mjeff87

Long story short, I bought a Kobalt 1/2" drive socket set (SAE/metric) many years ago when I was building my MJ. Bought it specifically because of the lifetime warranty, and over the years have exchanged a couple sockets and the ratchet due to wear. Never a problem until today. The ratchet pawl is shot and the 15mm socket is worn out, so I swung by Lowes to exchange them. I just happened to have the whole set in the molded case with me so I carried it into the store, grabbed a new ratchet and socket and went to the service counter. That's when the fun started. They said since the pieces were part of a set they couldn't just replace them under warranty, they had to take the whole kit back and give me a whole new one. Normally that wouldn't be a problem but this set is at least 10 years old and not offered anymore. Okay, fine. They said go find a "similar" set and they would swap them out. Problem is, they don't have anything comparable now since they picked up craftsman and are phasing out the Kobalt line. The closest thing they had was a 55pc Kobalt impact socket set (mine is only 36 PC, standard chromed) and there was no ratchet included. I was willing to take that but they wouldn't do the swap. Called the store manager and the SOB wouldn't even come down from the office to handle the situation. Cashier gave me the 800 number for Kobalt and told me to call them myself and figure it out. At that point I was so hot I just decided to leave before I did something stupid. Came home, called Kobalt and they basically told me the same thing (go back to store and find a comparable set to swap out). With all the candor I could muster I asked for it to be escalated and she put me on hold for about 10 minutes and was connected to Lowes corporate. Same deal with that lady (exchange the whole kit) and I finally lost my temper. I'm supposed to be getting a call back from Lowes "senior management" within 24 hours to try to resolve the situation. Still waiting for that call. Seriously??? I realize that it might be Kobalt "policy" to swap kits, but the damn thing is obsolete with nothing close to match it. The individual pieces are hanging right there on the shelf......we're talking about like $35 worth of stuff. Can't anyone just provide a modicum of effing customer service and good-will exchange them for me? My full time job is about 95% customer service and I have to almost bend over and kiss my own @$$ for our customers on a daily basis, whether they're right or wrong. So when something like this happens to me, it makes my head explode. Ill see if corporate actually calls me back tomorrow, and if they do what their solution is. I've got half a mind to walk back into the store and empty out the whole damn kit on the managers desk, toss my lowes card at him and walk out right now. rant/off

On a brighter note, here is day #2 of the driver side knuckle/hub soaking in vinegar. I did pull it out yesterday and wire brushed it and strained the vinegar. She's bubbling away quite nicely....ill let it go until Saturday or Sunday. Once I get the passenger side ones off ill do the same to them.

Well, I tried to get the passenger side knuckle/hub off yesterday, but it was a no go. The damn lower strut pinch bolt was FROZEN into the knuckle. I ended up rounding off the bolt head with an air impact and it didn't even budge, and I threw in the towel. Took it down to a local shop for them to get it out. They worked on it for 2 hours last night and an hour this morning and were successful. They had to weld on 4 different nuts on top of the bolt head and ended up breaking 3 sockets in the process. A large castle nut finally did the trick.....the mech was able to fill the slots in with weld for a good hold. Charged me $50, which I gladly paid them, and slipped the mech a separate $20 on the side. I never had a chance of getting it out, and it was money well spent IMHO. Here is the offender:

Don't be too embarrassed Rich, I couldn't figure it out either

10-4

Update? Did the cleaning help any?

Damn Eagle, glad you're on the mend. I was with my mother in her hospital room when they inserted a chest tube (did it right there on the bed, like you said with no anesthesia). I never heard someone in so much pain, I had to leave the room for a moment. Take care brother.

I also grabbed a rear hatch switch and swapped it in and can now open it with the dash button. The OEM knuckle/hub I swapped out is getting a vinegar bath treatment for a few days. I think I just got myself put on a terrorist watch list by buying 4 gallons of vinegar from the local grocery store LOL. I'm taking a sick day tomorrow (I really am sick, got whatever sinus/cold thing that is going around right now) and will hopefully get the passenger side knuckle swapped out. My plan is to clean up the original ones, press new bearings and hubs into them and swap them back in. That swap ought to be pretty easy since I'm dealing with getting the old ones out right now. I am just swapping the junkyard ones in so I can run it while I work on rebuilding the stock ones.

