The Yeti Project

Shortly after the above pics I installed a new Sony CDX CD/MP3 deck.




The install took waaaay to long because at the time I knew, still do, very little about 12v power systems and electrical work in general.

That is one thing for sure that my Jeep has taught me is about working with electricity in circuits n' stuff. Back then, I just chalked electrical things up to P.F.M. or pure ****ing magic...

with a PAC-Audio Steering Wheel Control Interface. I didn't want to give up the steering wheel controls just because i had a different stereo.

So after considering carefully about how much tire I could get away with stuffing in my wheel well, I went and bought some Bushwacker Flares and some BFG TAKO's in the 31" variety...

The Yeti gets a Bushwacker Flare set Installed.

The tires showed up before the flare set did. These were glamour shots on the same day I finished the flare install. As I was driving up to town from down valley, I'd noticed I hit the 150,000 mile mark. This was a special day indeed...(cue the sappy music here).

It was very close to this frame of time I had changed the Radiator out in the middle of January. Man was she a real ***** then. It was like -15 in the day time when I had changed it out in the apartment parking lot; I'll never forget that repair.

Right before or after that time frame I installed some white faced indiglow gauges. I remember at the time looking into the whole carbon fiber/brushed aluminum gauge panels and not really liking what I saw so i bought this off of ebay for like $30-$40

Next up was the roof rack just before moving back to the Great Midwest, or just plain old Indiana if you want to be a dick about it...

I had started noticing the yeti's factory alarm going off at strange times of the night or day(no rhyme or reason) and had some kind of a parasitic drain.

It would up being the rear hatch latch switch gone bad.

Here's how I rigged it before fixing it...

There is a very cheap mod for the remedying of such an issue so that your BCM can finally go to sleep and your Alarm doesn't go off all the time after you're sure you closed all of the doors and locked it several times.

Sometime close to there in the summer of 2012, I got motivated and had a little bit of cash to take care of some wants I had had for quite a bit...

In came the light bar, and then a CB and a tunable Firestik Antenna:

Next up was a APN Header and then the 99-01 4.0L intake manifold Swap Mod:

It was roughly at about this time in the Summer of 2012, I started to understand electricity a bit better, and noticed all of the idiotic mistakes I had made earlier in the wiring of some things(stereo)(fog lamps).

So I got motivated to rewire everything right and installed some switches,

It was then I decided I was going to install an DC>AC inverter in the back. Unfortunately at the time, i half assed it yet again with a cheap *** Wally World 40watt inverter. Hey, I was still just dabbling with electricity and then took on a larger task of installing extra switched relay cicuits to various things throughout the Yeti...

Roof Light Rail, Fog Lamps on the WAAG Brush Guard, el Dinko 40w inverter, and decided to wire in a couple of extra empty relays for later expansion. I was thinking about on board air, but really just did it because I could..

I moved around the factory setup circuitry to streamline the factory installed stuff vs. the non-factory stuff.

There abouts was my first trip to the Badlands at Attica, IN; T'was a blast.. gotta go back for a long weekend soon... especially now that I have skid plates.

insert horror movie screams and sounds here...




This was mostly to find a leak from hell.

At first I thought it was a bad/clogged Sunroof Drain. i would get a back seat foot well full of water. It cost me two infinity amps before I got fed up with it and used the excuse to change out my heater core. Low and behold; It must have been a pocket inbetween the unibody and the fender where ice formed and poked through into the cabin.

This was somewhat fun. I like taking things apart to see how they work. :tonk:

no... I would not wish this upon anyone. Pray that it never happens to you...

So by this point, by about six months or so, I was looking around at a few limited's in the JY and bought a VIC display component with the idea of wiring it in to the Yeti.

I felt I was ripe for another electrical project and edjumactions; so I went for it and started to wire this nasty ***** in.

Here's the write up:

GDM to VIC installation instructions

..and about a year later on October 22nd, 2013 I actually finished it! :thumbsup:

Next up I wanted to get an accurate reading on my actual speedometer. Using my GPS when I had a perfectly good speedometer made no more sense. I got my panties in a bunch and set off to fix it.

This is the write up:

Changing out your Speedo Gear for a 31" Tire and 3.73 Gears

This was the dirty ****sucker here:



Edit:



This was the correct Speedo VSS Gear for my 31" tires and 3.73 Gears that put me within 1 mph at or below 50 MPH(dead on at 60MPH or above) on the speedometer when installed.

Around here I changed over both of my wheel hub bearings and axle shaft U-Joints:



As well as a starter/ignition kill switch. I don't want to show a picture due to the obvious reasons.

Next up was the 703 injector swap, as well as performance coil and wires:

Next up was the Durango V-8 160a Alternator and big three wires being upgraded; Plus added in a 175a Mega Fuse for battery protection:

A bit earlier than this I added in a Yakima Roof Wind Fairing to help in the MPG department if at all possible...



I used an older XJ cross beam from the roof luggage rails. I had to cut it down about an inch or so on both sides to get it to fit the ZJ roof width. Couple that with some hardware to make the fairing fit better on the XJ modded rail.





This is how it looked in the end:

Just recently I modded the fuel filler bezel in from a TJ, As well as added in a Fuel Tank Skid Plate:

Just a few days ago I finished a very long and drawn out wiring project that includes a few 12v Marine USB 5.1a charging plugs(4), 12v Marine 20a rated Accesory Power Ports, and a 1000w(1500-2000 peak) 12v DC to 120v AC inverter in the rear cargo area:

If you are ever going to try to do this for high amperage use in the rear you HAVE to use 2awg or 1awg WELDER'S CABLE. it is designed to be a high flow cable that has a higher tolerance for max amperage load. The cable is marked at a capacity of 600amps, and although the length of your circuit is more important than the amount a cable can withstand in a short run of wire; the cable can handle up to 200-300 amps (I figured at about 250a) on a stretch run of about 25 feet. DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.

My system can handle roughly 2400w/12v at 200a. I designed it this large so I can use large motors out the rear if/when need be. The circuit runs cable from the battery down a very short run to a 200a mega fuse holder. from there another very short run (< 6") to a DPST 200a CONTINUOUS DUTY Relay/Solenoid($$$)(sounds like a starter motor solenoid clicking/thunking when it is engaged), and then through the firewall, up the pillar and into the roof rail, then down to the inverter area. The negative side of the circuit runs out from the inverter and back up/into the passenger side rear wall, down under the rear seat bench, under the carpet along the unibody rail(inside the cabin), under the driver's seat, through the wall, to a 200a Mega Fuse holder. I then had run out of a single run of cable and had to get more. From there five to six more feet moving from the driver's side firewall inside the engine bay, around the engine to the negative battery post. This circuit is solely used for the inverter, and will not be used for anything else.

Total price tag of about $250 to $275 with the inverter.

(this chart below is for standard wire/cable and not welder's cable)