New Tranny Pan

Installed the "new" tranny pan in the Jeep tonight. Well, new to us anyway - don't want the jeep thinking that we're adding all sorts of bling for no reason! I ordered a used tranny pan, gasket and filter from Drivetrain.com and saved a couple bucks compared to a new shiny one from Summit Racing. After crawling under the jeep and holding up the replacement pan, I also confirmed that I guessed right and we've got a Torque Flite 999 transmission.

Here's the start of the adventure:
Couple of minutes later, the old pan is out and put next the the "new" one:
Can you tell which one is which? (The bottom one is the old one and in person looks much worse than the picture). In the course of reinstalling the new pan I learned one of the bolts is stripped and can only be hand tightenened and that was likely the cause of the leak. Putting a new pan, filter and gasket were probably overkill but you never know what's wrong until you get into these things. I buttoned everything up, put the stripped bolt in hand tight, topped it off with fresh ATF and fired up the jeep. As expected, within a few minutes the pan started to weep where the loose bolt was but a lot less than the flow it had before. Luckily, I can put a throughbolt and nut in that location and we'll be all set.

Pulled the jeep off the ramps, changed the air filter and ran some gumout through the carb and the throttle response is much better now. Took a quick lap around the block and parked the jeep for the night. The tranny pan leaked a good bit more after it warmed up but it's only from the corner of the loose bolt and that will be fixed tomorrow.

The Volts stop here

Installed the eBay battery disconnect tonight. A few quick turns and the jeep is electrically turned off. Pretty slick and it only cost $5.75 shipped! Here's a blurry pic:
A lightly used tranny pan, new gasket and new filter are being shipped from Las Vegas so I'm once again waiting for parts. On a brighter note, Maryland's Rockfish (striped bass) Season starts tomorrow so I'll be pursuing another hobby while waiting for the UPS man.

Test Drive #1

After adding a gallon of gas to the jeep from a jerry can, I took it out on a test drive this afternoon. It's been pouring down rain here so I didn't go far - just about a 1/2 mile or so in my neighborhood. All the lights work (still not sure about the dash panel lights) and the wipers (with brand new wiper blades) work great. Aerosmith even came on the radio as I pulled out of the driveway but turning up the stock 2 speaker radio louder than normal conversation results in awful distortion.

Here's a few thoughts after driving it:

1. The steering is very power assisted and very numb. A sports car it ain't. I've driven moving vans with more road feel! But unlike moving vans, this truck does have a certain amount of charm - it's fun to tool around in.

2. Brakes work well with strong pedal feel but this is still a pretty heavy truck with discs up front and drums in the back, so we'll need to drive like grandmas or we'll get in trouble. Got a bit of noise from the drums on one stop, so we'll do a thorough brake checkover before the rally.

3. Still not sure about the 4wd lever - put it in 4wd HI and the 4WD light went out so I presume that's really 2wd. Putting it in what appears to be 2wd leaves the 4wd light on even after driving it a bit.

4. It rides rough. I helped my brother in law move a few weekends ago and he mentioned his high school buddy had a 79 wagoneer and it was ridiculously rough, even with new shocks. Ours is the same. Hopefully 3 more guys and some junk in the back will smooth things out.

5. We've eliminated the various leaks to just the tranny pan! It's about a 3 or 4 drip a second leak and seems to be coming right from one of the pan bolts. The jeep still leaves a pretty healthy trail of ATF behind it, so that's highest priority repair item right now. The pan is in awful shape, so I think a replacement pan and gasket are in order, rather than just trying to tighten up all the pan bolts.

5. It will stall if it's not warmed up. I was driving up a slight up hill and it died when I stepped on the gas. I chalk that up to lack of use and the fact it probably hasn't been over 15 mph in at least a year. Once it warmed up a bit, I had zero driveability problems.

Saw this stuff on TV - Temporary Car Spray Paint. We initially weren't going to paint the jeep because we want to resell it, but this temporary paint may change everything!

On the Road again....

