The Saga Continues…

I would follow through with my promise to post more about the trails, but I don’t have my Jeep back yet.

So, Jeep. “Just Expect Every Problem” or “Just Empty Every Pocket”. I seem to have proven that true, again.

Below is a picture of a piece of cast iron. It’s a very important piece. It seems the violent rotational vibration I experienced on I80 at 65mph was worse than I had thought. Not only did it destroy my transmission, but it broke off this small piece. This piece of cast iron is one of the four mounting points for my transmission to my engine.

If you look closely, you can see a shinny spot in the upper right corner. It looks like the gasket is missing but the actual mounting surface is missing.

We talked about the possibility of welding it back on and that idea was quickly dismissed.

Now, if this were for my mother driving to the store every Sunday morning, I’d say go for it with three. Since I will be driving this rig on the Rubicon, I can’t take the chance running three out of four. That means a new engine.

Nate’s got on it for me a had a new long block in a day or two from Jasper’s. Unfortunately, there was bad news with the new engine. Nate himself did the inspection didn’t like the pitting on the surface where the water pumps mounts. He sent the engine back and called me to say the repairs would be delayed.

The upside is I won’t have to replace the rear main seal that was leaking. Well, I guess I did replace the rear main when I replaced the entire engine.

Looking back, there were signs the transmission was not happy. I had been putting off a flush or fluid change. My advice is to jump on maintenance as soon as possible!

Happy New Year!

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Rubicon Ronin