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My CJ7 is having fits on me!

My CJ7 is having a bad week.... I have been neglecting it. Grrrr....

My wife and I had a chance to get away last weekend so I figured I would put a new air filter in it and a gas filter while I was there. It also was acting like a bad distributor cap when it was wet out so I got a cap and rotor too.

I open it up to get going and see my rad has broken again. The side rail snapped off roading stretching the tubes out and splitting some so I bolted it back together and soldered up the splits. It must have snapped again last trip and was leaking slightly in the bottom corner. This is at 5 PM on Friday so I just went and got some Gunk stop leak and made sure I had the soldering gear on board which I did and plastic snap tied the rad frame back solid. I also got extra coolant and pre mixed it.

So I put the new filters in and change the cap noting the old cap still looks new, but.... there is this crack on the inside of the coil wire tower letting spark out sideways off the rotor post. Ok, that has the wet start issues fixed and the hesitation/drinking gas from a plugged air filter and half done gas filter.

I open up the rad cap to put the stop leak in and start to let it warm up again and it is just sputtering and going on so I figure I got a wire wrong. Turn it off, smell gas and see gas coming out of every crack in the carb and pouring out the throttle shaft. Say what? Crap, the float or needle is stuck so I take a rubber mallet to the carb and it mellows out....

So now as I watch after I start it back up with the rad cap off and the coolant rises and flows backward..... I shake my head and look really close at the pump to make sure I don't have the wrong one in there or something. I have been having odd overheating issues ever since I put that pump in 5 years ago.

Well it finally starts to flow a 'little' in the right direction if I rev it up pretty good so I poured the stop leak in and let it run a while. Should have kept it at high revs it seems.

Then we pack up and leave at about 1:00 AM Sat morning after my wife got off work and for sure 1/2 hour into this trip we lose the freakin' heat totally and the temp gauge starts climbing. I figure crap the stop leak didn't work so it has leaked out on us. Along comes a Husky so I pull off expecting an explosion when I shut the key off. Stop, open the hood and the hoses are hard with the heater core hoses ice cold....

Ya, ya, stop leak I know, but crap 'all' the heat?

I wait a couple minutes and crack the rad cap expecting a steam blast and only get a short burp of air, no boil or anything. It is still full.....

I run it again and again only have flow above 3000 rpm with the cap off.

So we put on the warm winter clothes (this is the first winter with 'real' heat because I got the hard top and hard doors on this body for the first time so we are used to driving cold. Don't like it, but 'we' can do it ok, my wife is a Jeeper big time) and kept on going north to the bush with no freakin' heat. It was -25C. If I dropped to 3rd and stayed at 55 mph I had some 'warm' coming out of the vents and the temperature gauge would drop to medium instead of hovering just below overheat.... We still could see our breath in clouds....

I think my waterpump impeller is slipping sometimes on the shaft. This engine has overheated at the oddest of times and lately it gets too hot over 70 mph for extended periods.

So by the time we got there the top heater hose had some heat and the lower was luke warm due to no flow so the stop leak stuck there.

We were going to a relative's Cottage and the local handyman had the heat on and the outdoor hot tub waiting at 102 F. It was nice......

So we started back, it was at the top of the H for about 20 miles and I pulled into a gas station and still no explosion although the hoses were really hot and hard.

I got gas and started it back up and it dropped to normal, I got half heat and it only hit H twice on the trip with a gear down high rpm shot seeming to make it pump again. Counter right?, overheating is usually cured by low rpm...

Carb float crapped out again today....

It's a Jeep eh, it has a warped sense of humor some days... ;-)

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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Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

No bubbles or smoke in the open rad Bill. I also am not losing fluid. The only thing I can think of is the pump impeller loose on the shaft or something blocking the flow somehow.

Mike

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

I believe the slow flow out of the pump allowed all the stop leak to gather in the heater core blocking the flow. I now have half flow. Hot top hose and luke warm lower return to the pump. Gotta flush it or maybe reverse the hoses.

