AZJeff

That nice work. When you say you used "steel rivets", I see what looks like "pop rivets" in some places. I assume you mean you used a steel version of those. There are pop rivets out there that require a pneumatic or hydraulic tool to clinch them, and when those are used, in conjunction with structural adhesive, I would bet it would rival the original spot welding done 35 years ago in Toledo.

Here are a couple of snaps of the front splash shields I made. The black part is the aftermarket flares I have on the MJ, and the grayish black part is what I riveted to extend the flare inward into the wheel well to function as a splash shield.

The Corbeau seats I put in my Comanche are really quite awesome. They are VERY comfortable, with firm cushions and nice bolsters. I put in ones that recline, with adjustable lumbar support, in an all-cloth covering (you don't want leather in the AZ sun, unless you want the backs of your thighs fried.) My ONLY complaint is that there is a small plastic piece that covers the recliner mechanism, and the screw boss broke off on the cover on both the driver's and passenger's side. I think it was overtighted at the factory, and the piece is not tolerant of such aggressive assembly. I was able to fabricate a small metal piece to replace the broken hollow plastic boss, and reassembled it all back together, good as new. Otherwise, they are GREAT seats. They are not terribly expensive, but that's sort of relative, because virtually ALL new replacement seats are a substantial investment.

The part highlighted is really the best way to try to isolate the leak, because the oil vapors get swirled around and deposited all over the bottom of the engine due to the wind under the car when on traveling. Even if you don't own a pressure washer, a couple of cans of engine degreaser and a garden hose with a strong nozzle on it might get rid of almost all of the film and drips. Once your chassis is degreased, a short drive or two (10-15 minutes) will start up the real leak, and crawling underneath will make it easy to spot. (The cardboard trick listed is also a good way to narrow things down.) Just looking at the photos, I don't think the pan is the source of your leak, but I could be wrong. Something is definitely leaking around the filter adapter, and other sources might show more clearly doing the above suggestions.

Timken manufactures bearings in literally dozens of places around the world, and uses the same quality control systems in all of those locations. Thinking that ones made in the USA are automatically of some better level of manufacture is unfounded. The last time I put Timkens in my XJ (15 years ago), the ones I got were made in the Czech Republic. The Czechs are known for precision machining, so I suspect there were as good as any other Timken product.

I am a big fan of also CHANGING the trans fluid on a regular basis. With the AW-4 having a drain plug, it's virtually no excuse to not drain the pan and refill as described above periodically. I do it about every 24k miles down here where it is hot, because the fluid breaks down with heat over time.

That's too bad, because those samples you showed looked to be of OEM quality.

The laser cutter is the part I am most interested in. Is this a tool you own?

I am interested in how these pan out. What technology did you use to cut the foam?

A competent spring shop can rebuild a spring pack. The trick is to find a shop that works on stuff like large trucks and busses.

You might try going to someone like Del-City and see what sort of sockets they offer. It might be from a different Chinese factory, at least🥴

His photography was very good, with bright lighting so one could see the critical details. About the only thing he might have done would be to stop the action in a couple of spots and point out some super important things, like not allowing the gearshift indicator "string" that connects from the column up into the instrument cluster to become overstretched or broken. He paused the video, but a could of words at this point could have emphasized how easy it is to miss this little step if one is not careful. Otherwise, it's well done.

Yeah, lots of guys grab their phone or GoPro, and start "filming" while talking through the process. The problem is: (1) they don't hold the phone focused on the important stuff (2) they use little to no additional illumination when looking into dark areas (3) they often use improper nomenclature for key parts (I just watched on the other day where two guys were doing an "in chassis" cylinder refresh, and they kept calling cylinders the "cylinder head", among other things of that nature.) If you don't know the names of the parts, why should I trust your advice on how to perform a repair? HOWEVER.....every once in a while, you can actually find someone who does a decent job of videoing his work, and he gives accurate information. An example might be "Matt" from "Bleeping Jeep"

How about trying an induction bolt heater to loosen the rust?

I agree, but I would reverse the order of steps: 1. pull diff cover, and inspect fluid for signs of significant metallic content. If found, get someone who knows differentials to remove/inspect/repair source of metallic content. 2. if no metallic content found, replace pinion seal, and retorque pinion nut (with Loctite on threads) to 250+ ft. lbs.

