What did you do to your YJ today / lately?

[machoheadgames]

This forum has been around long enough and has plenty of great members by now, I figured we should have a place to share quick posts about what you did today or recently for your favorite hunk of metal. This could be anything you did to the YJ directly, or anything you did FOR the YJ, as in a lift in your garage, or whatever the case may be. As long as it's somehow YJ related, I see no reason not to share, right?

Coming soon on my YJ, I got my steering linkage in (combination of Moog and Mevotech) and finally got my dash switch panel from Tuffy, so I can now proceed with buttoning up my dash, installing my steering, and get this thing inspected/registered and on the road! I'll be putting a few switches in the blank panel (DRL off, fog lights, driving lights, maybe a few more). Now I can finally get this wiring done, get all my accessories up in place, and be done once and for all with interior teardowns. So tired of this type of work and pumped to be done and drive soon.

On a side note, a week and a half ago I traded my white parts runner for a black parts runner. I call it a parts runner as it is the picker upper vehicle for all YJ related stuff I need to bring home, which is also why it's YJ related . When I start driving the YJ again maybe it will pick up some of it's own parts, but by then it won't really need many parts, although of course everything needs parts sometimes. Hell, maybe eventually the YJ will be running parts for the parts runner!

I traded the white 2019 Frontier for a black one...black one is manual. Other than color and transmission, they are the same truck, with 12K less miles on the black one which was nice to drop. It looks forward to lots of parts runs for the YJ

So what do you all have going on with your YJs?

 

[SirDoopYJ]

I have been working on getting to my water pump because it decided to start leaking everywhere. While I had eveything out of the way, I figured it was a great time tochange out the valve cover gasket.

It was alot easier to do than what I thought, the hard part was the cleaning. I spent all day today removing gasket that was stuck on inside of the head and valve cover. Oh and this mess:

Before


After


I bought a fel pro gasket. It is pretty thick, lined up really well and should help with alot of my leaky oil problems.






I also learned a little dirt dobber decided to make nests in the grease holes of my shackles..

 

[KStutz]

Today I finished up with the engine bay. After removing all the computer stuff and vaccume controls and completely rewiring from the bulkhead connector forward, it's finally finished and running excellent

 

[Gilaguy23]

I finally got my CB working as the SWR's were off the scale. 4' Firestick was mounted on the right rear Q panel with a spring. Got tired of it beating the top to death when off highway so I stuck it on the front bumper. Also found a fairly new" Fire ring" coax cable shorted internally thus the high swr's. Now im 1.2+- on the SWR's. Never use the dang thing but figured it needed to work anyhow.

 

[machoheadgames]

Picked up a simple little on-off switch from AutoZone. I like it because it is an oval shaped rocker but it has a circular base on it, so you just drill a 1/2” hole and then it mounts right on. The only downside to this switch is the LED is way too bright, so I think I’m going to leave the indicator ground disconnected and just operate the switches by feel. Most of them I won’t use regularly anyways.

I do wish I could come up with a good way to label them though. I could have used fancier switches but most of them require rectangle holes and I really don’t trust myself to try to do that. I wanted nearly a year for this Rinky dink panel to come out of back order, so I’m damn sure not going to screw it up.

This is using the 151-01 radio delete panel from tuffy. It’s a universal part, and was too small for YJ dash opening, so I’m using it on the trim panel instead. It works.

Gonna do 4 of these switches, and then to the left of the switches will be a 3/4” USB port for me to plug in my iPhone cable. The cable for that port will run across the dash, down the door panel, across passenger seat and up to my radio in the console. It will go to the USB in the backside of my radio. The front face of the radio has a USB that I probably won’t use very often. Since the radio will be right under my arm on the armrest; I don’t want a bunch of cable mess right there.

Thinking the switches will be as follows:

-backup lights turn on (also automatically turned on by reverse)
-fog lights
-a-pillar lights (KC drivers)
-daytime running light cutoff

I’ll share more when I’m done.

 

[jeepjoe43]

Picked up a simple little on-off switch from AutoZone. I like it because it is an oval shaped rocker but it has a circular base on it, so you just drill a 1/2” hole and then it mounts right on. The only downside to this switch is the LED is way too bright, so I think I’m going to leave the indicator ground disconnected and just operate the switches by feel. Most of them I won’t use regularly anyways.

