Old noobie buys a KJ

[tommudd]

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[sleazy rider]

Wuzzat on the roof between the rails? Luggage carrier?

/popcorn

And there's plenty of room to work under THAT nice pup. I'm kinda squirming to get under Saggy Bastard ®.

 

[tommudd]

02-04 Renegade roof rack on top

As far as room to work underneath, not nearly as much as my 04 has

 

[sleazy rider]

Dug out my Dremel and cutoff bits for the double din stereo mods. Temporarily installing my old JVC until the new head unit arrives. I’m tired of a GPS mounted on the windshield, so ordered up a Kenwood Excelon DNX696S with all the doodads, geegaws and thingamawhackies. It’ll be here Friday from Crutchfield. New high power speakers too! Once that’s done, it’s off to a buddy’s house for the subwoofers and amp install.

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[sleazy rider]

2.5 inches of JBA adjustable coilover lift, 265-70-16s , 4.10s, DTTs front and rear etc this is my 03 with a heavily loaded trailer of KJ parts

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So, how well does the Liberty tow a cargo trailer? I'm contemplating getting a 6x12 and fitting it out as a camper. Max weight about 2200#.

 

[tommudd]

So, how well does the Liberty tow a cargo trailer? I'm contemplating getting a 6x12 and fitting it out as a camper. Max weight about 2200#.

Well you know its back there when fully loaded of course
But have moved my wife from Northwest Ohio to Boston, then moved her back after 2 years
Moved my nephew from Ohio to Orlando ( 2 trips total )
Moved my wife from Ohio to Winston Salem NC ,( 3 loads total )
plus that trailer has moved me 11 times from one end of Ohio to the other.
All of those were pulled by my 04 with over 4 inches of lift, 32s, 4.10 gearing etc and never missed a beat
of course mileage went down some depending on how hard I pushed it
But overall does well, I always wanted to try a deflector on the roof to see if that helped any at all

Mines a 6X10 that we bought in 1994 , same year I built the little trailer to haul firewood etc

 

[tommudd]

Dug out my Dremel and cutoff bits for the double din stereo mods. Temporarily installing my old JVC until the new head unit arrives. I’m tired of a GPS mounted on the windshield, so ordered up a Kenwood Excelon DNX696S with all the doodads, geegaws and thingamawhackies. It’ll be here Friday from Crutchfield. New high power speakers too! Once that’s done, it’s off to a buddy’s house for the subwoofers and amp install.

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Looks clean , nice installation
May someday want a radio in one of my Jeeps
the 03 I drive 90 miles a day and never have the radio on, may have to see if it still works someday soon

 

[sleazy rider]

Well you know its back there when fully loaded of course
But have moved my wife from Northwest Ohio to Boston, then moved her back after 2 years
Moved my nephew from Ohio to Orlando ( 2 trips total )
Moved my wife from Ohio to Winston Salem NC ,( 3 loads total )
plus that trailer has moved me 11 times from one end of Ohio to the other.
All of those were pulled by my 04 with over 4 inches of lift, 32s, 4.10 gearing etc and never missed a beat
of course mileage went down some depending on how hard I pushed it
But overall does well, I always wanted to try a deflector on the roof to see if that helped any at all

Mines a 6X10 that we bought in 1994 , same year I built the little trailer to haul firewood etc

Yeah, I was just curious if the tail wags the dog easily or is it fairly stable with a couple thousand pounds behind it. Short wheelbase and all that implies. I towed two dirt bikes behind a Ford Focus for a couple thousand miles, but it was a gutless wonder when we hit the mountains out west. Thankfully, it was a 5sp manual trans and could be somewhat managed. Towed a 2300 pound pop up camper with my 2010 Transit Connect around Michigan. It had electric brakes and was fine on flat ground. I'd hate to have dealt with significant elevation changes.

When I found this KJ, I was sure glad to see the V6 under the hood. Part of what sold me on it. I'm sure tired of four cylinder engines. The only thing that would have been better would be a manual trans too.

I looked yesterday and the Liberty has a hitch, but no tow wiring harness so there's another need to do for the list. I'll pull the entire harness with brake controller out of the TC and have it installed on the Jeep.

 

[sleazy rider]

Transfer case and axle fluid changes today. If the transfer case is any indication, this stuff ain't been done in just shy of forever. Black as the devil's heart coming out. Ahh, well. It'll be right now.

