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