OUT WITH THE OLD; IN WITH THE UUUUH SEMI-NEW

In the hopes of one day having enough money to do something fun with my toy; like rims and tires, or new gauges and a radio that works, I opted to utilize a re-built transmission that isn't quite new, but isn't used and unknown...The used transmission would have been cheaper; however, I didn't want to be back in the shop with the same problem right after fixing it...


The image to the left is the old transmission...You can't see the inside, but when you twist that nice end piece, you can hear all of the parts just kind of rumbling around like chewed bubble gum that is made out of metal...It isn't very pleasant...


3-5 hours of labor for a transmission plus 3-5 hours for a clutch....OOOOORRRR....3-5 hours for both at the same time...I am gonna go ahead and get the clutch done at the same time, to save me the hassle of a future repair at this point...So far, the bill is around ??????


Don't worry, there is more...



While my newly found mechanic friend was examining this Dinosaur...He realized that the driver side motor mount is broken, the front lower shock bushings were gone (mentioned that in an early post I believe) and that some rubber piece connecting the shifter to the transmission was worn out, giving me that vintage shaky vibrating shifter feeling...

So with all of those things, the mechanic is going to fix the transmission, replace the transmission mount, two new shock bushings, weld the shifter piece to eliminate vibration, put in a new clutch, and replace the broken motor mount all for $1,400...Pretty good deal from what I hear transmissions cost...Just the AX-5 transmission by itself is $1500...Now I know I am not getting a brand new one, but all that work with parts and labor only coming to $1400 I am not going to complain...

I will just be happy to be driving it again...Of course there was an awesome list of other things still to complete in order to get this beast running perfect, but this is a good start on the major things...The other small stuff I can get done on my own...

AHHHH projects...Aren't they FUN?!!!

Like my good friend Mike says: J.E.E.P. means Just Empty Every Pocket!

On The Road Again?

Not what I really meant when I said I wanted to get this thing back out on the road...

Driving it a home a few days ago I started to hear this really awesome metal on metal, teeth grinding, teeth destroying sound coming from the area of the transmission...By the time I made it home, there was nothing left of the AX-5 transmission...DAMMIT MAN!

A very large expense whether I do it myself or pay someone to do it, so I am opting to have a professional tackle this project...Not that I don't think I could have figured it out, but lets face it, there is no chance in hell I am climbing underneath that Jeep and trying to unload the skid-plate and transmission...fix, and then put back together all on my own...This one is a little above my pay-grade...

Look how fast its moving! And it doesn't even run...YEAH FOR AAA Membership!!!

The Jeep has been dropped off at a local 4x4 custom shop that I will speak more about after I get the Jeep back and see what kind of work they have done.

The owner of the shop has been very fair in quoting repair costs...

I will discuss in more detail in the next few posts...

LIKE A GLOVE

Reference the last post, for those of you who are curious to the more specific location of the temperature gauge sensor....You can see the valve cover (has the stripes running down the top on the left side of the picture....The hose you see attached to the plastic valve is the PCV hose and valve (which is just behind the oil filler cap)...You can see the sensor and the red wire running to it just at the base of the valve cover....The other striped metal piece under the PCV hose at the bottom right, is the back of the fuel rail....Check that fitting first if your temp gauge stops working....SAVE YOU LOTS OF MONEY $$$

A Wonderful Surprise

In the course of messing around with an 18 year old vehicle you more often than not run into other issues that are usually bad ones, this case is an exception to that rule...

When I first purchased the Jeep, I noticed that the temperature gauge was not working on the dash cluster...When I brought the Jeep to Goodyear, they assumed it was that the cooling system was clogged and needed to be flushed...After realizing the cooling system was fine, they then told me that it was a wiring issue and would cost all kinds of money to find the problem...

I can;t imagine how much $$$$ I would have paid to figure out this little issue...The picture you see to the right is a yellowish colored fitting that sticks out just to the right of the valve cover at the rear...I didn't much pay attention to it during the course of my project, but then I noticed a little rubber cap connected to the wiring that was hanging out like a lost child looking for his home...I fitted the rubber cap over the exposed fitting and it fit like a glove....I started to wonder.....WHAT COULD THAT BE FOR????!!!!

