Wife's Waggy "Walter"...

[tedlovesjeeps71]

I definitely wouldn't say mechanically minded but she's well grounded if that makes sense.

In other words she is electrically minded then?

With mechanical fuel pump failures, I always suggest that you smell your oil before going too far. When the diaphragm breaks in the fuel pump, often times it "pumps" fuel into the oil and washes all your bearings. Since you already pulled the rear main, you have at least changed the oil since the fuel pump replacement so that is good. To me I would replace that rear main bearing while you are in there, but I understand being on a small budget too.

I am impressed that that fuel hose has made it this long! Hopefully it wasn't too difficult to replace.

I am also in the "old Jeep and VW TDI" owners group but I am going to keep my TDI for a myriad of reasons. Can I suggest that you wait to turn the VW in (if you haven't already) until the waggy is a pretty reliable daily driver? As I recall, you have until December 2018 to decide either way. I also realize that you are planning on using the money from the turn in on the waggy so you are more in a catch 22 situation. Ironically, I am spending the TDI kickback money on my Jeep too!

Best of luck to you on the build and just remember that if you have a big project that you need done fast, don't hesitate to let the other Coloradoan's know and we can set up a wrench-o-thon and help you out over a weekend. Easiest way is to join Colorado Full Size Jeep email list at CFSJA.org and post up your requests. This is the last one I was involved with and I had as much fun messing with the camera as I did lifting the waggy! http://www.bigscaryjeep.com/Jan_Wrench-o-thon.html

Well grounded.... lol! Not really but that was funny.
It's been a mixed bag turning in the VW. We got rid of "Milton" 2 weeks ago which makes me happy. While it was an excellent car (AND a diesel), I won't miss the car payment and full coverage insurance. We had some medical bills that needed paying so some of the VW money went to that. I hate being in debt but the recent financial nightmare put us in a deep hole. It looks like we are (hopefully) clawing our way out of it but unfortunately, the waggy dream list of stuff has been reduced. Order of priority goes to him being reliable as possible, then any extra money can be applied to the "cool" stuff. I don't mind since I'm just happy we survived this without me having to sell my Jeeps.
I spent the last week+ working on Walter at Ft Carson's auto skills shop. Wednesday and Thursday (12-4:30)before I go to school and then Friday plus the weekend. I'm making progress but it's been painful. Some stuff has been a given, like the RMS/Oil pan gasket. Some stuff has been reactionary, like the exhaust manifold studs snowballing into two manifolds. And some has been simply fixing previous owners (or their mechanics) failures, like the two broken manifold bolts in the heads.
I ordered the Hamilton fuel injection kit on Friday which is a 3 week wait. When that arrives it will get put on and hopefully isn't too complicated. Anyone not doing anything that has experience is welcome to come help! I have almost no experience with this conversion other than driving my 89 tbi powered suburban.
Today or tomorrow I will go order the suspension and tires. That may get addressed this weekend or the following.
@Nikkromat... I need to get with you to grab the fuel tank and skid plate sir! Let me know when is good for you. I'm off Friday but I know you're in and out of town.
Things left to do:
Fuel tank/skid plate with a new sending unit. Probably will run all new fuel and brake lines while it's out since I'd bet the metal is rusty.
Finish the exhaust.
Valve cover gaskets.
Install fuel injection.
Replace the suspension.
Will make an appointment with safelite for a windshield replacement. And an appointment with a locksmith to make door keys.
Other than all that... I'll look into a radio and building her speaker box(s). Also want to look into a headlight upgrade since the factory lights suck.
So much to do but it will happen. If I can just get it drivable so she doesn't need me to take her to work, that will help a lot! Hopefully by Friday it'll be good to drive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pablo]

Sounds like you are persevering through the adversity.

If you still need to save cash you can postpone or eliminate your locksmith trip by pulling the door cylinders, cleaning them and even temporarily removing or changing the pins. If you pull the pins it will work for now. Lots of pin kits on the internet too. Search youtube for howtoo's.

