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Ok. We have a spare "Basement Watchdog 130Ah Sump Pump Battery" in our basement. The thing is huge, like 1.5 or more times the size of a normal battery. I've found lots of specs on it, it'll run a sump pump continuously for 7.5 hours, but I have not found anything that states its CCA (Cold Cranking Amps).

Anybody know if I could run this kind of a battery in my Jeep? Not that my battery is bad or anything, but I'm thinking this might make a good second battery?

Heres the best specs page I found on it:
http://www.pumpbiz.com/products/index.c ... ct_id=8921

Also, while on the topic, does anybody know of a cheap dual battery tray for a Jeep, or should I just make one? I've seen some on Quadratec, but they are around $200! For a bunch of plastic! ...


-Brandon

If you've been paying attention to any of the big news storys/online clips.. this will be very funny to you! And its from AOL, who would have thought?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/964477/ao ... _they_now/



-Brandon

The guy in front of me, in a Pontiac Sunfire braked hard to turn into the Honda dealership in Grand Blanc, and I braked hard, locked up all four wheels and slid into him.

The left side of his rear bumper is caved in, his left side rear taillight shattered and theres a big dent next to it. The right side of my front bumper is bent in a lot, and my fender is bent in slightly...

The guy seemed like he was a little mad at first, then he lightened up real quickly. I apologized profusely, and he said "Its ok, all that matters is no one got hurt". He was in his mid 20's probably.

The police came, the cop was really nice, took a report, and told me "Theres no sense pouring salt in the wound so I'm not going to write you a ticket, but I do have to claim someone is more responsible then the other, so I'm probably going to write you were driving too fast for conditions or something like that".

But yea.. I've never been in an accident.. It was weird.. I think I'm still kinda in shock over it.. But now I need a new front bumper.

It seems that, because my Jeep is so light, everytime I brake hard I just slide. I'm thinking about getting some kind of weight to put in my Jeep so it'll brake a little better. I love how light my Jeep is, but it just sucks whenever its wet, snowy, or icy. Anybody have any suggestions? I was thinking getting a big block of steel or something...


-Brandon

I was talking to my Dad today, and I remembered that when my brother was in highschool, probably 10 or 11 years ago, he used to go to a place in Fenton to wheel with one of his buddies. I believe it was behind a gas station?

Anybody know about this place? I'm sure its either long gone, or its not legal to wheel there... but he went there a few times...



-Brandon

Anybody know the laws about driving on the beach? I'm going up north this weekend with my family, and the place we stay every year is on the beach. I was hoping to drive along it if I could.. I've seen tons of tracks from four wheelers and dirt bikes along the beach every year, but wasn't sure if its legal to bring a vehicle out there. Not sure the laws here, only time I've ever seen it done was down in Florida.



-Brandon

So, I'm sitting at the dort and saginaw light heading north on saginaw when I see these two cops barelling towards me. Its weird because they are both driving at me in the turn lane, but theres no cars on either side of them. The light turns green and everyone starts to pull over to the side of the road to let them pass, when all the sudden this Dodge Nitro nearly rear ends me as he BLOWS by me. I thought he was just trying to get over real fast before the cops got there, but then 8 or 10 cop cars blew by me behind him. They looked to be State Troopers, Grand Blanc cops, and Burton police (there could have been a flint cop or two in there too.. not quite sure). As the aforementioned police that were driving towards me see the Dodge Nitro coming at them, they both swerve to try to block off the road so he can't get by. This causes the Nitro to swerve, almost drift around the cop car on the left and continue flying down the road. I look in my rearview mirror and don't see anything else (by this time adrenaline is pumping through me, damn I wish I wasn't at work and could have followed them)... then all the sudden 3 or 4 more cops blow by me followed by two civilian looking cars (they could have been undercover cops, or possibly FBI? One was a black Buick LaCrosse, possibly a GXP, and the other I can't remember. They were probably just people following the chase, but they were flying right behind the cops and swerved through the intersection and between the two groups of cars on the side of the road right behind the police cars). After they go by theres nobody else, so I continue on down the road, and in my rear-view mirror there are a bunch more civilian cars (these are definitely just people wanting to get in on the action) trying desperately to pass everyone and follow the chase. I get a little further down the road and theres another cop sitting in the car wash parking lot by Saginaw and Maple (I'm assuming he was trying to stop people from following the chase) and then a second cop sitting at the opposite corner by the car lot there. I go to my delivery on maple and come back and theres a third cop (Burton police) turning right opposite the other two police.

That's my story for the day. Most amazing thing I've ever seen. Whats the chance of a Police chase coming through Grand Blanc? Since I didn't see them coming from behind me when I went to drive again, I'm assuming they came down Dort (possibly from the freeway??). With that many Police following them, they had to have been going for at least a few minutes... maybe 10 or 15..

It was amazing! I'm hoping to catch the whole story in the news or newspaper in the next day or two...




-Brandon

To Lee. I saw a new 2007 standard cab, short bed, Silverado sitting at the cemetery today.



-Brandon

Got my insurance check in the mail the other day, have everything setup to get my tranny rebuilt. I just need help ripping it out and putting it back in. If I could use someones garage, and can get a couple guys help. I can provide beer, pizza, and whatever else is needed. This Sunday works, or anytime during the week. I can even take work off, as this is more important.


Thanks,

-Brandon

Spotted you driving down Saginaw road past my work while I was pulling out of the parking lot (in the truck). Your Jeep looks even more beastly with the soft top on!



-Brandon

Dealership just called. I dropped my Jeep there about two hours ago.

They said I need a new transmission! w00t!

They said they found water in it, but he wasn't going to tell the warranty company that, and hopefully they will cover it.

