, for whatever reason, it would not ratchet so for now the axles remain open/open. We're holding out for an e-locker in the front we think, and the rear will grow in time.

We did get the gears (4.10s) swapped, in and the requisite color added for contrast though.

I found a guy in Salem that sells bumper kits, front or rear $260 ea. Not a bad lil' bumper kit, tach it together like a puzzle the weld the piss out of it... Here is the front pre paint/winch.

Front Bumper Painted and trail tested, along with our former trailer winch temporarily occupying the hole in the front bumper...

Then we added the rear bumper kit too... It had a stealth receiver so we said good by to the old frame mounted hitch and gained a few more inches of tail clearance...

Here Mandi is flexing Xaria leaving Funny Rocks...

Postby **Livin4Today** » Thu Jan 01, 2015 3:45 pm

So it might be a little early but I got Mandi some early birthday prezzies first we ordered some Solid diff covers, and a RC Track bar, some Discos and finally I made a road trip to Portland for these...

Not real fancy but we'll shine 'em up a bit before modeling them...

Postby **Livin4Today** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 12:35 pm

So the last time Mandi got to drive Xaria was at 2014 FYBR, when we thought we blew the clutch, starter, and transfer case. We were partially right, the transfer case needed only a chain swap, the clutch was actually fine, but the pilot bearing had disintegrated the only thing left of it was the cage.

So it sat as other projects made their way thru Bryan's Fab, until this past weekend. We believed we had all of her new goodies stock piled and it was time to get Xaria back on the road (mind you as I type this I still have at least a days work ahead of me. Just for giggles I'll list the goodies (all bought on plastic from Quadratec - NOT!)

Stage 3 HP Clutch
New Flywheel
Transfer Case Chain & Rebuild Kit
New Starter
3 Sets of Unibody Stiffeners (Fr/Ctr/Rr)
Rough Country Adj Track Bar w/Bracket
Rough Country Quick Discos
New Hi-Flow Muffler
Eaton E-Locker
Taller Front Springs

Currently the flywheel, clutch, transfer case, and starter are in, the e-locker is about finished (spent a day chasing bearings and races), and the stiffeners (we got in trade from T-MFab.com for building their website) are only partially completed. We got the center section on the Driver's side in and welded, the Passenger centers are placed, and I have more grinding and a bumper or two to remove before welding and rebuilding the front end.

Will grab some pics today. The goal is rolling by tomorrow... (We'll see)... So if you have nothing to do today and wanna come stand around and drink beer and distract me, don't (please for the love of Mike). However if you wanna come help me figure out how to get the front bumper out of the way for grinding, w/o having to remove the winch and lighting... PLEASE COME BY! I'm at Bryan's Fab solo til about 5 ish... (Beer is optional, but seldom turned down)

Postby **Livin4Today** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:34 pm

So I grabbed a few pics of the underside enhancements...

Before anybody throws darts at the welding, it's NOT Bryan's welding (except the really nice stuff in the front passenger wheel well), it's mine, and although ugly, it should serve the purpose, and it's a great project to teach myself better... Sorry honey for welding ugly on your girl, but you're welcome to come grind it all down if you like(It's just gonna get cover in grime anyway).

Throw darts now... :lip:

Postby **scumby** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 4:33 pm

cherowagon is gonna be a lot heavier now

Postby **Livin4Today** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 9:26 am

scumby wrote:cherowagon is gonna be a lot heavier now

What's another 35 lbs among friends?

Postby **Grumpy** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:37 pm

Depends on where you put it :twisted:

Postby **79chevy39.5's** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 8:02 pm

I wouldn't wheel a Cherokee without that on one

PEAK PUTTERS

The MandiWagon: This ain't yo mamma's mall machine. . .

Who is online