New rear differential seals and fluid

This one was fun and productive. My rear differential was leaking at the base of the cover, and rather than simply topping the diff off with fresh fluid, I wanted to change the seal and get rid of most of the junk gear oil in there. I pulled the cover off the rear differential. Leaving the top two bolts in, I popped the cover and drained the old, nasty fluid out. It smelled rather burned/carbonized, but the ring gear wasn't chewed up and there were essentially no shavings in the drained fluid.

I then cleaned out the gears with some shop towels, wiping out as much of the old gear oil as I could. I think, overall, it went well. As part of this process, I also cleaned the flanged on the differential housing with a 1" chisel (gently, as not to gouge the housing in any way). It had a thin, crusty layer of RTV on it, as well as an old gasket saturated in certain spots where it was leaking (near the bottom). My primary concern was to get a good, smooth flange. I was considering using some sandpaper but thought better of it. In hindsight, I should have used a small level to check how true the differential housing was.

Afterwards, I turned my attention to the cover, which needed to be wiped clean of the old fluid and bits of RTV and gasket. I scraped its flange smooth, using WD40 in small doses to loosen the built up RTV. I also used a file to remove small nicks in the leading/outer edge of the flange on the cover. I assumed some were there from the previous owner hitting the occasional object while four-wheeling. All in all, it took about fifteen minutes. I just sat on my driveway, scraping and filing away. I then put on some new RTV sealant, followed by the new gasket. Once I was finished with this, it was put back on the Jeep and filled with Lucas Oil's gear oil for limited slip differentials (which apparently is different than regular gear oil).




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I then had to turn my attention to the pinion seal where the pinion comes out of the differential to meet up with the yoke where the rear drive shaft attaches. As you can see in the pic at left, oil and grime cover the bottom half of the differential but there's almost none on the drive shaft itself. This a typical sign of a bad pinion seal. The oil leaks out here and thenis blown back onto the differential housing by the wind flowing underneath the Jeep. At first I was worried that there was too much slop or play in the pinion shaft, which would beat up the pinion seal and lead to a leak, even if I put in a new seal. Luckily, that was not the case. First, I had to remove the drive shaft from the yoke, for obvious reasons. This was easy. I want to lube up the U-joint anyway, so popping off the drive shaft gave me the opportunity to clean up that joint area a bit.

The only real pain in this process was removing the U-joint from the pinion shaft. There's a large nut down the center of the joint which holds it onto the pinion shaft (you can see the hint of a nut in the above pic and the threads in the pic at left). It is a compression fit (the shaft gets wider as it moves down into the differential), so as the nut is tightened (to 200 ft-lbs.), the U-joint is pressed down onto the shaft. Even after the nut was removed, it was as if I hadn't taken it off yet. I used AutoZone's tool loan program to get a five-ton puller. Eventually, it popped off, but not until I'd put a great deal of strain on it. I was afraid the thing would blow up in my face as the pitman-arm puller did early in my Jeep work. It didn't.

Now I got to pull the old seal, which was a mess (see right), and then put in the new one. Putting everything back together was fairly easy. The only issue, if you can call it one, was getting that nut tightened back to 200 ft-lbs. I have a very good torque wrench that goes up to 250 ft-lbs., but I couldn't get the dang thing to "click" at 200. I read on IFSJA.org that 200 ft-lbs. really means "as tight as humanely possible." Lying under the Jeep, both hands on the torque wrench above me, slightly above horizontal, I was lifting my large frame off the ground, pulling with all that I had in me at this point. I'd put thread locking fluid on it, so I'm quite confident it won't back out on me. It hasn't yet. In the end, the seal remains clean to this day, and I'm happy with what I got done.