He said I need a reman'd tranny, new torque converter, some kind of o-ring, and he listed out about 10 other things.. including tranny cooling lines.. maybe I'll get new ones with the new tranny.

He said the total cost was about $3200, and he's gonna call the warranty company and call me back.

Finally!


-Brandon

My Dad decided to bring his truck in for one last inspection before his warranty runs up. Its at 98,xxx miles right now, and the warranty is good till 100k. Both pinion seals were leaking and the tranny was hesitating to shift out of 2nd gear into third so we took it in.

They ended up doing the following work to the truck:

-Front Pinion Seal
-Rear Pinion Seal
-Both front axle joints
-Both front wheel bearings
-Both upper ball joints in the front
-Both front lower ball joints
-Both front tie rod ends
-Transmission Filter
-Transmission cooling line
-Reprogrammed the shift points
-Took apart the tranny and inspected it and it looked good


Cost him $100 deductible for the warranty, and $40 for taking the tranny apart since there wasn't anything wrong with it.


I'd say he got his money's worth from that warranty!

And this is the like 4th time he's brought it in to get work done. They have probably done 10-12k worth of work on his truck under the bumper to bumper warranty total.



-Brandon

Issues now:

(1) Sitting on a hill, in drive, the tranny will shift into and out of gear

(2) Putting the shifter into neutral, its still in drive

(3) Putting the shifter into reverse, it acts like its in gear (the motor is strained to rev up), but it doesn't go forward or reverse.

(4) It will no longer go into reverse

And the fluid is full.. I've checked it daily.

Went to turn around in my neighbors driveway and the tranny wouldn't shift into reverse, had to bring our van over (truck is in the shop) and the van pulled it back while I kept jiggling the shifter between park and reverse.. finally it popped back far enough for me to be able to pull forward in the street...

So I'm thinking my linkage is broken/bent like Bubba said? I'm sure this isn't covered by my warranty, as its not an "internally lubricated part".

So I'm fucked, once again. I need to get this fixed, any suggestions would be great on what to do.

And once I get it working again, I'm going to tow strap the damn thing to a tree and just burn out till the tranny overheats and dies.



-Brandon

Yea.. Last minute notice, sorry. A friend from work who has a blazer is meeting me at the Mounds today. Probably around 3 or 4 I'm thinking. Another friend with an XJ is probably gonna meet me there too.

If anybody wants to join us, that would be great. I'll be on channel 12 on the CB, or gimme a call @ 444-7324.



-Brandon

Ok.. Sometimes on deliveries when I try to shift into reverse, nothing will happen. Its like my Jeep hasn't come out of park. I have to put it into drive and then to reverse and it will usually fix itself.

Any ideas what this could be? It is just my shitty tranny being... shitty?


-Brandon

Is this the tent that Paul has?

http://www.epinions.com/content_184366042756

He said his 320+ square foot tent is a Jeep one right? Is that it?

I'm looking to buy a new tent.. Not quite that big, I don't think, but I want a bigger one thats really nice. We do a lot of camping, and our current tent is (I'll quote this based on what my mother said) "The biggest piece of junk ever", and our little tent (the one I used this weekend) is wayyy to small.

So I'm looking for one that can accommodate 5-6 people and all their junk and hold up to a lot of camping... Anyone have any suggestions?


-Brandon

Soo... My front brakes are SMOKING. Like.. big plumes of smoke.

It was so bad that people were staying back like 500 feet behind me while I was driving down the road.

So today I took both front wheels off, everything looked great on the passenger side. The drivers side everything was covered in black, like it had caught on fire.

So I bought a new drivers side caliper, and I bought new Carbon front brake pads for both sides. Got everything on, it all went on smoothly, everything seemed to be working great.

Took it for a long drive, get back, and the passenger side is smoking like theres a small fire on the caliper, and the drivers side is smoking like half as much.

Everything was put back on right. The sliders were all lubed and checked to make sure they slid, and they did so great. We bled everything... and it all looks fine..

So what could be wrong? The U-joints LOOK like they are in good shape (Cody had mentioned that his broken U joint caused his brakes to do the same thing), and everything in the front end looks good.

I'm going to go buy a new caliper for the passenger side to see if that helps.. and I guess go from there, but both sides are smoking, I can't imagine one caliper could cause both sides to smoke...

Any suggestions? Could it be the front hub assembly's?



-Brandon

Go to Burton Auto Salvage!

I just came from there, got a tranny cooling line from the guy for $20. He had everything there though. I only walked the front part of the lot, but it was pretty amazing. I could see Jeeps all the way back through his lot.

He has to have 15-20 different Wranglers there, and probably 5-10 different Cherokee's. He's got every kind and color of half door, soft and hard top, tires and wheels, any interior part/color.. etc.. He only had one four cylinder Jeep there though...

But yea.. thought I'd let you guys know. If your looking for something in particular, let me know and I'll tell you if I saw it there. I was there for about a half an hour and looked around in a couple of the Jeeps.

I know one thing he had was one of the 4 or 5 light, light bars there that mount on your windshield. They had covers on them with "JEEP" on them.



-Brandon

Anybody ever had to fix these before? How hard is it to do? Evidently after weeks of trying to figure out this damn warranty, the cooling lines aren't even covered.

They want $500 to put them on.. So we are gonna tow it home and try to put them on ourselves...

God this sucks...


-Brandon

Your jeep looks nice sitting out by the road (in front of your house)!


-Brandon

Took my Jeep in today because my tranny blew last night, and they said "While your here theres a recall we're gonna fix for you, just sign here"

I asked him what it had to do with, and he said I might end up getting my PCM reprogrammed and a new catalytic converter?

Anybody know what this is all about? Is this something widely known or what?



-Brandon