Man I hate rust! or Back bumper just fell off...

Mike Romain did pass the time by typing:

Blame it on that damn cheep american string. You know it never would have fallen off if you used that ultrasooper bailing wire from Saskatoon. ;)

.. Actually I'm not kidding. I have the better part of a spool from Granpa's basement. Handy for mending chainlink fence.

And I thought I had a bad day... Wed. morning driving home from work at 4 AM I feel my l/f brake grinding on my van... it had been squealing for a week so I had the forethought to buy the parts (thanks Napa for the 40% off 'dealer discount'). So I get home and it's pretty mild 6*C (42F) and I figure I'll get it done before I go to bed. Jump out of the van and I hear hissing, my r/r tire is going down.

I go to move my XJ so I can pull the van up to the garage, dead battery. Throw the charger on the XJ and drag the floor jack to the end of the driveway to the van.

I get to the point of no return in the brake job, calliper off, brake line off, rotor off and I feel a very cold rain drop on the back of my neck. ^#$%$!!!!

The temp. dropped quick! I re-packed the bearings in slow motion waiting for the rain to let up... no such luck. By 5:30 AM, my wife was standing over me with an umbrella while I reassembled the brakes. Bled them and went to bed... maybe it will stop raining by the time I get up to change the tire... nope. Waited until the last possible moment before work to change it..... lower the spare down from underneath the van and the hanger is rusted to the friggin' rim. &%$%$%$!!!!

Went into work soaked... by the time I dried off, I had to get out of the truck again to get soaked... this happed four more times (rinse and repeat?). Get back to the yard only to find I left the interior lights on in the van. It won't start. Waited for the day shift to come in to get a boost... in the rain.

-Brian

I actually 'have' the 'real stuff' holding it on now. Got it on one trip from an old farmer/mechanic to help hold my muffler up once.

The last use this one piece of bailing wire had was to hold a duck on a spit for a slow 7 hour fire roast a couple weeks back when my wife and I were out camping. Versatile stuff eh. ;-)

Mike

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

Mike Romain did pass the time by typing:

Yep. That and duct tape

(set the coffe down)

Mud and dirt is the big issue I think Bill.

When I tore down the Jeep for the 'glass body job, it took 2 days to hose all the mud out of the frame. That stuff holds water and worse salty water in the winter.

I wonder if I should replace the frame tail pieces with C channel instead of the square tubing I was thinking of? Thinking about it, naw, there isn't enough left to do a decent C channel job I don't think.

Is that frame all C channel with big assed rivets in the corners? If so can it twist up like mine without tearing off cross members? My front one broke too, that big wide one. All that is holding the front rails is the warn winch mount.

Man do I ever need a new frame..... :-(

Mike

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

Ouch!

Mike

Cherokee-LTD wrote:

Not to gloat too much, but this is why I live in California. It got very cold the other night about 40 degrees. Of course this is ferinheight not Celsius.

Kevin

When you decide to do a frame job, you should drive down here and do mine at the same time. ;p Mine's no where near that bad but when I was taking my rear seat out I took a good look at the frame rails and all the common "spots" for mud entrapment. I'm pretty sure within 5 years I'll be doing a tear-down. I'm actually thinking of saving up for the time when my engine decides to die. I might just do a complete rebuild with the following:

350 V8 w/ new transmission Fuel Injection Locking diffs front and rear Fiberglass tub Reinforced and "cleaned" frame with PROPER front and rear bumpers and tow hook placement.

I'll probably be looking at about a $6000-7000 CDN hit for that job and about an entire year of working on it but it'll be a pretty nice beast when it's done. Then I'll go buy one of those "Jeeps are built, not bought" stickers ;p

It took me about a year and a half in my driveway to do mine. I stripped the frame and used rust converter first, then put rubber coat on it.

Unfortunately it was too little too late, the damage was done and my off roading and swamp twisting has caused it to snap in 3 places in the last year, now the end is toast. I will patch it up, but really need a new frame. I have gotten 4 years out of it, could use another one or two hopefully.

I also debated engines and decided I liked the power and mileage the 258 gave me, so I stayed with it. Got a factory one with 40K on it and have mine sitting around waiting for a refresh job.

I am manually tuned up and mine just flies with that engine. I can climb sand pit walls at 400 rpm without stalling and 4th will bury the speedo.

350's suck gas. I get 11L/100km.