Headlights and rear cargo area

Not having driven the Jeep at night much, I hadn't noticed that I had a popeye situation, so I ordered a pair of headlights from Amazon and put them in. But as I have mentioned before, the previous owner had hit something with the front right, crumpling the fender a little bit. Once I dug into the headlight housing area, I found out that the adjuster screw/bracketry for the right headlight was gone, having snapped off no doubt during impact. As a result, I couldn't get the headlight to point directly forward. Instead, it drooped down. Since the power to the headlights is already weak because the car is working with twenty-year-old technology (some IFSJA guys go so far as to upgrade the electrical system--fuse, wiring, housing--for the headlights to accommodate high-powered halogen bulbs), I need this thing to point as straight forward as I can get it. So I built a small "adjustable" bracket with what is called plumber's tape. One screw goes in the headlight mounting ring. The other is in the body of the car. The plumber's tape is bent into a Z shape between them. I can compress or expand the Z as needed to get the headlight to point where I want it to go. Not a fancy solution, but it worked. I used the same tape to create little brackets to hold the emergency brake cable up out of the way along the frame rails (since I had to have them ride lower due to the tension increase that resulted from the lift kit).

I also mounted my hi-lift jack on the rear fender wells in the cargo area. I liked this spot for several reasons. First, I wanted it in the Jeep rather than on the front or rear bumpers or even the hood, as is common for the CJ/Wrangler style Jeeps. Second, I didn't want it or its brackets to take up cargo space on the bed of the Jeep. Third, I wanted it below the back of the bench seat to avoid my kids banging their heads/hands/teeth/elbows on it. I hang the jack accessories bag from the jack itself to keep it from moving around, as well. A good setup, all in all. At some point I want to get the rear bumper with swing out spare tire carrier from BJ's, but that is not in the budget for the next six or seven months, so tucking it under the jack works well. I also plan to get a three point strap that will mount to rings in the bed of the Jeep to hold the tire firmly in place. This'll be a good solution so that when I get the new bumper, I'll be able to use the strap and mounting rings to hold other cargo in place (like camping or day trip gear, perhaps).

The brakes are done, plus some other stuff for the engine

At last, I have brakes. But I wasn't able to complete the job myself due to the leak where the main hard line met the extended brake hose that drops down from the body frame to the left side of the rear axle. I was able to bleed the right rear drum with the help of my wife, but once I did so, any pressure on the brake pedal caused a leak at the hard line/brake hose connection. I flanged the hard line above the axle four times, but the leak would not go away. So I called Triple A, had the Jeep towed to Brake Masters in Redlands, and paid a chunk of money for the shop to get them to work. In the end, I didn't want to doubt their efficacy with the kids in the car. Money well spent.

Turns out, the extended brake hose that came with my BJ's 4" lift kit was no good. (I don't blame BJ's in any way--their products are consistently excellent, as are their prices--but I'll send them a heads up email in case I'm not the only one who's had a problem with the hose.) Besides, that leak wasn't the only problem with the Jeep's brake system. I had damaged the front right hard line when I installed the extended brake hose. Though I was able to flange that line, my fix didn't fix it. So it goes. Brake Masters also threw on a new master cylinder (no charge, happily) because the seals were damaged by the massive leak from the rear brake hose. In addition, the emergency brake hardware and the brake cylinders in the rear drums were broken and had to be replaced. The cylinders were probably damaged quite some time ago because, in spite of the ridiculously worn out front brake pads (1/16" left) which I replaced, the rear brake shoes still have 80% left.

With an effective e-brake at last, the new calipers and pads up front, and the new cylinders on largely unused shoes in the rear, I'm happy with what I have. After picking up the Jeep from the brake shop, I tooled around Redlands industrial parks for a while, bedding in the front brake pads. This involves getting up to about 60mph and applying the brakes firmly until the Jeep slows to about 10mph, at which point I drive it back up to 60 or so and repeat the process. By heating up the brake pads and the rotors, in effect I'm forcing the pads to transfer some of their material to the rotors. The trick, so I've read, is not to stop completely during the process (if at all possible) so that the pad material is transfered evenly. This allows for two methods of braking in the front, friction/pressure (the pads pushing against the rotors) and chemical (the pads bonding temporarily with the transfered pad material). I think I did it correctly--it does stop, which (for a 20 year old car) is nice. I'll do a second bedding in process later this week or over the weekend.

