Category: Jeep

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2012 Fall Crawl

2012 Fall Crawl

With my new job, my time commitments are tight. So, I made a last minute decision to attend the XJ list Fall Crawl. That meant I did not have time to prep my trailer and my Jeep. I decided to borrow Jennifer’s XJ which had until recently been her daily driver.

I made the assumption it was ready to drive and just spent the time unpacking her stuff and packing in my camping gear. Having grown accustomed to packing a Suburban, I had to rethink some choices when packing the smaller XJ. The 33 inch spare took up a lot of room even wit he seat folded down. Since I was traveling alone, I used the front seat space for a few soft items like my sleeping bag and backpack.

I left early Friday morning. I made it to the camp in Harlan just as the guys who arrived Thursday night were waking up. I aired down and disconnected the sway bar. I then unloaded the camping gear and set up the tent. I then took my chair to the camp fire and caught up with everyone I had not seen in a while.

After lunch, we lined up and headed up the mountain. I was surprised to see that part of trail 45 is now closed and we were forced to use the trail 48 bypass. Even with the bypass, getting up the hill is still a bit spooky in a couple of places.

At middle fork, we took a look at Tailgate. There was a huge buck deer looking back at us. It just stood there staring at us as we investigated the climb. Only after Josh restarted his XJ and turned p the hill did the big deer slowly wander away. The wet leaves proved too slippery to get on onto the bottom of the trail which looked pretty unforgiving further up. So, we turned and headed up trail 15 to the left toward the helicopter pad. After exploring the remains of an abandoned earth mover, we ventured further east to the huge plateau that we found a few years ago. There was still snow in several places and I chucked a couple of snowballs.

A couple of XJs were low on fuel so we split in to two groups. While one group headed to Evart for fuel, I led the others on a round about way to Lower Rock garden. We took trail 15 back to middle fork and then took the other side of 15 up slip and slide and then up the next big hill. Slip and slide was pretty dry but the second longer hill was pretty slick. I was very happy with how well Jenny’s XJ climbed in the slippery mud. Also her new Procomp shocks did very well at controlling the front axle over the rock outcrops.

Some of the newer participants had some trouble at first as they did not realize how aggressive they need to hit the bottom of the climb to be able to carry speed to the steep part. After a couple of tries every one made it up.

We then made our way to the lower rock garden. We played around there for a while until the others caught up. It was pretty dark by the time we headed back to camp. We went back along the easier trial 12 and 20 back to camp. Going down 45 was pretty exciting as the switchbacks took a careful line to drop into without feeling tippy.

Back at camp we made our individual meals and swapped stories. As usual, the stars were extremely bright on top of the mountain far away from light pollution.

After a chilly night we headed up the mountain again. We decided to try the far west side of the part as one of the county officials had suggested. He told us that some of the ATV trails were OK for our size Jeeps. We navigated our way across the park making only one wrong turn before we got to a confusing spot and took time out for lunch. I used the manifold to warm some hot pockets which were very tasty on the cool clear day.

We made our best guess at which trail to take and ventured on. Not far in we found a spot a bit too narrow for an XJ. A fallen tree was blocking one side of the trial. Josh used his XJ like a bull dozer and moved the log aside. However he got hung up backing out and Dean had to give him a tug to get free.

After a long while of continuously going down we decided this was not taking us where we wanted to go. We could see the Harlan High School below us. Eventually we found a place to turn all the rigs around and made the long climb back out. We took another narrow trial toward the southern part of the park. Again we encountered a tree blocking the road and Josh again pushed it out of the way.

There was one particularly challenging rock that took some maneuvering to get around but generally the trail was uneventful. We were all glad to be of the narrow trail by the end. We stopped at 4 poles overlook and enjoyed the view.

Next we decided to try some trials we had not been on before. We turned up Fuqarwe and then onto Fly Trap. Neither proved to be much of a challenge. We then made our way along 12 to the unnamed rock garden.

We gain split into two groups with one group taking Frankenstein and the others going to Little Stadium. The group on Frankenstein had some excitement as Dean broke a hub and Frosty took a tumble. We all met back up on trail 12 and headed back down. We made it to camp just about dark.

Frosty fired up his grill and tossed on some juicy rib eye steaks. Potato boats surrounded the cooking surface as well. Once it was all cooked, the conversation died down and was replaced with grunts, oohs and compliments to the chef.

After a nice dinner and some story telling I retired to the tent and slept very well. I woke early the next morning and packed my gear. At the bottom of the hill, I aired up using the camp compressor. After hooking back up the sway bar, I pointed the red Jeep south basking in the memory of a nice relaxing weekend.

