Well after many strong recommendations from fellow forum members (*cough TJXJWJ cough*) and a very nice gift from Santa I will be installing my front and rear addco sway bars this weekend, along with new end links and the energy suspension greasable bushings for the rear. I was thinking, its too bad the bushings don't come in green... :lol: :slapfight:
@TJXJWJ, 01Grand, & CheapJeep: So when you guys do these mechanically inclined projects how do you guys go about knowing all the stuff and how to do it? Did you go to an automotive school or just past experience?
I certainly can't deny the advantages of being knowledgeable and doing your own work to save tons of money from bulls*** dealers and service stations.
Trial and error my friend. Mostly error but trial and error:lol: Seriously my father passed way back when I was 18 and I kind of inherited the responsibility of maintaining things for my mom,sister and myself.Needless to say I learned a lot of things the hard way. Those lessons you never forget though. Even today your average blue collar joe can't afford to take their vehicle to the shop for everything. I have 3 vehicles to maintain and sometimes can't keep up but I do most things myself to keep costs down. The key here though, is to stay within your comfort zone and not take on things above your skill level. There are many things that I just wont do. Then again these forums are a great tool for elevating your comfort zone. That is why Jeep Garage is such a success. People here like to share what they have learned over the years so that people can gain knowledge and raise their comfort level to do projects they may not do otherwise. I have learned a lot here and I know there is usually someone to bail me out if I screw up:lol:
I learned a lot of what I know from handing my old man wrenches as a kid...and the rest was self taught. Trial and error too. You buy a part, you see where it is on your ride, you figure out how to remove and replace. Maybe it's mechanical inclination, mixed with the complete and utter refusal to pay someone else a ridiculous amount of money to do something you can do yourself. Same goes for my home...I do all my own stunts.
I also have a very low opinion of most "professionals". Everybody's an effing "professional".
Very true, When my father and I were having trouble narrowing down our heat problem until we discovered that is was the blend doors, we took it to 4 different mechanics we knew 4 different times and none of them knew how to fix it. So we ended up having to have the local Jeep Garage fix it for a ridiculous $80/hr not to mention the cost of the repair so I can definitely agree with you. Plus, these days it's a shame that some cars manufactured in this age try to be so advanced that it's almost impossible for a mom and pop repair service or yourself to even attempt to fix it and they steer you right to the stealership.
Don't get me wrong now...there are some great techs out there that really know what they are doing, be it automotive, or any other craft, and those guys are worth their price tag. Unfortunately, finding these guys is just about impossible and you can't trust shops. I've seen too much to ever trust a shop, and I've seen too many techs screwing people that don't know any better.
Ha, I forgot to post back on that. I took off the superchips programming and used my dad's code reader to clear the tranny code (p0750). It stayed off for a few days so I reinstalled the 87 octane tune. Still no codes, not a single problem. Seems to have just been a fluke. Or it will come back as soon as I give back the code reader lol.
For some reason my reader wasn't good enough to pull the tranny code, I may have to look at upgrading to the model my dad has.
How's the squeak issue Aaron? If those bushings are gonna be trouble I might try drilling out the Addco bushings and give them a whirl. I'm relying on you to sort this out buddy cause mine hasn't made it past the garage door yet:lol:
No squeaks that I noticed all weekend, other than my 3 year old niece in the back seat :slapfight:. :lol: Either I was being overly sensitive to noises from my Jeep (my wifes theory, a whole other :slapfight:) or it took some trips to settle in.
Just a little tip for those that do the front addco sway bar, drill out the brackets and bushings and put in a grease fitting! It has been about 4 months since I installed the bar and the grease I put on must be wearing out, the bar is starting to squeak over bumps now. Not too obnoxious yet, but I definitely need to fix this soond or I will go bonkers :lol:
That and I would have a hard time bending the addco by hand, I could have probably by hand bent the old rear bar into some strange lawn art. Assuming it didn't fall apart...
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