Gimme a Brake Pt. 2

The passenger side rear brake assembly with a new brake drum installed.

I began working on the driver side rear brake assembly yesterday, but unfortunately I could not complete the job because one of the components that I needed to reuse was rusted so bad that it snapped in half; the brake kit that I bought did not come with the replacement, so I was out of luck. Hopefully I can find the piece at an auto parts store, perhaps at NAPA today when I bring my intake manifold in to get hot dipped.

The Jeep Wrangler wiring harness that I bought on Sunday.

My t-case (left) next to the broken one that I got for free.

I will be swapping input shafts because mine is made for the 2.5L engine, not the 4.0L.

Time to Spend More Money

Last week Dave was searching craigslist and he stumbled upon a great deal on an AX-15 transmission (the type that is used with the Jeep 4.0 L engine), and after he spoke with the seller on the phone, we decided to make the trip up to buy it. So yesterday we drove about an hour and 20 minutes up to East Sparta, Ohio to the guy's house.

His house was out in the middle of the woods and surrounded by swamps and streams, and there were lots of trails and great mud patches everywhere. It was pretty clear from his assortment of vehicles that he was taking advantage of all the trails nearby. He had two Jeep Wranglers (a YJ and a TJ) that were both lifted with big off-road style tires and both were covered with mud (I'm talking mud caked on everywhere, even on the seats inside the Jeeps). He also had some little ATV's and off road vehicles that were pretty cool. I don't know why I didn't think to take any pictures while I was there, I'm kicking myself for it now.

He also had 4 full-sized ROTTWEILERS. I've never seen a Rottweiler up close, and I couldn't believe how huge and solid they are. Fortunately they were really friendly and all wanted to lick me and sniff me and not eat me.

So, I ended up buying an AX-15 tranny from him for $250, and he was such a nice guy that he threw in the bell housing and a broken transfer case (which has the 23 spline input gear I need) for free. Then he also showed me a full wiring harness and ECM that he pulled from a 4.0L Jeep Wrangler. Getting this stuff would save me the huge headache of figuring out how to get my 4 cylinder wiring harness to work with the new 6 cylinder engine, and also determining whether or not the Grand Cherokee ECM that I got from the guy who sold me the engine would work or not. I bought his harness and ECM for another $200.

Dave, being the impulsive buyer that he is, saw a set of half doors and a full set of seats that the guy had lying around, and bought them on the spot with cash that he brought with him "just in case" the guy had something he wanted.

I didn't do any work on the Jeep because it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel like working. Here is the list of things I will be working on in this week:

- Clean the new transmission (exterior and interior)
- Swap in the new input shaft into my t-case
- Finish cleaning up the 4.0
- Get the intake manifold hot dipped
- Install the rear brake assembly on the other side
- Reassemble the engine/tranny/t-case and prep for re-installation

Gimme a Brake...

So today I put in close to 9 hours of work and I got a pretty good amount of stuff done. I spent the first couple of hours changing the oil in my RX-8 (gsmithrx8.blogspot.com), which happened to be the first time I've ever changed my own oil! Maybe I'll actually add another entry to that blog for the first time since November...

My first big project today was removing/masking all of the components on the 4.0 so that I could clean it up and give it a few coats of engine enamel. It might not be evident from the pictures, but the engine enamel really helped out the appearance of the motor. The valve cover turned out especially nice, which is great because that will be the most visible part of the engine when the hood is popped.






The next thing I did was to strip down the intake manifold so that I can take it into NAPA and get it hot dipped. The toughest part was getting the fuel rail off, which turned out to be just a pull and wiggle technique according to my newly purchased Haynes manual.



The final, and by far WORST thing I worked on today was setting up and installing a new parking brake on the rear right axle hub. I thought it was hard getting the brake drum off last night; well that was nothing compared to installing new brakes. Not only did I have to figure out 90% of the assembly on my own, but I also had to deal with compressing springs and getting everything to fit just right without any assistance. I have a new respect for auto mechanics now...







I still have to do the same thing for the driver's side rear brake, but it shouldn't be as tough now that I have struggled through it once and I know how to do everything.

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday was Thursday the 26th, and I started the evening by pushing the Jeep out of Dave's garage so I could sweep up all the dried mud that has been collecting on the floor. I also cleaned up the various fluids that have leaked out of my old engine/transmission/transfer case. Since Dave has multiple kids and dogs, poisonous fluids aren't the best thing to have sitting in puddles on the ground.

A three legged dog that lives in Dave's neighborhood, he's usually really wet and smells awful...

On the subject of cleaning, I also threw my old seats and my spare tire in the back of Dave's truck and took them down to his barn to store them. I'm kind of a neat freak, so the more space I have and the better things are organized, the happier I am.


