What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[Blade1668]

Well, yesterday morning, I woke up early to do an oil change. The first one i'm doing on this truck. I've always done it at the dealers. But now I'm out of warranty, it's quicker to do it myself. I figuerd it'll be a quick 30 min job and I can head off to work after. Lo and behold, the drain plug nut was stripped from overtighten. I tried using a couple of different wrenches but couldn't break it loose. It's like they lock tight it in and i'm stripping it more. I finally gave up and brought it back to the dealer. Told the service guy what happened and I'll be needing a new plug as well. He seems unfazed and just wrote it up as a warranty service at no charge. Appears to me this is not the first time he has seen this. At least I got a free oil service out of this, I guess. Rest assured I'll be doing my own from now on.

Well do you put the actual guy that knows what he's doing and paid for it changing oil or fixing them. Why I don't want anyone else touching my vehicles. Anyone else remember the Fram quick drain? I had them on my XJ and MJ. Fast oil change no mess until the screw in device is missing. Or the threads for it is stripped.

I'm sure if I would've done any actual preparation it would've gone smoother.

The old D-44 housings are / were from old casting molds that with machining of many different companies and equipment made for some widespread shim tolerances. Let alone different bearing sets. So many kudos to Dana Spicer on the new housings and tight tolerances of CNC and operators of the equipment. This has made plug and play almost in new axles. Plus U-tube. "ShadowsPapa" and others know of many examples of the variations just with the AMC 20 axle. I can think of many variations on the Dana 44 line. I flat out worn out a deadblow hammer on one D-44 setting up 4:56 gears with a Trac-Loc diff. change from 3:54 so new carrier too. And back then there wasn't the bearing puller commonly available. Now I have one and haven't used it.

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[Lrowe]

New tires. Went from stock Falkens to Toyo 11.5x35x17 AT3s

They're not true 35s which kind of pisses me off because all the websites said they would be. Rough estimate at 34PSI is 34.25 compared to the rough estimate of 32.5 on the stock tires. Need to do the chalk test.

Nice job, Marine! I wish I could've checked one of these out from the Motor Pool at First Marines!

 

[Richrorow]

Added a grill insert.

 

[Blade1668]

Forgot to add about maintenance day. Bled the brakes because the pedal was feeling spongy. Got air bubbles out of the LR and LF calipers. Improved the pedal feel. But it's still down low. I'm going have to activate the ABS module and bleed them again. When I do that. I'll install my stainless brake lines.

What method do you use to bleed your brakes? Not a critique but question. I've got special spot for my MightyVac pump after years of bleeding out systems and needing a helper.

It was close, it’s been close. They made a pretty damn good cash offer too, I just couldn’t do it. So that’s that, and I feel good about it .

The dealership I got mine from has been sending me cards and the salesman I bought from has been emailing me lately too. I sent him a msg that I'm good with it. At 91 k I'm sticking with it for awhile. especially since the next vehicle I've got with less miles is my 4wheelers. All of my other Jeeps are way past 100000 miles or double that.

 

[Blade1668]

You guys are installing some great stuff. I came to this thread to post the new tires UPS just dropped off and now I'm feeling inadequate

Don't worry there is some of us who are budget challenged that are not doing massive $$$ projects very often. I'm sticking with my 33x10.5r17s for some more miles. Heck I've got a 2 in lift to install and had it for about a year.

 

[Blade1668]

Inspected my battery terminals cause it wouldn’t start - all fine. Then saw that the dash indicated a 10.3 volts. I watched it go from 10.3V to 8.8V in a few seconds on the dash but idk how accurate that is vs putting a multimeter on the battery.

I jumped it last week assuming I left something on. Drove it to Maine and back over the weekend and it did great. Dead again this evening. Here we go, flashbacks to when I owned my gremlin ass Acura MDX in college.

edit: both batteries are newly installed as of April 2024

I had the corrosion gremlin when I got home from Florida 3 weeks back. Luckily I was doing a look over and noticed it. I still need to check the hidden battery though. I think the week of rain got a lot of the salt off outside.

 

[Rusty PW]

What method do you use to bleed your brakes? Not a critique but question. I've got special spot for my MightyVac pump after years of bleeding out systems and needing a helper.

I did it the old fashion way. Had my wifey pump the brake pedal. She needed the exercise.

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

I had the corrosion gremlin when I got home from Florida 3 weeks back. Luckily I was doing a look over and noticed it. I still need to check the hidden battery though. I think the week of rain got a lot of the salt off outside.

I didn’t even think to check that stupid aux battery. I’ll give it look too

 

[Artsifrtsi]

Heck I've got a 2 in lift to install and had it for about a year.

Bring it over this weekend, we'll get it knocked out!

 

[00Mutt]

This will be coming in tomorrow

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C5JBC575/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[PuddleJumper]

This will be coming in tomorrow

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C5JBC575/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Is this rage bait?

 

[00Mutt]

Is this rage bait?

Honestly, no. I want to Rhino line the front grill, part of the hood, and the front half of the fenders. I half purchased this to see what a black grill would look like and half because I'm intrigued. If they had a Storm Trooper-esqu grill, I would have got that to go with the truck theme. Don't judge me too harshly, I beg.

 

[PuddleJumper]

Honestly, no. I want to Rhino line the front grill, part of the hood, and the front half of the fenders. I half purchased this to see what a black grill would look like and half because I'm intrigued. If they had a Storm Trooper-esqu grill, I would have got that to go with the truck theme. Don't judge me too harshly, I beg.

Some things are best left undiscovered, that being said it is your truck. So don't mind me I'll be looking for eye bleach.

 

[00Mutt]

If I decide to keep it and post pics of it, I will make sure to post a "trigger warning"

 

[Shibbyjeep]

My now 5 year old son typically calls out any Jeep he sees, on his own he started calling out the "angry jeeps" lol. He asks me why they are so mad, I just laugh and say I dont know.

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