Here's a pic of it after I got home from the brake shop. This shows the 4" lift, especially in comparison to the picture at the bottom of the blog (in the first entry from August). It looks a bit silly like this, to be honest, but the new tires are on the Jeep and these old ones will be on Craig's List soon enough.
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In addition to getting the brakes taken care of, I've added in a new starter to get this thing operating correctly. The old one was shot. I got a used one from Scotty's for fifty bucks, but they gave me the wrong one (I think it's for an '87 GW, not an '88). They swore to me it was the right one, but alas. I waited too long to take it back, so I ended up buying a remanufactured one from Kragen for less than a hundred. It works quite well and was easy to hook up. I also discovered, in this process, that the previous start was only held on with one bolt instead of two. Either the previous owner or a bad mechanic is responsible for this nifty little revelation. I've rectified the problem, all for about five minutes of time and a few bucks for a grade 8 bolt of the right size. I returned the old starter to Kragen to get my thirty dollar core charge back.

I also added an air intake hose from the air filter/cleaner housing above the carbuerator to a extruded flange behind the front grill. Rather than sucking in 200* air from the engine compartment, I now get the much denser and colder air from in front of the Jeep. Considering this thing is as aerodynamic as a shoe box, I might as well take advantage of all that air pressing against the grill. The difference in idle, running temperature, and horsepower is noticeable. I can say this with confidence because the intake hose kept falling off the filter housing, and I knew it had done so because the engine ran much more roughly. To solve this problem, I used some thin wire to afix the hose to the housing securely.

In addition to the air intake hose, I threw in an Optima yellow-top battery to give this thing enough power. Eventually, I'm going to have KC lights and a pre-runner bumper, plus a portable air compressor in the back, so I want to have enough juice to run those things without necessarily having to put a heavier load on the engine. Some day I may even have a winch, which would make the Optima all but mandatory.

Track bar extension brackets

The rear track bar was a pain, requiring much more 'persuasion' with a hammer and a blowtorch than I expected. You can see in the picture on the right that the top part of the bracket is slightly charred. That's from heating it to soften it so that I could pry it open and create enough space to fit the track bar end. The problem is that the bracket extension is designed to fit (just barely) in the original bracket on the axle. When I installed it on the axle, it was squeezed somewhat closed because of the snugness of the fit, leaving little room for the track bar end. The other issue that made the installation difficult was camber. The rear axle, as a result of the lift kit, is tilted slightly farther back, which causes a 10-15 degree misalignment between the end of the track bar and the extension bracket. As a result, once the bracket extension is installed, the track bar doesn't want to go in there anymore. Initially, I gave up, having read in multiple places that the track bar was a Chrysler add-on after the acquisition in late '87 or early '88. FSJ's for decades have gone without them. But being a safety nut and a guy with two wonderful little kids who deserve to grow up in to nightmarish teenageres, I really wanted to get it back on. So, a hammer, a blowtorch, and a few choice blue words later, it fits. Please note: the gas tank is above the left side of the rear axle. Ergo, no, I didn't blow torch this thing while it was on the car. I did it over a patch of crabgrass on my front lawn with a fire extinguisher nearby. As I said, safety nut.

The front was significantly easier, but I still got to use the blowtorch. This time, it wasn't the bracket itself that was the problem. What was troublesome with the front track bar was the axle end link bushing. Whether it was installed incorrectly at the factory (which is my bet) or by a previous owner, it was offset by over a quarter of an inch. As you can see in the picture at right, the crush sleeve (the steel tube in the center of the track bar end which the bolt slides through) is correctly mounted, but the bushing is "sunk" in (and bulging out the other side significantly), leaving one of the track bar's steel edges to rub against the original bracket on the axle. As a result, it was heavily scored (the lower left portion of the track bar end is shiny because it has been rubbed raw, for lack of a better phrase). The bushing is vulcanized during insertion and fitted with an outer metal sleeve, both of which make it harder to press out the bushing (go here for more specific instructions). By burning it, I was able to melt the vulcanization and push out the crush sleeve and bushing. The new polyurethane bushing is in, and the track bar is on:

New front brake rotors and calipers are on

As you can see in the picture at right, the rotor is shaved, the new caliper is on, and the bleeding is about to begin. I wanted a second pair of Speed Bleeders for the back drum brakes (they're different than the ones in front--5/16" for the back, 3/8" for the front), but I ordered the wrong size. But that's the least of my problems for the brakes, as I'll discuss in a later post.