When it heated up with the cap off, it flowed backward for a while from what appeared to be convection flow out the block via the lower hose and only went forward out the top hose when I revved it up to 3000 or so. Same deal with heat. If I drive at 2000 rpm, no freaking heat, got up to 3000 rpm and I have heat.

Bottom rad hose is new and has a spring in it so no collapse there.

Mike

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

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

Well ya know, my hose is currently imbedded in a block of ice that goes down to bedrock so I am going to have to wait for a few weeks before I can flush it....

Maybe a new pump will have the power to clear it or I have to go spend money to have a heated garage flush the core. It was flushed last fall and I had wicked heat, didn't even need a coat on, let alone gloves and boots and ski pants like now....

I think I got the carb working again though. The float needle had built up varnish crap on one of it's 3 slider rails. I polished it up and the gas seems to want to stay inside the carb where it belongs.

Mike

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

Mike, if push comes to shove go buy a cheap hose and screw it onto the drain connector on your hot water heater in the house. Open the drain, flush with warm hands, then find someplace to hide when the wife figures out you used ALL the hot water.

Sounds like the CJ is lett> Well ya know, my hose is currently imbedded in a block of ice that goes

Reply to
Will Honea

LOL!

I did know better that's for sure, but crap man I didn't want to have to try and remove the rad for a solder job at -25C just before going on a trip. I only have one arm that works these days so working on crap is a real pain in the butt among other places....

Oh and my wife hasn't noticed the emery board I used to polish up the carb float needle yet so if I am careful/lucky I might get away with the hot water trip too. ;-)

Mike

Will H>

Reply to
Mike Romain

I'm lazy, so when I'm on the farm or out at the cabin and need to get something running, I tend to spray the carb bowls full of carb cleaner as soon as I get there. Let them set for an hour or so (coupla beers) then have at them. I found a cheap cleaner that is also a pretty fair substitute for starting fluid which also helps.

Ever notice that the heater quits at 10 below, the windshield wipers work until it rains, and the darned thing absolutely knows when you left the spare tire home?

Any prognosis > LOL!

Reply to
Will Honea

The CJ has been my daily driver, I just haven't driven very much lately. I am just going to try and give it some TLC and talk to it nice...

My arm/shoulder seems screwed unfortunately. I have tendonosis in the supraspinatus tendon with some other muscle damage and nerve root damage from 3 compressed vertabra/disk sets that turns the muscles to bad knots if I put any stress on them or move my head the wrong way. Even the insurance company's doctor is saying I will never likely use it properly again. Ah well, in for a different set of physio doctors now so I will see what they can do.

Mike

Will H>

Reply to
Mike Romain

Ever try acupuncture or other ancient Chinese secrets? some of them work wonders.

Snow...

Reply to
Snow

Damn, I ache just reading about it. Something you might want to look into is a form of shock treatment for the muscle/nerve problems. After radiation therapy my jaws muscles would knot up something fierce until my Dad had me try this little gizmo he had. In essence, it's one of those piezio-electric igniters you see on barbeque grills and gas appliances with a plunger and a big contact point on the end. Darned thing will throw a half to three quarter inch spark but if you set it right against the skin it just gives a little bump instead of sparking. Anyway, I could put that up to the side of my face, pop it

3-4 times and the muscles would completely relax. Dad used it on his back - same sort of damage you have but lower down and affected his legs. It didn't work miracles for him but it sure helped a lot. In fact, all of the 5 or 6 of those things I had have disappeared. My DIL has MS and she swears by it to relieve the aches and muscle spasms she suffers with that gawdawful nerve disease. If you would like to try one, I'll dig up the mail order address for you. I think it was $5-6 through one of the farm mailorder houses - postage cost as much as the gadget. A lot of the benefit may be just snake oil but it works on the same idea as the electro-shock therapy they use for chronic pain cases (but one helluva lot cheaper!).

That might help the muscle/nerve pa> The CJ has been my daily driver, I just haven't driven very much

Reply to
Will Honea

It is miserable when all the muscles are in freaking knots. Physio has had me on this electro therapy torture machine, don't think it helped much. They just gave me one for home I haven't tried yet so we will see...

Thanks.

Mike

Will H>

the shaft or

Reply to
Mike Romain

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

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