- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
Mine still look good if you need to borrow them
Another Scrambler Purchase/Road Trip - UPDATE- BODY ON FRAME AGAIN
- Thread starter spankrjs
- Start date
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
Last edited:
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
Got the new tires installed last night, they came in early.
Interesting note when it was on the alignment rack, before it was aligned:
Besides the toe being out, caster angle is pretty good, the camber on the driver side tire is a bit out of spec. Not terrible, but it is out of spec. This is the long side tube on the axle, I am sure I have bent is slightly through wheeling. It would be interesting to see, if I still have a print out from 10 years ago, what it was like when I first got the Scrambler. The tires still wear fine, so I'm not worried about the out of spec camber, for now LOL.
Not the best picture, and it is misleading, but at rest, the rear pinion is down 1-2 degrees from the driveshaft. So, with my CV on the other end, I have no rear drive line vibration. The front shaft will start vibrating over 55mph with the hubs locked in, but I'm not worried about that LOL.
And the new tires on my old wheels. I am not too happy about not having white letters, these tires did not have them. I am not sure if the white letters are available on all sizes or not? Not the end of the world, but I like the white letters. But, on a rig that is wheeled, the white letters do get chewed up some. I didn't have time to check and see if white letters are available on a 33x12.50x15 KM3, and I do not have time for a special order, so I will be happy with my all black tires LOL:
Sidewall shot, they are different from the KM2's that they replaced:
Both wheels/tires I put on the rear took about 4.5 ounces. Me, and the tire guy, are pretty sure these wheels are slightly bent. Not sure how that would have happened LOL. The front wheels/tires took less then 2 ounces each to balance.
The tread is different, too. The outer lugs have those weird looking "V" notches in them, I guess to help the outer lugs flex better. There are also weird little "pyramids" in between the lugs:
Anyway, the new tires ride great, nice and smooth and quiet, but most new tires do. The passenger front tire that I replaced was hopping like a basketball as it was chucking lugs yesterday, so a definite improvement LOL.
You would think I wouild be happy, but I'm not.
Checked the valve cover this morning, it is leaking oil, again
I ordered/paid for over-night delivery for an aftermarket aluminum valve cover for a '94 Wrangler through Summit this morning. Should have it tomorrow. The thing that sucks, I had one of these valve covers, but I dropped it when i was cleaning up the garage, and cracked it. The aftermarket style valve cover did not leak, so hopefully a new one won't leak. I do not like the internal baffles for the CCV system on the aftermarket covers, but at least they don't leak out on this engine.
So, I can change the cover late tomorrow night, drive the Scramber to work Friday, then leave for Utah Saturday morning. I won't be able to put too many miles on the new valve cover before I head off cross country. The old aftermarket aluminum cover did not leak, so do I put faith that the new one won't leak? The current valve cover leak shows up only after a couple of days, so
BUT, still not sure why the cover is leaking, EXCEPT that there must be some variable I can not observe that is causing the later style cover to NOT be compatible with the earlier style head?
Or, is something broke inside the engine, like a compression ring, causing excessive pressure to be built up, and causing the cover to leak? I kind of doubt this, I have no other oil leaks
I have three choices:
1) Change the valve cover on this one, pray it fixes the problem, with next to no time to check the repair
2) Take the green Scrambler, which I have yet to drive longer then 2 hours straight, since i did all the work to it, and trust it is good to go
3) Stay home
Interesting note when it was on the alignment rack, before it was aligned:
Besides the toe being out, caster angle is pretty good, the camber on the driver side tire is a bit out of spec. Not terrible, but it is out of spec. This is the long side tube on the axle, I am sure I have bent is slightly through wheeling. It would be interesting to see, if I still have a print out from 10 years ago, what it was like when I first got the Scrambler. The tires still wear fine, so I'm not worried about the out of spec camber, for now LOL.
