- 5 months ago
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00:00I have built a lot of off-road vehicles over the years and I get to keep a bunch
00:08of them I keep them in this storage building behind the main shop but if
00:11you're gonna have these off-road vehicles you have to maintain them I
00:15don't just mean prepping them before every single trail ride and dealing with
00:19things that break if you have a vehicle like my Jeep LJ that's seen hardcore
00:23wheeling for the past seven years sometimes you got to take it all apart
00:27and do a full race prep that's what we're doing today
00:37this is my Jeep LJ it's not really a Jeep LJ but it's what we call it here in the
00:43shop so this vehicle started life as a pile of tubing on the floor and turned
00:48into this monster I absolutely love this vehicle it's become one of my favorite
00:53off-road rigs to own it is literally wheeled coast to coast with taters and
00:58toast has tackled some of the toughest trails in the country and it has never
01:02let me down but it's been doing that for seven long years what we're gonna do
01:08today is go over some of the popular things that you should do to pretty much
01:12any trail rig and when you should do them and we're gonna start with a service that
01:17pretty much nobody thinks of on their vehicle and that is a power steering
01:23flush very important on a full hydraulic rig
01:26full hydraulic steering goes under a lot of stress especially when you're turning like
01:48these large 42 inch tall tires in the dirt so much so that people often add coolers to the full
01:54hydraulic steering because it often gets so hot that it'll actually start to boil or cavitate
01:59the fluid so it's a good idea to flush and refill your system every single year at least and when
02:06you do it there is a filter usually in most of the popular reservoirs like this one here you want to
02:12replace that filter but it's not just about draining it and filling it once the old oil is out we're gonna
02:17put in some of this flushing fluid the flushing fluid is basically going to circulate through the entire
02:22power steering system it's gonna latch on to any small impurities and allow it to basically carry it
02:29out when we drain that flushing fluid okay now we start it let it run for five minutes
02:37once we drain the flushing fluid then we can refill it with fresh power steering fluid and put on a new
02:44filter power steering fluid obviously isn't the only oil that you want to change you want to do pretty
02:49standard maintenance which is going to be your engine oil transmission fluid as well as your
02:53transfer case fluid now it's always a good idea to change these once a year no matter what but here's
02:58something to think about when you're building your rig plan for this type of maintenance this particular
03:04chassis it's pretty easy to take care of because all of the skid plates simply unbolt and i get access
03:09to everything but i've seen lots of people put together really killer tube buggies and they end up
03:14burying that engine oil pan deep inside with no way to access the drain plug so think about that
03:20when you're building your rig bunch of u-joint parts in here i must have done broke a u-joint
03:37now there's also oil in the front and rear differential that's good to change as well but if
03:43you're gonna tear into these differentials it's a good idea at least once every couple years to
03:48actually do a full inspection on everything that is inside and that means completely tearing down
03:53the whole rear axle it actually looks way that's like the transmission looks way better than i thought
04:02now when you inspect your rear differentials it's basically pretty simple you'll know if the locker's
04:08working or not last time i took this truck out there was no problem with the mechanical locker in the back
04:12of this vehicle so i know it's going to work now what you're looking for is signs of obvious damage
04:17on the ring gear cracks missing teeth pretty much anything that's going to stick out like a sore thumb
04:23because the shock load that these rear axles are under when we're off-road is pretty intense
04:27you can if you want completely tear the differential down and inspect all the bearings i can tell just by
04:34turning this pinion that all the bearings feel good still seems to be this acceptable amount of
04:39backlash in play so i don't think anything has loosened up inside this differential at all what
04:44i'll probably do drop it in the parts cleaner give it a good cleaning probably pull the bearing caps
04:48off take a quick look at the side bearings that's it at the same time i'm going to inspect my rear shafts
04:54now the shafts in this truck are splined at both ends so what i'm going to be checking for
04:59is any twisting in the splines that it tells me that the shaft is about to fail if the shaft is starting
05:05to twist and holding that twist so i'll just lay a file inside the splines and if i don't see any twist
05:11then i know the shafts are okay looking good yep
05:26there's that one up
05:35oh yeah
05:38today i'm talking about maintenance on a trail rig that sees a lot of trail abuse we're using
