Mike – Page 53 – The Jeep Guru

July 27, 2011

How to Change the oil in a Jeep Cherokee

It seems the Jeep designers had the home mechanic in mind when they designed the XJ for oil changes. Most of the work is done from the top unlike most cars where most of the work is done from below.

For most owners who are doing the job in their driveway, there may not even be a need to jack up the vehicle. The stock Jeep sits high enough to access the oil pan drain. And lifted Jeeps provide even more clearance.

Note that the 4.0 inline six engine holds six quarts of oil. Be sure to buy enough to refill before you drain the old oil out. Also, make sure your catch pan will hold six quarts. Most engines just hold five quarts so oil is often sold in five quart containers.

To drain the oil, remove the drain plug form the oil pan. Various sized plugs have been used over the years but most are SAE rather than metric.

If the engine is warm the oil coming out will be hot, so use care when removing the plug. Try not to drop it in the catch pan a well. Once the oil has drained out, replace the plug. Be careful to get it snug but not overly tight. Inspect the copper washer while the plug is out to make sure it will seal back.

Working from under the hood, remove the oil filter. On the early models where the oil filter stands up, it is easiest to use a filter wrench that fits over the end of the filter. However a band style wrench works also. Use care working around the oil pressure sender. It can be damaged if it is hit by the wrench. On the later models where the filter lays flat, the band style wrench is easy to use. You will have to remove the wire from the oil pressure sender to remove the filter form the engine bay.

Inspect the old oil filter to make sure the gasket came out with the filter. If it is missing, inspect the surface of the oil filter adapter and remove the stuck gasket. If you try to use two gaskets you will pump six quarts of oil on the floor making a huge mess.

Coat the gasket of the new filter with a few drops of oil and rub it around with your finger. Old oil or new oil can be used. Screw the filter in place and tighten it down by hand. Try not to use a wrench to tighten the filter as it will be very hard to get it back off once the gasket swells.

Remove the filler cap from the valve cover. The older style is a cam and requires just a quarter turn. The later one screws in and can get stuck with heat.

Most funnels will not fit the holes so I like to use half an oil bottle. I take a quart bottle and cut it in half with a knife. Then place the top in the hole and pour oil in the cut open bottom. Add six quarts.

I like to also add a bottle of Market America Friction Free to the oil when I change it. Sometimes the active ingredients of the Friction Free will settle out in the bottle so I use some engine oil to wash out the bottle and then pour that into the funnel.

Start the engine and check for leaks. Shut it off and check the oil level. The dip stick should have clean oil and read near the full mark.

Inspect the old oil for any metal flakes or water before recycling. If you find any contaminants in the oil, try to determine their source for possible other repairs that are needed.

July 25, 2011July 25, 2011

Renting an inflatable water slide

Renting an inflatable water slide for a kid’s birthday party.

This year for her kid’s birthday party, Jennifer decided to do something different. Since her two boys have birthdays just a few days apart, she always has one party and makes it a big event. In the past she has rented a recreation center with a swimming pool. However; keeping track of a bunch of kids at a public pool gets to be a big chore.

She put out a call for inflatable toys and found one of my friends had an inflatable water slide for rent. I really did not know what to expect when I offered to help pick it up and set it up in her mom’s back yard. I was kind of expecting a little backyard toy.

I have known Dave for years but I had never been to his house. I just see him a few times a year at various sports car events. We found his house on the side of Fort Mountain after only one turn around. We made it up his steep winding drive way to the site of a former amusement park called Frontier land. His workshop now occupies the concrete slab where the old dance hall was located.

He had to move his Bulldog Mack fire truck from in front of the door so I could back up and get the water slide. He has a lot of cool big boy toys.

When I saw, the size of the package, I was glad we had brought the Suburban and not the Jeep. It took three of us to work the heavy roll of fabric and vinyl into the back of the truck. Then we had to find places for the blower, water hose, power cord and stakes needed to make it work.

We made it down off the mountain at dark and I decided to store the slide in the Suburban overnight and set it up the next day. Dave had told us it would take about 45 minutes to set up. I decide to allow a couple of hours.

We got to the site a couple of house before the party was to begin. I found I could not back the Suburban all the way to where the slide was to be set up. Jennifer’s step father however did have a large wheel barrow that was strong enough to carry the slide. We slid it out of the truck and onto the cart.

It took a while to unroll the huge slide. I was amazed at how big it actually was. Once we had it rolled out and power cords run to it, I fired up the blower. The structure soon towered over the yard. I then realized we needed to install the steps which Velcro in place. Dave had explained the procedure but without having seen the device, I did not really comprehend what he had said. I am pretty sure we should have installed the steps before we aired it up. It turned out the piece was not just the steps but the sliding surface as well. We eventually worked it into position but we could never really secure the Velcro properly.

We also learned that the plastic got very hot in the sun very quickly. We hooked up the water spray and the slide cooled right off.