The Jeep made it out of the back yard under its own power! And here's photographic proof:
At first, the jeep was idling really fast and I presumed that the choke was stuck so I stepped on the gas and then quickly released the throttle hoping that may free it. It didn't but my cell phone rang so I turned the jeep off. My dad was the caller and immediately chimed in "Did you try stepping on the gas and then pulling your foot off really fast?" Yes, we do think alike. His second tidbit of sage advice was to never underestimate the power of copious amounts of WD-40 to get linkages working again. After I got off the phone I sprayed everything down and sure enough, that unstuck things and the jeep idles nicely now. Thanks Dad!

I'm happy to report the power steering hoses aren't leaking and the pump is noticeably quieter now. You can turn the wheels lock to lock at idle with little effort and the engine doesn't stall. We still haven't gotten the jeep up to operating temp so while it idled I tempted fate and turned on the defroster just in case it started to overheat and I need to cool the engine off. Well after 30 seconds of blowing dirt, sawdust and cobwebs everything is working fine and warmish air started coming out the vents. Antifreeze didn't come shooting out the vents so at least for now it appears the heater core is fine. Memorial Day in NYC is typically rainy so we'll probably need the defroster at the start of the rally. The temp gauge works on the jeep but I turned it off before it made it to the center part of the green section because the gas gauge still doesn't work and I'm not sure how much gas is in the jeep.

Still not sure what phantom load is on when the jeep is off, but I've been disconnecting the battery after running the jeep each time and that seems to be working. Probably will buy this for the rally: Battery Master Disconnect

While the jeep was running I moved it back and forth from the driveway into the yard, back into the driveway, etc at least 5 times. I was by myself and learned a long time ago to never drive something you can't push easily without feeling comfortable it won't immediately die on you. The jeep hesitates a bit when cold, but once it's warm it climbed up the curb from the lawn to the driveway by just barely touching the gas. After putting the jeep away and disconnecting the battery, I cleaned the windshield inside and out and then called it a day.

Update

It's been awhile since I've written but some work has been accomplished on the jeep so here's a rundown:

Power Steering hoses - Ordered a high pressure hose on eBay from someone in Fort Lauderdale. It came in 3 days and fit perfectly. Ordered the low pressure hose from the local Pep Boys and it took 10 business days! Granted, I understand parts for 82 Jeep wagoneers aren't exactly a frequently requested item, but I think it's an interesting commentary on the state of the world when you can order something from an anonymous person online and have it show up faster than patronizing your local auto parts store. Pretty sad really. I'm just happy to no longer have to call the Pep Boys parts counter daily and keep asking to do a "special order trace." I know quite a few people in the parts department by name now and wonder if they were really bidding on eBay power steering hose auctions too! Installed both hoses on Saturday and topped off the power steering reservoir. The Pep Boys hose included extra o-rings so I put one on the high pressure hose too. Was going to check for leaks but got caught up in Easter weekend family commitments so I called it a day. While hooking up the hoses, I had to remove the coolant overflow tank for better access and realized one of the "brain boxes" on the fender had a loose ground, so I reconnected the ground. The great thing about the jeep is that when things are bolted to the fender, they are bolted to the fender! You reach under the wheel well to find the bolt. No fluff, no trim pieces, fascias or molding.

Right front turn signal - When we bought the truck this whole assembly was hanging out on its wire harness like an eyeball from an optic nerve in a horror flick. The tabs holding the assembly to the sheet metal are all broken so one sheet metal screw through the body holds it in place now.

Tags / Title / Insurance - Got Maryland historic Tags for the jeep. The last three digits of the tag are "4LO" so hopefully the jeep gods will shine down on us and grant us good luck. Going to add the jeep to my EZ Pass account for the trip to the starting line in NYC, I can't wait to see other motorists complain that we're in the Express EZ Pass only lane!

Rear Window - disregard the last post, it's broken again. The bottom frame of the window was really rusty and finally gave up the ghost. It's fixable but no longer a priority. A ratchet strap through the bottom of the window to the roof rack holds the window up for the time being - very classy.