Not the best picture, and it is misleading, but at rest, the rear pinion is down 1-2 degrees from the driveshaft. So, with my CV on the other end, I have no rear drive line vibration. The front shaft will start vibrating over 55mph with the hubs locked in, but I'm not worried about that LOL.
And the new tires on my old wheels. I am not too happy about not having white letters, these tires did not have them. I am not sure if the white letters are available on all sizes or not? Not the end of the world, but I like the white letters. But, on a rig that is wheeled, the white letters do get chewed up some. I didn't have time to check and see if white letters are available on a 33x12.50x15 KM3, and I do not have time for a special order, so I will be happy with my all black tires LOL:
Sidewall shot, they are different from the KM2's that they replaced:
Both wheels/tires I put on the rear took about 4.5 ounces. Me, and the tire guy, are pretty sure these wheels are slightly bent. Not sure how that would have happened LOL. The front wheels/tires took less then 2 ounces each to balance.
The tread is different, too. The outer lugs have those weird looking "V" notches in them, I guess to help the outer lugs flex better. There are also weird little "pyramids" in between the lugs:
Anyway, the new tires ride great, nice and smooth and quiet, but most new tires do. The passenger front tire that I replaced was hopping like a basketball as it was chucking lugs yesterday, so a definite improvement LOL.
You would think I wouild be happy, but I'm not.
Checked the valve cover this morning, it is leaking oil, again
I ordered/paid for over-night delivery for an aftermarket aluminum valve cover for a '94 Wrangler through Summit this morning. Should have it tomorrow. The thing that sucks, I had one of these valve covers, but I dropped it when i was cleaning up the garage, and cracked it. The aftermarket style valve cover did not leak, so hopefully a new one won't leak. I do not like the internal baffles for the CCV system on the aftermarket covers, but at least they don't leak out on this engine.
So, I can change the cover late tomorrow night, drive the Scramber to work Friday, then leave for Utah Saturday morning. I won't be able to put too many miles on the new valve cover before I head off cross country. The old aftermarket aluminum cover did not leak, so do I put faith that the new one won't leak? The current valve cover leak shows up only after a couple of days, so
BUT, still not sure why the cover is leaking, EXCEPT that there must be some variable I can not observe that is causing the later style cover to NOT be compatible with the earlier style head?
Or, is something broke inside the engine, like a compression ring, causing excessive pressure to be built up, and causing the cover to leak? I kind of doubt this, I have no other oil leaks
I have three choices:
1) Change the valve cover on this one, pray it fixes the problem, with next to no time to check the repair
2) Take the green Scrambler, which I have yet to drive longer then 2 hours straight, since i did all the work to it, and trust it is good to go
3) Stay home
- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
Don’t stay home. At least drive to Baton Rouge!
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
Take it, just bring extra oil.
I would need quite a bit of oil. Adding oil is easy, its cleaning up the mess underneath it will cause that is fun
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
That's what I'm leaning toward
The valve cover was delivered this morning, so I should be able to get it on tonight, test it out all day tomorrow 
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
NO. Your not my friend any more. I helped you clean out that warehouse, now it is already filled back up
Just kidding friend, we could play with T-QUAD
- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
NO. Your not my friend any more. I helped you clean out that warehouse, now it is already filled back up
?
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
So, the valve cover, the one I paid to have next day air delivery on, arrived at my house fuct.
I can fix it, but I could not fix it last night at 1 AM, which means I can't drive it today, which means no test driving time after I fix it tonight before I am supposed to head to Utah on Saturday morning.
Problem #1 - the screws that are supposed to hold the baffle plates to the cover, all four were loose, just spinning in the holes. Good thing I checked, probably would not be good for the engine to start eating Made In China screws.
Problem #2 - what ever flip flop wearing S.O.B. that ran the threaded rods on the ouside of the valve cover (the studs are to secure the accelerator cable) ran them into deep and busted off the cast bosses inside the cover. To fix this, said flip flop wearing S.O.B. globbed on a bunch of Made In China epoxy, that is flaking off. Good thing I checked, probably would not be good for the engine to start eating Made In China epoxy.
