Drahcir495's Build-up

[Drahcir495]

The 3/8" square hole in the drain plugs is made to accept your 3/8" wratchet... no need to grind down a special tool. Just thought Id pass that on, might have been easier than making a tool. :thumbsup:

 

Are you kidding me ~ :dunce: . I will be out there tomorrow trying it out. Thanks for the tip :cheers: .

[Drahcir495]

I am still working on getting the Comanche ready for the road trip. I was looking the engine over when I noticed something not quite right with the harmonic balancer. It appeared to have some plastic coming out of it. On closer inspection I see this :eek: ~ looking up from the bottom ->

 

I decided to post a question about how bad it could be in the tech section (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11865&start=60. Everyone one suggested that it be replaced. I headed out to the parts store and picked up a new Pioneer Harmonic Balancer; part number DA-242 {made in Australia} ->

 

I had to use the gear puller on old harmonic balancer, but it did not have enough room to pull it completely off. I ended up having to tap a little with a hammer on each side ~ turn and repeat. This was PITA, but it did finally come off. The harmonic balancer was much worse than I had thought.

You can see how bad the old balancer was – it could not sit level ->

 

Front side of old harmonic balancer - you can see how the plastic ring is moving out ->

 

On the backside comparison you can see where on one side, where the harmonic balancer was seriously out of balance, was brushing up against the timing cover ->

 

Side comparison of two->

 

And a front side comparison ->

 

Getting it back in was going to be a little tricky. The stock bolt is not long enough to reach the hole with the harmonic balancer this far out. I ended up finding a longer bolt had lying around and using it to get the new harmonic balancer started ->

 

Got it all together and working. Now I have another issue to deal with – the horrible squealing sound. Could it be my belt? I will find out next weekend - Rich

[WahooSteeler]

yeah, belt is very likely. how tight did you put it back on? or, might actually be too loose. i had a bad squeal for awhile, thought it might be the idler pulley or harmonic balancer. belt conditioner would help for a very short term. i gave it the ole 1/4 twist test and the tension seemed to be fine, but come to find out when it was tightened up it a bit more, squeal was gone. i could still twist 1/4 turn obviously, it was just more resistant. :dunno:

[Drahcir495]

The windshield wipers on my Comanche seem to go out every time I use them ~ usually during a massive down pour. When on the rare occasion they do work, it isn’t for long. And I seem to only get one speed out of the motor ~ slow. I decided to order a new wiper motor and see if that would do anything to improve my safety issue. I decided on ordering a new $50 Crown wiper motor from Teamcherokee.com ~ part number 56001402 ->

 

The shiny new motor->

 

Took the cowl cover off and unhooked the windshield wiper fluid tubes off.

Cowl off ->

 

There are 4 T-30 torx bolts that hold the two wiper arm mounts ->

 

There are a total of four 7/16th nuts, two above the map sensor and two others on the fire wall that hold the cowl support brace on ->

 

Inside on the back side of the map sensor is the brace that the two 7/16 nuts support. There is one 10mm bolt that secures the motor bracket in place that needs to be removed.

 

It took a little finagling, but I did get the wiper assembly out ->

 

 

I removed the old motor off the frame and paid careful attention to the positioning of the arms and motor. Good thing I took pictures before taking the old bushings off, because I forgot about half way in, lol. Quick note about the rotating assembly arms and motor position – the exact position of the motor’s drive shaft and arms do not matter. The motor turns in one direction and 360 degrees. The rotating assembly is set up so the arm start positions and furthest points away are constant.

 

I also decided to replace the 3 linkage bushing cups on the wiper motor arms. I picked up a Dorman HELP! Wiper Linkage Bushings pack at AutoZone ~ part number 49447. It is an assortment pack and included the 3 bushings needed to complete the project. The old ball and bushing socket ->

 

The new bushings look like this ->

 

One bushing in place, two more to go ->

 

Ready to go back in ->

 

I got everything back in place and even reinstalled the rubber motor boot. I was sure to add RTV to the front and back of the bolts and nuts that went through the fire wall – don’t want any rust or unnecessary water in the cowl/ wiper assembly area if possible. I also used some Lock-tite on the screws that hold the motor on to the frame.

Everything thing seems to be working great, but I have not had it out for real world testing. For now, it seems to have all the features you would expect, slow to faster intermediate mode, slow, and fast wipes. I will have to play with the exact position of the arms to get the most of the full cycle of movement. Looks real promising at this point.