I had pins that were sticking due to frost damage and age on my xj, I just pulled the cylinders, stuck my key in the cylinder, and ground down the pins that were higher than the rest with a dremel and a file. Graphite lubed the cylinders and reassembled. Works fine now.

For the headlights, it is probable that the stock wiring harness is too old and has too much of a voltage drop. I would replace the lamps and if that does not help, set up the stock wiring to run a relay right off the battery so you are not drawing through the stock switch or wiring. There are kits on ebay. I am having to put one on the xj this week as I have the same issue.

Great idea on the new brake and fuel lines. Those fuel lines were toast.

[Nikkormat]

Ted, when I'm back in town I'll run one down. I can do skid only real easy, it's in my driveway. I'll have to get with a buddy to pickup the tank with skid.

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Ted, when I'm back in town I'll run one down. I can do skid only real easy, it's in my driveway. I'll have to get with a buddy to pickup the tank with skid.

No worries sir. Lord knows I have a lot on my plate as it is. Just looking for a good skid and a tank that isn't all soft on the bottom from lack of support thanks to the huge hole in the skid.
Will I need to find the triangle part or do you have a line on a decent one?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nikkormat]

The triangle is a maybe, can't remember if it's till attached to the skid or not.

[tedlovesjeeps71]

The triangle is a maybe, can't remember if it's till attached to the skid or not.

Ok... whenever you're back and have a moment to peep at it just let me know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Today was expensive.
Wife did the budget to make sure all the bills are paid up and then gave me the go ahead for visiting 4wheel parts.
It's not a lot of stuff but the price tag didn't reflect that! one box has to come directly from the suspension folks so who knows how long it will take to arrive. The majority of the rest is coming from Denver so it should be here tomorrow or Wednesday. I also have some stuff due from RockAuto but who knows when it will arrive. Very little left is needed right now which is good because the money is pretty much gone.
Just enough for the tank/skid plate and shop fees for a bit. Unfortunately the "cool" stuff didn't make the budget and will have to wait. Fancy stereo and the window tinting are not a priority. We will get the windshield replaced soon as it's partially covered by insurance.
Time to head to bed so I can get some rest. I gotta take the wife to work in the morning then run to storage to empty the suburban. Need room in it for tires and suspension stuff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tedlovesjeeps71]

These partial days of 4 hours Jeep wrenching before night school are wearing thin. Thankfully the wife has been able to carpool to and from work some days.
Today I decided to try and tackle replacing the heater core. It took a while to get the under dash AC stuff out of the way to gain access to the nuts. Laying on my side and twisted to see has my back feeling rather unhappy. But I got it pulled out and separated the two halves of the box.
Houston... we have leaves!!

From the look of the heater core it either had a small leak or was about to. Glad I decided to work on it.
Then I ran into an issue. The original core has brackets or flanges built into it. The new one from Spectra does not. It fits the box but has no way to secure it to keep from rattling and rubbing against something. Since I didn't expect this I was stuck. Opinions here are what I'm gonna try which is use foam tape to build a cushion for it and some strapping material to secure it better. Since I had none of that at the shop and Home Depot is a ways away, I moved on to other stuff. Got the passenger manifold mounted and the starter reinstalled. I then mixed up some fresh penetrating fluid (ATF and acetone) and sprayed everything that will be removed when I do the lift. This is the 3rd or 4th dosing of bolts with this stuff so hopefully I don't hit too many issues.
I found some other things that need addressed while spraying stuff. The sway bar bushings are pretty bad. I think I have some in my "Sack-O-bushings of various poly stuff. Maybe I'll get lucky and not have to buy some.
Tomorrow I have a lot to do so it's bed time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Well, today went pretty good. Only had a few hours but got the heater core put back together with no rattles or movement. The foam did the trick and no need for a strap.


While the box was still out of the way I decided to tackle the valve covers. Pulled em, sand blasted, repainted them and then got to trying to scrape out some of the nasty sludge in the heads! YUCK!!! Hopefully it helps run a little better (doubtful) or at least let the oil flow so the engine lives longer.