The picture below shows one of the baffles, with the loose screws, and the globs of epoxy on the cast bosses. The epoxy is the gray stuff, some of it is on the baffle plate.
On the screws, the Made In China screws are something close to 5mm, smaller then a #8 machine screw. Well, a #8 tap is loose in the hole, a #10 is too loose, but the PIA size #12-24 tap re-threaded the holes. The problem with #12-24, big box stores carry next to nothing in this size. In my stash of bolts/screws, I found four 1" long #12 screws, but they are way too long. Not terrible, but had to wait until this morning to go to a real hardware store to buy some 1/2" long #12-24 machine screws. I could have cut off the too long #12's, but I had no nuts to thread on the bolts. #12-24 just must not be that common of a size? I could have drilled the holes out with a 7/32 bit, tapped for a 1/4"-32, but I still would have had to buy bolts. Anyway, I now have some machine screws that will work.
The picture below kind of shows the size difference between the Made In China 5mm screws versus #12-24:
Tapping the holes is easy enough, so I did that last night. The other issue with the baffles, HESCO want at least 3/16" of an inch from the bottom of the CCV valve to the top of the baffle. As the valve cover comes, the baffle is too close to the bottom of the CCV valve. But, I can stick a single washer between the cast lug and the baffle to get the recommended clearance. IF you space it too far down, the rocker arms will hit the baffle, make a nice ticking sound, and make you assume the engine is FUBAR. I speak from experience LOL.
Picture of tapped holes and the bottom of the CCV open valve, the one that goes to the air cleaner to bring in fresh air inside the engine:
The rear valve has a small hole in the bottom, goes to the intake manifold, it is basically sucking out engine air the entire time the engine is running. It is basically a metered "vaccuum leak".
Picture of the busted cast bosses where the flip flop wearing S.O.B. went too deep with the threaded rods. I scraped off the epoxy, it was falling off anyway. I am "hoping" it wont leak. I can't see the rods, so hopefully it is OK. These bosses are at the top of the cover, so they are just exposed to oil splash, not pooling oil.
The threaded rods I am talking about on the outside of the cover:
And a picture of the Made In China aluminum valve cover, about the only option for a new cover for a 7120 head:
I can predict the future - I see myself in a junkyard pulling off a used OEM valve cover off an early 90's Cherokee.
I decided to go with the "correct" Fel-Pro gasket for a 91-95 Wrangler 4.0. The cover came with a Made In China gasket, similar to the one that is used for an 05 head:
Anyway, i can screw the baffles back on now, with red lock tite, and put the cover back on tonight, easy enough. I just wont have any time to test drive it. So, leave Saturday morning, hope it doesn't leak. If it does, turn around and come back home.
I am so disgusted, tired and aggravated right now, I am not even happy/excited about the potential trip. Have not even packed yet.
I can fix it, but I could not fix it last night at 1 AM, which means I can't drive it today, which means no test driving time after I fix it tonight before I am supposed to head to Utah on Saturday morning.
Problem #1 - the screws that are supposed to hold the baffle plates to the cover, all four were loose, just spinning in the holes. Good thing I checked, probably would not be good for the engine to start eating Made In China screws.
Problem #2 - what ever flip flop wearing S.O.B. that ran the threaded rods on the ouside of the valve cover (the studs are to secure the accelerator cable) ran them into deep and busted off the cast bosses inside the cover. To fix this, said flip flop wearing S.O.B. globbed on a bunch of Made In China epoxy, that is flaking off. Good thing I checked, probably would not be good for the engine to start eating Made In China epoxy.
The picture below shows one of the baffles, with the loose screws, and the globs of epoxy on the cast bosses. The epoxy is the gray stuff, some of it is on the baffle plate.
