There is one partial roll of film that wraps up the Jamboree. I will put it on the web shortly.

Overall we had a wonderful time. Demetri is a terrific young man, and we had some great conversations about Jeeps and about life. I am a lucky father.

Not long after the last picture above was taken, we got stuck in 27 inches of soupy mud. At that depth, the starter and the clutch pedal linkage hole in the bell housing were below the mud line. Mud flowed into the starter and clutch housing. When Demetri pushed the clutch petal, the mud flowed between the clutch plate and the flywheel and the clutch ceased to work. With no clutch or starter, our Jeeping was over for the day. Fortunately, it was at the end of the day and we were not too far from the end of the trail. One of our guides, Tim and his wife Kelly, towed us out of the forest and Tim took me back to get the Grand Cherokee which was set up to tow the CJ, since we had towed it from Lafayette. This allowed us to tow the CJ back to the Jamboree and ultimately home.

The present status of the Jeep is as follows. Our stock starter motor is partly open in the front so it filled up with mud and ceased to work. It was cleanable and would have worked. But instead of replacing the stock starter we bought a "Mean Green" starter, and it has been installed. This new starter is sealed in the front and should do better in the mud. However, our intention is not to go in mud that deep again. Replacing the starter was already on our list of things to do this summer, so we were not unhappy with this result. We were able to start the motor of the CJ, so the engine and starter are healthy.

The stock power steering cylinder was leaking when we got home. It was apparent that serious off-roading, like the Jamboree, is brutally hard on steering systems. So we opted to replace the power steering cylinder and pump with new high performance steering system. This was an significant unanticipated expense. However, I was unhappy with the backlash in the stock steering system anyway. The new steering system should cure the backlash and be more robust on the trail. As of 6/26/02 the power steering cylinder and Pitman arm have been installed. The power steering pump should be in shortly since the pully has just arrived from ARB.

I have also finished the modifications to the roll cage. On the front bumper is a 0.25 inch steel plate that serves as the base for the curved pipe that protects the lights, radiator, and hood. The steel plate will also serve as the winch mounting plate when we can afford to buy a Warn winch. In the passenger compartment I added two new pieces to the roll cage. These pieces form a T-shaped structure above the heads of the driver and passenger. This protects the passenger compartment in the event of a rollover and completely removes the windshield as a necessary component of the roll cage. All pipe is 11 gage DOM (draw over mandrel, seemless) steel pipe.

As of 6/26/02 the clutch is not working at all, so we are planning to replace the clutch, flywheel, pressure plate, and throw-out bearing. This is a big job requiring the removal of the transmission and transfer case. Most parts are here (from Quadratec). We await a transmission jack from Harbor Freight. (They are very slow to deliver.)

Stay tuned for more of the CJ Story!