The Jeep Guru – Page 52 – Jeep Performance Improvement Ideas

December 5, 2011

Adding Shoulder Belts to the Rear Seat of an Early Jeep Cherokee

Shoulder straps were not available in the rear seat of a Jeep Cherokee until 1991. However the engineers who designed the body must have had them in mind from the beginning.

Scott decided to add shoulder straps to the rear seat of his 1989 Jeep Cherokee. He used belts from a 1993 donor. Removing the belts from the donor involved heating the under body nuts with a torch to allow the torx headed bolts to come loose. PB Blaster just did not loosen the rust and locktite enough to get them out with the limited torque of a torx bit.

After removing the interior panels, we found that the lower mounting points are all there in the exact same place as the 1993. The reel bolted right up and even the stabilizer tab hole is punched it the right place.

The slot that the belt passes through is there as well, however, we had to open up the front of the hole to allow the bolt to pass through without rubbing and to line up with the holes in the 1993 interior panels.

The anchor points at the roof were a bit of an oddity in this Jeep. On one side, the entire anchor point was welded in place but never tapped for threads. On the other side, the hole was punched in the sheet metal and the two plug weld holes were there, but the backing plate was not mounted.

For that side I fabricated a plate from ½ inch steel and tapped the appropriate hole in it. I also added a bolt hole to bolt it in where it would have originally been plug welded.

The mounting points under the seat are in a slightly different place than the 1993 donor. However, simply bolting the shoulder belts in where the original reels were mounted worked fine.

I was amazed that we only had to fabricate one plate and tap one hole to make this update. I really don’t understand why AMC did not offer rear shoulder belts in the early Jeeps since all the mounting points are there. Just for curiosity, we checked our 1984 parts car and found that it has the mounting points in it as well. So Jeep planned for shoulder straps all along but did not actually offer them until 1991.

Scott used the interior panels from the donor Jeep which matched the color of his older panels exactly. He had to cut two holes in the head liner to allow the roof bolts to go in but that was easy to do. He now has a nice safety update to his older XJ.

December 1, 2011

Seasonal Depression

Every year about this time I seem to get in a bad mood. I have always just associated it with not liking the holidays. But this year I really noticed that it started the week after the time change.

After some research on the internet, I see that I may be suffering the symptoms of Seasonal affected disorder or SAD. I find that starting in the fall, I start to carve carbohydrates and begin “bulking up for winter.” I also want to sleep much more than normal. And this year I have especially noticed that I want to withdraw socially. Many of the activities that I used to enjoy just don’t seem as fun anymore.

I notice that when I get home and it is already dark, I get really sleepy or grumpy. Walking the dog in the dusk just does not give me the same mood boost as it does in the summer.

I have noticed that I do feel better when I work in my barn in the evenings. I call it Jeep therapy. However, the last few nights even the Jeep therapy has not helped as much.

I decided to do some research on SAD and I found one of the treatments is bright light therapy. That is when I had a light bulb go off in my head. Normally when I work on the Jeep in the barn, I have my two big Quartz Halogen lights right by my head most of the time. They help keep me warm in the cool nights as well as helping me see what I am looking at.

For the last couple of nights, I have been learning how to gas weld and have not been using the lights. Could that be why I have not gotten the normal mood enhancement that I normally get from working in the barn?

I have been dong Heart Math coherence sessions for a couple days but they have not yet helped me feel much better. Working on the Seasonal Affected Disorder theory, I am going to now try some B 12 vitamins and use my bright lights in the barn to see how that affects my mood.

November 22, 2011January 5, 2012

Changing the Thermostat on a Jeep Cherokee

Janice’s 1999 Jeep Cherokee has had a small water leak for a few weeks now. We finally tracked it down to a leak at the thermostat housing. I decided that since I would have the housing off, I would also replace the thermostat. I decided to use the Mr. Gasket one like I put in Scott’s Wagoneer.

I had forgotten how much easier the thermostat is to access on the later model engines since I rarely work on those. On the earlier engines the belt is right in the way of accessing the bolts. On the 1999 the belt is routed differently and is not in the way at all. I did unbolt the fan shroud to get a little more working room, but I am not sure that helped much.

The housing is held to the block by two 5/16 bolts with ½ inch heads. I removed the two bolts and the housing popped right off. I had to use a screwdriver to pop the old thermostat out of the recess in the front of the block.

Cleaning the front of the block took a while. I scraped old gasket with a scraper as much as possible. I finished up with a Scotchbrite wheel in my drill. To clean the housing, I chucked the Scotchbrite wheel in my drill press and brushed the surface. I polished part of the outside of the housing while I had it in my hand.