The 'glass body is 'really' light eh. There is a gent here in Ontario that makes sweet ones for a good price. All the metal parts, my front Laredo chrome grill, the windshield, hard doors, top fit on like a glove.

Mike

griff>

Hey Mike, were did you get and how much for the engine, if I don't do something pretty quick I will have to hook my PCV lines up to the oil filler cap to keep oil recirculating :) New valve cover gasket only lasted about

1000 Km, gone again, at $75.00 Can. for it I don't want to put another on this engine, but like you I like and have decided to go with the 258, torque is unbelevable. Got a price from Canada engines, $1425.00 for rebuilt, $800.00 install, $130.00 misc. parts, be 3 grand by the time taxes were on.

Well that beats my wed morning episode, took an hour and a half to get home from work due to the idiots who are too stupid to slow down in the rain/ freezing rain and I only live about 20 - 30 miles from work normally a 20 min drive or so. Now if the rain ever decides to stop I have to get out and prime/paint the skins on the drives rocker panel.

Snow...

I've been thinking of plating the underside of my floor pan with 1/16" checker plate aluminium ($4.00/sqft). I'm thinking of running from the pinch seam flush to the frame and inboard of the frame to the tranny tunnel. I'm thinking of it as a barrier (not as skid protection) but I'm concerned about creating cavities between the floor and the aluminium. Instinct tells me I may be causing more problems than creating solutions... hmmm.

-Brian

Anywhere the aluminum touches will have major corrosion issues from electrolysis and if you see snow, any under holes hold it and salt slush..

Mike

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

I got lucky and rust did in another Jeep at 40K. It literally broke in half I was told so it got parted out. I paid $400.00 for the long block. This Jeep was so rusty, the oil pan on the engine was a spider web pin cushion. I had to use my pan. LOL!

Last time I checked, Chrysler Canada was offering 258 short blocks for $1200.00, $1500.00 with the head.

I have a tree in my driveway that my come-a-long hooks up to to swap engines or I can rent an engine hoist for a half day and fifty bucks. The engines are easy to swap out.

That $75.00 rubber valve cover gasket is the biggest rip off I have ever seen! I got a new valve cover and bought that stupid thing thinking it should be better. I was pouring oil out in 2 weeks.

My valve cover only has the two center rocker nuts holding it on, the head isn't tapped for perimeter bolts and has been leak free for almost

4 years. I made it super clean on the mating surfaces first with an acetone wipe down or maybe I used BBQ lighter fluid last time, don't remember, but it has to be spotless. Even one fingerprint will wreck the seal. I then gave the head surface a skim of permatex 'ultra' black RTV, added the cork gasket, another skim of RTV on top of the cork and added my plastic cover and torqued the two nuts to 15 inch pounds I think it was.

Then comes the most important part! I let it sit without even breathing on it for 24 hours like the directions say to let it properly 'cure'.

No leaks.

The PCV 'blowby' usually can be fixed easy. It is normally a failure in the emissions crap.

I first trace the PCV line to the back of the carb. At the back part of valve cover there is a real rubber elbow that goes jelly from oil and collapses. If soft, replace it. Then behind the carb is a solenoid thing. It was a defective part and should be replaced with a T fitting. Then off this T a line goes to the charcoal canister. At idle pinch this line to the canister closed. If the idle changes, the canister purge valve is shot or the plumbing is wrong. The canister should only purge when at speed and hot via a ported vacuum signal and the CTO valve.

Mike

Greg wrote:

I have that part figured out... this is what I had in mind.

Cut and test fit the aluminium... 4 sections shaped to fit (bent up near the firewall and accommodate for the slope in the floor pan). Drill through the floor and aluminium for stainless hardware. Drop everything on the ground.

Here's where it gets really questionable...

Put the bolts in from the bottom, tape the bolt heads to the aluminium so they won't fall out. Drop 1/4" nylon washers over the threads from the top side. Spray expanding foam and slam it into place before it sets. Trim the excess foam. Caulk the perimeter with seam sealer.

Cut a neoprene gasket. Bolt it up. Caulk the perimeter with seam sealer.

The foam method would fill most if not all cavities but would be a messy pain in the ass. The gasket method would be easy but would not fully contour and would leave cavities. Either way, the aluminium must be floating and sealed or I'll have a bigger headache on my hands.

-Brian