The Saga Continues…

Posted: January 6, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

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

So… it’s not pretty

Posted: November 14, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , | Leave a comment

If you read my last post, you know I had a bit of an issue getting to the trail last Saturday. After getting a tow home, I delayed doing a once over of the Jeep as I didn’t really want to know. Well, yesterday I got under the rig.

This was the first clue. I looked up and saw that the starter had one of its mounting tabs broken off. But if you look closely, there’s a second break.

Moving over for more of a side view, it was clear I had major issues.

In this photo, you can clearly see the break in the transmission from the sensor down through the starter mount.

I have no idea why this happened. I was driving down Highway 80 at 65mph and all of a sudden there was a major vibration.

Last summer, and again this summer, I got an engine code telling me of lean air on bank two and high transmission temp. This after crawling on the Rubicon for two hours. A fuel additive cleared the lean air code as I suspected a little carbon build up from cheap Sam’s gas. The high temp came while hauling rock for FOTR on the trail. And with all the armor under my rig I understand that. I’ve got an oversized aluminum ribbed trans pan on my work bench.

Hopefully, when I tear down the rig to get the trans out, I’ll discover why this happened.

JEEP: Just Expect Every Problem along with Just Empty Every Pocket

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Rubicon Ronin

A funny thing happened on the way to the trail…

Posted: November 9, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Maintenance, Travel | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Yesterday, I got an email about an impromptu trail maintenance need on the Rubicon Trail. It seems the 112mph winds last week dropped a number of trees along the Rubicon Trail between Miller Lake and Cadillac Hill.

FOTR put out the word, I heard through the Sierra Stompers, and the volunteers rolled out to help. I was one of those volunteers that loaded up and rolled out to help but I didn’t roll too far.

Unfortunately, west bound on Highway 80, 7:15 in the morning, I developed a major vibration, as I approached Truckee.

An hour later, AAA picked me up and took me home.

My best guess is that something came loose in the transmission. The vibration was as violent as death wobble, been there done that, but felt more rotational than side to side. Although I had a check engine come on and the engine was not running smooth when I pulled over, I was able to start the engine, while waiting for AAA, and use the heater. Since it was in the 20 degrees alongside the highway, I didn’t get out and start looking for the reasons for the vibration.

When I got home and gingerly backed the TJ down my driveway, I felt and heard a thunk, thunk, thunk. I know, really technical. But it was driveline pace not engine pace. I’ll look into it next week. Too depressed at the moment and there’s college football on TV. Go Huskies!

AAA is awesome. Every Jeep owner should spend the money, get the upgrade and have 99-mile tow service.

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Rubicon Ronin

Broken axle means time to upgrade!

Posted: May 29, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Travel | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Here’s a story of the details of what happened on the run to check the Long Lake Trail last week.

On the way out, I heard a strange sound coming from the front driver’s side tire. Before attempting the lower hairpin on Cadillac Hill, I stopped to check it out.

It was pretty easy to find where the noise was coming from. This was taken at the staging area. When I first checked it, there was no scrapes on the yoke. It appears that the ears of the outer shaft broke first, as the u-joint is undamaged but missing both caps.

We figured it was easiest to just leave it as it was and just drive out. Luckily, with a Rubicon model TJ, I still had three-wheel drive with both lockers engaged.

As the broken ‘ears’ were slowly bent out, contact was made with the knuckle. Fortunately, the axles I was going to put in required just such an extra clearance.

Enter RCV axles! If you’re going to upgrade, go all the way.

The driver’s side inner axle had been ‘hammered’ into the axle housing. It took a few hits with a big hammer to free the axle. The proper move might have been to remove the outer shaft as soon as possible.

A 4 1/2″ angle grinder was used to clearance the knuckle for the boot of the new axle. They were then cleaned and painted.

The new axles in place. Very distinguishable with the bright orange boot. This is a fully seated boot on. Easier said than done.

The manufacturer provided a sleeve to hold the boot as you slide the axle through it. But seating it properly was a pain; theirs is on the left side below with the hood. That was for before you installed the brake shield and unit bearing.

I built the one on the right to use after the unit bearing had been installed.

With a pair of pry bars, I was able to fully seat the boot. Or so I thought. I actually had to use the manufacturer’s piece and mine together to fully seat the boot. I’ll be making a thicker unit to carry with me in case I need to reseat the boot on the trail.

If you’re doing an RCV axle installation, make sure the boot is on far enough to see the edge of the boot seat surface.

As if a broken ear on the trail at the base of Cadillac Hill wasn’t enough, when I took apart the passenger’s side, I discovered that I had thrown a u-joint cap but the joint hadn’t come apart yet.

My axle was not the only issue. A fellow traveler lost all of his power steering fluid due to a fitting coming loose. That was an easy fix: tighten and refill. Between the six rigs we had what we needed.

I will admit that I had not loaded all of my trail boxes for this trip. I loaded more for clearing trees from the Long Lake Trail and possibly spending the night than I did for repairing a broken rig. The lesson is to bring everything you can on every trip.

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Rubicon Ronin