Category: Car repair

Posted on

Rear Main Seal Leak Jeep Cherokee

Rear Main Seal Leak Jeep Cherokee

Last night I did another rear mail seal on a Jeep Cherokee. I still remember the first one that I did with lots of help from my Dad. In fact he did most of the work. We could not figure out how to get the pan out from under the engine. Based on some instructions we fond on the internet at the time, he ended up unbolting the oil pump and letting it fall into the pan to get the pan out from under the Jeep.

Since that time I have done several more. Each time I find I can unbolt slightly less to get the pan out.

Once the oil was drained, I first unbolted the starter and pushed it aside. I left the electrical connections in place and just set it to the side. I should have disconnected the battery cable at the battery but I did not.

Next I unbolted all the clips holding the transmission lines in place. There are several of these that all have 8mm headed screws. This allowed the lines to be moved around as needed to maneuver the pan. Also disconnect the oxygen sensor at the connector by the pan. This will prevent possible damage to the wire when putting the pan back in.

I then removed all the bolts from the pan. There are several different sizes and types of fasteners in the pan. And some have extra clips on them. So you need to devise a method to keep track of them so they go back in the right holes. I laid them out on my work table in a pattern I could follow going back in. You will need a deep well 7/16 socket and a 1/2 inch socket to get them all out.

I had trouble with all of the double decker bolts that held clips. They all came out of the pan when I tried to undo the nut that is supposed to hold the clip. I simply left them as assemblies until time to put them back in. Then I took them apart so I could properly install the fasteners.

With all the bolts out, I tapped the pan with my fist and it separated easily. That is the nice thing about working with the later model one piece gasket. If you are doing an earlier one with the four piece gasket; be prepared to drive in a knife blade to make the pan separate. You will then have to straighten the pan once you have it off.

Getting the pan out from between the axle and the oil pump is the tricky part. Yes, it will fit if it is turned just the right way. Holding the pan by the sump and facing forward, slide the front of the pan up the track bar to the left. Pull the rear of the pan to the right so that the flange is against the bell housing. Once it is properly aligned, it will slide right out. Tapping it with a soft hammer will help align it. It is OK to flex the pan a little to get it out if necessary. Removing the shocks will allow the axle to drop to get a bit more clearance. Also, you can disconnect the track bar. However, it is not necessary to do either of those steps as the pan will come out if it is properly twisted.

The rear main seal is in the rear main cap. Use a 13/16 socket to remove the two bolts and drop the cap. The cap fits snugly so you may have to use a pry bar to work it out of the recess in the block.

The lower part of the seal can be easily removed from the cap. The upper part of the seal is a little trickier to get out. The seal is square in cross section and can be seen from below. The trick is to use a soft punch to get the seal to move around the crank shaft to rotate it out. The seal usually sticks but will move freely once it moves the first little bit.

This Jeep was particularly stubborn. I was not able to get the seal to move using my brass punch or even a screwdriver. I eventually made a drift using a piece of ¼ inch key stock. I was able to set the key stock against the seal and use a hammer to strike it firmly to get the seal moving. Once the seal moved a half inch or so, I was able to use a pair of needle nose pliers and rotate it slowly around the crank to slip it out easily.

Putting the new seal in can be tricky as well. First of all make sure it is turned the right way round. The thicker side of the seal faces the front of the engine.

Coat the seal with grease or oil. Slip the seal into the hole and begin to slowly work the seal into the slot. Push the end of the seal with one hand while holding the seal tight against the crank with the other hand. Be careful not to nick the seal. If you encounter resistance, stop and back it out some before proceeding. Once the seal is all the way in, align the ends so that they protrude the same on both sides.

Install the lower seal half in the cap. Put some RTV on the sides of the cap and push it up into the block. Install the bolts and tighten them evenly. Torque them to 80 foot pounds.

Clean the pan and the gasket surfaces thoroughly. Getting the pan back in is also tricky; especially the part about getting the gasket in at the same time. Note that you can use the newer style one piece gasket on the older pan.

To get the pan back in, twist the pan similar to how it was removed. Push the front of the pan to the left over the track bar. Don’t worry if the transmission lines end up on the wrong side of the pan. You can move them later. Pop the pan through the opening and align it with the engine. Now you can set the gasket in place and work it around the oil pickup. Sometimes it is helpful to use wire ties through a few of the holes to keep the gasket aligned as you lift it into place.

