Intro: This is my first post, so I'll be polite and introduce myself (for those of you tired of intros, skip to the bottom). I'm 20 and have owned nothing but jeeps since my first vehicle, which was 93 zj with a 318. I worked summers since I was 13 to save up for it, and I am proud to say I paid for the whole thing myself ($3,300 is a lot to save up when you make 5.15 an hour). 6 weeks after I got it, I was driving along, minding my own business, and a damn guard rail jumped out right in front of me! The jeep was totaled, I had minimum coverage insurance, and to make the night even better the pigs came and wrote me a ticket. :rtm: (This was my first experience with police and one of the many reasons I still hate them to this day) As much as I enjoyed baling hay in the summers to pay for it, I was heart-broken. So, I went back to work and and after 6 months had enough money to buy my first xj. It was an 89' with 230,000 on the clock I bought for 550 bucks to get me through until I could afford something else. I fell in love soon after I got it. It could go through mud deeper than my friends lifted chevy trucks that they paid over 10x as much for. They were pretty embarrassed when my rust bucket had to pull them out of the holes that it just went through. I ended up owning this for well over a year, and I drove drove the hell out of it wherever I went. When I finally had enough money to buy a nice car, I decided to go with another xj. I found a 97' with 114k that was super clean, and I am still driving it to this day. Currently I am a poor college student and I came across a little bit of money. I made friends with guy who's step-dad is the president of a major tire retailer, and he told me that he could get me tires and rims next to cost. I figured, why replace the stock tires when i can jack it up and put some 32s in there? So, instead of saving my money for an emergency, I said screw responsibility I'm going to make this jeep bad-ass! My friend helped me put a 4.5 lift kit on, which turned into a 25 hour nightmare. Everything was seized up, and we ended up breaking the nuts welded inside the frame for the leaf springs. But, now it's done, the tires are on and I couldn't be happier.
My question is, I want to get it re-geared and I cannot find a trustworthy mechanic near Indianapolis that will do it. Does anyone know somebody I can trust? All of the shops I've been to, the mechanic doesn't even know what he's talking about. I'd like to think I know a lot about vehicles, but I'm not about to mess with something as precise as gears, and I'm definitely not going to let the idiots I talked even change my oil.
My question is, I want to get it re-geared and I cannot find a trustworthy mechanic near Indianapolis that will do it. Does anyone know somebody I can trust? All of the shops I've been to, the mechanic doesn't even know what he's talking about. I'd like to think I know a lot about vehicles, but I'm not about to mess with something as precise as gears, and I'm definitely not going to let the idiots I talked even change my oil.
. I'm sure you wouldn't want to offend anyone you may be wheeling next to at a run.
He lives up in Ft Wayne. Nice fella. He helped me get my junk ready for Winterfest many moons ago when I was still quite active with XJs. He has a buddy that is quite good at gears, and I'm sure he could put the two of you together.