I do wish I could come up with a good way to label them though. I could have used fancier switches but most of them require rectangle holes and I really don’t trust myself to try to do that. I wanted nearly a year for this Rinky dink panel to come out of back order, so I’m damn sure not going to screw it up.

This is using the 151-01 radio delete panel from tuffy. It’s a universal part, and was too small for YJ dash opening, so I’m using it on the trim panel instead. It works.

Gonna do 4 of these switches, and then to the left of the switches will be a 3/4” USB port for me to plug in my iPhone cable. The cable for that port will run across the dash, down the door panel, across passenger seat and up to my radio in the console. It will go to the USB in the backside of my radio. The front face of the radio has a USB that I probably won’t use very often. Since the radio will be right under my arm on the armrest; I don’t want a bunch of cable mess right there.

Thinking the switches will be as follows:

-backup lights turn on (also automatically turned on by reverse)
-fog lights
-a-pillar lights (KC drivers)
-daytime running light cutoff

I’ll share more when I’m done.

View attachment 118611
View attachment 118612

Yeah, they're meant to fit the plastic trim panel, not the dash.
I don't have the panel, but do have the little pocket they offer instead, same story.
Only you you have bolts to hold your's together, the pocket just had the fold over tabs.
No Biggy, not what I was expecting, but it plugged the radio hole.

Noticing the light on the switch is LED and doesn't pull much current you could put a resistor on the ground to cut the brightness.
Having done only rudimentary math, I would guess 1/2 Watt, 100 Ohm, might make it acceptable (resistors are cheap).
Or a maybe even a rheostat like the instrument cluster has...
Just thoughts.

 

[machoheadgames]

Yeah, they're meant to fit the plastic trim panel, not the dash.
I don't have the panel, but do have the little pocket they offer instead, same story.
Only you you have bolts to hold your's together, the pocket just had the fold over tabs.
No Biggy, not what I was expecting, but it plugged the radio hole.

Noticing the light on the switch is LED and doesn't pull much current you could put a resistor on the ground to cut the brightness.
Having done only rudimentary math, I would guess 1/2 Watt, 100 Ohm, might make it acceptable (resistors are cheap).
Or a maybe even a rheostat like the instrument cluster has...
Just thoughts.

Yeah, both the pocket and the panel are universal. They sure made it seem like it goes to the metal dash frame on the TJ they demonstrate it on, so I was expecting it I go in the dash hole, not the trim. Anywho, it works.

Great minds think alike on the led. I actually texted my buddy an hour ago who knows a bit more about electrical than me asking if a resistor on the ground would dim it or not. He hasn’t gotten back to me yet but sounds like you answered it for me, so thanks for that. I’m accustomed to putting resistors on the power to dim things, which is precisely what I did on my side markers to run them dual stage low and high on a single “filament” led bulb. Except in this case, I can’t resist the power side because that is the source for my accessory.

I’ll probably buy a kit of cheap resistors and play around with different ohms and watts to see what I like best. 1W 100ohm worked really well to tone my extremely bright side markers down to perfect calm brightness at night. Worked out well because the bulb brightness by itself is very bright at night and good enough during the day too. I imagine a similar size resistor would do it nicely, but of course will need to play around to fine tune it.

 

[jeepjoe43]

Yeah, both the pocket and the panel are universal. They sure made it seem like it goes to the metal dash frame on the TJ they demonstrate it on, so I was expecting it I go in the dash hole, not the trim. Anywho, it works.

Great minds think alike on the led. I actually texted my buddy an hour ago who knows a bit more about electrical than me asking if a resistor on the ground would dim it or not. He hasn’t gotten back to me yet but sounds like you answered it for me, so thanks for that. I’m accustomed to putting resistors on the power to dim things, which is precisely what I did on my side markers to run them dual stage low and high on a single “filament” led bulb. Except in this case, I can’t resist the power side because that is the source for my accessory.

I’ll probably buy a kit of cheap resistors and play spring with different ohms and watts to see what I like best. 1W 100ohm worked really well to tone my extremely bright side markers down to perfect calm brightness at night. Worked out well because the bulb brightness by itself is very bright at night and good enough during the day too. I imagine a similar size resistor would do it nicely, but of course will need to play around I fine tune it.

