OK so MY BAD  for being gone so long. But with house remodles, swine flu and everything else time just slipped by. So here I go again. After last years HITR where I shreaded an almost new MT/R on the Scout, and lots of other stuff wheelin just kinda fell by the wayside.
I shall be startin a few projects/upgrades on the Scout here right away so as soon as that gets going I will get rid of some of the OLD PICS (like all of them) and post up new ones. so untill then, TRY TO HANG IN THERE.

Well Houndman and I took off yesterday morning to join up with some of the Team Bird guys and their crew to run the Hanging Tree trail up XL Canyon.
We hit the trail about 8:45 and the carnage began. Before I go any further for those of you who are not familar with this trail, it is NO JOKE. This is serious stuff here.
We took off with Sean out on lead in his YJ. This trail starts out bad , but then it GETS WORSE. Lots of boulder crawling and very tight turns.
By the time we were about 3\4's of the way through, the Scout had sustained some fairly healthy body damage and one broken front leaf spring center pin.
Houndman in the YJ didn't fare any better. He put several good gashes into his new flares, sustained some rocker area damage, broke one shock mount and stripped the splines from a front axle shaft.

Oh well. I went down to Houndmans shop this morning and we replaced the axle shaft ( fitting for this site) and U-joint.

I'll get the Scout straightened out and be back in the game in no time. I have a few ideas for the Scout, but we will see how that goes.

Till next time------------- KEEP BUILDING EM.

Wanted to say thanks to Scout for the help with my vic.....  Weird thing, driving to his place overheated...  Got me worried so we drained and then refilled and so far good to go, who knows.  I appreciate Scout keeping up the forum and maintaining, but I do think that he and I might be the only ones still here...

Maybe it's the DARN COLD!!!!!!!!

A little bit late, but better late than never. New Years Day Houndman and I cut down a pair of Dana 44 housings to match. One from a 76 Ford for Houndmans YJ and one for the Scout to replace the one I did several years ago. Why replace a good housing? Well here goes.

The first one I did uses Scout inner shafts (because I had a set and didn't know any better) and Ford 1/2 ton outters. When we started looking at cutting down a front for Houndman, I discovered that the short side inner shafts from a pre 80 Cherokee\ Wagoneer are the same length as a Scout II short inner, but the long side from the Wagoneer is 3\8" longer than the Scout. Being that Wagoneer shafts are easier to find than Scout shafts (hey I'm a poor boy OK) we decided to cut Houndmand Ford 44 to use the Wagoneer shafts as they are much easier to find. I had a Chev 44 housing that was already striped for another project, so I decided to build me a new front as well so the shafts for my Scout and Houndmans YJ would interchange so we could loan each other shafts on the trail.

I am converting from the 1/2 ton outters to 8 lug 3/4 ton outters on the front as well to match the FF Dana 60 rear that I am building to replace the Dana 44 rear that is currently in the Scout.

We will get Houndman to post up some pic's of the progress as we go along.

None this weekend though, I will be preping a Ford 10.25" Sterling rear to replace the totally thrashed one in the back of my wife's 89 F-250 (but that's another story).

How does she run now? That hanging tree video was awsome. who was all there do you know?

Well it's been COLD COLD COLD!!!!!!!!!!! Got out to Houndmans place and got his "new" Dana 44 front stripped down and ready for cutting. This one is from a 76 Ford F-250 with a drivers side diff (wierd Jeep guys) so he can retain his factory NP-231 case. We are going to narrow it to match the 44 I did for the front of the Scout. Then we are taking two Dana 60 FF rears to Advanced Four Wheel Drive in Salt Lake to have them narrowed to match the 44 fronts.

When we get it cut and under the YJ I will post up some pic's of the process.

Gotta get the carb off the Scout this weekend and get it rebuilt. It gave me some real fits on the Devils Racetrack trip so I suspect a rebuild is in order. Well thats all for now.

Decided to make the report an ongoing thing so starting from now here goes.

Took the Scout out today for a little ride. Hit some mountains close to home and found a few rocks to play on. Had a good time but it isn't near as fun by yourself as if you have someone along. Oh well better than nothing.