LarryH88bt

I am replacing the brake hardware and found the passenger side seal to be no good. My question is what do I need to do to remove the seal? I've done fronts before; shaft comes out, seals goes in, shaft goes in. The bearing needs to come off the rear shaft doesn't it? Found this in my search: And is the 44 a c-clip?

I would think no because the 44 uses a wider drum so the axle shaft must be longer to reach the holes? Or at least the studs. Backing plate might be an issue too with the bigger axle tube. Guess you'll find out when you get it.

I think that connector will be in constant contact with gasoline. I'd look into gasoline-safe epoxy's, if they even exist. Good thought. I'm not sure the stuff I want to use is gas proof but I have some JB Weld that is gas proof.

A quick google search showed me a pic of a 4.0 fuel pump, that connector is hardwired, as is in, not supposed to disconnect from the pump at that spot, only from the other connector under the cab. Why don't I check these things before I start touching things? :banghead: Thought I was done with making stupid mistakes. I'll check that ground when I get out there next. I may just use some epoxy on that terminal and glue it back in.

Figures. :doh: How can I repair this one? I have a bad record of fixing things that don't need to be fixed and causing more problems for myself. And the fuel gauge isn't working now either. The motor runs fine, maybe I can just glue it back in place until the pump itself fails.

Silly me, there was nothing wrong with it from the get go. I could have sworn this thing had a loud fuel pump so I never gave it a chance by cranking a lot. I was going to remove the fuel pump and the lines started leaking gas. Huh? Only way that can happen is if the pump is primed. Why didn't I hear it running? Sure enough, I cranked it and cranked it and it fired and ran. Still, there's a bit of a problem so I didn't run it for long. I tried to remove the electrical connector to check for power and here it is: I've never done one of these but I'm sure this isn't right. I can't pull the connector off anymore and it's really loose. I'm assuming that black cylinder is supposed to stay in the fuel pump and only the cap is supposed to come off?

Forgot to mention, in that ebrake bracket pic, you can see I cut out the original gas tank hanger mounts for the j-bolts. There were not going to work again so I drilled through the bed and I'll be dropping down carriage bolts.

Took some pics of my patches finally. Ignore the red paint, that's what I had in the cabinet :thumbsup: Gonna have SVE weld in the e-brake bracket. It's only held it with self taps for now. I'd rather a better fix. Patch under the pass door. Tight spot so I could only do some tacks and 1 or 2 beads. Have SVE finish it. Ran out of time with the welder and ran out of wire or I'd have done more. But this is plenty I think to be driveable to the shop and save me some dough. Still figuring out the fuel pump.

MJ's been sitting for a couple months as I've been fixing the frame rot. Went to fire it up this morning and the fuel pump isn't getting power. I checked with a simple lead tester right where the fuel pump connects under the rear of the cab. Didn't see a fuse for it. Any ideas?

Anything is fixable. http://www.comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=25969&start=15 my frame rot repair thread. I haven't updated it in a while because I've been busy actually fixing it. I got the major patches welded in last week and once I finish the bed, its going to the shop to have the rest of it patched. Try to find cwlongshot 's thread of a similar frame repair. It takes a lot of time and you'll need a small angle grinder and mig/flux core welder. Total, I've spent about $150 so far. $30 in cut off wheels, $75 to rent the flux core for a week, and $50 in paint and random hardware (I had steel from an old project, 1/8"). Labor though, it's taken me hours and hours. And more hours. Had to remove the bed and gas tank to get at it all. As for how long it can go... my frame was probably heavily rotted for years and I had no idea until I decided to poke around with a screwdriver. Key thing to check is the spring hanger and if it is still attached to the frame above it. If not, then it shouldn't move until patched.

I was thinking about something like that at one point. I may reconsider it now, that fix looks great. Depends on how much steel I have in the garage but I don't have the welder anymore so I'd probably bolt it behind the bed mounts. But then it might sit too low and I might need new straps to keep the tank tight in place. I also agree there needs to be a third piece going from the x-member to the cab. And tie in that rear most e-brake bracket mount. Dunno, I just want to get this thing back together before a heavy snow. Planning to run a flat piece of steel under the bolts along the floor to avoid something like this ;)

The hangers for the j-bolts under the bed aren't what they used to be. I managed to weld some thin steel over the rotten holes with a stick welder and 1/16 quick strike rods (absolutely terrible rods, I was cursing up a storm). I ran out of time with the rental mig I had. Anyway, they will accept the j-bolts but it isn't pretty nor is it exactly a solid fix. What I'm planning on doing now is drilling through the floor of the bed and using carriage bolts. Anyone do this? I need to decide on where exactly to drill; right where the j-bolt hangers are or a little further out, but I think further out from the hanger won't line up with the tank straps.