I did get a little distracted when this pulled into the shop... pretty cool!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pablo]

The wrap on the heater looks nice. Man at the leaves... guess it was doing double duty as a vegetable dehydrator. I am trying to find an old howto on how to do tint yourself economically. If I find it I will post it. I would also keep an eye out on Craigslist for sone used stereo equipment.

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Today was busy but good. Made a run to storage to take unnecessary stuff out of the suburban and to make room. Headed to 4wheel parts for the stuff we ordered. Gotta say... I'm a little jealous of the wife. Her car money is buying her a nice wagoneer. A little weird carrying stuff worth 2-3 times what the suburban is worth inside it. Haha!
At the shop I decided to start by putting the valve covers back on. Uneventful.
I then tossed a coin between putting the heater box/AC stuff back together or doing the motor mounts. I decided on the mounts... kinda glad I did.
Loosened up the bolts and crossed my fingers. These have always been a crap shoot for me with some being fairly easy and some being a nightmare. I gotta say these went pretty easy after I got the bolts loose. Why?
Because NEITHER were still serviceable!!!
As I raised the motor I was watching the lower bolts to see them move. As I'm cranking away I don't see any movement. Seemed odd until I looked and see the motor was up about 4"s but the lower part of both mounts were still resting on the frame mounts. There was nothing left of them being fused together as a solid mount. Guess that explains some of it feeling sloppy. Reassembly went easy with the exception of the one bolt by the oil pressure sensor. Took some prybar action to get it lined up but it all ended well. At that point I tried to keep motivated but was getting tired. Did manage to get the heater box and blower plenum, fan, and some other stuff put back in the engine bay. Tomorrow I will put the dash together while I'm clean then hopefully make a dent in the rest of the stuff.


Oops... forgot pics.

[Nikkormat]

I'll see is I have some pics of Wyatt's motor mounts. They were scary bad. Good you fixed those though, should make a difference in acceleration and smoothness.

[candymancan]

Thats some pretty bad sludge, clean it up as best you can i would put some Rislone engine treatment in the crankcase. Its pretty good stuff.

With your high idle. your throttle lever looks pulled in too far, way too far. That nipple on the solenoid should be touching the throttle lever and you have crazy slack in the cruise control beads.. . Not sure why but maybe the throttle cable is too short or something is deff sticking Adjust your cold idle screw maybe ? Your idle should be around 1500 cold idle tap the gas to drop it too about 900 rpm in park, and 650 or so in gear. At least this is what mine is always at. Installing a cheap $25 auto zone tach might be helpful..

Its really easy to do.. Run the green wire to the tach I ran it through the firewall with one of the existing holes with a rubber cap on it, the black wire to any ground and the red wire to a +12v keyed wire.. I routed mine to the orange cigarrete lighter wire which is a 12v keyed wire, and then the white wire to the dash light wiring so itll turn on when the headlights are on, wrapped the wires with electrical tape to keep em clean, and routed them down the door seal on the side of the dash. and i didnt have to screw in the tach at all.. it sits on the dash in the corner by the pillar and never moves. As for your bearing.. Im not an expert on bearing conditions. But i would say as long as the crank isnt scratched and the bearing isnt copper color youre good

[tedlovesjeeps71]

I cleaned as much of the sludge out as possible but will do the translation fluid add/flush. Figure we'll do several oil changes in the next couple weeks so I'll just keep trying. We'll make this ol beast run well yet!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Good even if mildly productive day today. Started by putting all the AC stuff back under the dash. Then Gabe was awesome enough to bring me a gas tank skid and a coolant overflow bottle that isn't cracked. *THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!*
After we returned to the shop I worked on the transmission mount and the wife got to scrubbing and cleaned the skid. Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day so I'm turning in. Will post more after tomorrow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nikkormat]

You're welcome! Pleasure to put a face to a name.

[tedlovesjeeps71]

I am seriously starting to hate this Jeep.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nikkormat]

Care to elaborate?