I referred to the $30 Haynes Repair Manual and looked over all kinds of photos and things that I thought it could be and then I thought----It is obviously partly electrical, but connected to the main engine block....What the HELL?!!! Then I rememberd the Temp. gauge on the dash didn't work....Holy Crap! Did I just fix that....I looked it up in the manual and sure enough, that is what it was!...

I couldn't wait to crank it up and find out if it worked, but I was still searching for those damn botls...After finding them, putting the valve cover back on, I cranked that beast up...I waited in exhausting anticipation for the gauge to move....Here was the result:

IT WORKED!!!!!!!

The engine ran all the way up to operating temperature...This phot was taken before it reached normal temp...The bottom line; however, was that it worked!!! YEAH ME!!!!

Easter Gaskets! Finale

So here is the finale...

Multiple Beers, frustrations, and a search for valve cover bolts that was equal to an episode of "24" culminated in a successful replacement of a valve cover gasket...

If you notice the nice new shiny bolts that are on the valve cover gasket, those are the new ones!

Speaking for a moment on the issue of locating valve cover bolt replacements: Don't bother doing a search online for these...No one thought to offer this part...If you call the dealership, they will tell you that it will take a week and they will be in on Tuesday...I went to the dealership to order them and the guy in the parts department gave me the same bolt for free...I went to put them on the valve cover and needed washers because the bolt was not capped....SOOOOOOOOOO!!! I called in a chopper and flew over to Advanced Auto parts to get some bolts...In the search for an appropriate washer, guess what I found?! The actual same friggin bolt as the original one, except it was a stronger version...

Note to those with the same or similar Jeep as mine...If the valve cover bolts have slashes on the top, that means its the USA version of measurement not the metric system...The bolts for my valve cover are 1/4-20 and are capped...Meaning the washer is basically already part of the head piece...You can buy four of these for about $2.50 at the auto parts store...Bring an orginal bolt for comparison and measurement and you should be fine...

When you call around for a simple part like that and ask the person who is supposed to know what the hell you are talking about, they act like it is some major component and cannot be found without ordering....The truth is, it is just a USA standard 1/4-20 one inch grade 5 bolt that you can pick up at the local auto parts shop!

Easter Gaskets! (cont. again)

The instructions in the manual say to clean off the mating surface of the valve cover before applying the new gasket...I started with a paint scraper and screw driver, but after not getting anywhere quickly, I switched to the polishing tool on my almighty DREMEL...

It worked amazingly! The dremel along with some grease lighting and foam engine degreaser worked wonders to assist in cleaning out the interior of the valve cover...Here are some more photos of the progress as the cleaning progressed:

Easter Gaskets! (cont.)

I started the day by waking up and having a big hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy...Following that I contacted my buds Jay and Kevin to facilitate their assistance...I figured three brains are better than one, unfortunately as far as mechanics go, we added up to maybe a 1/4 of a brain; although now looking back, it may have been the alcohol...Just like Jamie Foxx says; "Blame it on the a a a a a alcohol!"

After breakfast, the boys came over and we went to the auto parts store and decided to change the oil first....The day started out great; got a fantastic deal on five quarts of fully synthetic motor oil and a K&N oil filter...All of it came to $25; I could not have been happier...I grabbed an oil pan and a filter wrench and drove back home.

I decided to take the Jeep to heat the engine up a bit before the oil change in order to get the oil to flow out better...Besides sparking myself up on the starter while trying to remove the oil filter, everything went off without a hitch....My first oil change, 101,900 miles on 04/10/09...

Back to Easter Gaskets!

After the oil change, my beautiful wife Cathi came home and we all decided we should go celebrate with lunch on the water...It was an awesome sunny day out and thought it would be awesome to have lunch and a few drinks...

After lunch we returned home to work on the Jeep...The hood was open and we prepared to begin...Prepare as in have a few more beers! I took hold of the shiny ratchet...Twist, twist, twist, SNAP!!! My dumb@%% snapped off the bolt inside of the housing...There was nothing else to do but continue...After snapping the second bolt, I realized that I was tightening the bolts, not loosening them...Always remember...Righty tighty; lefty loosey...The thing I can't figure out, is

that I got that sequence correct on the beer bottles, but somehow switched it when I got under the hood!