05:44my jeep lj as an example because that rig has been wheeled hard for seven years non-stop now right now
05:52we're dealing with the suspension now this rig has a very very common setup for hardcore off-road and
05:57that is heim joints and uniballs on all the suspension links which are incredibly strong but
06:03over time what can happen to a traditional heim joint is the teflon liner that's basically holding
06:08this ball inside the heim joint can actually start to wear out it actually gets beaten out over time
06:15just from the forces inside the suspension and it starts to disintegrate come apart and it falls out
06:21it can also just be worn out when you hear heim joints moving around and you hear them squeaking
06:25on the trail it's like squeak squawk squeak squawk whenever you're going four wheeling that's the
06:29sound of that teflon inside the joint wearing out what it won't really fall apart because of the design
06:35of the joint but you'll actually feel this in the vehicle you'll feel like a clunk in the suspension
06:41so i'm going to be replacing all the heim joints in this rig at the same time i'm going to be upgrading
06:46them with rod end supplied inch and a quarter rod ends now the rod end supply joints don't use teflon
06:52they use a proprietary nyla fiber injection system in the joint now not only does that make it
06:59incredibly strong to match the 4130 chromoly joint but it also means no lubrication no maintenance in
07:06the future i've had these in a couple of my rigs and i absolutely love them they have all the other
07:10items that you would need if you were building a suspension you can get uh basically bungs to adapt
07:15these into tubing you can get jam nuts as well as a pile of misalignment spacers in different sizes and
07:21different diameters but in this case since we're just servicing the vehicle i'm basically going to
07:26twist the old rod end out swap the nut onto the new rod end put it back in let's just tap them in
07:45tighten them up you don't want to just replace the heim joints or rather just inspect the heim
07:50joints in your suspension we've already serviced the steering on this but it also uses two
07:55three quarter by three quarter inch rod ends that are underneath just as much stress if not more
08:01stress than the suspension as a matter of fact this one there's already a little bit of play in it from
08:07being on the trail so often i think that play has happened for a couple of reasons number one i think
08:12the joint might be starting to get worn out number two this particular joint is in what we call
08:17single shear which means the bolt travels through the joint and is attached on one side so i'm going to
08:22upgrade them just like i did with the suspension with these all new rod end supply rod ends with
08:27the nyla fiber and the chrome molly body these are incredibly strong just like our suspension joints
08:33but just a little bit smaller i'm also going to change the design of this steering pivot point
08:38so it puts this joint into double shear and that will help extend its life
08:42okay talking time so once i got the original bolt out i saw that the fact that it was only in single
08:53shear it actually started to open up the hole a little bit so what i've done is i've actually
08:57upsized the heim joint it was a three quarter by five eighths i grabbed the three quarter by three
09:02quarter which meant i had to ream this hole out to three quarters of an inch which was a little bit
09:06difficult but it's no big deal and then i got this little plate on here that has cut on my plasma cutter
09:10what this plate will do although it's incredibly thin and small it prevents this bolt from rocking
09:16back and forth and that is what essentially double shear means it means i've captured this heim on
09:21the bottom and on the top and that is what adds the strength into the system so now i gotta weld this
09:27do the other side and paint all of this but the fact that it took me so long to ream out that hole
09:33right there i'm gonna take a little break and the nice thing about having all these four-wheel drive
09:38trucks around i'm just gonna go four-wheeling oh look at that i feel like this vent visoring
09:57look at that as they say in french tonneau
10:01let's go off-roading brought to you by weathertech sun shining beautiful day driving my jeep through
10:14the trails you take a six-year-old kid in first grade and you say draw me a picture of an off-road
10:22vehicle they're gonna draw a jeep the best thing about owning a jeep is that you can drive it down
10:28the highway at highway speeds you can use it like a regular everyday car and then what you can do is
10:34you can come to a place like this off-road park which is my local off-road park and you just simply
10:40throw it into four low put a cooler of your favorite beverages in the back and you can spend the weekend
10:46just out here driving over rocks jeep is the off-road vehicle my first off-road vehicle ever bought was a
10:52jeep 1985 jeep cj7 it started my addiction for jeeps i loved it this jeep here has turned into
11:01being one of the best jeeps that i've ever built it's got all the right parts and all the right
