Hey YJ Wrangler people - Need to talk

[jpdocdave]

there ya go, try that route. it is better for the jeep and everyone around you :rotfl2:

[terrawombat]

Well, it's home and in the shop with the interior mostly removed. No towing required, drove it right home and it performed very well. Went into 1st and 2nd a little hard but didn't grind. 3rd gear would grind if you were upshifting or downshifting into it, but if I double-clutched, it was fine. I tested the brakes on a 1/4 mile stretch of road by the PO's house before taking it on the faster roads and they worked fine - locked up all four and plenty of pedal pressure. Still had my buddy follow me home, but the Jeep seemed solid. Even for an old Wrangler there weren't that many squeaks and rattles and the suspension felt pretty tight. There seems to be a little shimmy around 45-50 mph, but I've got much bigger issues to tackle before I bother with that.

 

First up - removing rounded lugnuts.

 

Then onto the drivers side floorboard followed by the floorboards where the roll bar attaches. Once the new metal is in, we'll lay a coat of rust preventative paint on the inside - either POR-15 if I'm feeling rich, but most likely it'll get Valspar tractor & implement paint followed by a topcoat of some sort.

 

There are also some other random areas of body rust that need to be taken care of.

 

If I had to guess I would say the RMS was replaced as there isn't a drop of oil anywhere near the rear of the pan. The oil pan gasket also looks to be new. I'll be replacing the valve cover gasket to put an end to any leaks and other than a fluid change, that should be all the engine needs at this point. I'm going to try putting some of the Pennzoil (or BG) synchromesh in the trans and cross my fingers and hope for the best!

[Automan2164]

:needpics:

 

Rob L.

[terrawombat]

Yea yea...I got the Jeep home around 10:30pm last night and wanted to get the interior gutted before I had to go to bed. No time for pics! I'll get some after work.

[terrawombat]

Whew - what a day. Just about everything that could have gone wrong did. I hit the motor vehicle commission up at lunch today. The place that is (somewhat) close to my office has got to be one of the strictest agency's in all the land and I knew this from a couple of previous experiences, but I was left with little choice since the next closest agency is about 20 more minutes away. I had the title in my hand and everything was filled out correctly. I had my drivers license and proof of insurance on the vehicle so what could possibly go wrong? Well, I guess someone was having a bad day today or they just really felt like ruining mine. For some ridiculous reason the lady thought I altered the mileage on the back of the title. She said it looked like I went over it in a different color pen and, therefore, it was void. I politely explained to her that the first pen we tried to use didn't have any ink so I got another one (a different color...was all I had with me) and the seller wrote in the mileage on the title. I guess it wasn't a good enough reason for her as she called her tightwad manager over to confirm her decision in making the title void. The title was sitting between myself and the tightwad agency clerks...maybe about a foot and a half away. Upon hearing all of this, I reached out to grab it, but tightwad clerk #1 pulled it back and gave me a classic look. I wanted to take the title and walk out the door because I could easily just go down to my main agency where the people that work there could care less. Unfortunately, tightwad clerk #1 wrote all over my title and insisted that I get a notarized letter from the seller claiming the mileage is correct. I'm really lucky the seller is a good guy - he had a bit of a laugh over the situation and agreed to meet me at my bank tomorrow to fill out the odometer statement and get it notarized, but honestly, what a PITA. I love how the tightwads act like what I need to do is no big deal. Yea - now I have to bother the seller, get him to meet me at a bank, get notarized letter, go back to tightwad agency, and finally get my title, registration, and plates. Yea - no big deal.

 

So since I couldn't legally drive my new Jeep around, I decided to take the old wheels and tires off and put on a spare set of Jeep rims with 31's I have. Three of the four wheels came off with no problem, but wheel No. 4 decided that two of the lugs were NOT coming off. I completely rounded the lugnuts and wound up drilling the studs out and replacing them. Then one of the rear brake lines on the axle sprung a leak, so I removed it and busted out my Snap-On double flaring kit to make a new line - but then my 3/16" flaring bit broke....what a day!

 

Here are some crappy pictures that I was finally able to take once I got the brakes sorted out and the wheel back on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, I've got some rust repair to do! I ordered a replacement drivers panel from Quadratec today. Should be here tomorrow and I'll probably weld it in this weekend.

[jpdocdave]

that really sucks about the dmv, stupid people with sucky jobs that are so miserable they pull crap like that to cope with their crappy lives. stupid power trip.

[terrawombat]

Yesterday was another adventurous day for me and the YJ. I met the previous owner at my local bank and we had an 'odometer disclosure' form signed and notarized. I'm lucky this PO is a good guy and was very willing to help me out with all of this. I think he is just happy to see his Jeep go to someone that is going to take good care of it :)

 

I began cutting out the drivers side floorpan as well. It had been repaired before with a sheet of galvanized steel pop riveted into the rusted, rotted body and smeared along the edges with silicon. Of the 15 or so pop rivets, I only needed to drill out two - the rest were in rotted pieces of the body. Now I have a Fred Flinstone Jeep!

 

 

 

 

I also got a new drivers floor pan from Quadratec - the $65 one - and I'm very impressed with the fit. Even has the holes for the drain plugs, e-brake cable, and two bolts that go into the side-step brace. I can use those two bolt holes to line the new pan up and trace out what metal I need to cut. I think it should go relatively smooth and the final product should look real good.

 

 

Also drained the old transmission fluid and put in 3.25 quarts of Pennzoil Synchromesh and my 3rd gear grind is gone, however, the trans is still really notchy and hard to get into some gears. I'm going to try and bleed the slave cylinder and see if there is any improvement. If not, the trans is still a heck of a lot better than it was before.

 

[Puritan21]

You got a heck of a deal...even with the floorpan repair!!

 

Enjoy it...my wife won't part with hers, I even told her we could trade it in on a newer one!

[terrawombat]

Haven't been able to work on the YJ as much as I would like in the past two weeks - weddings, work, and life have all gotten in the way. Been sneaking in time here and there and tackled some rust repair. First up, rotted side panel under the JEEP logo on the drivers side:

 

Rotted right through...

 

Why does it even rust out here?

 

Fender flare removed

 

Grind out the bad stuff

 

 

Weld in the good stuff and blend it in

 

Coat it with POR-15 so you never have to do this again

 

 

Next rust repair will be under the roll bar behind the drivers seat

 

Somewhere down the road I need to do the same repair on the passenger side

 

 

If I get some time tomorrow, I will weld in the new floor for the drivers side, seam seal it, and probably paint the passenger side with POR-15. The passenger side metal is in pretty decent shape. I can tell it's thinning some, but if I hit it with POR-15 now, I should be able to save it. I intend on painting the entire front of the tub with POR-15 and eventually I'll hit the rear. The rear is in really good shape though...almost looks new, but better safe than sorry.

[jpdocdave]

nice work mane