In my anger and frustration, the broken bolts ended up somewhere across the street in the open lots thanks to my buddy Jay, who threw them as far as he could...I did manage; however, to remove the remaining threads from the housing (WHEW!)

Here is a picture of the valve cover after it was removed...I was able to save all but four of the bolts...

Easter Gaskets!

After finishing the last few projects of this new endeavor I have undertaken, I decided to try something a little more advanced...

I had noticed that the idle had gone back to normal; however, after the engine heated up, it would again go high to about 2000 RPMs...Frustrated, I took the Jeep to a local mechanic near where I work and asked his opinion...A few hose checks and tricks later, he found that there was a vacuum leak somewhere in the throttle body or intake/exhaust manifold.

He found this out by placing his hand over the throttle body and realizing that the engine did not cut out; then he visually inspected the gasket around the intake/exhaust manifold, which was visibly worn and corroding a away...A $300 estimate later, I decided I may try this one on my own...

In order to prepare for this litte adventure, I decided to try something similar but less difficult...I will change a gasket, but an easy one...Lets try the valve cover gasket; that should be easy...I was in for a few surprises to say the least...

Beware the "Idles" of March

So far I have changed the Muffler and now I feel good about myself...Unfortunately, there is more learning to do...I noticed while driving that the engine Idles very high when in neutral...I begin to trouble shoot in my repair guide and using common sense start to check the simple things like the air filter....come to find out, the old air filter was black with oil...I thought it was weird that oil would get into the air box the way it did and through some more research learned that the PCV Valve is probably clogged with gunk... What I learned is that these little pieces on top of the valve cover, pushes blow by air into the intake box...When they get all grimy and clogged, it apparently shoots some of the gunk along with the air, causing some oil on the filter...This thing was nasty...I had purchased a new PCV valve from the auto parts store...but it was the wrong one...So I used some degreaser and soaked it for a while, then used a handgun bore brush and cleaned it out...The end result was this:

A little tip I learned is to remove the hosing from the valve before twisting it on the valve cover casing...I broke the 18 year old plastic hosing, which was full of oil and needed to be replaced anyway...

I noticed when I was playing with the PCV valve that the inside of the valve cover was disgustingly filled with gunk and grime...as sign along with the clogged valve that the oil hasn't been changed in quite some time...That will be done on my next day off...before I put all this stuff back on....

I also swapped out the old air filter for a brand new one...I then removed the intake house that connects to the throttle body to see how the throttle body looked and if it needed to be cleaned...The throttle body was surprisingly clean...certainly not what I expected to see after seeing how gunky everything else was...
Here are some photos of what I am talking about....

To make a short story long...After all this and placing in a new air filter, cleaning out the PCV valve, changing the PCV hose and cleaning out the air box and the intake hose...I hook everything back up and turn the Jeep on and guess what! IT IDLES PERFECT NOW!!!!

I still want to get the engine cleaned up some more...Next on the project is an oil change with some synthetic oil, differential and transfer case fluid changes along with fuel injector cleaning or replacement depending on the level of dirtyness and difficulty...

Just a quick note...If it sounds at all like I know what I am talking about...good for me for fooling you...I have no idea what I am doing...I have been reading forums and repair manuals on this stuff and it is my first attempt at any of this...WITH THAT SAID, IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT...PLEASE OFFER ADVICE....Thanks and take care....

Stay tuned for another episode of Logan's project Jeep!!!

Project One...Mufflers

Okay...So before you send me a bunch of comments about how I did stuff wrong, just realize that I have no idea what I am doing and am only making general guesses about how to do stuff...

This picture is the muffler after I took it off of the Jeep...I assume it is the original muffler from 1991, with a little wear and tear...I consulted some friends and even had the Jeep dropped at a local shop to get a laundry list and quote of how much it would cost to fix things like what you see here...The grand total was somewhere around $1100...I will get into more detail as we go...I really want to see what my savings turn out to be when I learn to do all these things myself...