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Jeep Keeps Cutting Out and I’ve Changed Everything

Nothing is more unnerving than driving a vehicle down the road, you hit a bump and bam it cuts out on you for an instant. You are in town and at a traffic light, as soon as it turns green you let off the brake and bam it dies on you.

Most people would tell you to change the crankshaft position sensor–been there and done that. Doesn’t help.

Change the Cam shaft position sensor–also did that and no it didn’t make it better

Change out the Throttle Position Sensor–Did that and no change

Did a complete tune up with new spark plugs, wires, distributor cap–Even checked, checked and rechecked with no improvements.

 

By this time major *SIGH*

 

What else do I check???

Checked over all the wires for any cuts or frays–all are fine.

Cleaned up the ECM-Like three times and still no change

Cleaned the throttle body-Enough to make it so clean you could eat off of it (well, not really).

 

At this point I’m about to just tear the whole engine compartment apart, clean everything up, re connect wires and sensors. Until…

 

I was sitting at my local community college after my evening class talking to my mom on the phone. I had just turned the key but not started it. A few minutes later as I was getting ready to hang up I just happen to notice the light on my radio display mysteriously came back on. Ok?

So I call my boyfriend and explain to him what just happened. He says I may have just solved the problem 🙂

The following weekend I take it out to my boyfriends house to look over everything. He decides to get in while I’m not paying attention and proceeds to wiggle the key in the ignition. BAM! He kills it. Tries it again and does the same thing.

Never in a million years would I have guessed after doing a hundred million common fixes would it be the ignition switch.

Found the problem…after I’ve nearly made my Jeep new again *SIGH*

 

I can laugh about it now though 😀

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Pro Comp ES3000 shocks

After doing some research and talking with my brother the mechanic, I decided I would try out the Pro Comp ES3000 shocks for the front on my 1992 Jeep Cherokee. Previously I had purchased the Rancho 5000 shocks, but they only last me about four years which I was very disappointed about.

While I go off roading I don’t go that often. In fact, I have not been off roading at all this year because of my extremely busy schedule with school, kids and the community organization I am involved with. The previous year I had only been off roading maybe three times. From what I was told by other off roaders it would be understandable for my shocks to wear out if I were off roading quite often. So needless to say I decided I was not going to go with Rancho shocks again.

Since I knew there would be a Jeep Fest in Atlanta the first weekend of August I decided I would wait to purchase shocks until after I went there. I wanted to see what was offered and if I could possibly get them at a cheaper price than ordering them online.

When I got there it was ironic that the Rancho booth was right next to the Pro Comp booth which was extremely busy compared to Rancho. I guess that was a sign for me? Plus Pro Comp had a box stuffed full of shock boots including hot pink ones I had been looking for to match the pink my best friend had painted on my D rings, diff covers, track bar and skid plates as well as my brake rotor drums.

After getting in line to talk with one of the sales reps, he recommended the ES3000 shocks which I had previously looked at online. Since I have a 3″ lift he said those were the ones they include in their lift kit. When he told me the price of the shocks I knew I couldn’t turn it down. I would be saving almost $25!

When I went over to pay for the shocks and boots the cashier asked me if I wanted to add the warranty to them. I talked it over with my best friend who agreed that would be ideal. From the way the cashier explained the warranty it seemed like a no hassle deal. $8 additional to add the two year warranty and if anything happened I could take them to the nearest 4 Wheel Drive Parts store to exchange them.

At first the cashier and one of the store managers thought the shocks were in stock at the nearby Norcross, GA store. Once they called though they were apparently not there. I was a little disappointed since I wanted the shocks asap, but when the manager offered to ship them to me for free and said they would arrive to me by Thursday I was okay with that.

So when Thursday rolled around I was out and about hoping my shocks would show up. I had been going to the 4 Wheel Parts website daily to check the status which never seemed to change at all so I was quite nervous that they would not show up. Then late afternoon my neighbor called me and said they had a package for me that was very heavy.

 

When I got home I was like a child at Christmas time. It was a few days before I finally had the time to go out to my best friends house where he has a hydraulic lift and I could install the shocks.

When we opened the boxes he was quite surprised there was some assembling to do. The bar pins had to be pressed in so be prepared if you ever decide to purchase the ES3000. It did not take very long to do the pressing of the bar pins nor installing them.

After two weeks I could already tell a difference in the way it handles and the gas mileage has definitely improved. Now it will be interesting to see how they perform off roading…

 

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Leaky Transmission line on a Jeep Cherokee

For at least the last three years every time I have had to put my Jeep on my best friends lift I would always find a little transmission fluid lingering on the upper inlet transmission line towards the bottom of the radiator. Neither one of us could track it down and since it was just a very minor leak we left it alone.

