It sounds like you have one that might actually go up in value if you fix it.
At the very least, you could always put an external cage on it, jack it up and make a rock crawler out of it.
It sounds like you have one that might actually go up in value if you fix it.
At the very least, you could always put an external cage on it, jack it up and make a rock crawler out of it.
Ashyukun wrote: Also included in that are screenshots of the LetGo listing for the Jeep, included as an illustration of how NOT to try and sell a vehicle.
Wow, was that a bad picture. Looks like it was taken from a surveillance video. 
stuart in mn wrote:Ashyukun wrote: Also included in that are screenshots of the LetGo listing for the Jeep, included as an illustration of how NOT to try and sell a vehicle.Wow, was that a bad picture. Looks like it was taken from a surveillance video.
Yeah, it was definitely one of the worst ads I've seen (though the description was both surprisingly descriptive and reasonably accurate it seems). I'm guessing his phone has a night mode and he used it to take a picture out the window of his parents' trailer...
Well, berkeley.
So, yesterday I got home and set about getting the Jeep mobile. There were two main things this involved: getting the transmission re-filled with fluid and getting the new wheels/tires onto it.
Filling the transmission was just time consuming given it has to be filled through the dipstick tube. My first problem came when I went to put the wheels on. The two that I had picked up from the salvage yard were unfortunately not anywhere near the same level of wear- one appears to be almost new and have great tread, the other is acceptable. Looking over the tires on the Jeep I had decided that I should swap one of the two existing ones onto the front and put the really good tire on the rear. Since the worse of the two on the rear at the moment was on the driver's side, it was what I planned to move to the front. Operative word being 'planned'...
It seems that the driver's rear wheel has a security lug nut on the wheel. No problem, I just picked up a set of sockets/drivers just for this purpose. OK, so it's an internal hex drive, have a few of those in the set as well as not intended for this use- and of course the stupid one on the Jeep is a size (between 3/8 & 1/2, so likely 7/16...) that neither the security lug driver set has nor do I have in normal hex drivers. OK, fine- the hell with swapping the wheel, all I want to do is take the Jeep on a quick test drive. I figure the nearby tire shop likely has a driver that can get it off, so when I can I'll take it there (read: I'm being good and not buying another $40 set of tools just for this one problem).
Check to make sure that I'm not going to run into anything, move the other two cars out of the way, and fire up the engine. So far so good- put it into gear and back it out of the drive. Again, so far so good, though it does feel like something is dragging a bit. Put it into drive and hit the gas (not much)- and the Jeep lurches forward a bit and stalls. Re-start the engine (after remembering to put it back into park...), and try again- make a bit more progress this time, but it just feels like when I try and push the gas pedal the pedal itself doesn't want to go down and the truck at best lurches forward slowly and then stalls out again. Having had enough, I manage to wrangle it back into the driveway and up to where I had it originally.
So, it looks like there's no way around replacing the transmission. Frankly it feels like it's doing the opposite of slipping- as near as I can tell when in any forward gear the transmission is dragging heavily and/or seizing up. I have to just hope that it's just the transmission and not the transfer case or the diffs- I kind of think though given it behaved far better in reverse that it's just the transmission.
There's a guy locally parting out a '95 ZJ that I could get a transmission from, but unfortunately some Googling shows that they made changes to the transmission (different TC/flexplate pattern and some connectors), so I'm probably going to have to get one out of a junkyard from a 96-98. Since I'm getting SWMBO's Mariner's interior detailed this afternoon I'm loathe to use it to transport a transmission- so I guess I'll find out if I can fit a 44RE into the back of the Riviera or not.
Will probably try and be halfway smart and pull the transmission from my own Jeep first. Some things will be easier on a car in the junkyard (won't care about cutting exhaust out of the way...) but it will be nice to know exactly what needs to be done before I head out, and it will also mean having the core to turn in right away too.
Somewhat concerning is that the cheap salvage yard (ISA in Louisville) only has two 96-98 ZJ's. The other one there has a few more, with more details so I can see that they have the 4.0 (the V8 uses a different transmission... were I a bit more ambitious I'd consider trying to swap in the bigger motor & tranny), but the transmissions are $25 more expensive. There are more up in the Cinci yards, but they also charge (at one) roughly twice what the ISA charges for a slushbox (and ISA's price includes the TC...).
Oh, something a bit more lighthearted and upbeat (as well as bizarre) in the saga of the Jeep...
So one of the things I picked up at the junkyard was a replacement indicator cover for the 4WD selector- the 'brush' on one side of the one on the car was missing and it looked in bad shape overall, so I snagged one while I was at the junkyard that was in far better shape. Once I had pulled the Jeep back into the driveway, I decided to swap them so I pulled out a screwdriver and popped the old one off of the center console. After doing so I noticed something wedged back under the console behind where the cover had been, so I pulled it out.
sigh Yet another cigarette box. I came across several others in the course of cleaning out the car. Was about to throw it in the trash when I noticed something odd: it sounded like there was a muffled jingling coming from this one. So out of curiosity, I opened it up and turned it upside down and found:
OK, now that's a bit more interesting...
No clue whether they're actually worth anything, but will be an amusing trip to a pawn shop to find out. Will be nice if they're worth enough to pay for the replacement transmission. 
Stupid question, if you were on a paved surface you did make sure the T case was in 2WD during this transmission test, right? You describe something not entirely unlike how a 4x4 with mismatched tires will behave on dry pavement if the front axle is engaged.
In reply to BrokenYugo:
It was in 2WD. Interestingly, it seemed to do a bit better when I dropped it into 4WD out of curiosity.
