What Did You Do To Your Jeep Today?

I had a spare evening last night so I wanted to address the rear main seal leak on Farm Jeep Willy. My littlest guy Zeke and I dropped the pan, and pulled the rear main cap. The seal came out pretty easily. The two side seals were in the block to cap slots, with no expansion pins. They were loose in there. Leak discovered! At that point I got to pulling a few rod caps to check. All were worn evenly, no grooves in crank. I wasn't too impressed with the bearing material looks though. It looked like it had veins in it, even though smooth to the touch. They were the original bearings, standard size for rods, and. 001 under on mains. GM numbers on both. Reading the Buick sites, apparently it was common to have .001 under at the factory on the mains? Oh well, I plastiguaged a few. All were ok, just on the "loose" end of spec. I suspect the new bearings will tighten it up a bit. I had to fight myself away from a complete teardown, as it has no bad noises and good even compression. Would be wasting money and time. Zeke helped wash parts and had a ball

 

Hi,
Wonderi'n what year is your Buick 225 ? How many miles on it, do you guess? IMHO, If it all look's that well...... put it back together & Repair your common oil leak. It sounds to me that your good to go there . ' If it ain't Broke..... Fight the urge to Fix it '

 

I really don't know the year, I bought it from a friend for a hundred bucks, put a cam, lifters and timing chain in it, as I was advised most were worn, and I have put a ton of miles on it. It was spotlessly clean inside. I ordered King bearings and a new rear main seal and pan gasket, stick it back together and keep driving it as is.

 

Great 'lil engine, my friend. In that case, as you know, Plasti gauge is your best Tool ! GodSpeed.................

 

Yesterday the weather was beautiful, so I pulled Sour Apple out and washed her....Now to find a new owner for her.

 

I trailed the CJ home from the body shop yesterday and spent all day today putting things back together. New Bestop seats went in first.

 

Well lets see I got the 1 ton chain hoist all setup to lift the front of my tub on to the chassis (the tub is on a heavy rotisserie that has to be disassembled out from under it to clear the Chassis rolling under the Tub) then I went around the back and hooked up a couple straps to the tailgate chain loops and put my cherry picker under the middle of the strap and while I slowly and carefully pumped the handle to test the setup/ I ended up pulling the dam tailgate loops towards each other. I had the strap between the loops to flat as I was worried the cherry picker wouldn't be able to raise up high enough.The resulting physical repair screwed up all the paint around them and now I have to reweld about a 1/2" long seam which will ruin more paint and be a huge PITA. SO I am now taking a break. And will get up tomorrow and mask off the area that needs welding do the welding clean it up remask it off for paint then sand so it can be repainted. I am going to paint the area around the Tailgate chain loops with Satin Black VHT Chassis and Rollbar Epoxy. Its not worth the unbelievable hassle to repaint the Pacific Blue. I guess I can tell if anyone asks I did that on purpose ( the satin Black) so I could easily touch it up being its such a high wear area!

SOME TIMES I just want to SCREAM

 

Took the tux out for the first drive of the new year.
Happy New Year 2020!

 

Put on a different carb earlier this week. Today I got the choke and hand throttle hooked up, put on a new starter and cut excess off the U bolts.

 

Threw the top on for winter. Hoping for a warm enough day to get the material to relax......

 

Looks great! I have the Bestop Super top also. Those back corners never seem to get really tight, even in the sun.

 

I can get them pretty tight on the last setting.... But the top has been in cool storage since last spring..... my wife drove the jeep to work today, told her to park it in the sun.

 

Drove it to work.

 

Ultra Scotch-Brite pad (grey) and black paint strip.

 

Noticed it started to leak off the t-case after I Drove to work Tuesday. So I drove it today. Made a heck of a mess:

20200102_164530 by Joe with a jeep, on Flickr
Same spot little puddles are from before lunch big puddle is from after lunch.
Turns out a 5qt jug of engine oil under the passenger seat found a sharp corner to rub on.
I just flipped the jug over and put it in the bed.

 

Your jeep is upside down is why it leaks

 

looks right to me.

 

That's weird, the pic was upside down when I looked. Its right now. And no, I haven't been drinking.

 

Pulled the transmission back out to chase a leak at the input last weekend.

Not again!

Then had a bout of gastroenteritis which laid me out for 4 days ( not the holiday weight loss plan I had in mind) Local NAPA store would be happy to have the $11 seal sent from MO for $16 shipping. Thanks I'll look around, huh $5.67 at Summit. I can always get to free shipping there

 

Today I made a bracket to mount my stock skid plate crossmember to the t18 transmission while still utilizing the d-18 torque bushing. I haven't welded it on yet but got a lot of inspiration from project binky, and think it turned out pretty well.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/knJdMi7iddivDU5m7