It seems like in the fall, I need to set aside time to work on my Jeep and address some maintenance issues that have arisen due to the heavy abuse it suffers during the summer. Anyone whos followed my posts for more than a few months knows that my Jeep is far from being an asphalt princess. Its true that the vast majority of miles that it covers are along Alaskas paved highways. But the real abusive miles are done far into the Alaskan bush, creek beds, 4 wheeler trails, tundra, and canyons. I rely on that machine to get me anywhere in Alaska that I want to go. It kinda takes me back in time. As Im heading out on a gold mining trip in the summer with the top off and my small gold dredge strapped to the roll bars, I can imagine excited young gold miners in the fifties with shovels, gold pans, and picks heading to exactly the same creeks driving surplus Army Jeeps of which mine is a direct descendent. I couldnt even imagine another vehicle Id rather do those things in. When I bought the Jeep in the spring of 2012, it needed some TLC. I decided to dismantle everything I needed to in order to inspect every major mechanical system and replace any questionable parts. I replaced almost every item that was capable of failing or wearing out. The list of repairs and upgrades is staggering. By mid summer in 2012, I was confident that I had a reliable machine that was ready to tackle the Alaskan frontier. The first major trip was a 3 or 4 day trip to Valdez. Its a 6 or 7 hour drive from Fairbanks and it allowed me to troubleshoot some fuel delivery problems that I could only understand through the course of hundreds of miles of driving while closely monitoring engine performance and fuel economy. Three quarters of the way into the trip, the starter suffered massive failure and needed to be replaced in Glenallen. Luckily, theres a Napa there and they had the right part. Swapping it out was a breeze. It was a breeze because the starter that failed was essentially only a few weeks old and had been installed by me during the big rebuild. I was frustrated about needing to replace a failed part that I had already done but tried to forget about it and carried on with my trip to Valdez. In Valdez, I began hearing scraping sounds coming from the rear axle. I determined that the noise was coming from brake parts rubbing inside the drum. There was no need to make an immediate repair in Valdez and I rode it out until my return to Fairbanks. Once in Fairbanks, a brake inspection proved that faulty rear brake parts had been the cause of the scraping sounds and they needed to be replaced. Well, now I was starting to get pretty annoyed because, again, those parts were only days old! They had been installed the week prior to the Valdez trip! Hunting season of 2012 came and there were more mechanical issues with parts that were essentially new. Since then, Ive burned through 2 winches. The first failed after being just over a year old and the second failed on its very first use! Internal clutch parts failed after a couple of months of use. This hunting season, the new starter from last summer in Glenallen failed at my hunting spot, causing me to call in a favor from a friend to truck me one from town. Ive replace the same headlight dimmer switch 3 times in a year and a half! I installed a new instrument cluster with speedo, fuel gauge, and temp gauge and two out of the three instruments had failed with less than 2000 miles on the odometer! I lost a wheel bearing that was less than a year old! Today, I started tackling the most daunting mechanical problem that began this hunting season. It started as I was coming home from my successful moose hunt. The Jeep was climbing out of a canyon type area in 4 wheel drive and low range. I was taking it slow and easy so as not to make a mistake and slide into a washed out ditch just next to the tires. I could feel the torque pulsing from the driveline accompanied by a deep clunking noise with each surge. I could tell that it was something serious and not likely to be a simple trail fix. If I gave it a little too much throttle, the clunking would get violent and the surging felt as if a major driveline component could fail at any time! I just took it easy and carefully drove the Jeep out of the washed out canyon area and got to the nearby logging road. I figured I could make the 3 hour drive back home down the long logging road if I was careful to not over torque the driveline. Once on the highway, the major vibrations started to come at higher speeds! It was sketchy, but I limped it back home and its basically been parked since then. Today I decided Id start to troubleshoot. I crawled under the Jeep and decided that the first thing I needed to do was drop the transmission skid plate out of the way so I could have good access to the tranny and transfer case. Both front and rear drive shafts and axle components seemed to all be in good working order. My biggest fear was that there was a catastrophic problem inside the tranny and t-case and I would have to, once again, drop the giant, incredibly heavy unit for the third time in less than two years. Lucky for me, it doesnt look like that will be necessary! While loosening bolts and removing the skid plate, I happened to notice that one of the engine motor mounts was severely damaged and the whole engine, transmission, and transfer case were not being properly supported due to the failed neoprene mount. Definitely the cause of all the clunking and vibration. Of course, the motor mounts were fresh ones from last summer! Im pretty mad about the lack of quality in these OEM replacement parts! The American Motor Company built that Jeep in 1979 and most of those parts were still functioning when I bought it 33 years later. I changed a lot of them just for piece of mind but almost every failure has been a result of faulty new parts! It makes me want to go all American Picker and search for vintage AMC parts to put in it! Sadly, I dont think theres an answer. I think that parts arent made the way they used to be and and Im just going to have to live with taking the time to keep up on these repairs as needed. Im sure that the repair parts manufactured today are made to withstand only the minimum. Part of the problem might be that I demand the maximum out of the Jeep. I still think that Im way better off with my 1979 CJ5 than I would be with a more modern Wrangler or something. For the most part, that thing has been something of a companion to me and has been with me on many adventures, gotten me into, and out of some pretty intense situations despite hard physical abuse. Sorry for the long read. I meant to just post pics of the busted motor mount but got carried away.. Here they are:
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 06:02:40 +0000
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