I had a little trouble putting it all back in that the thermostat did not want to stay in the recess. I made sure that the bleed hole was rotated to the top and pressed it in. It would fall back out each time. I finally put a few dabs of RTV on the flange and got it to stick long enough to set the gasket and housing over it.

I then tightened the bolts and refastened the fan shroud. Then I put the radiator hose back on and tightened the clamp. I left the heater hose off and used a funnel to fill the head with coolant until it bubbled out the radiator cap. I then installed the heater hose and finished filling the system through the cap.

UPDATE: The new thermostat failed immediately on our Thanksgiving trip. I did not notice it until it started getting cool out and I wondered why the heater was not working. Then I noticed that the temperature was much lower than normal.

When we got back home, I pulled the thermostat and found it was stuck open. Better than stuck closed but still not acceptable. I returned it to Autozone and they swapped it for a new one with no hassle. I still had to buy another gasket to install the next one. Before installing this one, I put it in a pan of water on the stove and made sure it open and closed properly.

She says her Jeep is now running at normal temperature and the heater works again.

Update: I recently changed the thermostat on my 1991 Jeep Cherokee. The belt routing is different and makes the procedure slightly different.

Mr. Gasket PERF THERMOSTAT GM-195 – 4365

November 21, 2011December 9, 2011

Track Bar failure on the road

On the way home from the Tracy city Trail ride we had a scary incident. Jennifer was driving and I was in the back seat with the boys. Just as we entered the Ridge Cut on I-24, she screamed that the steering had quit. Luckily there was not much traffic around and she was able to coax the Jeep over to the shoulder.

I hopped out and looked under the Jeep. It did not take me long to spot the track bar drooping down. The bolt that secures it to the axle was missing. The missing bolt allowed the axle to move side to side rather than turning the wheels when the steering wheel was turned.

I rummaged around in her tool kit and finally chose a Phillips screwdriver to fill the hole. We secured the screwdriver with a bungee cord and I drove slowly to the next exit.

We drove to the nearest Ace hardware but it was closed. We went into Walgreen’s next door to look for a bolt. They did not have any bolts or anything that fit the hole better than the screwdriver we were already using. They did however have electrical tape.

I taped the screwdriver securely in place so that it would not work out as I drove. We tried to find an open parts store but since it was just after 9pm they were all closed.

I decided to slowly drive the Jeep back to my shop. It drove OK but had a lot of loose motion in the center of the steering. I had to anticipate turns and be ready.

The next morning I searched the shop and finally came up with a spare bolt and the special nut that goes on the back. I removed the screwdriver and cut of all the tape. The screwdriver was only slightly bent and I returned it to her tool kit.

I installed the new bolt and nut and torqued it to 74ft lbs per the Haynes Shop manual. While I was under there I noticed that the connection of the tie rod to the pitman arm was slightly loose as well. I removed the cotter key and turned the bolt a half turn or so to snug it up. I then put back in the key.

The steering still had a little slop so I removed the electric fan and cleaned off the adjuster bolt on top of the steering box. I tightened the box about a half turn or so on the adjuster and locked back the lock nut. Her Jeep drives much better now.

November 21, 2011November 21, 2011

Tracy City trail ride

This weekend we attended the Damn Locals 4×4 club annual toy ride. We did not know what to expect but we loaded into Jennifer’s Jeep and took along a toy to donate. We had considered meeting the group leaving from Coalmont since we had heard about the weekend from their Facebook posts. However we passed the meeting point of the Damn Locals along the way and saw several interesting rigs about our size so we decide to just join in there.

No one jumped up to greet us but the people were welcoming enough when we approached them. We talked with a group of XJ’s and had made tentative arrangements to ride with them. However, a large group headed out and the XJ’s seemed to be waiting on someone who was still along way off. We dropped in at the end of a long line of various sized rigs including a stock TJ on street tires and several on Rockwells and huge boggers.

We dropped off the pavement near Pryor Ridge Church. We really had no idea where we were going or what lay in store for us. At various stopping points folks waved us around and we ended up in the middle of the pack. Directly behind us was another red XJ except his had leaf springs all around and full size Ford axles. There was another XJ behind him with tall control arm drop mounts. They were very friendly to us at the various stops.

We were directly behind a group of Toyotas that had come up form North Georgia. We could not see the front of the line. And since we did not have a CB radio, we had no communication with the group while moving.

We crossed a creek several times. There were several challenging rock ledges to cross and some mud holes so deep that we had to bypass.

Jennifer got hung once when she slipped sideways and hung her rear diff on a rock. Just a couple of stacked rocks and some side to side shaking got her moving again without any assistance from the others. They seemed to be willing to help but were nice enough to see if we could get ourselves out before offering to help.

