Nate and I are in Golden, CO.
Spent the day at an awesome fella's house, Shawn in Gypsum, CO. He heard through the Colorado4x4.org board that we needed help and he loaned us a space in his garage (2 miles from the exit where the jeep broke).
Long story short: We ended up not swapping axles because we didn't have the tools. Shawn's tool collection was limited and I was afraid we were going to destroy u-joints trying to swap driveshafts to run the 8.8. Nate and I got over there at 7 in the morning and started making my heep highway ready.
Trackbar bushing was toast. Death wobble all over the place. Of course, it was custom by me, so we couldn't find a bushing at the local parts places. Heard from the owner of the carquest that the local owner of an excavating company builds buggies at his shop and had a bunch of jeeps, so we headed over.
Hobbs Excavating in Gypsum, CO stepped up huge for us. He paged his shop foreman over (the owner of a very nice J20 truggy on 42's) and Hank took a look at it and told us he had something that would work. 30 minutes later he called me back and I had a new cut down frame side bushing just like the original. Stewart (the owner) wouldn't take any money for it and just asked us to stop by and do some wheeling the next time we came through (!).
Got the trackbar in, fixed the swaybar disconnect mount (ask Rev), changed all the fluids, put the spare tire on the driver's side front (tore a chunk out of the sidewall on Moab Rim) and then loaded the vehicles all up.
We were only 2.5 hours from Golden, so by the time we got here at 7:30, we called it quits for the night. The giveaway jeep is on the back of the trailer strapped down for the ride home.
My heep rides like shit on the interstate, but it's Nate's turn to drive it tomorrow
Thanks again to everyone who helped get us some help. Pat and Macgyver called us from the interstate just to make sure we had a good plan.
The proof is in the pudding folks.
is great people