The kids started playing on it right away not waiting for the official start of the party. They did not care if the pool at the end was not full or that the steps still needed to be adjusted. I eventually had to run the kids off to reattach the steps and slide surface. I switched off the blower and let it sag so I could get the parts to line up better. However since the yard was not exactly level, we lost most of the water from the pool when I shut of the blower.

The kids loved it anyway. “Best Birthday party ever!” was the cry repeated over and over as they climbed and slid tirelessly. The only way to get the off the slide nearly an hour after the party was over was to shut off the blower and let it collapse under them.

I elected to let it drain and dry overnight before picking it back up. Thankfully Dave offer to come and help pick it up. He dropped his pickup near my house and we took my little red trailer to load it.

We were able to work the trailer back through the flower garden near the site of the slide. Dave showed the proper way to fold and roll up the slide and with three of us working together we got it collected pretty quickly. I am sure without his help it would have taken much longer and not been in nearly as nice a roll when we got done. That thing is heavy.

We loaded it on the tilt bed trailer and I was able to back my Jeep through the maze and hook to it. We loaded all the parts on the trailer and took it back to his waiting pickup.

It was easy to back the trailer up to his tailgate and flip the roll over into the truck bed. That was much easier than trying to slide the roll into the back of the Suburban.

I was sure glad that I had my little trailer back and with new tires to carry the load. It really saved the day.

July 25, 2011July 25, 2011

Weird Jeep Vette hot rod

I like Jeep rods. They are usually something a bit different. I like the ones with traditional hot rod front suspensions and T bucket styling.

Even better, I like the ones that retain four wheel drive and clearance to actually go in the dirt even if not to the rock gardens.

This one however has none of those qualities. It is different but not in a good way for me. It simply qualifies as weird. But it is for sale, if it strikes your fancy.

Jeep Vette Hot Rod

July 22, 2011July 22, 2011

New trailer tires from eBay

I guess when you live in the country; you get excited by small things. My little red trailer has seen a lot of use over the years; mostly by people besides me. I have used it to help friends move furniture, my son has used is for a mobile coffee bar and it has hauled plenty of lawnmowers and other small bulky items. It makes a good substitute for a pickup truck.

The bed is made from a sheet of 4 by 8 plywood so it is about he same size as a pickup truck bed. The bed also tilts making loading and unloading easier. It has 4.80 by 12 tires on four lug wheels.

I have not seen my trailer in a while because my son has had it. He left it at my Dad’s place because the tires would no longer hold air. They had gotten in pretty sad shape with a lot of dry rot although the tread was still good. The leak turned out to be the valve stem. I had just let it set because it was always used more by other s than by me anyway.

When my Dad offered to buy tires so that we could use it again I quickly accepted the offer and began tire shopping. My first stop was Tractor supply. $57 each for the little tires sounded sorta steep. And I would still have to mount the little buggers. At one time they had tire and wheel combos cheaper than just the tires but that was a long time ago.

I shopped my other favorite stores, Northern Tools and Harbor Freight. They had similar prices. Still more than I thought the little tires should be.

I began searching ebay and found the tires at a more reasonable $42 each including shipping. But I decided to do a little more searching because buying the tires still meant that I would have to mount them. I have had bad experiences with little tires in the past. I much prefer mounting big heavy Maxxis mudders on my Jeep than fooling with the little trailer tires.

I found an auction for tires and rims for not much more money. I le the first one slip by and the second one went for more than I wanted to pay. But I was finally able to buy at less than $55 each. I had not noticed in the first auction that a hub was also included in the deal. When the packages arrived, I found that both wheels had a brand new hub attached.

I asked Dad to bring the trailer to me so that I could change them in my shop. I did not realize how bad the one tire leaked. He said he had to stop and air it up eight times on the way to my house. Good thing he had thought to bring his air tank. I had never bought a spare tire for the trailer.

I put the back of the trailer on the lift and raised it up enough to get the tires off the ground. I had forgotten that the wheels are held on by lug bolts rather than studs and nuts. I seriously considered putting on the new hubs I had just gotten because they had studs and nuts. But after spinning around the old hubs and feeling how smooth they ran, I just decide to put the new wheels on.

I had a bit of trouble getting the holes lined up since the trailer hubs don’t have an alignment pin like Volvos do. I finally learned to spin the hub cap and hold the wheel to line up the holes and get one bolt started. After that the others went in easily. With all eight bolts in and snug, I set the trailer down and torqued the lugs to 70 ft lbs.

I then began looking for a place to mount the one good tire for a spare. I still have not decided yet. Putting it on the tongue will interfere with the tilt mechanism. Putting it on the side with prevent loading wide items across the top of the rails. For now I will just leave it in the deck and move it around as needed.

I am looking forward to loading up some scrap metal and taking it to the recycler. It is nice to have my little trailer back home and with new shoes too.