If Momma Aint Happy...

Part 4 of a series

Pushing $600 worth of used jeep parts into my driveway after having been gone for about 6 hours was a sure-fire way to make my wife, Diana, unhappy. Fact is, my wife didn't even come out to see the car once we got it home. She was so mad that I'd "bought the car without even asking her opinion" that she was literally boycotting seeing the car. Her idea was to buy a nice used car (for $2000) and all would be right in the world. Having looked for a nice use car for $2000, I can honestly say they are really hard to find, and if I was going to spend money and time wrenching on a car, I'd rather do it on one that not only my daughter likes, but that I felt would hold it's value.

Jeeps, as I am learning quickly, are relatively easy to work on and hold their value very well. In fact, I couldn't find a running Wrangler for less than $3800. Again, my math and exit strategy work well on this car (see post #2) and would not work very well on a used Neon or Buick.  Diana would hear none of it. She still, to this day, doesn't like us trying to fix up the car.

I think that now that it's here, and she sees improvements as we work on it, it's becoming OK with her I think, but it still doesn't run at this point. That is an issue about the Jeep we both share.

Blue, our Chocolate Lab, gave his seal of approval on day 1. He jumped up and in, ready for a ride, the first chance he got.

The fine line between a car, and a 2000lb radio.

We rolled the Jeep into the driveway and started cleaning it up. I reconnected all the electrical around the empty battery compartment while Kassie pulled the battery out of my car to try and start the Jeep. We got the battery hooked up, turned the key, and nothing. *crickets*

We had bought the Chilton's book on the Jeep and I set about looking at the wiring diagrams and such. Let me perfectly clear: I am not, in any way, qualified to even look at a wiring schematic. It's all lines and squiggles to me. What I could see was a section marked Clutch Position Sensor. Hmm..

I knew the clutch had zero pressure when applied so I checked the hydraulic reservoir, and it was empty. OK. Put the battery back into my car, drive to Autozone, buy clutch fluid, come back, take my battery back out (ya I'm too cheap to buy a battery until I know it'll run) put it in the Jeep, fill the reservoir, bleed out the line, and oh my..... It was leaking from inside the housing. The hydraulic throwout bearing was shot. I called around and got a price for a clutch job - $800, and then went into the house to get something cold to drink and weigh my options.

Paying $800 for the clutch job would kill our budget. I had done a clutch on a Fiat X-19 before, but never on a Jeep. Maybe I should just try and sell the car now. Then it hit me. This is a project car. I should be working on it. I should not be paying someone to work on it. Why the hell would I buy a $600 car then NOT expect to do all the work on it I could? With that, We dropped the transmission.. well in like 4 hours we dropped the transmission.

 Kassie, Kyle, and I spend the day wrenching on the transfer case bolts to free it from the engine. Please note the "man-hands" Kassie is sporting in the picture. It seemed like forever, but after only 4 hours, we had the entire transmission free from the car. That time included a break for lunch as well as driving back to Autozone for some vehicle ramps. Not too bad considering I let Kassie do a great deal of the work.

There's the culprit! to the right of the arrow is the bad hydraulic throwout bearing assembly. It appeared that whomever had done this work before, neglected to secure it inside the housing using the pin and lock provided, and it rattled itself to death. We would not be making this same critical error.

Transmission laying on the driveway.

Ya, our neighbors love us.

If you give a Pig a Pancake...

The throwout bearing was $84.00 from our friends at Autozone, but... If you have the transmission out, you might as well replace the clutch... and if you are replacing the clutch and throwout bearing, you may as well replace the clutch master reservoir and hydraulic hose to avoid contamination of the new part... and you should remove the flywheel and have it resurfaced.. and you should replace the pilot bearing. Uggg... Let's remember that we are on a tight budget. So while I'm saving the $800 by doing it myself, I don't have the money to do all that. As such, we (I) decided to replace the throwout bearing, the clutch plate and cover, the guide bearing, and call it good. The flywheel didn't have any cracks or checking so it should be fine. The reservoir was empty, looked clean, and the line looked visually fine. It's gamble, but a small risk that many DIYer s would take in my position.

To all the actual mechanics out there: Please don't judge me. I'm doing the best I can. 

So all totaled, we put $175 into new clutch parts and set about to install and reassemble it all.
The reassembly went very smoothly up until the part where I broke the Transfer Case Vacuum Switch (on accident). $25 later and a trip back to Autozone, and all is well.  We got the transmission back int he vehicle within 2 hours of starting, and went to bleed out the hydraulic clutch to try and start the Jeep.

If anything can go wrong... Turns out that the hydraulic hose from the reservoir to the throwout bearing had a leak. There are no new hoses available anywhere, and no one makes and sells an aftermarket part. Great.  Just great.

I ended up contacting a hydraulic hose manufacturing company, and I am currently waiting for them to create a custom hose for our Jeep. This should run anywhere from $40 up to $100. I won't know until tomorrow exactly how much. Great... just great.

Expenses so far:

Jeep:                                    $600.00

Book and Misc Cleaners:    $50.00

Clutch Kit:                         $175.00

Ramps:                                 $50.00

Vacuum Switch:                  $25.00

-------------------------------------------

Total                                    $900.00... and it still doesn't run!

New clutch!

Craigslist FTW

I am a big fan of Craigslist. Not for the pure comedy of the personal ads (they are awesome too though), but for the resource it has become for us during this project. We needed a new front drivers side fender, Hood, Grill, and Bumper. I posted an ad up on Craigslist, and within a day had the front fender and bumper for $100 - new parts would have cost roughly $500.

 

We removed the grill, which had been pushed in and dented, removed the dented up fender, and slapped on our new-used fender. Also installed the new-used bumper. Ill post more pics later.