My first jeep...56 CJ5

I got the coolant leak fixed yesterday and drove it around the block today a couple times. It is running great. I have a couple of oil leaks to deal with and I have a problem with the transfer case shifter that I am not sure what to do about. I installed the spring clips on each side of the two shifters and the one on the high/low side is hitting the floor pan when shifting into the high position. It actually fell out. I am baffled on what could have changed. I still have to do my research to see if I am putting the springs in correctly and what other things could be off, but if anyone has the answer please chime in. Thanks.

 

I have a bummer of a story to tell and a couple of questions.

I used the jeep all summer in the local mountains and had a great time and no problems whatsoever. I towed it home for the winter to do some other upgrades and since it was home decided to take it out into the local areas near home. I ended up on halloween driving it on regular streets about 15-20 miles to get to the area at pretty high speeds (about as fast as it will go and I don't have an OD) and when I was just about there I noticed I had lost oil pressure. The needle on the gage was just off zero, but the idiot light was still off. I stopped, checked the oil (level was good), and then proceeded a little farther where we stopped a while for lunch. At this point I was thinking (hoping) maybe the oil was a bit thin because it was warm out, and I had been running it pretty hard. It was also about due for the first oil change. My thoughts were somewhat confirmed when after lunch I fired it up and had about 15 PSI of oil pressure (still a little low for the new motor). I started back home a little slower, and thats when the rod knock started. I towed it home from there, took the motor out and dropped it off at the machinist assembled so he could take it apart and see what I did wrong (I assembled pretty much everything).

What he found was that one rod bearing was totally destroyed and the likely source of the knock (but it hadn't spun). He also found all the rod bearings in real bad shape and the mains not too far behind. He removed the cover on the oil pickup and found all sorts of stuff in there. He figured I hadn't cleaned this out and it was the source of dirt that triggered this whole chain of events. Turns out I did clean it out, but I'm not sure this eliminates dirt as a possible problem. I will definitely be mindful of this even more during assembly although I was very careful the first time. He really didn't have any other suggestions about what happened. The last thing I want is to have this happen again so I am looking for other possible problems.

I think it is a given that the bearings weren't getting oil, but since most of the debris in the pick up was bearing pieces (I looked at this very closely), this quickly turns into a chicken and the egg scenario. So in thinking about problems other than dirt, I got to looking closely at the oil pickup and this is where I have a couple of questions.

1) The oil pickup has a rotating joint in it, but no seal that I see. Maybe oil in there is enough to fill the gap and seal, but I can't help but think it is like having a hole in a drinking straw. This wouldn't be a problem until the joint was above the oil level. Does anyone know if it has a seal?

2) There is a small hole in the top of the pickup. The top of the pick up seems to be isolated from the screen size and it has oil trapped in top portion. Is this right?

Also, I put a new oil pump in during the rebuild and I took it apart and didn't see anything noteworthy.

I attached some pictures of the pickup.

Any other thoughts are welcomed too. Thanks in advance.

 

Tom,

Here are a few pictures of my oil pickup:





The brazed hole is sealed on my float.

 

So I am reviving my old build thread. I could really use some advice and I am really hoping you guys can help me out.

Since the last update a few years ago when I basically ruined my new engine and wasn't convinced I knew why, I had the crankshaft redone and have had it one the road mostly just for trails and maybe put 1000-1500 miles on it and it has all been good.

Well, I have been planing a transmission upgrade for the last year or so and finally got to the point I was ready to put it in. I pulled the entire driveline to do this and when I was starting to put everything together, while installing the new flywheel, I noticed the main bearing seal spinning. I remembered earlier this year reading about some bad seals going around, so I called Walck's and they assured me they had good ones so I bought a new set along with pan gaskets, etc. So, went to put it all in today and I decided to pull the crank since I can never get those seals to thread their way around. Much to my dismay, I found my main and especially rod bearings look terrible. Can also feel grooving on the crank with my fingernail. I plan to bring this all to my machine shop Monday and hopefully get it all squared away again. But, what is really bothering me is that I do not know what is happening. Although I can't totally rule out some bonehead move on my part, I have rebuilt several other engines in my life that I drove a lot more and a lot harder than this one and never had any problems like this.

There is a thread by Stout from a couple of months ago where he had a similar problem and suspected his oil pump. I have had one trip with this current engine where I had noticed low oil pressure out on the trail and I shut it down and towed it home. When I started it at home later it oil pressure looked good and I haven't had any problems in the 2 or so years since. I keep a very sharp eye on the oil pressure gauge as you can imagine. I replaced the oil pump when I rebuild the engine with a new one I bought at the time from Krage. Not sure of the brand at this point. I also trashed the original pump at the time.

So I searched and read about theory's of bad pumps with relief valves bypassing pressure which starts to sound like a plausible source of my problem. Didn't really see anything specific on where to buy a good pump, except to try and find an NOS one. Also read a bit about checking pump tolerances, etc. I will do some more reading about that in the near future. I have a spare parts engine so i could use the pump off it, but I don't know if that one is original or not or what it's history is. Is there a way to check if there is anything wrong with my oil pump? It would be nice to find a smoking gun here. Any thoughts or suggestions would really be appreciated. I am starting to get a little scared to even fix it again!