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!

.

Rubicon Ronin

TJ Update

Posted: December 16, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Let me start with an apology. I’m sorry I’m not posting more about the Rubicon Trail and the side trails in the area. I realize that is the goal of this website blog. The reality is that I’m not getting up to the Rubicon as I once did. I will make an effort to post more trail related stuff moving forward, but not today.

In order to get out on the trails, I need a functional Jeep. A very good friend of mine (no names) has been hugely involved in the Rubicon Trail over the years and he has walked the trail more than he’s driven the trail in recent years as his rig is always under construction. I want to drive it. And I want to drive it now.

Now, I could have taken on the repair of my TJ myself. Not needing to do a lot of snow wheeling, April would be a good deadline. But I wasn’t looking forward to 20-30 hours flat on my back under my Jeep. I’m a slow mechanic. If I had done the repair, I would always be second guessing if I torqued that bolt correctly or if I had caught all of the damage. What if I had parts left over? No, time for a professional!

The unassuming photo above is of Nate’s Precision LLC in Sparks, Nevada. They came highly recommended from many people within the Reno 4×4 community. For the record, I am NOT being compensated by Nate’s for any of this work in exchange for being mentioned here. I’m paying full price and it’s a BIG number.

Below is the mechanic about to drive my TJ in to the operating room.

And here my TJ will remain until it’s fixed.

So, new transmission from Jasper’s. It comes with an external cooler but I’m also adding a larger ribbed pan (forgot the maker, I’ll look for the name and add it later). Rear main seal while it’s accessible, it was starting to leak. New starter as the lower mount tab had broken. Hopefully, they don’t find further damage. Probably a new crank position sensor, as it had thrown that code. Who knows what else.

The good news, they think it will be done by the end of the week!

Stay tuned,

.

Rubicon Ronin