[WahooSteeler]

Thanks for the details Dracula, I've had this same motor still sitting in the box for over a year. My father in law is coming for a visit in a few weeks and he gets bored real quick, and he loves to wrench. I'm putting together my list of things to do to the truck now. I think my wife is already upset that I'll probably spend more time with him than her! :brows:

[Drahcir495]

Thanks for the details Dracula, I've had this same motor still sitting in the box for over a year. My father in law is coming for a visit in a few weeks and he gets bored real quick, and he loves to wrench. I'm putting together my list of things to do to the truck now. I think my wife is already upset that I'll probably spend more time with him than her! :brows:

How lucky you are! My father-in-law loves wrenching too, i.e. - tossing them into my peaceful relationship ~ at every possible moment. I love how he visits and ask about the jeep pretending to be interested– “that looks like a new bumper you got there Son. That really looks expensive.” Next line out of his pie hole, “baby, is that garbage disposal still broken?” It is also an all you can drink and eat buffet up to the moment he walks out the door; then takes a little extra for the road. “What was the name of that guy you used to date Pumpkin? . . . yeah Steve. Boy, I heard he did well in the Wells Fargo/Wachovia merger. Dracula, I heard you nearly loss an eye on call at the toll booth Tuesday. I guess they may have to consider offering hazard pay, hehe.” And who drinks a man’s last beer?! Yep, you got it good Hoo.

[WahooSteeler]

Damn, that's a shame. Yeah I got it pretty good. He's laid back as hell, and her mom (their divorced) is the sweetest thing ever. Lucky fo' sho'!

 

"Pie hole".......love that one, but I call it a "pie slot" or a "STRAW hole". Or, "soup cooler", one of my faves...... :rotfl2:

[james750]

Damn, that's a shame. Yeah I got it pretty good. He's laid back as hell, and her mom (their divorced) is the sweetest thing ever. Lucky fo' sho'!

 

"Pie hole".......love that one, but I call it a "pie slot" or a "STRAW hole". Or, "soup cooler", one of my faves...... :rotfl2:

 

I prefer "face hole". :yes:

[Pete M]

Nice photos on the wiper motor install. :thumbsup: Have you made a DIY post yet?

[Drahcir495]

"soup cooler", one of my faves...... :rotfl2:

:yes: :rotfl2: :jump: :rotfl2: :yes:

 

Nice photos on the wiper motor install. :thumbsup: Have you made a DIY post yet?

Thanks Pete :thumbsup: . A DIY post would be too much pressure for me. I don't claim to be professional ~ this is just what worked for me.

[Pete M]

You don't have to cover all the possibilities, just post up your experience in a dedicated thread so others can find it easier. :thumbsup: People like pictures and you took a bunch of nice ones.

[Drahcir495]

I found mjeff87’s thread on placing a HO valve cover on a Renix 4.0 viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12871. What a great idea! I decided to give it a try. The reported benefits are reduction/elimination of any blow-by problems. In theory, the bigger CCV lines help combat the blow-by problem by pulling oil away from the air box. May reduce leaks - In my case the old cover was leaking oil from around the disintegrating grommets, so eliminating that would be a plus. Girls will want to date you when they hear about the increased size of your CCV plumbing. Baffle vs. Towers ~ enough said.

 

I got up early one weekend to see what was available at the junk yard. After taking a few steel ones off only to find that they also had towers, I ended up finding one from a newer Cherokee. For about $11, I got this nice late model XJ HO steel valve cover->

 

This newer VC was pretty clean to begin with, and it is in much better condition than the old one. Even the oil cap was near perfect and had a more modern look. I was careful to grab all the hardware – bolts and metal inserts etc., associated hoses and fittings, and as much else I thought I may need. You can see how this one has a baffle that runs across the top. The differences will be more apparent when I get the old valve cover out and next to it ->

 

The nasty old VC in the jeep before the swap out->

 

I used the Fel-Pro VS 50458 R gasket with the replacement grommets ~ around $32 ->

 

And a full shot of the Fel-Pro VS 50458 R gasket->

 

The grommets and steel spacer inserts ->

 

Managed to get the old valve cover off ->

 

 

In this shot of the bottom side of both Valve Covers, you can see the differences between the two. Notice the towers on the old cover, vs. the full baffle on the new VC. It looks like the crappy original VC gasket was doing its job, but it looks like it was fairly flattened out ->

 

Big difference in the rear tube sizes ->

 

Full top shot old & new->

 

New VC in, still need to work on vacuum lines ->

 

My intake manifold used a smaller fitting ->

 

I decided to keep the fitting in the original location and just run a hose from the rear to the front. I know mjeff87 moved his to the rear like the newer HO models have. In order to keep the original location I will need to upgrade the original nipple to the larger sized fitting. Luckily I had in my parts bin ->

 

New larger 3/8 NPT to 3/8" tubing adapter in place on the intake manifold ->

 

For lack of the actually name – the Vacuum junction box ->

 

After removing the “Vacuum Junction Box,” I just had to reattach the nut->

 

Turned this vacuum tower fitting 180 degrees out->

 

The final product ->

 

All the vacuum line were cut and re-routed to their original locations using the original lines, or with extra pieces I had been gathering in order to repair dry rotting pieces.