Good on you!
The wattage can probably be lower, but they don't cost shit until you get into the really high power stuff.
And Yes, the ground is just for that light and, nothing else.
That is where the resistor/rheostat would go, and all of the switches can even share it if properly rated.
If you go rheostat, maybe 1K Ohm so you can dim them out completely if desired.

 

[machoheadgames]

Good on you!
The wattage can probably be lower, but they don't cost shit until you get into the really high power stuff.
And Yes, the ground is just for that light and, nothing else.
That is where the resistor/rheostat would go, and all of the switches can even share it if properly rated.
If you go rheostat, maybe 1K Ohm so you can dim them out completely if desired.

Cool. Where do you get resistors from? I’ll probably look into del city or waytek, they have lots of good stuff. I’ll probably skip the rheostat only because I don’t know where I’d put it. That would be cool though. But I’ll probably just put a resistor on each switch, all the same size resistors, once I figure out which one I like the brightness of.

 

[jeepjoe43]

I've been doing business with Newark in One, Newark Electronics, or whatever they're calling them selves now.
Just Google it, as I know you will.

 

[machoheadgames]

I've been doing business with Newark in One, Newark Electronics, or whatever they're calling them selves now.
Just Google it, as I know you will.

Thanks! You buying the “through hole” style? Lots to choose from, through hole seems to resemble what I know the most.

 

[jeepjoe43]

Thanks! You buying the “through hole” style? Lots to choose from, through hole seems to resemble what I know the most.

Yeah, there's lots to chose from.
I actually like not having to cut square holes, mine are just cheap Dorman Push/Pules, which are great for my app.
Though not necessarily the Greatist thing on the market.

 

[machoheadgames]

Yeah, there's lots to chose from.
I actually like not having to cut square holes, mine are just cheap Dorman Push/Pules, which are great for my app.
Though not necessarily the Greatist thing on the market.

Sorry, talking about what resistors to buy & where from. Looks like Newark has resistors, delcity and waytek did not. Curious what resistors you’d get.

 

[jeepjoe43]

Just basic through hole PCB components, crimp it in, shrink wrap it, done.
You may have to play with the values a bit to suit your preference.
But like I said, the LEDs' don't pull shit as far current draw or wattage.
It'll take some experimentation, but buy a cheap kit and find out the value that works best for you.
That is, if you do want the lights...If not, just don't hook up the grounds and leave them dark.

 

[machoheadgames]

Just basic through hole PCB components, crimp it in, shrink wrap it, done.
You may have to play with the values a bit to suit your preference.
But like I said, the LEDs' don't pull shit as far current draw or wattage.
It'll take some experimentation, but buy a cheap kit and find out the value that works best for you.
That is, if you do want the lights...If not, just don't hook up the grounds and leave them dark.

Cool, through hole is what I was looking at. Already got the shrink and my good Thomas and betts crimper for my non-insul splices. I’ll play around with what one gives the best LED output that isn’t overbearing.

Hah, I could forego them, although I’m that guy that wants to make them work if I can. So I’ll play around. Thanks for the helpful suggestions! I’ll be sure to update when done or along the way.

Sure is nice to converse with folks here who actually understand electrical. Such a stark difference from the Jeep groups on Facefuck. No one knows anything there and man it’s exhausting.

 

[jeepjoe43]

Well appreciated sir, that is what I do for living, at least for the next couple weeks....As you are aware, Shit has happened.
It Is what it is, anyway, not being as well schooled as you are with the YJ, I'm always wiling to lend with any expertise where I can.
But you're a bright young man and probably understand that I'm preaching to the choir.
But who else have I Got?

 

[machoheadgames]

Well appreciated sir, that is what I do for living, at least for the next couple weeks....As you are aware, Shit has happened.
It Is what it is, anyway, not being as well schooled as you are with the YJ, I'm always wiling to lend with any expertise where I can.
But you're a bright young man and probably understand that I'm preaching to the choir.
But who else have I Got?

You’ve got all the forum folks for sure!

 

[jeepjoe43]

You’ve got all the forum folks for sure!

I knew you would play with the lighting on those switches, given a little bit of direction.

You are right,Thank God for all forum folks here for sure!
Again, thank you for the support!
These are trying times and I really hope You're able to avoid most of the nonsense and whatever else comes down the pipe.

 

[KStutz]

Rust repair day. Got it trimmed, welded in and rustproofed. Tomorrow is stranded fiberglass filler and get the new to me dash installed

 

[KStutz]

The rest of the pics