mjeff87

Welp, I screwed up. Big time. Decided to do a plug swap on the KJ over the weekend. 5 of the 6 plugs spun right out (they only have/had 25K miles on them) but of course the biggest PITA one, #6, was frozen. Wouldn't even budge at all. I filled up the plug well with PB Blaster and let it sit overnight and half the next day, then put a socket on it and it did break loose but was still seized. I kept soaking it in PB, going back every hour or so and tightening/loosening it as much as it would turn and did get it to spin about 2/3 of a turn. Then it snapped, and left the threads in the head. I got physically sick when I heard it break. I have (cheap) fluted extractors and got one inside the remnants and quickly tried to see if I could spin it at all. Nope, not a budge, so I quit at that point. Got my buddy with a tow dolly and dragged it to a local shop, who have been working on it for 2 days now and even they can't get the threads out. I'm desperately trying everything possible (and so is the shop) to get them out WITHOUT having to pull the damned head. If it ends up coming down to that, I might just as well do an engine swap on it. About as much labor and cost as pulling the head. Anyone here ever snap a plug off like this (on a ".7" Chrysler variant engine, with aluminum heads and steel plugs)? Tips, tricks, prayers? I told the shop they can keep it for as long as they need to and to not tie up a bay with it sitting in it and lose money on other jobs. I don't care if it takes 2 weeks of soaking in Knock 'er Loose (that's what they're using, along with a nice set of Snap On spiral extractors) to get them out, lol.

Nice clean looking 87. You should have 4.56 gears in those axles too

enjoy Pete.....we're heading back in October. We're just planning on walking through the new SW park, not going to try to ride anything (or buy anything LOL). My wife's friend (and jiu-jitsu coach) is a HUGE fan, and is in CA right now with his family at Disney. He said it not too crowded, relatively speaking.

What I ended up doing was pulling close to the door of the parts store and very nicely asking the manager if I could take a few (read: several) different cans outside the store to my truck to match them up via the cap color. I remember getting something fairly close, looked like a 100% match from about 10 feet away, but if you got up close you could see the slight shade variation. It didn't bother me at all that it wasn't exact....my MJ wasn't very pretty to begin with LOL. I have no idea what the color was, but I remember thinking to myself that the cap looked too dark to be a good match before I actually compared it to my paint. I was surprised.

I see your return trip is taking you "relatively" close to me. As in, at least you are in the same state as I am . VA is a looooooonnnng state, width-wise, lol. Are you going down I77 thru Bluefield? If you make it a bit further east for some reason, any reason, we could meet up. Right now you're gonna be about a good 4-5 hours away. Heh.

Ideally (for me, anyhow), you want about half the length of the yoke engaged in the tailshaft. Take a sharpie and mark where your tailshaft seal lands on your yoke, then pull the driveshaft off. Make a center mark on the yoke and then measure the distance from it to the first mark you made....that would be the amount you need to shorten the driveshaft by. At least that's what I've always done. But I did almost destroy my entire garage trying to swap out a simple U-joint on my KJ rear shaft a couple days ago, so there's that. edit: if you are re-using your original slip yoke, you should be able to look at it and see how much of it was originally engaged in OEM configuration. The non-exposed portion of the yoke (inside the tailshaft of the TC) should be nice and shiny clean. That would show you what "normal" once was.

Quick check, just unplug it and see if the bucking goes away. My old 2.5L had the same symptoms once (happened at the same spot on the way to work every day, like clockwork) and it was the O2 sensor. While it was acting up, I got out and unplugged it and it cleared up immediately. New sensor, never had the problem again.

I don't have those kinds of days very often, but when I do they end up being doozies...... Silver lining is that my rear end howling is gone now The old (most likely original, 17 year old) joint didn't feel bad, still had grease in all the caps and wasn't bound up at all. I guess it just plain wore out. It didn't owe me anything, lol.