Put the bolts back into their respective holes leaving them all loose until they are all in. Note that the two at the back, have a strap that helps tighten the rear of the pan against the seal.

Tighten them all snugly and evenly. On this Jeep, I used a Felpro gasket that had metal inserts in the bolt holes to prevent crushing the gasket. The front four bolts are threaded into an aluminum part; so be careful not to over torque these. The rest are into steel and are pretty forgiving unless cross threaded.

There is one bolt that is difficult to reinstall. It is directly above the exhaust manifold and requires a swivel on the socket to get it out. Use care to make sure this bolt and the others are threaded in straight before tightening them all evenly.

Next, install clips on the studs and reattach the transmission cooling lines. Reconnect the oxygen sensor and place the wire is in the clips. Reattach the starter. Make sure the pan drain bolt is tight and then refill with oil. You may want to put in a fresh filter at the same time.

Posted on

Ignition repair on 1995 GMC Suburban

Ignition repair on 1995 GMC Suburban

My 1995 GMC Suburban has had a bit of a stumble for a while now. It runs fine most of the time but will occasionally hiccup and stumble. However lately it has gotten worse and towing the trailer has been a bit of a struggle.

I began by replacing the distributor cap and rotor. The cap is held in place by two Phillips head screws. It seemed a #1 Phillips fit better than the more common #2. I swapped the wires over to the new cap one at a time to make sure I did not mix any up.

Before installing the new cap I installed a new rotor. The center of the old rotor was obviously burned. I just pulled up on the old rotor to remove it from the distributor shaft. The new one pressed on by aligning the tab in the slot and pressing it down on the shaft.

I then set the new cap in place and tightened the two screws. I made sure all the plug wires were properly routed and started the engine to test. Most of the stumble was gone but it was still down on power when towing.

When swapping the wires, I noticed the coil wire looked especially bad. When the truck started running really bad on the way home from Harlan, I stopped at Advance Auto and picked up a new set of wires. I swapped the coil wire in the parking lot and headed back out. The engine immediately ran better. I had had trouble starting from traffic lights but that problem went away pulling out of the Advance Auto parking lot.

I waited until I got home to swap the rest of the wires. I was happy that the set included all the proper length wires. Sometimes these lower cots sets don’t have the right length wires but all these fit nicely with a couple being an inch or two longer which made routing easy in the factory clips.

I laid out the wires on the shop floor in order of length. I then pulled off one wire at a time and picked the corresponding length wire to replace it. I did open up the loom clips and release all four wires form one side of the engine at a time. However, I only had one wire off the distributor cap at a time to avoid switching any wires.

The four original wires on the passenger side had extra protective sleeves on them. I transferred these to the new wires. These sleeve help protect the wires where they go behind the transmission dip stick. I put all the wires back in the separator clips and made sure they were routed away from heat as much as possible.

Several of the wires were burned up where they connected to the spark plugs. I noticed that the engine idled smoother and revved up smoother after I swapped the wires. I will have to wait for a test drive under load to know how much the new wires have helped.

Posted on

Video from the XJ list Fall Crawl

Tombstone is a trail we have all run in the past. Now it has washed out into a much more challenging obstacle. I was content to just watch.

Josh decided not to run Lion’s Den this year after having trouble on the entrance.

Posted on

Leaf Spring Repair on the Trail

Leaf Spring Repair on the Trail

This past weekend in Harlan, Ky our group experienced two serious leaf spring failures. In my case I was able to get my jeep back to camp make repairs there. In the second case, we had to repair the Jeep before it could be extracted from the obstacle where it broke.

On my Jeep, I noticed that the rear axle was moving back under braking. It would sometimes contact the rear of the fender opening. I carefully drove I back to camp minimizing the scraping on the tire.

Once I removed the wheel, I saw that the center pin of the spring pack had sheared off. This loss allowed the axle to move the rest of the spring pack along then main leaf.

I used a floor jack under the axle to support it. I then used a Hi Lift jack to lift the body of the XJ enough to unload the spring. I sat the Jeep down of a large log to give it stability during the repair.