Instead of going to a muffler shop, I went to an auto-parts store and got me a Haynes repair manual and some parts...I came home with some exhaust clamps, a new muffler and some exhaust extension pieces because the new muffler is 2 inches shorter than the old muffler...

I get up under the Jeep and with bucket loads of elbow grease, I work off the almost 20 year old clamps of the old muffler...One bolt actually snapped right off instead of coming off the threads!

I started thinking to myself that other than the hard work to break loose the old clamps, this job my be easy...I was slightly mistaken in that opinion....

After getting the old clamps off, I realized the pipes were welded together...So I began to try ancient methods (the old hammer trick)....Thought I would just bang it loose...That's what she said!!! :) Just kidding!

Anyway, Joking aside, I ended up trying a powerful Dremel to cut through the old pipes...LOTS OF SPARKS!!! What ended up working really well was a hand held reciprocating saw...It cut right through the pipes and never sparked...

So I then slid under the Jeep, which is nice about a 4-inch lift, you can just crawl under with plenty of room to work..

Once under the Jeep, It took me about 10 minutes to install the new muffler...I didn't have a welding torch, so i used 4 clamps to attach the exhaust extensions and muffler...The only thing I have left to do, is get a clamp hanger to raise the catalytic converter, which is resting on the skid plate...

I turned on the ignition and although it still sounds throaty for a 4 banger...it was much more smooth as you can imagine...

The Find

Some Jeep enthusiasts say that you don't find the Jeep, but that the Jeep finds you!

I think there is some truth to that statement...My wife Cathi and I have been talking about getting a Jeep Wrangler as a fun weekend vehicle to take our Lab puppy to the beach and cruise around in the sunny Florida weather...Cathi always reminisces about the days when she lived in California and had a 97 Wrangler and how she had her sun-faded baseball cap with her blond hair tucked underneath...

I can only imagine how many other guys that attracted...Listening to her talk about it always made me wonder how much fun it would be to own a Jeep Wrangler...I had an old 99 Jeep Cherokee and I loved the ruggedness of it, but if you can't take off the doors, then what's the fun?!

Cathi had a 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee and we both loved that one, it was nice but could still handle over the bumps off road. Then we got rid of both of them and got an 06 Jeep Commander...It was decked out with all the toys and nice leather, but I don't much care for having a Jeep that nice...I like the fact that I can leave the top off on the rain and run over some broken down trees and not worry about scratching the paint...

Any who, back to this Jeep finding me thing...We had gotten rid of the Commander because of the gas crunch and a long work commute...I found myself driving a decked out minivan and a Civic Hybrid...WATCH OUT LADIES, HERE I COME!!! Then a few days before my birthday, Cathi calls me and says she has found me a Jeep. She proceeded to flood my head with images of a jacked up, lifted Wrangler with no doors and big Mickey Thompson tires..."It has a loud exhaust and a bikini top!" she exclaims...Unfortunately it was not for sale...Cathi didn't much care, she asked her friend what she wanted for the Jeep...This caught her friend off guard because the Jeep had about 2 inches of leaves in the floorboard and RCA home speakers zip-tied to the under portion of the dash and around the cabin...

Cathi's friend Kim had the Jeep, which technically belonged to her husband, for about eight years...They said it ran rough but was dependable...For days after Cathi mentioned it, my stupid head filled with images of muddy tires and clicking ratchets...Finally, I had the opportunity to have a toy to play with in the garage besides the humming sound of a civic hybrid...and the gigantic cabin of a minivan...

Cathi brought me back down to earth when she said they were not interested in selling the Jeep, but would talk it over and let us know by the weekend...It was all I talked about the rest of the week...Saturday came around and the word was in...$3000 cash and it was ours....I drove as fast as I could to the bank and got the cash...I didn't want them to change their mind before I got the title...I picked the Jeep up that night and took it to my birthday dinner with Cathi and her sister....

It is a 1991 Jeep Wrangler...It has a 4-inch lift, Mickey Thompson 32 and 1/2 inch tires on Pacer rims; Ranchos shock (the front ones are missing the bushings)...The loud exhaust I found out was a rusted out muffler and it has only 101,600 miles...

The best part about my new old Jeep...It drives like a Jeep...