Ever have one of those days when you are a danger to yourself (and others)? Everything you touch just falls completely apart? That was my day yesterday. I took a sick day off work after visiting the emergency optometrist and got 4 foreign objects plucked out of my left eye (dirt and lint, have no idea how it all got in there but I couldn't see them nor flush them out.....). Figured I'd swap the UJ's out, no big deal, should take about an hour. Riiiiight..... Started off by bonking my head off the frame. Got driveshaft out, rigged up the C-press in the bench vise and promptly knocked almost everything off my workbench trying to get the UJ/yoke lined up in the press. Cleaned all that up, then accidentally kicked over a jug of used motor oil. Got all THAT cleaned up, then fought with the old UJ that was rust-seized in the yoke for almost 15 minutes until it finally popped free. Yay. Grabbed the new joint, popped off 2 caps to get it inside the yoke and ONE single needle bearing flew off into oblivion. I heard it "tink" off the tool chest and then it was gone. I half-heartedly looked for it for a couple minutes, said screw it, grabbed the old joint and pulled a needle out of it to replace the AWOL one. Then for the life of me I couldn't get the caps to press in straight for anything in the world. I actually ended up screwing up one of the caps, pulled the joint out and tossed it. Grabbed the second new joint I bought (for the front of the shaft) and very carefully got it pressed in straight.....except I couldn't get the clips back in both sides. Pressed it back out, found one needle bearing dropped crosswise in the bottom of the cap (we've all done this, at least once I bet), got it lined up again and pressed the joint back in. Said the h*ll with the front joint, put the driveshaft back in and thought I was done, then realized that I didn't screw the zerk fitting into the new joint Luckily I was able to screw it in without having to pull the shaft back out. At least I installed the joint facing the right way so I could access it. Some days, it's just better to put the tools down, go back inside and have a beer.

Yep, they're only like $30 or so, but they set the vehicles with a forklift and invariably muck up the rear shaft 99/100. I was thinking about picking up one and swapping new UJ's into it like that, but my luck I won't find one not all fubar' up. I'm chasing down a howling sound from the rear end....its constant on accelerate, decal and cruising so I don't think it's a pinion bearing. I think the rear UJ is going bad causing the sound, so I'm starting with the joints. If they don't solve it, I'll move toward the r&p somewhere, or axle bearings. Not a 911 issue (unlike my water pump) so it's not the end of the world that I didn't get them swapped out this weekend.

Well, plans changed a bit. I ran down to AA early yesterday morning and picked up a couple new UJ's. Pulled the jeep into the garage, ran inside to change clothes, came back out and there was coolant all over the garage floor. Water pump crapped the bed. Back to AA in the wife's car for a new one and a gallon of coolant. Hottest day of the year, it was already in the 90's at 10:00AM. It took me 51 minutes start to finish to swap the pump and refill the system, but I was literally soaked in sweat. Ill save the UJ's for later on this week, it's supposed to cool back down starting on Tuesday. The wife and I are heading to brunch today, and I have to finish installing a shelving system she bought for her closet.

I'll just drive around my subdivision and snap random photos....there's not a level lot in the whole place (700+ homes). The whole area was an old/undeveloped farm. Some of the driveways are mind-blowing

Advance Auto can get spicers, they're about $40/ea. I'm gonna run to my local parts place tomorrow (Indy shop) and see if they can get them any cheaper. If not, I'll order via AA....I've got some rewards $$$ I need to use up before they expire.

I might just pony up and order some Spicers. I wanted to swap them out this weekend, but it's supposed to be (and has been already) over 100 here tomorrow and Sunday, with +75 dewpoints......I really want not to do anything outside or in the garage. Thanks all.

Is that Ed Harris as the 2 star? Holy hell, he looks old (and he is....). Will see

Need to replace both u-joints on the KJ rear driveshaft this weekend. What's the consensus on decent brands nowadays? Spicer, Moog, ??? I need to be able to source them locally, not online.

We've only cruised RCL. Phenomenal engineering regardless of the line We have a V-16 CAT diesel generator at my work, probably a larger engine than that. But it's in its own enclosed building.......to service it like that would likely mean cutting away half the structure just to get access to it. I'm highly impressed by the way the crew on that boat was able to get the old/new crank in and out.

