new plates, some updates

   Randi has new plates now, bringing her that much closer to full recovery! Apparently you get new plates at the drop of a hat here in Texas... I suppose that keeps the folks at the plate factory gainfully employed, rather than running about like children hopped up on too many Popsicles.

   I was able to secure a timing light and engine analyzer (thanks to Chris), and found that the timing was advanced by about 10 degrees from what the label on the hood indicated. After correcting this, she runs much better, although I am still fighting the plethora of vacuum leaks under the hood... I know I'll have to recheck the timing once I have replaced all of the vacuum hoses, the intake manifold and exhaust manifold gaskets, and anything else that might be leaking under there (Eris knows what that might be, but she's not telling).

    I am also going to re-rebuild the carburetor; this time, instead of using spray carb cleaner and a brush, I am going to do what I should have done in the first place: a nice long soak in ChemDip. I have also ordered a kit to replace the idle jets with larger ones to prevent clogging. I could have drilled them out to .032" but it's not an easy task to find a drill bit in that size - they don't carry those at the local hardware outlet :)

    The other decision I need to make is whether to order a new electric choke kit or replace it with an old-school manual choke... the biggest benefit to the manual choke is that it would be a de facto theft deterrent, since there are not that many people left who even know what a manual choke is, much less how to operate one; the would-be joyrider would probably flood the carburetor and kill the battery trying to get the Jeep started :) (Okay, yes, I am old and cynical - deal with it). 

    The goal of all this is the coveted inspection sticker - the county we live in performs emissions testing and Randi is one year shy of being exempt, so I need to get everything lined out before I go to the station. Of course, a clean-running engine is good for everyone, but the Byzantine twentieth-century emissions plumbing is very prone to any number of failures that leave the engine polluting more than if the emissions system weren't there at all... I have confidence that it can be done, however. Even if I have to replace every last component. Sigh.

I am Jack's *super funky* carburetor

Judge for yourself: the float was stuck to the bottom of the bowl from all the crud! 

It took 3 1/2 cans of carb cleaner and a healthy dose of elbow grease to clean it out... and I will probably end up taking it all apart later and soaking it for a weekend. 

I am Jack's dirty carburetor

I picked up the carb kit and float yesterday, with the plan being to rebuild the carb on Saturday... here's hoping!

another step closer

Last night I put 5 gallons of gasoline in the tank and hooked the jumper cables up to see if Randi would start... after a lot of cranking, the answer was not yet!  I got some promising almost-starts, but more work is needed before she will run on her own. The carburetor is flooding gas like crazy, it looks like the floats are stuck and the idle tubes are fouled... time for a rebuild. That will give me a chance to check out more of the vacuum lines as well - I've already spotted a number of empty ports and hoses, and a couple of controls that have broken ports. 

The project continues... finally!

After a considerable delay due to family issues, I finally have had some time to work on Randi! One thing that has made this more of a priority: the Suburban blew a wheel bearing during Hurricane Ike, in addition to all of her other issues... she needs a break and some serious work done. After an oil flush, Dawn's Liberty is back on the road, so it will really be nice to have the Wrangler running for those times when we need two vehicles. Now, on to the updates!

I have replaced the coil, plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, fuel pump and the screen filter inside the gas tank. That last item deserves elaboration...

When the Jeep was parked for the last time 2+ years ago, it had gasoline in the tank. This needed to be drained before the engine could be started, and I wanted to see the state of the inside of the tank, to see if further cleaning would be required... therefore, I decided to drop the tank.

The Haynes book procedure is pretty spot-on, but there are some things that they don't tell you... such as the hose clamps for the fuel filler and vent hoses are in a position that is impossible to reach with a screwdriver unless you already have the tank out. Or that the tailpipe makes it a snug fit and you really need to jockey the tank around the pipe, or possibly remove it. Suffice to say that three hours (and a few bruised knuckles) after I started, the tank was on the ground.

The good news, after cleaning the exterior with a hose, was that the tank was the 20gal plastic tank... the bad news was that there was at least 5 gallons of old gas, and, upon removal of the sending unit, the filter on the end of the pickup tube was clogged and split in a number of places. More good news was that there was very little crud in the tank, so it didn't look like major cleaning would be needed. I started a siphon to drain the tank... the gasoline that came out looked very much like pineapple juice - not what you'd want to run through an engine. After the tank was empty (drained into cans for later disposal), I put a half-gallon of gas and a chain in the tank, sloshed it around for a bit to knock any crud loose and then drained the tank again and sealed it up.

After research, calling various parts houses and actually getting home with the wrong filter, I found that most aftermarket vendors only sell the tank filter for the 4.0 fuel-injected model (for electric fuel pump) so I ended up getting one from Jeep. The price was reasonable and it should last for another 180k miles... once I got that installed, it was time to re-install the tank.

After I positioned the tank underneath the Jeep, I reconnected all the lines to the sending unit and rollover-cutoff valves, then raised the tank and reconnected the filler hose and vent hose... sounds really simple but those are pretty stiff hoses and it took some doing to get them to slip onto the tank. It did take much less time to put the tank back up though - only about 45 minutes or so. Once all bolts were tightened, I took Randi off of the jack stands and moved forward to replace the fuel pump.

The fuel pump was a fairly straightforward replacement procedure, 2 lines and 2 bolts. I also replaced the 6" section of rubber fuel line between the metal line from the gas tank to the inlet of the fuel pump. The only thing left to do now is put some fresh gasoline in the tank and see if she will start!

I have placed her on my insurance coverage, so now I need to go to the county office and get the registration updated - it sucks that you can't go to just any office, but you have to go to one in your county. Once that is done and Randi is running well, it's off to the inspection station... I will probably drive her a bit around the place to make sure everything is running well before that happens.

More updates soon!

Don't worry - I've not given up my project, just taking a break to gather supplies and information! Smoke if ya got 'em!

wow - should it look like that???

Today I got Randi up on ramps to replace the lower radiator hose and do an oil change. The hose went on okay after I trimmed about 1/2 inch from the radiator end, so I filled the radiator with water to see if there were any leaks from the bottom... after everything had dried off, there was a slow but steady drip - I'm guessing that there's a small crack where the neck meets the radiator. It's a pain but easily fixed.

Next, I grabbed the oil-change pan and a 9/16 socket and started draining the oil... which seemed to have the consistency of pancake batter (ugh). I guess sitting for two years is not good for the viscosity (heh). After about an hour there was still sludge dripping from the drain hole, so I plugged it back up. I am going to get a oil pan gasket, pull the pan, scoop the remaining sludge and clean the pan properly... this will also allow me to inspect the bottom of the engine while I am there. It also has made me rethink postponing the changing of the differential, transmission and transfer case fluids - who knows what kind of goop those have turned into in the last two years?