One thing I did yesterday that actually involved my Jeep was to remove the transfer case from my old AX-5 transmission. The transfer case is pictured below, and it is used to convert some of the power from the engine into rotational energy to drive the front wheels when the 4 wheel drive is engaged.






When 4WD is not engaged, the T-Case simply causes the rear output shaft (the one on the top left) to spin by itself. Upon engagement of the 4WD, certain gears inside the T-Case mesh, causing the front output shaft (the one on the top right) to rotate, thus rotating the driveshaft attached to the front axel. The T-Case was a PITA to remove because there were about 8 nuts to remove and there was barely any room to fit a wrench in between the tranny and the t-case housing.

The next thing I did was drain all the oil out of the oil pan and then remove the pan from the engine. I wanted to replace the gasket, and while the pan was off I was able to clean it inside and out to remove build-up and sludge.

I spreayed the exterior of the pan with engine degreaser and then wiped it down after letting the degreaser soak in for 10 minutes. It took some elbow grease to get the sludge off, but in the end it was worth it to get the oil pan looking like (almost) new.

Although the interior components of the engine appear to be sludge free and in great condition, the exterior could use some work. I'm thinking of picking up some engine enamel that I could use to spray the entire engine block to clean up the appearance. I hope to get a good deal of work in tomorrow (Saturday); it's supposed to be 65 and sunny, so it should be a perfect day to be out working on the Jeep, although I'd rather be driving it!

Taking out the Interior

On Tuesday, March 24th, I spent most of the evening pulling out as much of the interior as I could. I managed to get all three seats out with little difficulty. The carpet was a little harder because of some accessories bolted down on top of it, such as the center console and the seatbelts.


As you can see, there is quite a bit of rust on the floor which will need to be sanded and then repainted. I still need to remove the carpet covering the rear wheel wells as well as the speakers and the wires running up to the dash.

My original plan was to simply throw out (or sell) the current seats because they are old, dirty, and ripped. Lately I've been considering keeping them and simply buying seat covers in order to save money, but I'm still undecided on this issue.

I turned the engine on the motor mount so that I could attempt to clean out the intake ports as much as possible without accidentally scraping any of the build-up into the cylinders. I don't know if I was successful or not... The grime buildup was pretty heavy and I wasn't able to get it all off.

My header is quite rusted and is also slightly cracked at the point where the tubes merge. But, since a new header will cost me around $400+, I think I will end up sand blasting it, welding the crack shut, and painting it to make it look good. The intake manifold will likely be taken to NAPA autoparts to be hot dipped (which I hope will clean it up nicely).

Next step: keep cleaning the engine!

Out With the Old, In With the New

Ok, so the new hasn't actually gone in yet, but the old has come out and to me that is a major milestone. Before this project, the biggest undertaking I had ever completed on a vehicle was changing the spark plugs, and I thought that was difficult. And now I have taken an entire engine and transmission out of a vehicle after 4 days of work.

Nothing but a gaping hole where the engine/tranny/t-case used to be.

The old engine has come out, and the new engine is waiting to go in.

Transplant Needed - Donor Found

After much discussion and thought, I finally decided to go with an AMC 4.0L Inline 6 cylinder engine to replace my stock 2.5L Inline 4. The 4.0 has fuel injection, unlike the 4.2L carb'd Inline 6 that came before the 4.0. The 4.0 would also give me extra torque and power over the 2.5L so that I wouldn't have to worry about being sluggish on the highway.

Dave and I both searched on sites like Craigslist and eBay in hopes of finding a 4.0 that was reasonably priced and not too far away. Dave lucked out in finding a 4.0 listed in the classified section of the newspaper that was pulled out of a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo with only 75,000 miles on it for $250. The engine also came with the wiring harness and the ecm (electronic control module, aka the computer that controls the car) out of the Grand Cherokee, which was a great find.



On Saturday, March 21, Dave and I went to buy the engine. It was in very good condition and the seller gave us some good information about the engine and some advice on putting it in a Wrangler.



The next thing we did was stop at an AutoZone to buy some engine degreaser. We sprayed down the entire engine while it was still on the trailer. Then we took it to a car wash and used a heated power washer to spray down the engine.


This method worked surprisingly well and most of the grease was removed, leaving the engine looking very nice. The only areas that I was unable to clean were on the oil pan, which was obstructed from the path of the water by the spare tire we used to rest the engine on while we transported it.

We hooked the motor up to a motor mount for easy access and transportation. After removing the valve cover to take a look at the push rods and rockers, we noticed that they were extremely clean for an engine with 75,000 miles on it, and we decided that I wouldn't need to do any major rebuilding, which would save a considerable amount of time and money.

All in all, Saturday was a really good day thanks to finally tracking down a replacement engine, getting a great deal on it, and being comfortable that it had been taken good care of by its previous owner(s). I can't wait to get it installed and see how the extra power feels.