Mods, thanks for moving this. It didn't start out as a build thread but I guess it turned into one lol. The junkyard gods shed their light on me today, I pulled an almost brand new set of hubs/bearings off (on a set of OEM knuckles) for $39 each side. I planned to swap both out but the driver side (worst one) fought me the whole way. Pinch bolt for the LBJ was frozen solid, and the axle shaft was absolutely rusted to the inside hub splines. I had to use an industrial 3-jaw puller to get it pushed back off the hub, and it took me about an hour and a half can of PB Blaster. Finally got that side done, cleaned up the garage and came in to cook dinner. I'll deal with the passenger side sometime later this week.

Pissed around with it today in the garage cause the weather was crappy. Pulled the dash apart and diagnosed the hatch switch to be inop (I can jumper it with a wire and it works fine), so I need to grab a new switch. Rear defrost, after ripping out all the hatch trim to get to the wiring is getting a full 12v, so I'm not sure what's up with that. I also de-programmed the auto door locks so hey don't keep locking, that was really the highlight of my day lol. Off to the junkyard tomorrow if the weather cooperates to grab a set of knuckles/hubs.

What are you typing that your phone/PC/whatever keeps auto correcting to antidisestablishmentarianism?

Pull the IAC and clean it, or replace it. I got away with cleaning mine a couple times but the last time didn't work. New one cured it.

Are you lifting the front with stock control arms? At 4.5" you really should have adjustable to correct axle placement and caster. And an adjustable track bar wouldn't hurt either. You can use spacers or ACOS in the front to level the rake. oh yeah, you're gonna need extended sway bar links too.

Walmart does PATS keys? Wow.....I'll have to check. I was just there yesterday, never thought to ask. I'll check that donut gasket too, but whatever is leaking isn't leaking bad enough for the shop not to pass it for inspection. I finally got a new sticker on it yesterday They were very quick to tell me that my front bearings are shot, and even wrote me up a "courtesy" quote to replace them. For $600. LOL. I politely thanked them for the info and drove away.

I think I'm just going to grab a set of knuckles from a junkyard focus and have new bearings/hubs pressed into them (my buddy has a 20T press, so I won't have to take them to a shop). That way, I can just pull the old knuckles and swap withthe new ones in at the same time.

Don't sit on the tan couch over in the corner, lol. Also, if you haven't heard, Don (Hornbrod) just passed away. There's a big thread going on, you can read it to get all the details. Good to hear from you friend Jeff

Sooo.....I've determined that the front end "mud tire" noise is actually the front hub bearings and not the struts. No big deal, right? Should be just like a unit bearing assembly....axle nut off, a couple bolts and Bob's your uncle. Newp. Turns out the whole bearing assembly/hub is pressed into the knuckle and held in by a snap ring. Have to pull the whole thing apart (balljoint, strut assembly, LCA, sway bar link, etc) and then have a shop press out the old one and press in the new one. Then put it all back together. Why, oh why, do engineers have to make things SO complicated???? This, however, is a good excuse for me to finally break down and buy an arbor press

Pete, it's hard to put into words what you're trying to say, but I think we all understand and agree with ya. I don't have an MJ anymore and barely have a Jeep (KJ) that I don't wheel, lol. I still try to help out in Tech where I can though, from my experience with what I did with my MJ when I had it. I do see a lack of tech when it comes to the 2.5, as most everyone has a 4.0. I'm glad to assist with 2.5 tech as that's what mine started out with. Id be down for an east coast meet and greet too. I've only met a handful of members here and most of them have been either from VA/NC or PA.