A little over a week ago I noticed something was leaking on the front drivers side about where the steering box is located.    My first assumption was that it was one of the power steering lines at the steering box, but even after cleaning up around everything I still didn’t notice anything. I went as far as wrapping a paper towel around the pitman arm to make sure it wasn’t leaking because it always seemed to be soaked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It stayed dry for days so the pitman arm was ruled out. I kept driving it while checking the fluid levels often. Nothing was significantly losing fluids which was puzzling. Then one day after I had picked up my oldest son from school I had went to check my mail when I noticed fluid was almost pouring from underneath.

So, after letting the engine cool down I took the airbox out to clean the steering box up, cleaned the lines and looked over them. That is when I noticed the upper inlet line (transmission line that connects to the radiator) was up against one of the power steering lines. As I cleaned up the line I realized I may have just found the the leak.

When my best friend showed up he pulled the inlet line away from the power steering line and cranked the Jeep up. As soon as he did, transmission fluid sprayed everywhere. In order for me to get it out to his house we had to improvise. I had a left over clamp and he had an old rubber glove which he cut off a piece from. At least it would keep the leak at bay so I could get out there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way I stopped at Autozone to special order the upper inlet tube. Luckily there was one at the warehouse in Chattanooga meaning it would be ready to be picked up early the next morning. While there I noticed the leak was still there a little bit.

As you can see in the photo below, it obviously had been rubbing for awhile.

 

I am sure the question one would ask is why was the line allowed to rub against another line? When my radiator was installed there was not a place to attach the clip that holds the line. After I installed the replacement line I had to use wire ties to attach it through a hole underneath the radiator.

The most challenging part of the repair was getting the steel line disconnected from the rubber line even when we were using the transmission line disconnect tool. Using a contact cleaner or something such as WD-40  to get up in there and clean the dirt out makes the difference. With a little effort we were able to finally get it disconnected!

 

As you can see in the picture it was definitely rubbing for awhile.

 

Once I picked up the new line from Autozone for $18.99 it did not take but maybe 10 minutes to install it, add a wire tie to hold it away from the power steering line and re install the air box. No more leaky transmission line 🙂

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4 Wheel Parts Truck & Jeep Fest Atlanta 2012

This was my first visit to the 4 Wheel Parts Truck & Jeep Fest that was held in Atlanta at the Cobb Galleria the weekend of August 4-5th. My main reason for going was to hopefully find shocks for my 1992 Jeep Cherokee with a 3 inch lift.

Arriving at the Cobb Galleria, it was not anything I even pictured/expected. It seemed to be in a fancier area than I imagined. Before walking through the doors of the fest we all received some posters and a bag. The ladies handing them out were very nice and helpful.

After walking inside I was really amazed at how small the fest was and also how many people were there on a Saturday. The crowd was minimal, most places were easy to walk through. Since I had been looking at Pro Comp shocks and they had been recommended to me I decided to go over to the Pro Comp area. Before I even got there I spotted a box on the floor beside a table that had the shock boots I had been wanting–Hot pink ones! Since there was not a price displayed anywhere I had to stand in line at the counter that was set up. The wait was probably around five minutes before I was able to ask about the price of the boots as well as the price of shocks. The gentleman at the counter was quite friendly and helpful. Once I got the price of the boots ($5.99) he showed me the shocks that they usually include in their 3″ lifts. Since I was at the fest, the price of the shocks were about $24 less than if I were to order them online. After writing up an order form I was sent over to the center of room to the checkout area. Before I left the counter he told me to come back after checking out and pick up some hats.

At the checkout area the line was not too long and there was a nice gentleman there to direct me to the next cashier. I stood in line maybe about five minutes before I was waited on. I was given the choice of either picking the shocks up at a nearby 4 Wheel Parts store or I could have them shipped to me. I decided I would pick them up at the Norcross store that afternoon. However, after the cashier called the store he discovered they were not in stock even though the computer said they were. So, the cashier immediately offered to ship them to me for free. He then explained I could purchase the extended warranty (2 yrs) for $8.00 which I agreed to do. Another cashier stepped up and let me know if the shocks did not arrive to me by Thursday to call him.

After all that I started walking around to the different booths. I was disappointed in that I did not see the Crown Automotive booth as had been advertised online and in the mailer I received. I was also surprised that there was not a lot of activity over at the Rubicon Express booth. I do have to admit that at some of the booths I felt that because I was not a man and that I had my kids with me that I was not taken seriously, except at the Pro Comp booth and check out. Overall, I still enjoyed my visit to the fest and glad I was able to finally able to experience it.

Would I go to the next Truck & Jeep Fest? Yes I would like to! My boys enjoyed getting to see the Jeeps and trucks giving them ideas to share with me about what the next project should be for my Jeep.