We eventually stopped for lunch at the mouth of Peter Cave. We had elected to take the more challenging entrance down the creek bed. The Toyota in front of us lost a taillight that I returned to him when we stopped at the cave entrance.

We explored the cave which is large enough to drive a truck into. We had lunch and began to join some of the conversations going on around us. We learned some of the history of the area and plans for the future. I still had no feel for where I was and we had made too many turns to keep track of.

The group of Toyotas left to go their own way as did the two other XJ’s. We finally met our trail leader and tucked in near the front of the line. We also figured out who was running tail gunner so we knew when our group was all together at the stops.

We watched while some of the taller rigs played in a creek bed. We then ended up at a Church in the middle of no where. There is a small concrete block building marked Bryant’s Cove Baptist Church. I am not sure how the church folk get there because the way we went was very challenging. There seemed to be about a hundred rigs parked in the church yard.

After Janice and Jennifer made use of the church outhouse, we followed our leader up out of the cove. Our next stop was a huge mud hole. Actually it was several mud holes. The area appeared to be the intersection of at least three trails and there were rigs scattered in the trees as far as I could see. Every trail was blocked by something going on. It looked like a three ring circus.

A Full sized Ford had tried the deepest mud hole and may have popped bead on his huge tire. From the commentary and laughter, I think he had just re seated the bead using ether with the usual fire and excitement. I noticed his truck was held up by a bright pink Hi Lift.

The exit we wanted was blocked as far as I could see and our trial boss walked forward to clear a path. There was more commotion gong on down another trial with several full size pickups doing lots of tire spinning in the mud. The other group of XJ’s could be seen through the trees. They seemed to just be stuck in the traffic jam.

Eventually we had a path but not an easy one. Jennifer had twisted her ankle so she asked me to drive from that point. I had to negotiate a very deep mud hole with a step exit and then work between some trees with a scary off camber toward the creek below. I made it fine with both mirrors intact. Her Dick Cepeks gripped well, even though we had only aired down to 20 psi or so and never disconnected the sway bar.

A huge Toyota Land Cruiser was in front of us so we knew that if he fit we could too. The two of us ended up a bit ahead of the rest of the group as our trial leader had stayed behind to make sure people knew the way through the confusing set of bypasses. We stopped at the first wide spot which was a good ways up the trial. Once we had all lined back up again, dusk was settling in fast.

We arrived at a choice of exits from the cove. The trail we chose to follow the Land Cruiser on is called Parson’s. It is a step rocky climb. I slightly under estimated the difficulty from the bottom however. Next time I will air down and disconnect the sway bar.

The Land Cruiser was doing well with his spotter stacking a lot of rocks to get him through. I did pretty well as long as I kept moving. The trail was a lot like rail bed in Harlan except that it goes on forever. Like most it gets more challenging as it goes up.

For most of the trail I drove loaded with people as well. Janice, Caleb and Hunter were in the back seat and Jennifer in the front. With he ankle hurting I hated to ask to walk and spot much. Eventually I made a mistake and got hung on both diffs. I could not move forward or backwards. Everyone bailed out and as I was about to get out and see if I could jack it up and get a rock under a tire, one of the Other trail leaders showed up and began helping me work through. The Truck behind me had caught up by this point and gave me a slight tug backwards to get me off the rock. I was then able to take a different line and make it over the obstacle.

My guide stayed with me and helped me over the next difficult section. I was getting nervous because the trail was getting harder and the daylight was gong away. The Land Cruiser kept getting hung in front of me as well. I seemed to do fine until I would stop. Each time I stopped, I had trouble getting moving again. Also, the brakes had gotten spongy and at times non existent. That made backing up to take a different line very scary.

It was really getting dark when the Land Cruiser got hung on the last obstacle of the climb. My guide went forward to help them and I went up to watch. After a lot of rock stacking and maneuvering, they finally got out. Not before dislodging all the rock bridges they had built however.

I followed my spotter’s advice as best I could but I could not really get lined up like he wanted me to due to the scary lack of brakes in reverse. I was able to make it up the last rock in just two or three attempts however. I pulled to the side and popped the hood. The master cylinder chamber for the rear brakes was empty and had been sucking air. Jennifer asked around and got some brake fluid. Adding it brought the brakes up to full pedal immediately. For that I was very thankful.

I was congratulated on my climb by several in the dark. There were several groups mixed together at this point so I am not sure who was who. There were some big tube buggies that took the even more difficult upper climb in the dark. I ended up in the lead of my sub group and followed the winding trail through the trees to a wide spot where those who had not take Parson’s were waiting for us.

We regrouped and headed out of the woods. Back at the High School where we had met we said our goodbyes and headed home.

I hope to go back soon, but I will still have to have a guide. There are just too many side trails and loops for me to keep track of after just one ride along.