4x4tographer 2,238 Posted January 5 Looking good! Those Ignites are surprisingly bright for their compact size. I honestly never noticed the pair you had on Gadget until you flipped them on during a night run. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jgaz 493 Posted January 5 Your 3 part animation is the best light comparison I’ve ever seen. You should think about getting into the IT field. 2 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted January 10 ran across this photo @kaspily took of Gadget on Turkey Creek trail a couple months ago - did some stylizing and i like how it came out: 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted January 14 (edited) a tiny upgrade... soon after getting Gadget, i did a "delete" on the windshield fold-down-bumpers and footman-loop, just using painted bolts and washers to fill the holes. then at some point i upgraded to a pair of Vector Offroad Hood UFO's for the larger holes. well i was on the Vector Offroad site again recently and noticed they had a mini version for the smaller holes now... so i bought a pair to replace the 2 other sad little bolt heads. a quick couple spray coats to paint-match, and now there's one less thing to tingle my OCD spidey-senses. Edited January 14 by theksmith 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted January 26 we had a great time running the Cherry Creek trail last weekend! check out @4x4tographer's trip report & photos here... thanks to @kaspily for these photos of Gadget: 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted January 29 i noticed about a week ago that the front driver's door would sometimes not lock with the fob, then the past few days it started to happen more often than not. manually locking/unlocking worked fine, so it seemed the linkage and mechanical aspects of the latch were OK. after double checking the main door harness plug was secure and not corroded, i went ahead and ordered a new latch. one thing worth noting, my quick research indicated that if 2 or more locks suddenly fail, it's often a problem inside the TIPM rather than the actuators. on the JK, the electronic lock actuators are built into the latch assemblies and each door has a different part number. the driver side power door latch assembly is Mopar part #4589277AL and currently runs $150+. even the Dorman brand is $100+. given those prices and the fact that it's not a critical part, i decided to take my chances with a random brand from Amazon for $55. it seemed to work fine - one of the linkage clips was in the wrong hole when i received it, so i'm glad that i compared it to the original carefully before installing. replacement wasn't difficult, but there are a ton of steps. this youtube video shows how to remove the trim panel. then this video shows all the other steps to get to the actuator/lock assembly. BE SURE you note the tricky part about unclipping the window before you try to remove that inner panel! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted January 29 (edited) Edited January 30 by theksmith 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted February 15 (edited) some random updates and photos... i like this one from the Cherry Creek run (taken by @4x4tographer) because i look focused and calm, almost like i have some idea what i'm doing! i noticed one side of my rear window defogger had broken loose. interestingly, Jeep uses a button style connector instead of the quick-connect tab that nearly every other vehicle has. i was able to pry the broken button out of the wire's female housing and then reattach it just by melting the existing solder. if you don't have as soldering iron, this Permatex conductive adhesive works just fine too. Edited February 17 by theksmith 5 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 3,252 Posted February 28 i was out at the Boulders OHV area this weekend exploring and ran into some folks having their SxS rescued. in these photos it's already been winched about 2/3rds of the way back up from the ravine it had rolled down into: i guess on Saturday the husband didn't get it into "park" correctly at the top of this little mountain, got out and it started rolling with his wife still in the passenger seat. she jumped out before it crested over the edge and was fine. it tumbled a few times and landed waaaaay down the steepest side of this hill. they were able to start it but couldn't get it out because of how steep and loose the hill was. so they had left it overnight and hired some "professionals" to rescue it on Sunday, which i caught the tail end of. then later in the day, I got to do some desert wrenching - who wants to guess what this was all about? 2 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dzJeepChic 2,123 Posted February 28 Wow, what a day! Glad those people's sxs was okay, sure was a long way off the trail! What in the world happened to your driveshaft? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