It is worth noting that the ABS light has constantly been on- I do need to check all of the wiring to the sensor and make sure there isn't a problem with one of them that could be causing issues.
One of those rings looks antique.
In reply to Brett_Murphy:
Might be- will be interesting to see if they're worth anything. Will probably take them by a jewelry store or pawn shop over the weekend after I let SWMBO look and see if she thinks she wants to keep any of them.
Since I need to check over the ABS system and that will likely require getting that stupid security lug nut off, I stopped by HF with a coupon and picked up an impact hex driver set that has a 7/16" driver- hopefully it fits and I can finally get the thing off.
Plan this afternoon is to pull the fuses/relays for the ABS system (on the chance that it's causing problems) and then wrestling the Jeep into the garage to start pulling the transmission.
Well, crap. The impact hex driver I picked up fit into the lug nut with a bit of encouraging- but despite having to lightly hammer it in it took surprisingly little force on the breaker bar to enlarge/round out the nut. I tried several other options, both inside and out, but nothing budgets the nut itself. I've largely resigned myself to having to cut off the lug nut somehow... hopefully I can do so without destroying the wheel, but if necessary I do know where there are more (though it will be annoying effectively buying back a wheel I turned in as a core...)
I got the Jeep up on jack stands in preparation for pulling the transmission... I get the feeling I'm going to be replacing a few more parts due to breaking things pulling it- there are a few parts of the exhaust I'm not sure will want to come apart...
I've been there before with a cheap Dodge Dakota that I picked up. For what lugs it did have, they were all rounded off. I picked up a cheap drill bit set and drilled out the studs, the wheels were saved and I just had to put a new studs in when I was done.
Weld a nut onto the lug nut. What do you have to lose?
Dusterbd13 wrote: Weld a nut onto the lug nut. What do you have to lose?
Bad timing - I got my welder back from him a ways back.
If you can wait until I have the exhaust done on the truck, you're welcome to borrow it again for a bit. I'll need it back relatively quickly, but it shouldn't be a problem if I lose it for a week or two. Could also help if you need to patch the exhaust back together.
Air chisel? Start hammering straight in to create a divot, then hammer at an angle to loosen the nut.
I just went through this with the mr2 I'm parting out. What finally did it for me was a new 12 point 1/2" drive socket driven on with a hammer. Husky brand from Home Depot. The cheap ones just split open. It was $3/socket and they're good enough to do at least two each! The ones that fit mine were 19mm but I had McGard locks on my car. I don't know about the ones you have.
The 12 point socket is what I did when the tool was lost for my wifes Saab.
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll have to keep at it eventually, but for now technically I don't have to worry about it since the wheel & tire on it are good and I can worry about the transmission swap.
If it's an open ended nut or you can make it an open ended nut it's possible to drill the stud out thin enough that it will snap off easily.
BrokenYugo wrote: If it's an open ended nut or you can make it an open ended nut it's possible to drill the stud out thin enough that it will snap off easily.
It is open-ended, so that might be an option.
Had some time over the weekend to work on pulling the transmission- at the moment the only thing really to be done is to actually unbolt it from the engine and lower it out of the car. I'm pretty confident I can pull one from a junkyard Jeep in far less time, but obviously I have to be far more careful when pulling it out of my Jeep since I don't want to damage and have to replace any more parts than necessary. It will certainly be interesting to try and pull the transmission in a yard without a jack, I needed mine several times so far.
In reply to Ashyukun:
Use the roll around engine hoist every pick and pull has a few of to yank the engine out with the trans attached, remove trans on the ground (or directly into a wheelbarrow), set the engine back into the truck.
BrokenYugo wrote: In reply to Ashyukun: Use the roll around engine hoist every pick and pull has a few of to yank the engine out with the trans attached, remove trans on the ground (or directly into a wheelbarrow), set the engine back into the truck.
Ironically the place I'm likely going to go to get the trans from doesn't have those hoists from my past experience pulling an engine for my former knock-knock joke Blazer- when you're ready to pull an engine you let them know and they send someone out with a forklift to pull it out. Suppose it could work the same way, but would be a bit more interesting...
Had a short bit of time yesterday to work more on the Jeep, and I'm now two bolt/nut combos away from the transmission being loose. I would have loved to have gotten it all the way pulled yesterday but just ran out of time- hopefully I'll get it out this afternoon. Suppose there's not a massive hurry as I'm unlikely to be able to get out to get a replacement transmission for another week and a half, but I'll be happy to have it out and ready to go.
Got the transmission pulled and out from under the Jeep:
Yes, that IS the crack I saw running up and around the top of it from the bottom- it gets within a few inches of running completely back to the engine interface edge and cracking off the majority of the bell. For those paying close attention, the area that would have been broken off would encompass all but ONE of the engine-to-transmission fasteners... and unlike the later ones, this year didn't have the additional braces between the engine & transmission. So... yeah, probably a good thing it's shot and I didn't try driving it...
Also, out of curiosity (and not wanting to have to deal with pulling it from a JY car) I called up the local used auto parts shop to see what a replacement transmission for the Jeep would cost. Answer: $900 + $25 core.
There IS a guy about the same distance away as the junkyard that has one for $300 with a warranty & core exchange or $200 without the warranty, and a few other places nearby that have them for about $300. The question is, do I want to pay $2-300 and get one already pulled and save myself hours of sweating under a car in a junkyard, or spend the time doing it myself and get one for under $100?
In your situation, i bought one from tbe junkyard here in town for 350. Pullapart was 140. Worth every penny.
You'll need to log in to post.
