Varg In Jeep's Clothing

Left hand threads, friction nuts, loctite, and safety wire just to be sure!

 

Heck, now I have an access hole to just weld the flanges together!

 

problem solved!

 

No. It’s 1/4” wall tubing, and both the adapter and the transfer case are supported. Many other parts of this would break before that piece would move at all.

 

My local Ace had class 12.9 socket head bolts with a shoulder that was just a hair too long. I’d rather go too long and use a few spacers than too short an have threads at the junction. We're good to go again.



I got the bikini top back on. There’s nowhere left that can flap, so if it still does it, I’m lighting this top on fire and sewing a new one that fits properly.

 

I’ll throw some duct tape over it.

 

or better yet

 

Crisis averted. I like the access hole

 

I looked further into this. My final assessment is that these bolts were over-tightened, either (probably) by me, or by a PO.

All three of the broken bolts had identical breaks, in the same place, and none had any progression marks inside the break; it was a fast snap.

(It’s hard to tell in this pic due to the dirt, but I cleaned them up and checked them under a microscope.)

 

I sometimes humanize inanimate objects in my mind. I pictured that last bolt saying "Must....hold....on...."

 

As much as I’d like to say that I’m rebuilding the intake to add a turbo....



I’m not. There’s a softball-sized black box under the intake that functions as a Volvo’s PCV valve.



These have a flame trap attached to them that clogs up over time, and that in-turn causes too much crankcase pressure which causes oil leaks. Mine was clogged up pretty good...



...and was causing a minor oil leak around the base of the box where a PO tried sealing it before with a quart of RTV. I wire brushed all of that crap off, filed down the sleeves that keep the bolts from over-crushing the o-rings (which in this case weren’t allowing the o-rings to compress enough), and re-assembled with a clean fire trap.

This would’ve been much easier to do when the engine was out, but, as this was essentially a yunkyard engine with unknown history and 225k on it, I didn’t want to invest too much time into it until knowing it would be worth it.

New intake and throttle body gaskets were made with gasket material and a ball peen hammer.



Back together.



Next up... I have a board with tail lights and signage that I strap to junk when I flat tow it home. There’s nowhere to strap it to on this jeep without marring the paint, so I wanted to make a mount for it that slides into the receiver.

I started with some scrap and cut some angles...



...welded’er up...



...and used some threaded inserts in the board to mount it to the tubing. Testing the lights:



Easy removal.

 

What? No locking pivot to fold it more compact for storage?

 

I’ll bet I’d be able to hear that rattle from the drivers seat in the RV.

 

Ready for Moab?

 

Getting there. Mechanically, the jeep and RV are as ready as they’re going to be.

Packing everything we might need without bringing everything we own is the hard part.

 

That tow sign should be patented! Great idea!