On the screws, the Made In China screws are something close to 5mm, smaller then a #8 machine screw. Well, a #8 tap is loose in the hole, a #10 is too loose, but the PIA size #12-24 tap re-threaded the holes. The problem with #12-24, big box stores carry next to nothing in this size. In my stash of bolts/screws, I found four 1" long #12 screws, but they are way too long. Not terrible, but had to wait until this morning to go to a real hardware store to buy some 1/2" long #12-24 machine screws. I could have cut off the too long #12's, but I had no nuts to thread on the bolts. #12-24 just must not be that common of a size? I could have drilled the holes out with a 7/32 bit, tapped for a 1/4"-32, but I still would have had to buy bolts. Anyway, I now have some machine screws that will work.
The picture below kind of shows the size difference between the Made In China 5mm screws versus #12-24:
Tapping the holes is easy enough, so I did that last night. The other issue with the baffles, HESCO want at least 3/16" of an inch from the bottom of the CCV valve to the top of the baffle. As the valve cover comes, the baffle is too close to the bottom of the CCV valve. But, I can stick a single washer between the cast lug and the baffle to get the recommended clearance. IF you space it too far down, the rocker arms will hit the baffle, make a nice ticking sound, and make you assume the engine is FUBAR. I speak from experience LOL.
Picture of tapped holes and the bottom of the CCV open valve, the one that goes to the air cleaner to bring in fresh air inside the engine:
The rear valve has a small hole in the bottom, goes to the intake manifold, it is basically sucking out engine air the entire time the engine is running. It is basically a metered "vaccuum leak".
Picture of the busted cast bosses where the flip flop wearing S.O.B. went too deep with the threaded rods. I scraped off the epoxy, it was falling off anyway. I am "hoping" it wont leak. I can't see the rods, so hopefully it is OK. These bosses are at the top of the cover, so they are just exposed to oil splash, not pooling oil.
The threaded rods I am talking about on the outside of the cover:
And a picture of the Made In China aluminum valve cover, about the only option for a new cover for a 7120 head:
I can predict the future - I see myself in a junkyard pulling off a used OEM valve cover off an early 90's Cherokee.
I decided to go with the "correct" Fel-Pro gasket for a 91-95 Wrangler 4.0. The cover came with a Made In China gasket, similar to the one that is used for an 05 head:
Anyway, i can screw the baffles back on now, with red lock tite, and put the cover back on tonight, easy enough. I just wont have any time to test drive it. So, leave Saturday morning, hope it doesn't leak. If it does, turn around and come back home.
I am so disgusted, tired and aggravated right now, I am not even happy/excited about the potential trip. Have not even packed yet.
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
That's the pits! Shoddy "craftsmanship" has caused me a bit of stress over the years as well.
I hope it all goes well, and that you have a fun trip!
Thanks !!
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
Thanks!!
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
Got home around 6:30, had it back together in about an hour. Drove it for an hour, no leaks so far, fingers crossed. Had to retorque a few bolts after the drive, that's to be expected, so hopefully it's good to go. Just finished packing, left the quarter inch drive ratchet and socket on the front seat to recheck the bolts at fuel stops, hope to head out tomorrow morning, make it to Amarillo tomorrow night, that will be a good haul.
- City
- Baton Rouge
- State
- La
Good luck but I think it's supposed to be Amarillo by Morning
- City
- Ducor
- State
- Ca
That’s only when you’re coming up from San AntonGood luck but I think it's supposed to be Amarillo by Morning
- City
- Biloxi
- State
- MS
Regardless, made it to Amarillo safe and sound, got a hotel for the night. I've been driving since 8am. Scrambler is running fine, no problems, no valve cover leak. I have checked the bolts at every other gas stop, I think they have finally settled in.
So, I bypassed San Anton, and I will be here in the morning ?
So, I bypassed San Anton, and I will be here in the morning ?