In the process of installing the extended brake hoses for the front calipers, I made another mistake, damaging the end of the hard brake line that meets the hose at the frame rail. I used the "borrow-a-tool" option from AutoZone, installed a new nut, and flanged the end. It was a worthwhile mistake, actually, because I was able to learn a bit more about working with brake lines. Not fun, but educational. [Editor's Note: I flanged it correctly, but I twisted the hard brake line so much that it had to be replaced. Ultimately, I was not able to get the lines right.]

Front brake rotors and hubs

Last week I removed the rotors, which overall went smoothly except for the outer retaining ring inside the manual locking hub. The first one took me 45 minutes to remove (no exaggeration) and the second about 20 (once I figured out what to do). From what I understand, this is typical if you don't have the exact right tools (e.g., dental picks or the fingers of a Lilliputian). I ended up using surgical tweezers that have tiny teeth on the end for gripping. After that, everything was cake. Out came the two retaining rings, the clutch assembly, two lock nuts, a lock washer, and the outer bearings. Once I popped the rotor off, I removed the seal and the inner bearings. The grease inside was a yellow/black mixture, but it didn't smell burned and the Timken bearings spun smoothly once cleaned with odorless mineral spirits.

The previous owner had not replaced the front brake pads for about 53 years, so they were ground down to about 1/8" thick (see left), which carved deep grooves into the rotor surfaces, front and back. I wasn't sure if the rotors could be shaved smooth, but the guys at Brake Masters did a great job for just ten bucks a rotor. They look like new.

I was seriously considering a rotor upgrade, perhaps dimpled and slotted rotors for gas dispersal, but several forum threads on IFSJA.org made it clear that a better investment for stoping is an upgrade in calipers and pads. I've bought the larger calipers for a mid-80s K20 Suburban and carbon metallic pads. I also have the extended brake lines that came with my BJ'S Off Road lift kit (bjsoffroad.com). With smoothed rotors, better brake pades, and larger-piston calipers, I think the new brake system is going to work quite well, especially in light of the larger tires (31's or 33's for which I'm in the market).

I also had to replace a lug on the right front hub. I spayed in multiple times PB Blaster penetrating oil to facilitate removal. Then I put my BFH on the stubby lug and then hit it with a hammer several times (warning: wear ear protection). It popped out on the fifth hit. When I get ready to put the tire back on, I'm going to have to put a little extra care in attaching the lug nut to the new lug to make sure it seats fully in the wheel hub housing (it's about 1/8" short of being fully seated).

I fully scrubbed all of the inner hub components and the inside of each hub itself with mineral spirits and an old toothbrush, inside an old plastic tub (what I refer to as my 'cleaning station'). I used about a gallon of the spirits, which worked quite well. Once cleaned, I took this time to scrub the rust off of the hub assembly using a drill bit with wire brush attached in my cordless drill. This wasn't about getting the thing polished, just for cutting down on the mild rust build up. After everything was dried and wiped clean, I greased all of the components and the front spindles with Lucas Oil's Red 'N Tacky #2 bearing grease (FYI, it ain't red--it's pinkish purple).

I put in the regreased inner bearing and new seal on each rotor, hammering them flush with the back of the inner rotor assembly with a small hardwood block. At $3.97 each for new Timken seals from Auto Zone, I saw little reason to reuse the old seals; besides, I'd damaged mine slightly getting them out (too cheap to buy a seal puller--I'm tired of buying tools I'm only going to use once or twice a year).