 

You can get an idea of the routing of the new tubes in this shot->

 

Left over parts ->

 

I have to check the air cleaner in a few days to check on the blow-by, but everything seems to be as advertised. It does look nice in there, especially with that dirty junction connector gone. I am happy with it and would do it again. It was a pretty easy swap. Honestly the hardest part of this upgrade was removing that stupid white label off the front of the cover.

[Drahcir495]

Fixing the Harmonic Balancer caused my interior lights, electric fan, and radio not to work :fs1: . I don’t know how they could possibly be connected, but some how they seem to be. Check and rechecked all fuses and they were all good. Crap! Just days before the VA meet and greet. No way can I go on that trek without tunes. It is time for me to get serious about this frickeen power problem. Started with the radio; no power to the pink wire. Decided to get a new fuse block and try and back feed the power to the pink – * took out the fuse from the factory box and left it out. Went to a marine supply place and picked up these->

 

It is a remote Fuse Panel: part# 15600-06-20 & a Power Post for the dedicated ground: part # 2011. Found a sweet location for the ground post under the dash and ran a 1410AWG wire directly to the negative battery post – I am not playing around any more.

 

Power post would cover this Hole for ground->

 

I would have to drill out two holes on either side of the opening. ~ Before ->

 

After drilling out the holes and installing the post->

 

Front side ~ installed ->

 

Drilled a few holes for the screws and mounted the fuse block here->

 

Used the left over 10AWG Red wire from my headlight upgrade and ran it from the new fuse block directly to the battery. I attached all of the grounds to the post and locked it down. Used the new fuse block for the radio, the eclectic fan, and to back feed all of the interior accessories. I was sure to use all the recommended size fuses and everything is working like it should now.

[WahooSteeler]

Nice work Rich, I'm surprised I haven't seen that done on here before. Simple and effective. :thumbsup:

[Drahcir495]

Nice work Rich, I'm surprised I haven't seen that done on here before. Simple and effective. :thumbsup:

Thanks Hoo. It's like a bad relationship; we all work on these things to where we have ourselves fooled into believing that it is going to work. False hope is then reinforced by appearing to work for days at a time, until you come home early to find her in bed with . . . ~ well that's not it at all. I got so fed up with it that I set it up so there was no second guessing - it had to work.

[Myron]

Just read all 18 pages. Your Jeep is beautiful bud. Will it be seeing new paint anytime soon?

[Drahcir495]

Just read all 18 pages. Your Jeep is beautiful bud. Will it be seeing new paint anytime soon?

 

Myron,

 

First off, thank you for reading all 18 pages :bowdown: . I am working on getting the AX15 swap done first. I just hate the thought of having to pay double for a paint job :fs1: - I just need to bite the bullet I guess. Thanks for the compliment :cheers:

[COMANCHE45]

Hey bro,

Where did you order that Plug and Play jumper cable set up? :bowdown:

[reson46]

I have to check the air cleaner in a few days to check on the blow-by, but everything seems to be as advertised.

 

Did the valve cover take care of the blow by? How bad was it with the old valve cover?

 

Willy

[COMANCHE45]

I did this mod as well and have ZERO blowby now!!

[Drahcir495]

Hey bro,

Where did you order that Plug and Play jumper cable set up? :bowdown:

I got it from http://www.quickcable.com/. I don't know why I did not put that in the original post? -> fixed it :cheers:

 

I have to check the air cleaner in a few days to check on the blow-by, but everything seems to be as advertised.

 

Did the valve cover take care of the blow by? How bad was it with the old valve cover?

 

Willy

Willy,

I have not been paying attention to it :oops: . I forgot about checking it until your reply. I did not have that much blow by with the old VC. I think I may have bigger problems now, like a blown rear main seal? Oil is everywhere. I did find a bit of oil on the filter, but it may be too early to tell since I have not been up on it. I am going to monitor it now and I will get back to you. - Rich

[comanche13]

hey Drahcir any new updates on your truck?

[Drahcir495]

hey Drahcir any new updates on your truck?

:D Thanks for asking MG13. I am getting close to getting the truck painted. I will be posting something soon on my bad oil leak - if it turns out not to be the rear main seal. Oh yeah, yesterday I spun my distributor almost a full turn :eek: . The jeep sounded like it popped out of gear, but it had not. Pulled over and found that a few of the wires pulled off the spark plugs. And the coil wire was off. I managed to get it together and make it home. I added one new wire and tuned it by ear. It runs just a good as it did yesterday - 70 mph back and forth to work today; still @ 13mpg. My distributer retaining bolt will need to be checked every week now until I figure out what is happening

[comanche13]

are you painting it yourself?

[Drahcir495]

are you painting it yourself?

No, I am going to leave it to a professional :cheers: