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Man oh man do I hate Rust! Rant!

Once again the rust belt bites my poor Cherokee....

The brakes failed. Low pedal and red dash light. All new (2 years or so) pads, shoes and master cylinder with a recently failed emergency brake.

So my son and I start taking wheels off and sure enough one front caliper isn't moving. The anchor plate that the pads slide on is so rotten, the pad had eaten right into it jamming and stopping the caliper from moving.

Ok, so I go to take it off. Ya right, the bolts 'used' to be reverse torx when they were new, they now are ragged edged rounded stubs. Rust has eaten the heads off. Vise grips won't even grab them! So I soaked the crap out of them overnight with penetrating oil and tried again. Even went and bought new vise grips with sharper teeth. No go. Screw it, just before getting out the grinder and drill I tried a plumbers pipe wrench. Bingo! Got the SOB's.

Next I go for the e-brake and pull off the rear drums. They were on good, but my 10 lb BFH convinced those drums to move. :-) Either they were moving or shattering...

I look and the brake shoes are still almost new, but... Rust had eaten the anchor pin that holds the shoe to the backing plate and it was gone so the e-brake had nothing to hold steady. Then I move the handle to see if the cables are still ok, and the freaking cable case has come right through the backing plate! It isn't 'supposed' to fit through there, grrr....

So I went and got a small heavy U-bolt so I can pull the case back through the plate and clamp it so it stays on the outside I hope.

My wife was complaining about the floor boards, so I lift the carpet to see how bad, and well, there is no problem with the floor boards, it just don't 'got' any! Fred Flinstone machine.... Sheet metal and 'glass time.

Man oh man do I hate rust.......

There, that felt better, now to go put it back together. ;-)

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Reply to
Mike Romain
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I hear ya Mike... Here, Michigan winters have been hard on every vehicle I've owned.. While taking out my transmission last week, I got my first good look at the underside of my 98 TJ since I bought it three years ago. Ouch.

I could see plain as day the parts that were put on by the repair-shop after a $4000 accident two years ago. They all have surface rust all over them, while the original pieces have about half the rust, even though they're less than half as old.

I wish I had the time, and another vehicle to drive in the mean-time to actually take care of this car like I want to.. Unfortunately life gets in the way with work, family, more-pressing repair jobs, etc..

Good luck on the repairs! I'll be thinking of you while re-assembling and installing my transmission, seals & clutch kit tonight... :)

Reply to
Dave

I think of my CJ as a "4-door" ...seeing as how I can almost crawl out of the "floodboards". I think I'm just gonna 'glass the hell out of them and then rivet some diamond plate over top ...that should strenghten her ;p

Reply to
griffin

I feel with you to Mike, As you know I was quite happy when I bought my Cherokee this winter. I used this group earlier and asked for some advice regarding uneven breaks (wheels lock with even slight breaking, especially when it is wet) And the power window cables who was totally rotten, I think I got 10-15 litres of water out of the car some weeks ago, I started to believe that I had a boat instead. Still not had time to look at the breaks, cause I have been repairing all the rust so far, thank God they used thick material in the carpet, it seems to be what kept my car together. Anyway, still happy Love my Jeep

Reply to
Geir R.Pettersson

Hi Mike,

Working on my '82 CJ brakes and found that the caliper bolts won't budge. Ended up heating the bracket bolts with propane torch and using an impact to remove the whole assy, bracket and caliper. Once I had it off, I wire fed hex head bolts to the caliper pins and used a socket wrench and viola!

Salt City = Madison, Wisconsin... I hear ya!

Now I have a question.... How do you seperate the hub and the rotor? I want to replace the rotors of course. I have pulled the whole assembly off while inspecting the rust colored grease coated bearings.

Brian

Reply to
Bulletsnbrains

I start soaking it around the center and into each lug hole with a good penetrating oil. After it has soaked for a while, then it needs to be rung like a bell with a BFH. I used a 10 lb BFH on the Cherokee's rotor and on the back drum on this job.

I gave them both a good ring, then soaked them for a few more hours, then one last whack and it went thunk instead of dinggg. The thunk means it let loose...

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Reply to
Mike Romain

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