A Beautiful Mind. Probably the best movie Russel Crowe ever did. My wife used to work in a psyche hospital and we watched it together. I fell for it hook, line and sinker....with my wife arguing with me for over half the movie. It's one of only a handful of times we ever argued in our whole marriage. The ending hit me like a brick wall once I finally figured it out. I've never seen a movie like that before, or since. And I'll also agree with Shawshank and add the Blues Brothers in addition to Animal House

New belt tensioner and idler pulley installed, all is good with the belt now. New motor mounts and trans torque mount installed too, that drivetrain is silent now. Still needs struts, the road noise from the front tires sounds like I'm running swampers Rerouted a bunch of coolant lines and vacuum hoses under the hood....they were all over the place and rubbing themselves raw against everything I also ripped the driver side door apart and PM'd the inside door latch that wasn't opening the door when pulled. Much, much broken OEM plastic little bits and it was clear why it wasn't working. A couple zip ties and a strategically placed sheet metal screw solved that issue I still have an exhaust manifold leak I'm tracing down, and I need to put a new timing belt kit on it. And the winsheild washer fluid resivoir is leaking, lol. I forgot just how much "fun" it is working on a FWD vehicle....not only are my forearms all boogered up, my darn back is KILLING me bending over to work on it

Went to install the new motor/trans mounts I got from 1A Auto yesterday.....they sent me a mixture of SOHC and DOHC mounts and at least one of them didn't fit. Ended up returning them via UPS and picked up a correct kit from my local indy parts place (I shoulda just went there in the first place). Started it up tonight to back it up the driveway to get the jeep in the garage and heard an immediate "thump" under the hood and lost power steering and the battery light lit up on the dash. The new damn serpentine belt I put on got thrown off all the accessory drive pulleys. Apparently I completely stressed out the probably-still OEM belt tensioner when I put the new belt on and it $#!& the bed. Picking up a new tensioner in the morning and will replace it when I put the new mounts on. Also found out that the single key I got with it when I bought it has a chip in it and works with a PATS security system, and a replacement/duplicate key is like $85-100. The nice little girl at lowes said they are not allowed to just cut a door lock key without programming it due to some kind of lawsuit that got filed against them several years ago related to doing just that. I didn't ask for details though. I swung by the local dealership after work today (they're quickly getting to know me there, lol) and the parts guy cut me a gen-u-ine Ford key without a chip in it to use on the driver side door lock for $6. I'm going to pony up for an additional ignition key that's programmed, but for right now I'm just uber paranoid about locking the one key I have inside the car.

Cool, cool. Tomorrow (today) is Focus-focus day. I doubt I'll do anything to the KJ this weekend. In fact, I've still got those OEM tow hooks I pulled and made real purty sitting on the workbench, waiting to get installed lol. Maybe if all the planets align and all goes as planned on the Ford I'll work on getting those put on. Doubtful though.....that's the joys of trying to PM a 16 year old vehicle (focus, not KJ) that never really had any PM done on it to date. You fix/replace one thing and break three other things in the process

Hmmm......that is interesting. My seats are still in good shape, but I'm liking that fold down option Proceed with the guinea pigging, and do a full write up with pics so we all can copy it

I have no d sire to dick around with this one, with easy outs or pipe plug removers.....I don't/can't weld, so if it costs me $25-50 or so to get it done I consider it money well spent. Like I said, if I fubar it all up, the whole timing cover on the front of the engine will need to be replaced. Consider yourself a lucky man, lol.

Pete (or Sam), Do the diesels have that bleed screw/pipe plug on the water neck to burp the cooling system like the 3.7's? I managed to royally strip out the head (8 mm inverted allen) on mine screwing around with my cooling system so much...total bonehead move, all my fault. I grabbed a new one from a junkyard KJ but I have reservations about trying to get my old stripped one out. If I fail, I'll end up having to replace the whole stupid timing cover (the waterneck is cast into it all as one piece, dumbest thing I ever saw). I might just pony up and take it to a shop to have them try to get it out. Maybe they can tack weld an actual nut onto the top of the plug and spin it out that way. Welding heat should help, too (I don't weld).