rang-a-stang's summer project/build

[rang-a-stang]

Awesome stuff Rang! Well maybe not since its all smog stuff

Anywho, I sympathize with the wife in the garage. I love having her there and she enjoys being out there too. But i do seem to get less done on the account of talking too much

Small price to pay! Keeping the wife happy is a direct cost to keeping the rig progressing. Wife is mad=rig goes stagnant. (at least that is how it is in my house)
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Drove my truck yesterday on smog equipment. It seems to run/idle better with this crap on it. I have exhaust leaks and they need a fixin.

After the shackle reversal, I ended up clocking my shock mounts with the top going rearward to accommodate. That meant using the centered lower hole which is on a bend. Not optimal but eh, it's a shock, not a coil over. It'll be fine. And it is. Lol. Try doing that before tearing your shock apart.

I felt like I should have thought of that sooner.
I removed the lower/middle bolt, loosened the rearward bolt and removed the forward bolt from the hole by the yellow arrow. Rotated the shock tower to the second forward bolt hole (green arrow) and put it back together. PERECT! Almost like AMC expected people to do this. I am not running the bottom bolt anymore but, as a wise man once said, "Not optimal but eh, it's a shock, not a coil over. It'll be fine. And it is."

The passenger side shock shroud had been damage from this whole axle movement fiasco:

I cut that portion off, re-positioned the shock mount, and now all seems well on the front suspension front. I am going to order 2 new front shocks though; Because they are cheap. Front springs have settle about 1/3" so far. They only have about a mile on them and I have not torqued my bushings yet, hoping they will still come down a little. If they do not come down any more, I am going to add one leaf to the rear. If that does not level it out, I will remove one leaf from the front. ALLL this AFTER a successful smog check. Whenever that is.

Re-sealed my trans pan. I spent a good 45 minutes with a body hammer, 2 sheets of glass, a wrench, and a .010 feeler gauge. I got it so there was no part of the pan flange where a .010 feeler gauge could fit between the flange and glass. When I re-installed the pan I noticed my kick down connector had fresh ATF on it so I decided to replace it's O-ring, too. Look how flat this (what I think is original) O-Ring is! I am not sure if it was leaking before but it is NOT leaking now! Woo Hooo!


I am hoping to smog this week. That means I have to run a BIN or two between now and then, and fix a gnarly exhaust leak. Good times.

[rang-a-stang]

At work I use a BLUF often times when I am presenting to important people. BLUF=Bottom Line Up Front. In last week's episode:

...I am hoping to smog this week. That means I have to run a BIN or two between now and then, and fix a gnarly exhaust leak. Good times.

BLUF:


Background:
Drove it to and from work Thursday in a completely CA smog legal configuration. Other than being relatively gutless, it ran great! EXTRA Bonus: NO Trans leaks!!! AT ALL!!! So plan is to drive it to the smog shop Friday after work.
Issue:
Friday it ran great to work. It also ran great to the smog shop. I pull into the parking lot all jazzed because I am feeling pretty good about passing CA Smog first time and, literally, as I am pulling up to the bay where the smog dyno is, a huge plume of white smog bellows out from the front. I turn left to avoid the smog bay, coast to the back, smoking like Cheech and Chong are hot boxing my engine bay, then it dies. I pop the hood.... FIRE!
I stamp it out with my ball cap and begin my sulking.
It looks like when I installed my exhaust manifold, the power steering hose rested against the air injection bolt and I did not notice it. So for the about 75 miles I drove it, I was cooking my power steering hose (pressure side). It burst as I pulled into the parking lot and sprayed fluid all over the driver side of the engine and manifold (hence white smoke). I called a tow, called the wife to tell her I will not be home in time, and muttered many words I care not to type here. Notice the trail of fluid I left.