Shoulda put a new rear main seal in there while they had it open, LOL.

True story^^^ The 2.5 really relies on 4 sensors....the MAP, MAT, CTS and O2. If you gave a bad/malfunctioning O2, you're better off just disconnecting it and running without input to the CPU. Worse comes to worse on yours, you can pull the exhaust manifold off to wrench the remnants of your old sensor out.

I'll X2 the Kirkland brand at Costco. I've got "regular" size feet (lol), can't say I've ever seen larger sizes, but if they have them I'd get them. Almost every sock I own is Kirkland. (as well as toilet paper, bacon, trash can liners, and a few other things except beer. Trust me, don't get the beer......)

Honestly, it's really not a bad drive. The worst part (and longest) is driving thru SC....95 parallels the coastline and just seems to go on forever. They could have probably cut out about 75-100 miles of lane construction when building if it just stayed straight N-S like it does in NC and GA. I95 in GA is probably some of the best interstate roadway I've ever driven on as it widens out to 6-8 lanes right at the border. We'll get plenty of "island" down there, over on Amelia, but we're actually staying west of 95, not toward the ocean. Barely in Fl, about 6 miles from Folkston, GA.....if you're familiar. Day trips to Amelia and Fernandina are already in the plans. Not just no, but HELL no.

The wife and I are heading out to Florida, probably leaving Sunday early afternoon and driving halfway then finishing up Monday morning. We've already done this trip once before (straight thru) and it's almost exactly 8 hours and 2 right turns to where we are going (about 1/2 hour northwest of Jacksonville). One turn right to get onto I95 by our house, then another right turn at the very first exit in Flordia off of 95. Can't really get lost, lol. Anybody have any good ideas/interesting things to do along the way we could stop at? Don't want to stray too far off 95 (we have friends in Wilmington NC, but that's a good 1.5 hour side trip). We were thinking about stopping off either in Florence, SC or Savanna GA (but honestly, if we're the whole way down to Savanna we might as well just finish the trip in one shot). Looking for something interesting to go do/see for a couple hours, a nice place to eat dinner, and we'll find a hotel somewhere nearby to overnight in. I'd rather just get up at 0-dark hundred on Monday morning and drive straight thru, but SWMBO would rather leave on Sunday. We'll be there the whole week, driving back to VA next Saturday. The return trip will be a one-shot deal. edit: anybody need anything hauled north from down south? If it can be gotten reasonably close to I95 and will fit in the back of a Subaru Forrester, I can drag whatever at least back up to VA

Hey Pete, If you happen to run across a nice set of "Jeep" letters (chrome plated) on a KJ tailgate, would you mind trying to peel them off for me? I only actually need the J and the p (mine are both peeling). I'm not 100% sure, but I think the hood letters are the same ones too. My local dealership has exactly one set left in their dead stock, but they are really proud of them.....like $58 proud. I refuse to pay that. I ordered a generic set off an Amazon seller for $8, but they are a different font If I can't find a decent (cheap) replacement I might just de-badge the tailgate.....I'm a bit anal about stuff like that LOL. Thanks

I'll X2 a KIA as well. My wife had one, SUV-type, I can't remember the name right now and it was a tank. I ended up getting it after she got her first Sub (the Legacy.....from her grandmother that sadly passed away). I drove the wheels off that thing, then one day I got T-boned at an intersection and totaled it. Surprisingly, it started back up once all the cops got done doing their investigation. They were going to call for a flatbed to drag it away, I ended up driving back to my house. Do you remember that scene in National Lampoon's Vacation where they get the family truckster "fixed" by the hilljacks out in the desert and drove it away with all the wheels bobbling around? Yep, that's exactly what that Kia looked like going up the road.....but it still drove

Was it one of the earlier models? They did have some serious head gasket issues, that can't be denied. But they did fix the issue. If you want ride height tho, a Subbie is not your answer. The Outbacks, which are considered a more "sport" model (due to advertising) actually sits lower than a Forrester. And it's smaller inside as well. The AWD system is incredible, though, on any of them.