After removing the U bolts, I was able to line up all the leafs of the spring pack and drive out the remainder of the pin. I then went into town and was able to buy a new set of pins at Advance Auto.

I used a screwdriver to line up the holes in the leaves and slipped the new pin into place. I used two C clamps to compress the spring pack while I tightened the pin. Once the spring pack was back together, I used a ratchet strap to pull the axle back into alignment with the spring pack. I then used the floor jack to press the pin into the hole in the axle.

I then reinstalled the U bolts and tightened then securely. I remounted the wheel and removed the blocks. I will inspect the other side and replace that pin in my shop at home.

The second leaf spring failure of the weekend was more serious. At the end of an especially difficult obstacle, my friend broke the main leak spring just in front of the axle tube. This breakage allowed the axle to move forward and back uncontrolled as well as side to side some. He was unable to move more than a few feet at a time.

His Jeep was also in a precarious place. We were able to get the spring back into place enough for him to roll back down to a somewhat level spot. We then used the weight of the Jeep to force the two parts of the spring close to the correct position.

Next we used two C clamps to press the main leaf into the supporting leaves. Friction between the leaves held it together. He added several wraps of baling wire to give some lateral support. He then added a ratchet strap to keep the whole assemble from sliding apart to the rear.

Which the spring secured in this manner, he was able have his XJ winched out of the hole it was in and then he was able to drive it a few miles down the trail to where we could pick it up on his trailer.

Through some clever thinking and working together, both of us were able to keep our Jeeps going. By working with the tools and supplies available both Jeeps made it home safely and without an expensive tow bill.

Posted on

Fall crawl 2011

Fall crawl 2011

The XJ List returns to Harlan County’s Black Mountain Adventure park

My GMC Suburban was just not running right. It was down on power and had a severe stumble puling from stops and up the long hills on I 75 north of Knoxville. I had changed the distributor cap and rotor before leaving, but clearly there was still something amiss in the ignition system.

I arrived at the Harlan County campground about 30 minutes later that I had expected. However a quick text message to the group found them still having lunch at the top of the hill in the campground.

I got my park pass and checked into the campground. The drive up the hill to the campground was still a challenge towing the Jeep; but this time I made it without any assistance.

After, I unloaded and set up the tent, Wayne arrived and then we hit the trails. We were hoping to beat the rain. We managed to make it to the helipad and onto White Tail trail before the rain came.

We dropped down in to the ravine. Neal, Mitch and Adam took the rockier track While Wayne Jenny, Evan and I took the gravel track parallel to the boulder strewn path.

Soon the tricky downhill rock garden had Neal’s Cherokee lying on his side against the bank. A couple of guys pushed him back onto his wheels. Just a few moments later, Mitch laid his Wrangler on its side a little further down the trail. He was able to drive out of the flop with some encouragement from his spotters. No damage was evident on either rig.

The rest of us made a scary off camber scurry to join them at the bottom of the hill. The top of the hill had gotten slippery by this time due to the rain. At the end of the trail we found it blocked by banner tape. Apparently this trail was closed but we had seen no markings on the other end. We untied the tape and drove out onto 10 and put the banner back behind us.

We then did a little exploring on trail 11 and made our way over to Rail Bed. Jenny took the lead as this has now become her trail after the scary incident a few years ago. She made it look easy going over the slippery rocks all the way to the exit before getting stuck in the mud near the top of the exit. She got a quick tug and was out.

I tried to follow her line at the exit but I got mostly no where before burying my tires in mud. She tossed me a strap and pulled me to the top. Adam made it up behind me with lots of wheel spinning action. Mitch took what used to be the hard way out, but now that the rocks have moved around a bit, I wonder if I would not have been better off going the way he went.

We then made our way across the park back to our camp. By then the rain was hard and steady. Trail 45 was a slippery muddy mess but a fun way to end the day going back down to camp.

On the way down I kept hearing a dragging sound for the rear of my Jeep. It would go away when I accelerated but on the long downhill sections, it would just continue to get worse. I finally saw a place to stop and noticed that my left rear wheel was no longer centered in the wheel well. The noise was the tire dragging the rear fender opening.

I limped it on to camp. When I jacked it up and took of the wheel, I saw that the center pin of the leaf spring was sheared off. The main axle was free to slide back and forth along the main leaf. Using a couple a jacks and a large block of wood for a stand, I was able to get the spring pack apart and drive out the broke part of the pin.