[tedlovesjeeps71]

Care to elaborate?

Yeah... sorry. Was venting before heading home.

So today I built the exhaust. I wasn't thrilled with how the cross pipe looked when we built it last time so I cut it all apart and basically started over with only reusing the original 2into1 pipe. Also added some length to the passenger side to completely delete the heat riser. Got the muffler put on and spent a long time trying to play with the exhaust bender to get the tailpipe mostly where I wanted it. Not perfect but like the saying goes... "that'll do pig... that'll do.". Even got the exhaust tip i rescued from a discarded Cuda exhaust in Germany. Not sure it will stay as I think it looks odd but the wife likes it. *shrugs*
I also learned I'm not great at figuring how to add exhaust hangers. It's solid but took a long time to figure out and looks a little butch. Speaking of butch... I was also concerned the pipe going over the crossmember was too close so I played blacksmith with it. Heated it with a torch and beat a flat spot in it. Since it's 3" I'm not really worried about flow issues.
About the time I'm finishing it the loud speaker in the shop gives the "One Hour Warning". Seriously!?! Awe Crap!
So Jeep goes down some so I can slap the wheels back on it. Then I began the rushed process of putting things back together.
-Bypass the heater and connect the hoses from water pump to intake.
-Replace the little starter relay thingy.
-Reinstall battery.
-Dump some radiator flush in and full with water.
-Crank the beast to bleed the radiator and check for exhaust leaks.
One thing about doing so much work is there are always a lot of goo, grease, and stuff which has to burn off. It made it really hard, especially while I was hurrying, to tell between exhaust and burn off. So up goes the Jeep, some more tightening on manifold bolts, plugs, and clamps seemed to do the trick. And by the time I lowered it back down, most of the gunk had burned off.
So with everything about done (and out of time)I tell the wife to back the Jeep out so we can start cleaning up. She puts it in reverse and as she's backing up the Jeep starts to... wobble? No idea what the heck was up but I have her get it out so we can get out of the shop and the guys working there can go home (it's their Friday). Get everything loaded in the suburban, floor cleaned and out we go. I crawl under the Jeep and see immediately what the problem is. Thanks to the saggy front springs my cross pipe is hitting the driveshaft at the differential. Wind is blowing, temp dropping, and I'm laying under the Jeep trying to pull the front shaft without snapping one of the tiny bolts. It probably took 40 minutes of little 1/8th turns on the wrench to get the bolts out. Toss it all in the back and take it for a spin to see if any bumps will cause contact. Nope, nothing hits but the power steering is whining. Then I remember I drained the fluid! Crap! Climb in the suburban for some ATF, fill it and take a few more spins around the parking lot. All seems ok.... cool!
So wife gets in and follows me to the gas station. I dump some seafoam in the tank and start filling it up while she goes in the store. I get to like $23 bucks and see gas trickling out on the ground. At first it was a realization that I never fixed the full hose. But this time it was a LOT more fuel then previously. I look under the back seat and fuel is coming out of the sending unit (I think). It was coming out of lots of holes in the skid plate. Wife comes out and says "What is THAT?!?" Ugh.
So my best guess is that it was simply over full. Not having a functional fuel gauge I can only speculate and try and think of how much was in there before. Guess the tank etc are top priority but I can only hope the last little box for the lift shows this week so I can do it and the gas tank stuff at the same time.
But all wasn't bad today. The good side is that the exhaust sounds pretty good, wife is happy enough with it. I was concerned it would be too loud but it's got a good rumble, not too annoying.
The Jeep also seems to have more get-up-and-go even though the stumble/hesitation is still prevalent. It also starts up much easier.
So I'm calling it a night. Lots to do this week (like prepping the gas tank skid for paint) and I think the father in law is coming next weekend. I better sleep while I can. Haha!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[REDONE]

Even got the exhaust tip i rescued from a discarded Cuda exhaust in Germany. Not sure it will stay as I think it looks odd but the wife likes it. *shrugs*

Oh, that's just code for "don't bring that junk back in the house".