Relacing the Wrangler's clutch master cylinder

On Thursday--in the middle of our first really cold spell of the winter--I noticed that the clutch in my 1995 Jeep Wrangler was engaging with the pedal unusually close to the floor.  I made a mental note to investigate it over the weekend.  Unfortunately, when I tried to leave work on the next day, I found that the pedal went all the way to the floor and the clutch wouldn't even disengage at all, making shifting impossible.  We towed it home, and I got to spend a couple hours on Sunday fixing the problem.

Replacing tired shock bushings

When I installed the spring-over-axle lift on my '95 Jeep Wrangler 15 years ago, I installed a new set of Rancho RS9000 shocks with polyurethane bushings.  They worked well, but in recent years, the suspension on my YJ has gotten noticeably noisy.  While underneath my Jeep last week, I noticed that the cause of that noise was worn out shock bushings that were past their prime. In many cases, the center hole was hogged out so that the bushing flopped around on the bolt.  In one case, the bushing was completely gone, leaving the bare shock eye to bang around on the bolt.  Obviously, it was time for a new set of bushings.

Repairing a split fiberglass hard top

For the second time in the 17 years I've owned my Wrangler, the inner and outer shells of my fiberglass hard top separated due to the force of a failed window strut.  This can be fixed--or at least patched--with a little bit of 2-part fiberglass repair epoxy and some clamps.

Broken soft top zipper pull

My '95 Jeep Wrangler came with a factory hard top.  After a couple years of lifting it on & off with every weather change, I bought an old, used Bestop Supertop that was designed for a CJ-7.  It works on my YJ, and the price was right, but it's showing its age.  Some of the zippers that hold the vinyl windows in place are getting a little stubborn & probably need to be lubed.  Recently, the metal zipper pull tab on one of the side windows broke off the zipper body (it had been bending for a while, and it's only made of pot metal).  The solution was easy & nearly free.

New cat-back exhaust for the YJ

Over the last few months, my 1995 Jeep Wrangler started to develop an annoying rattle from the exhaust whenever the engine was running. Crawling underneath to do a little shaking and beating indicated that something was rattling around inside the original, 17-year-old muffler.  Time for a replacement.  I wanted to get a full stainless steel replacement cat-back system, but it just wasn't in the budget.  I opted instead for Pacesetter TFX Kat-Back system made of aluminized steel.  It probably won't last as long as a stainless system would, but it cost only 1/3 as much.