Can of Worms...Jeep Style.

[jeeponthebrain]

So the water pump went out on the Jeep. Remove belt, drain radiator, replace pump. Now belt squeaks. Maybe the idler pully's are bad. Remove belt again, replace both idler pullys. Squeak is still there. Harmonic balancer is off kilter? Remove belt AGAIN, have to remove radiator to get puller on balancer, drain radiator AGAIN, replace harmonic balancer. Yea! Squeak is gone. Now alternator is making noise, bearing is toast? Remove belt AGAIN.(Wishing Jeep made a belt tensioner instead of 5 bolts to take off belt)Replace alternator. Now Jeep wont pass inspection because exhaust manifold is cracked. Guess I will put on this Banks header I have had for a while. Power steering is bolted to intake, remove belt AGAIN. Replace exhaust manifold. Jeep is quiet. Go for a test drive. Now leaking gas from gas tank. Drop tank, replace gas lines. Test drive again. No leaks. Quiet. To quiet, CD is stuck in stereo. Stereo will not work. Replace stereo. Test drive to inspection station. PASSED INSPECTION. Now it is too cold and rainy to drive it...damn.

 

[Herzog]

Love it. I know your pain. I broke off the back bolt on the exhaust header but it's so far stuffed into my chassis that I can't get the broke end out so I'm just going to wait until it starts leaking or blows out the gasket right there before I pull the damn motor (again) to fix it.

Last time I messed with the belt adjuster I stripped it out so I ended up having to fab a new one out of small blocks of steel and some grade 8 nuts. Always something when you start tearing into it!

 

[SAMI]

This sounds exactly like my old Samurai.. Even down to the stuck CD; Sublime in my case.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

If it makes you feel any better, before we leave for Moab next Friday I need to swap the transfer case, pull my rear bumper off and adjust it, swap out the front long arms and front axle, install the electric fan, and possibly replace my radiator if the shop cannot braze on a new filler neck. Fun stuff for sure, I'm just glad it rained and cooled things off a bit so I can still wear pants and long sleeves while crawling around under the Jeep.

 

[gijohn40]

I got you beat... my jeep was running on 5 cylinders... I took the head off and the oil pan off and found two pistons that were damaged so I replaced them and put it all back together... just to find out that two of the cylinders (different ones) had low compression so I took it all apart again and replaced the rings in all the cylinders (again) and put it all back together once again.... then I find that the water pump that came with the engine is not working right and keeps blowing the top hose off the radiator... I look and find its flowing in the wrong directions so I get a reverse rotation pump and guess what... the thermostat is stuck (its brand new) so I take it out all together... just to find the radiator cap is bad... I replace that and now the starter motor is not working.....

I stopped working on this engine and turned my attention to the truck with the tranny on the ground!

 

[gijohn40]

oh by the way I was given this engine for free... and I think the reason why is its cursed!

 

[RockChucker]

My cousins 01 TJ has a belt tensioner. Maybe it is an easy swap? Mine used to have an adjuster. Pain in the rear. I always ended up with bruised knuckles loosening up the belt. I'm pretty sure you have done it more in the last little bit than I had the entire time I had a 4.0

 

[UNSTUCK]

Great write up, but you left out the part about throwing wrenches across the shop because of busted knuckles.

 

[glockman]

I didn't read where you went to the parts store to get the water pump and got home to discover it is the wrong part and now its too late to return it because they are closed so you have to wait until tomorrow.

I have envious cars. Whenever I start working on the Jeep, one of the other cars that was running fine decides to take a dump so I go from 1 extra to one short all the time.

 

[RockChucker]

I have envious cars. Whenever I start working on the Jeep, one of the other cars that was running fine decides to take a dump so I go from 1 extra to one short all the time.

Seriously. It's like one gets sick and they all catch it. A lot of times it will hit all the vehicles at my house haha