AGREED. I HIGHLY recommend that you use what is called a "flare nut wrench" on those fittings if they are the least bit rusty. Also, some heat from a propane torch will help loosen the rust as well. Some people get all worked up about using heat near a brake line, since brake fluid is theoretically combustible, but I have never had any issues. Then again, I am not applying heat to such a degree as to cause things to get cherry red or melt, either.

You know, I might stilll take you up on that. Let’s take this back channel and plan a meet-up.

I just perused the Steelerubber catalog, and I am pretty sure they have a gasket that will meet my needs. They sell it by the foot, so I can buy as much as I need to get the fit correct. THANKS FOR THE TIP ABOUT THESE GUYS!!!

I have checked ALL of those sources. A few sources point to Mopar OEM, but when you look at the details, it says "no longer available". I look at eBay, but I do not want weatherstrip from around here in AZ, because the heat/sunlight makes rubber parts dry out and crack. Oddly enough, no wrecking yards on eBay seem to be listing this item.

The wife's 2004 Jeep Liberty has door gaskets that are finally giving out. I have been searching for a source for a replacement, but so far, and found nobody that carries weatherstripping that is intended to be OEM replacement equivalent. Of course, Mopar says the part is discontinued and no longer available. Can any serious Jeep experts one offer a suggestion for a source?

That was a brilliant thought, Cruiser. I figured it would be easy to spot the cylinder(s) with bad slap by turning off the added pressure of combustion of fuel. With combustion not going on in that cylinder, the slap sound would be diminished. So I started the engine, and let it warm up into the "most noise" phase (about 5-10 minutes after startup.) I then went down the line, pulling one injector connector at a time. (Am I ever glad i replaced all the injector connectors 2 years ago, so they were easy to snap on and off.) Guess what? Other than running rough when each individual cylinder was deactivated, the sound did NOT CHANGE when any given cylinder was shut down. So now I am mystified. The sound never changed when any cylinder was diactivated. So I wonder what is the source of the noise. (I have not checked bell housing to block bolts yet, BTW.)

So I did two things after the previous post: 1. I did another compression test. Below is a comparison of numbers after the installation of the new cylinder head (old psi), and now after 5000 miles (new psi) on the new cylinder head. Cyl. Old PSI New PSI 1 144 140 2 150 140 3 152 149 4 155 146 5 151 144 6 157 138 Then I also used my super-high-quality Chinese borescope to look inside cylinders #1 and #6, to see what it looks like. The attached PDF gives you an idea of what I saw. So I am getting frustrated with the cold start "ticking" I am hearing. If I KNEW that it was not harmful, I could/would ignore it, but I am fearful of some calamity down the road. Keep in mind that this MJ is not a beater vehicle. It's pretty primo, and could/would command a premium price on the market if it was for sale (which it is NOT.) A noise the inhibits its durability is something I want to address. 270384662_BorescopeImages.pdf

I measured the lift on the cam with a dial indicator when I was determining what engine damage may have happened with the cracked head. All lobes measured within spec. (I had the dial indicator on the pushrod side of the rocker arm.) I ran the engine at 2000RPM for 20 mins after I put in all the new lifters. I am going to try something else. I have a borescope, and I am going to try to poke it down into the spark plug holes and look at the cylinder walls on the back couple of cylinders when the pistons are at BDC, and see if there is major scoring from the piston skirts rubbing.

The flex plate bolts were tight. That was one of the first things I checked. There are no metal chunks in the pan. I have had it off twice and never saw anything in the pan. The oil analysis from Blackstone Labs shows no abnormal amounts of aluminum, iron, or copper. I run Rotella, with ZDDP, and a Wix filter. If anything is broken/cracked, it has not made it into the pan, nor has it showed up as particles in the oil. I will check the bell housing to engine bolts as suggested.

The first thing I did was to whip out my stethoscope, and I found the noise is coming from the rear of the engine. It's not up high, and it's not really down at the bottom either. (Using the scope on the side with the manifolds is pretty much impossible, so I did my listening on the camshaft side.) It's most noticeable a couple of inches above the joint between the block and the oil pan. I pulled the valve cover recently, and actually ran the engine with the cover off. The noise is definitely not in the valve train. I run Rotella with some ZDDP additive, and my last oil analysis by Blackstone Labs said there was no unusual levels of metal in the oil.