 

[sleazy rider]

Well, that was a pleasant surprise from Crutchfield yesterday afternoon. The open box Kenwood DNX696S double din stereo/GPS/XM radio I ordered was apparently out of stock. They subbed it with a seriously upgraded open box DNX997XR with ALL the bells and whistles at no extra charge. Everything is in the box and usually cost as much as I paid for the old Liberty!

I do love the way they do business and have for years.

 

[sleazy rider]

*screeech* Full stop. Started pulling stuff apart in the rear and realized I should have ordered the isolator pads too. Just a tad deteriorated. Only wanna do this once, so new pads ordered. Won’t happen till after Xmas now.

 

[sleazy rider]

Drats. I took the Liberty off the jackstands to move them to the front end and got it settled on the ground. The floor jack took this opportunity to blow it's guts and go on strike. Guess I'll drive the Jeep up to the local car lift bay rental place and do the work when all the parts get here. $25/hour with air, heat and electrical isn't too expensive. I figure three hours should get me all done with my tools.

 

[sleazy rider]

Found another brick wall today. Pulled the driver’s door panel to start the stereo speaker change and find I need speaker adapters for the good 6.5” speakers to mount in the 6.75” holes.

 

[tommudd]

Isn't this so much fun ??

Wish I still lived in Swanton, ( west of Toledo )
Had a garage that we could work on 3 KJs at a time ( and 5 in the driveway )
Yes many a weekend it was like that
Loved it up there

 

[sleazy rider]

Managed to get the front end in the air with a borrowed floor jack and my jackstands.

Question for the old Liberty wrenchers?

When removing the front driveshaft, can you slide/drop the front joint down and slide the shaft out to the front with the shanks of bolts left in the rear? Got three bolts on the transfer case end that will probably end up having the heads of the bolts ground off because they are well and truly screwed tight. Six point pro grade sockets used and the heads are starting to round off even with liberal applications of penetrating oil. Once off, I can get a set of vice grips up there and twist the shanks out.

 

[tommudd]

Got to remove the bolts in both ends
the rear CV has a clip in there that holds the head on

 

[sleazy rider]

Got to remove the bolts in both ends
the rear CV has a clip in there that holds the head on

Yup, front bolts are all out and the shaft is broke loose, got 3 of 6 in the transfer case end out. The other three are rounded off. Gonna grind the heads off them if there’s enough clearance to slide the whole shaft off and out of the Jeep from the bolt shanks.

That’s what I was asking.

 

[sleazy rider]

Ugh. Trying to pull front driveshaft still. Rear coupling bolts were nigh on impossible to get out. 3 of six finally surrendered. The other three are having heads ground off and drilled. Great fun with about 16” of workspace under the Jeep. My neck hurts! lol

Waiting patiently on Brown truck to arrive with hopefully final suspension parts for working that next week.

 

[sleazy rider]

Aaaaand another swing and a miss for this adventure. Wrong parts shipped and being returned. Back to square one on the suspension work.

 

[sleazy rider]

Today's task - install a complete stereo system to the JK. The new equipment: Kenwood Reference DNX996XR featuring HD radio, satellite radio hookup, Garmin GPS, DVD/CD player and a whole host of other options. Way overkill, but the radio originally ordered was out of stock. They shipped this as a customer service substitute. Yeah, this ain't no substitute for the much cheaper radio ordered. lol

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Speakers are JVC that have been used in other vehicles. Very nice 6.5" inexpensive speakers, but they don't fit Liberty speaker holes. What you need to make them fit is the Scotche SAC-656 adapters.

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To make a double din radio fit the dash, some pretty intense trimming of plastic is required in the dash hole. You can see how the plastic was trimmed at the bottom. There's also a metal retaining clip held in with one screw at the back that's gotta go. I've already removed it in the pic.

Oh, yeah - trimming the plastic in the dash hole. I used a Dremel with a cutoff wheel to make the cuts in the plastic, then scored the fore/aft lines with a razor knife and then broke the plastic off fairly cleanly.

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Ordered with the radio was the Jeep wiring adapter and that got soldered/shrink wrapped in preparation for install.

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Once all the trimming is done and the area cleaned out of shavings, the mounts go onto the radio.

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Now the work begins.