11:06places it's got suspension that's works it's got tires that work really well it's got a good engine
11:11underneath the hood just a great vehicle this is the kind of vehicle that you literally can drive
11:16off-road and still drive every day there's not many vehicles that you can take and drive through like
11:22serious off-road trails and yet also just drive down the highway it's crazy
11:30what makes off-roading the best is that you don't have to go to a racetrack and follow a bunch of
11:34rules you don't have to be involved in some sort of sanctioning body you can find trails that are
11:39open to the public you can find private off-road parks like this and just no one's going to tell you
11:45what you can and can't do you can pretty much do what you want as long as you stay on the trail and
11:49obey the rules you want to drive up the hill fast drive up the hill fast you want to drive up the
11:54hill slow drive up the hill slow you want to do a bunch of crazy rock bouncer stuff you rock bouncer
11:59stuff if you want to go camping go camping there's really no other motorsport that i think that is as
12:06basically free as off-roading that's a big hole another thing to remember there's a chance that you're
12:15going to get stuck out on the trail i often say for beginning off-roaders never off-road alone
12:20always make sure you go out with a group uh make sure you go the group people who know more than
12:24you and that way you can learn every time you go out myself i will quite often do some mild off-roading
12:30on my own i don't do anything crazy uh because i've been doing this for gosh you know almost 30 40
12:36years now at this point and uh at this i can kind of tell when i'm gonna get in trouble when i'm not
12:40gonna get in trouble i have had to self-recover before in the past and uh it it's very challenging
12:47to do by yourself it's challenging to winch yourself out of trouble but it's also an experience
12:52it's an educational experience so once you are comfortable with recovery then i would say it's
12:58okay to start hitting some trails by yourself mild trails to start with it's always good to have a
13:05functioning winch on your rig but don't forget all the recovery equipment that you're also going to need
13:10a good kinetic rope like this kinetic recovery rope system from weathertech and then also make
13:16sure you have a lot of soft shackles and a lot of d-rings here to go just research online recovery
13:22gear you can find what you need and once you get what you need learn how to use it that's probably
13:27the other most important thing you gotta learn how to use all that equipment you gotta learn how to use
13:31it right now just like all off-road trips when you get the rig back to the shop or your house it's
13:37always a good idea to give it a once over or some maintenance which is what we're talking about
13:41today but when you have a vehicle that looks this good sometimes you also want to deal with some of
13:46the cosmetic blemishes that happen when you're on the trail because sometimes i take this thing off
13:51roading sometimes i take it out to my local cars and coffee event so scratches on the wheels the
13:56scratches on the paint that's just not going to cut it to the paint shop
14:13today we're talking about maintenance here in the shop and yes although we're going through a full
14:18race prep on our jeep lj sometimes maintenance involves just repairing small trail incidents like
14:25we talked about when we just took my two-door gladiator out on the trail this rig spends just
14:30as much time at car shows as it does on the trail and when you have a vehicle that looks this good
14:35small scratches on the wheels the body they are frowned upon by the cars and coffee crowd so when i
14:41come back from a day of trail riding i like to fix those and i fix them using a couple of products
14:46from duplicolor now you can use duplicolor perfect match if you have a large repair to fix now perfect match
14:53is nice because it is a guaranteed oem match to the original color as long as you have your year
14:59make model and the color code for your vehicle you can order paint that it gives you that same oem
15:05finish now in my case because i have a set of aftermarket wheels here i'm using some of the universal
15:12colors and more importantly i'm using the scratch fix all-in-one tool now this allows you to tackle small
15:19scratches on your vehicle you can get this just like the perfect match paint in a matched paint code to
15:25your vehicle or a universal color like i have here now what i like about it is just like the name
15:30implies it's everything you need in one spot to fix the scratch so i got some scratches on these wheels
15:35i can prep them using the small abrasive tip you take that off there is a paint emitting pen now that is
15:42a super fine pen for those super fine scratches larger scratches like i normally get on the wheels
15:48you simply unscrew the top and you have the brush inside to put down more paint and then once that's
15:53dried to finish it off you have the clear coat in the bottom this will allow me to fix all the
15:58scratches on my wheels and i only need to use this one little pen to do it and it looks like a little