Had a thought today about throwing more modern equipment in an MJ. Basically the buckets and center console from a later model XJ. Anyone done this? I think all that's needed is some new studs in the floor to match the new seats. Only drawback I can see is not being able to fold down the seats. Figure this would be cheaper than buying new aftermarket seats.

Best I can do for a bird's mouth, bit of triangulation. On the inside, I'm just going vertical because the inner rail is still holding on to the spring hanger and decently solid. Really just reinforcing the inside like SVE did on the passenger side. And some bright shiny paint! Used some old rattle cans in the garage. Spent only $4 on a can of primer. Rustoleum hammered on the axle.

Time consuming for sure, tougher with a crappy job and only 1 day off. Bright side, it's been a cheap project, I got about 8 gallons of "free" gas for my other Jeep when I pulled the gas tank and so far only spent about $25 on cut-off wheels. The steel was leftover from past projects. I'll rent a mig to weld in the patches which will run about $75 for the week. Whatever I can't do after the two major patches will probably go to a shop. But I need to get the spring hanger in to be able to move it. As for Rust Bullet, I'm leaning towards no. I don't want to take the time to wire wheel off all the paint and there's not that much rust to begin with, it's all surface versus rot. For now, I'm just going to primer and paint it. Getting cold too so I want to get it done before January.

Small update: Got the two major patches cut and roughed in. The outer needs a bit more shaving on the bottom to match up perfectly with the spring hanger. Just need a tiny shave on the bottom to flush it up. I think on this inside patch I'm just going to cut another big piece and go into the shock mount and upper rail versus just filling in that little bit underneath.

How about: "88 MJ long bed, frame rot repair". Thanks.

Cut a bunch out this morning after moving the gas tank and took the wire wheel to the top. It's all surface rust up top, the shock mount is solid too. The pic is worse than it actually is, the spring hanger and the inner frame is still ok. I whacked the hell out of it and it held. Will probably still cut it out but not until the hanger is welded back in place on the outside. Inside looking forward SVE patch Maybe a mod could move this thread to the projects section?

Forgot to add these photos. This is the real trouble spot The spring hanger is peeling away from the frame. Somehow I need to weld that so at least it's a rolling chassis.

Got the bed off. Broke 2 of the 8 bed bolts and the gas tank hangers were barely holding those j-bolts in, scary. Top the frame isn't too bad, a few rusty spots but nothing some Rust Bullet won't cure. Previous owner sandwiched his custom hitch around the frame rail, well done I think. Any ideas for cleaning out the frame rails? Then there's the gas tank. I need to move it to get to that side of the frame. Do I need anything special to remove the fuel pump? What about depressurizing the lines, or is that only when the vehicle is running?

This is good info, mine are rotted out too.

More! :banghead: first cut on the driver side And first cut on the passenger side! You can see the SVE fix at the end of the cut. That was done, I think, about 4 years ago. PS side looking towards the front PS looking rear These frames are just canals of steel death. One minute I'm all gung-ho about fixing it, the next I'm ready to sell it for parts. But for now I want to keep cutting and chisel away inside the rails and see how deep it is.

Shot of the passenger side patch from about 3 years ago. Already getting new rust under the undercoating.

It's been holding great, like new. They fixed it simply by welding in new steel, they didn't overlap or anything just welded straight into the existing frame. I did a lot of the prep work and cut away most of the bad stuff with a grinder and then shaved down the surrounding frame to bare metal. I think all they had to do was shape new steel and weld it in. Then I took it home, threw on some primer and a layer of undercoating. The problem with the driver side is all the fuel and brake lines. And the gas tank may be in the way. (edit: just thought about that further, they can weld inside the frame rail as opposed to doing it from the outside where the gas tank is then box in the rest) Really what I need to do though is pull off the bed and do the entire thing.

This is more or less exactly the same damage as was repaired on the passenger side several years ago by Bill @ SVE. I literally pulled out about 5-7 pounds of sand, rust, and mouse nest from inside the frame rail. The interesting thing its probably been held together by paint for many many years. Kudos to the New England weather and whatever the original owner did to this thing. Runs all the way forward to the middle of the door Back to above the axle Inside going rear Inside going forward Brutal huh? Hats off to boxed frames.