Reassembling the second rotor took about twenty minutes total. However, the first one took me about an hour an a half because of a locknut issue. I greased the front left spindle and put on the rotor assembly, the outer bearing, and the first locknut. Unfortunately, I thought I had the nut threaded properly, but I didn't, so I mashed the first full revolution of the threads on the spindle. Amateur/stupid mistake, I'm sure (and not one I repeated on the second hub/rotor install). After reworking the nut and threads to guide smoothly and securely, I added the lock washer and second locknut (torquing it to 50-60 ft-lbs.). Then I reinstalled the clutch assembly, the two snap rings (after grinding the tips of the outer snap ring for easier removal next time, on the advice of an IFSJA.org member). So the rotors are back on and ready for calipers.

Next up on my plate is the extended brake lines front and back, which might be a bit difficult because the rear hard brake lines are frozen. I'll probably have to cut them off so that I can use a socket to remove them from the drum housing safely. We'll see.

Assessment and progress report

It's been a month since my last post because I've been either under the Jeep or at work since the new semester is now in full swing. In the foreground of the shot above is the new leaf spring, at rest below the top of the drum brake hub. If you look above the far drum brake/wheel hub, you can see the old leaf spring which is above to top, making it clear how much of a lift these new springs will give me. (The old ones are simply shot; they're in a pile near my garbage cans now.)

In this shot, the shocks are removed, as is the track bar, which I have since reinstalled with a relocation bracket.

I've installed a 4" lift kit from BJ's Off Road, which is a great kit and went in easily. I was lucky that the hidden nut welded to the frame rail next to the gas tank held fast so that I didn't have to drop the tank to hold it in place while putting the new left rear spring on. Once the springs were installed, I added Rancho RS9000XL shocks front and rear, plus Rancho's RS5000 steering stabilizer shock (see pic below).

In order to improve axle articulation off road (and to compensate for the 4" lift), I installed BJ's sway bar quick disconnects. I can pop them off to get the axle moving when I need it but put them back on when I need stability on roads. I also replaced the sway bar bushings, as well, because they were rather crusty.

Inside the car, I've also fixed the right rear passenger door handle/elbow rest. I just popped the door panel off, installed the retaining clips, and screwed it back on. The leather steering wheel cover was also ripped and stained, so I cut it off and put an aftermarket matching-ish steering wheel cover.

So I've done it...

As some of you may know, this project idea began about a year ago when I began talking with my wife about the possibility of building some kind of off-road rig. I've been watching the car build-up shows for years (Trucks!, Xtreme 4x4, Overhaulin', Rides, and so on), and I wanted something to work on that wasn't going to be a daily driver or something I had to keep running at all times. I jumped around, thinking about a pickup, a mid-sized Cherokee from the 80's like my dad once owned, or perhaps a Baja Bug (also something my dad once owned, though his was decidedly more for street use). I'd settled on a late sixties Baja Bug, having owned a '73 Bug and a '79 Vanagon, and currently commuting regularly in a deisel New Beetle.

But then I had to weigh in the possibility of fitting three kids (albeit little ones) in the back seat, plus adding a tow hitch to my wife's Odyssey in order to get this thing to the OHV/trail areas. After much deliberation, I turned my attention to a full-size Jeep (FSJ). A college kid who lived three blocks from RCC was selling his '88 Grand Wagoneer, a bugly beast in need of some upgrades but otherwise straight and solid with good mechanics. Since I'm going to be improving this thing with suspension, brakes, some engine mods, and bigger tires, I just wanted a solid shell and nothing in great shape that I would remove/upgrade later. If I was removing it, I wanted it to need removal. Saves me money. So for $1400 (perhaps a few hundred over what I should have paid), I took it off his hands, and now I'm off and running.
It has a few dents (front right fender and back left), but it rides straight and true. The roof rack has been removed, which is fine (I want a black safari rack). The leather inside is in great shape except for the driver's seat, which is a bit shredded. The engine leaks (shocker), as does the rear differential. There's also some oil around the NP 229 transfer case. Also, it sags big time in the back (in the pic above, the right rear tire sits two inches lower than the left rear tire--can you say "collapsed springs"?). I'll repair the leaks eventually, after the lift kit is installed. I will be giving it all new fluids once it's up in the air and safer to drive.