We made a trip into town and luckily found a center pin. I also picked up an extra C clamp to help press the spring pack together. The next morning, I used a tapered pin to align the spring pack. I put in the new center pin and used the two C clamps to press the pack together while I tightened the new pin. I then used a ratchet strap to pull the axle back into place and align the pin with a hole in the perch. I then tightened the U bolts and was ready to wheel again. I did all this while most folks were still sleeping.

The other Kentucky folks showed up soon afterwards and we hit the trails again. We decided to do some exploring in the western part of the park where we really have never been. After the long climb up a very muddy trail 45 we regrouped at the Middle Fork Playground.

There were two high powered big tired buggies getting spanked by the slip and slide of trail 15. Adam could not wait to show them how it’s done in his XJ. He made it easily to the top and came back down one of the play hills.

We all made it up the slippery hill and regrouped in the small perch at the top of the first hill. Neal got hung up on about the third hill and those of us remaining at the bottom decide to take the bypass to speed things up some.

The two groups met back up at the end of trial 15. We then made our way out trial 12 to a wide spot for lunch. It had snowed on us here the last time I was there. This year is was just windy and cold.

We then paused at the Tough Truck challenge area. Josh made a run at the huge rock pile there. He made it across but somehow in the process of having all four wheels in the air at once got air in his power steering. We jacked up his rig and did a quick system bleed to get him going again.

We decided to head on west and see the sights. The leaves were beautiful as the sun broke through the fog. We stopped at 4 poles over look for a group photo. We also did a quick clean up of the area collecting a 30 gallon trash bag of bottles and cans.

We continued on west to the end of the park. Some how Neal spit out an axle shaft U joint so we paused for a quick trail repair. Unfortunately we had the trail completely blocked by out large group. He was nearly done with the trail fix when a group of ATV riders showed up. They were at first concerned over how long we would have the trial blocked but they were soon amazed at how fast we can swap an axle shaft as a group in the woods.

We then made our way up what looks like Kentucky’s version of Moab’s Lions Back. This trail is called Cliffhanger. It begins as a long gravely climb. Then it levels out and becomes a very narrow and steep rock ledge. There is an electrical tower right in the way so you have along the cliff to exit hence the name.

I was a little spooked as I drove to the top because I had not walked the trail like those in the front of the line had done. But I made it up with just a slight new pucker in the seat cushion.

After cliffhanger, we made our way across the park back to camp. It got dark on us along the way. The darkness added a little to challenge for us except for Evan who had no head lights. The darkness added a lot of challenge for him

The next morning we headed out to Lion’s Den. We had lunch and walked the trail. However rains had made entrance a mucky mess and Josh decided not to run. We then headed back across the park to Crawford’s cry. We had planned to run Your Turn but we got lost at a confusing intersection.

We headed out and got to watch so people on the new zip line fly across our heads. We eventually made it around to Crawford’s cry.

Neal headed up fist and Josh, Mitch and Adam followed. The climb was slipped in places and had large dry rocks in others. It was much harder than when I ran it a few years ago. Neal made it to the top but had trouble on the exit. There was no place to hook a winch line either. I walked back down and was driving Jenny’s Jeep up to use as an anchor when Josh found another way out.

Somehow in the maneuvering, Neal broke the main leaf in his right rear spring. As darkness approached we began to engineer a trail fix to get him out.

About the same time Adam popped a front axle U joint and had to back down. He also found he was out of fuel when he got back to the bottom. We had two trail fixes going at once.

I took my tool bag up to Neal and we decided to try using C clamps to hold the spring pack together long enough to get the XJ off the trail and down to the Evart parking area. With the springs clamped together, I left them to lead the rest of the group back to camp and get Neal’s tow rig.

Back at camp part of the group began dinner prep while Jenny and I took the long highway around the mountain to take Neal’s truck and trailer to him. It was well after dark when we got around, meeting Neal. But his rig had made it to the parking lot and he was able to drive it onto the trailer with the C clamps holding things in place. Our trail engineering fix had worked.

Once we were all back at camp, we dined on delicious fire cooked steaks and potato boats. We enjoyed the stars and conversation well into the night. Another excellent trip with the XJ list.