16:04rocket ship for the scratch on this wheel i'm going to start by prepping it with some dupli color prep
16:11spray that's just going to remove any grease or grime or debris around the scratch i'm going to
16:17prep it with the abrasive tip that's on top of the scratch fix all in one tool then i'll clean it again
16:24with the prep spray just in case i knocked any of the powder coat or paint loose during that abrasive
16:31process then that's a pretty big scratch so i'm going to go at it with the brush that is inside the tool
16:37i'm going to give it a couple good coats let it become tacky in between let it sit for about 30
16:43minutes and then finish it off with the clear coat dupli color offers a complete line of perfect match
16:53colors that are vehicle tested and manufacturer approved so if you need to touch up your vehicle
16:59check out their website fixing a cosmetic scratch on a wheel is one thing but when you're talking about
17:05a hardcore trail rig another form of maintenance that you should pay attention to are your bead locks
17:11now what you want to watch out for is the bead lock ring you want to make sure that the ring itself
17:16is not damaged the ring can actually take a lot of abuse off-road and that's kind of the beauty
17:21of a bead lock wheel is if it becomes damaged all you have to do is replace the ring you don't necessarily
17:26need to replace a whole wheel like you would if these were non bead lock wheels you can get a chunk
17:32out of these rings just like this here it doesn't necessarily affect how the wheel works if you do
17:38get to the point where you've had the rings on for a long period of time maybe a good idea might be to
17:44swap out the bolts the bolts that come with your bead lock are just going to be a typical grade eight
17:48bolt but you might want to swap them out and upgrade them at the same time now arp has full stainless
17:54fasteners in a bunch of different sizes so they can match whatever is in your wheel they're 20 stronger
18:00than a grade eight they're stainless so they're not going to rust they're through hardened not case
18:05hardened what that means is that the entire bolt is hardened not just the surface that's the treatment
18:12that they do the bolt after it is made so if you're going to go through the trouble of swapping out all
18:17your bead lock bolts it might be a good time to upgrade them to some arps
18:31no no it's covered in oil now today we are going through a bunch of different maintenance items
18:54on my jeep lj getting ready for a pretty big ride but also showing you guys things you should pay
18:58attention to between rides on your rig as well as some large items you should do every so often in
19:04this case seven years since we built this truck now this is also a great time to take care of things
19:09that maybe you wish you could change on the vehicle and in the case of the jeep lj i've gone back and
19:15forth on the exhaust on this truck three times since i've built it at first it was really really loud
19:21and i liked it and then i started to not like it so then i rebuilt the entire exhaust to make it
19:26a little bit more quiet and then i rebuilt it again to make it a whole bunch of quiet the problem
19:32was in order to quiet down i had to put so many pipes underneath the floorboards it became almost
19:37uncomfortable to drive this vehicle so i've gutted all the exhaust out of it and i've got a whole new
19:43plan i'm going to use valvetronic designs universal valved mufflers now i'm only going to use one of these
19:51because i really like this muffler design it's incredibly small so it's a small case muffler
19:56easy to package but now i'm going to have the best of both worlds when i want this vehicle fairly
20:00quiet i'm going to do a two into one i'm going to bring both manifolds over to one side of the car
20:05it's going to go into this muffler and then it will go down this pipe go through the actual muffler
20:10chamber to quiet it all down and then out a turn down on the back but occasionally maybe i want this
20:16jeep to be a little bit rowdy and i want it to be loud well then i'll just grab my remote press the
20:20button boom straight through basically the same as a set of turn downs on your exhaust except instead
20:29of the turn down just dumping right underneath the passenger compartment filling it up with the
20:34exhaust smell it's going to travel all the way down the tailpipe and out the back it's just going to
20:38instead of go through the muffler it's going to go straight through here and it's going to be nice
20:43and loud i think it's the best of both worlds
21:07so with all of our maintenance items complete all that's left to do is top up all of our fluids
21:13give the truck a quick nut and bolt throw the tires back on it and then we'll pull it out of the
21:17shop and put it back into storage because this jeep's got to rest up for the ultimate off-road trip
21:24that we got planned later on this year the build for off-road adventure ride we're going to tackle
21:29some of the toughest trails in california and arizona before ending at the annual sema show in las vegas
21:38nevada
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