On inspection, I see virtually no serious damage. The hose is, obviously, toast but my Taylor silicone wires look OK, although the cute little cable labels are baked (I'll get pictures next post). All the other wiring seems OK but one area of conduit looks a little melted and the fire was pretty active near my knock sensor (I have not checked my knock sensor wiring yet). I noticed the paper air filter is browned on the driver side and I had a paper towel by the battery on the passenger side that I use to check trans fluid level and it had some charring. The bag that was holding my Cruise Control wiring looks like this:


I feel like the FSJ Gods were really mad that I have fixed all my known fluid leaks so to get even with me, they popped the hose to make sure I don't get cocky.

So that is a long story to say: I did not smog yet and I need a new power steering hose ($20 and it's at home waiting for me). It's not very often someone can say "My rig caught fire and I am SOOOOOooooo lucky!" I do keep an extinguisher in my rig but if this would have happened 30 seconds sooner, my truck would have burned to the ground (extinguisher or not) because I was doing 70 MPH just before this happened and by the time I would have been able to pull over, the engine bay would have been torched. Scary stuff. Glad it ended the way it did though.

Oh, and my front springs have settled about 3/4" so far. So now the front is about an inch taller than the back. It looks kinda cool. I hope it will continue to settle a little more, though. I gotta send my front driveshaft off to get lengthened.

[bluehwy]

Pretty cool it happened in the parking lot and not on the hwy. Could of been a much worse story.

[Wagoneer Taylor]

Holy Cow!!

Man I am so glad it didnt burn your rig to the ground! And that you are okay.
Super lucky.

Even better it didnt do any significant damage.

[GWNashville]

Rang-a-stang project.

In the immortal words of Maxwell Smart "I was that close". Glad you and your rig are OK.

[cu4whln]

WHEW !

So glad this didn't go bad for you !!

I think the Jeep Gods were smiling on you actually.

[SOLSAKS]

dang rang !

what an event !

can't see photos but glad all is good now.

dave in NC

[rang-a-stang]

Pretty cool it happened in the parking lot and not on the hwy. Could of been a much worse story.

For sure!!!

Holy Cow!!
Man I am so glad it didnt burn your rig to the ground! And that you are okay.
Super lucky.
Even better it didnt do any significant damage.

Well... if it woulda burned to the ground, I would be selling a pretty fresh 401 long block...

In the immortal words of Maxwell Smart "I was that close". Glad you and your rig are OK.

No kidding! Missed it by that much...

WHEW !
So glad this didn't go bad for you !!
I think the Jeep Gods were smiling on you actually.

Yeah, you're right. I look at it more like this:

dang rang !
what an event !
can't see photos but glad all is good now.
dave in NC

dang is right! More pictures soon. I'm painting my extra pig nose in my hotel room this week. It's coming along pretty well. And I am not starting any fires.

[SJTD]

I used to do puzzles in my hotel room. My friend would rent a cello.

Never thought of working on my Jeep.

[bkilby]

Sorry to hear Marc. Fires suck. But knowing you, you'll have it fixed and back on the road before the smoke disappears.

[rocklaurence]

Wow, Im so glad that you were able to save it

[bluehwy]

dang is right! More pictures soon. I'm painting my extra pig nose in my hotel room this week. It's coming along pretty well. And I am not starting any fires. [/QUOTE]

I used to do puzzles in my hotel room. My friend would rent a cello.

Never thought of working on my Jeep.

Ha, I used to go to college in my MOTEL rooms using dial-up. Coulda' used a fire under AOL's $ss...

[Driftwood]

I'm just glad this didn't happen while your son was driving the rig. THAT would have been even more disastrous in more ways than one!

I get cold sweats just thinking how close the 401 could have been a 40-no-more.

And "Poof"....that sweet serpentine system set up........gone.

[bkilby]

[quote=And "Poof"....that sweet serpentine system set up........gone.[/quote]



Hey, you don't think he tried to burn it down on purpose do you? Wait, Jake from State Farm isn't on this forum, right?

[Driftwood]

Hey, you don't think he tried to burn it down on purpose do you? Wait, Jake from State Farm isn't on this forum, right?

I don't know, but I hear she sounds hideous.


And to think how so dangerously close we came to losing this national treasure!