Spankrjs' 1984 Long Term Project

[spankrjs]

Tan Scrambler's First "After Action" Report

I drove this Scrambler to Sicily Island ORV, and back this past weekend. I did not get any "action pictures", but if I find any from anyone else I will post them up.

On-Road

This Scrambler drove really well on-road. The engine has plenty of power, and the transmission worked fine. Driving in high winds, both there and back, I still managed 15-16 mpg at 65-75 mph. The scrambler was fairly quiet, no weird noises. The suspension, while still on the stiff side, has loosened up some. But, with the heavy full hard top, I would not want soft springs. Besides a leak at the front cowl seal, and a slight rear hatch leak, the Scrambler stayed pretty weather tight, which was a good thing, due to all the rain. As for leaks, I lost a little power steering from a wore PS pump cap, and maybe a 1/3 of a quart of oil, in 600 miles. The valve stem seals should fix the engine oil issue, and I am very happy not to have any other leaks.

I have some very slight "loose feel at high speed", not loose steering, but handling. I am sure the long shackles are throwing the caster out. I plan on putting in shorter shackles, and correcting the caster. This Scrambler, with 4" lift springs/33's/full hard top does feel a little top heavy, compared to my 1/2 top Scramblers. It's not as bad as an Isuzu Trooper, but I still wouldn't drive it like a Corvette. The full length hard top also catches a lot more wind then the 1/2 top, you know it is there during heavy crosswinds at high speeds.

I also got re-acquainted with the good old "Detroit Locker in the rear loves to fight the center hump of rutted out roads" characteristic, but all in all, not bad. I knew there was a reason I went with selectable lockers on my red Scrambler, though.

I changed wiper blades before the trip, and the factory wipers/linkage worked perfectly. All other electrical items worked perfectly, too.

Off-Road

I did not try any super hard stuff, but on the easy/medium stuff, the Scrambler worked great. The V8, automatic, Detroit in the rear/Tru-Trac in the front worked very well together. The tires did great in the mud, and cleaned out very well. I was very happy with it. It is very fun in mud/sand/dirt/general trail duty and some light rock obstacles.

The full hard top does suck on "hard" off-road trails. The limited visibility, plus the top heaviness, does not make this thing fun on sidehills. For general off road usage, the full top is fine, but for harder, off camber stuff, it would be better to leave the full top at camp.

The Tru-Trac worked very well on the easy/medium stuff. Both front tires would pull, but it was invisible while steering. BUT, the two times I got stuck, a full front locker would have prevented the issue. I had the Scrambler leaning over pretty good, i.e. about to flip, with the front driver side tire in the air, passenger front against a rock. In this situation, no power went to the passenger side tire, even when I hit the brakes. Now, to be fair, I did have the sway bar hooked up/30 psi in the tires. A more compliant suspension and softer tires might have helped. But, for general, non-hardcore off-road usage, I really was impressed with the Tru-Trac. If you want to climb rocks, get a full locker.


When I got stuck on the side hill, a did cause some slight damage, nothing major.

I hit a tree with the driver side mirror, cracked the bushing, easy fix.

I also broke the passenger side mirror bushings, while I was leaning against a tree, but it didn't hurt the mirror or arm. I took it off before heading home so that it wouldn't be banging around.

The aftermarket radio antenna also broke off, but I am glad it did. There is some paint bubbling/slight exfoiliation rust happening here. It is still solid, so happy about that. I plan on removing the loose paint/rust, spot priming and painting this area, and sticking a stainless bolt through the hole. Since I don't have a radio in here, the loss of the antenna was negligible.

The worst boo-boo, a small dent at the bottom of the fender. I am not too worried about that, since the previous owner put a few dents on the passenger side rocker, the front fender now matches.

And of course, while leaning against a tree, I scuffed the hard top. Just a scuff. Just look at that handsome guy in the reflection LOL.

Most of these "issues" happened while side hilling through tight trees, and I should have known better. The full hard top is a big hindrance in this type of environment.


All in all, I am very happy with the Scrambler. A few more small fixes, and I am going to consider it done, well at least as far as I am concerned.

One last picture, at the car wash.

That's it for now

 

[MrBeep]

Nice.

You know you will have plenty of help at the campground to set the top off in Michigan.

 

[Bad Karma]

What Toby said!

 

[spankrjs]

We went wheelin' this weekend at a new, local park. It is about 300 acres, inside the Stennis Space Center "Buffer Zone", called "TX Flat Off-Road", very fun place. Not really "hardcore", but lots of trails through the woods, some creeks, and lots of wash outs/ditches to climb. With the weather we have been having lately, very muddy, BUT very fun

A few pictures:

The big, bada$$ 2 door Cherokee with 1-tons/V8/44" Boggers!!!!!!!!!!






I didn't drive through any water deeper then the hubs, so no problems with contaminated bearings/axle oil. It was a bunch of fun slingin' mud all day, and the V8/auto transmission/Detroit rear/Tru-Trac front/Mud Claw tires were a blast in this environment!!!!


And of course, after playing in the mud, about 4 hours of clean up later, good as new.

I still need to do the following, hope to get time in the next few weeks:

1) Change valve stem oil seals
2) Change Master cylinder
3) Fix heater (think it is just a heater hose routing issue, fingers crossed)
4) Install new shifter floor plate/boots

That's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

Well, knocked off the two "easy items", #2 and #3


Leaking master cylinder:

New master cylinder:

I now have a consistent, firm pedal, and I am happy with the stock power brakes performance. Pretty easy fix.



As for the heater, well, turns out two other people spotted my problem for me, all though I did think it was "funny" how the previous owner had the heater hoses ran

Originally, the hose to the heater core ran from this fitting, located on the front of the intake manifold:

With it ran this way, the only coolant that went through the heater core went from the intake, right back into the intake, and not under any "pressure".


I simply removed this plug from the water pump:

I then hooked up my "to the heater core" hose to the water pump, plugged the old heater hose fitting, and voila, heat

The heater works OK, but with the full hard top, it does not get as "toasty" as my 1/2 cab Scramblers. It does get warm, but with the outside temps around 32, it never gets hot enough inside to take off your coat. But, it is much better then the nothing I had before

And now that I have coolant "by-passing" the thermostat, I do not get the "temperature gauge hitting 215 before dropping to 185 when the thermostat opens" condition anymore, another plus.

That's it for now

 

[MrBeep]

Nice!

Sand cleans up a lot easier than mud! Well, kind of.

 

[spankrjs]

Nice!

Sand cleans up a lot easier than mud! Well, kind of.

Mud is just "wet sand" LOL

Appreciate it Toby

 

[MrBeep]

Mud is just "wet sand" LOL

:

Now that could be an entirely different discussion! There is some Georgia mud on my Scrambler that has been there over 10 years! Sets up like concrete! You have to wire brush it off.

 

[certifiablejeep]

Agreed... and AZ has sand that is more like dust... very very nice to work with when taking nuts/bolts out... no rust!

cb

 

[spankrjs]

After breaking red Scrambler's T176 transmissions top piece, I decided to break this Scrambler, too

The engine in this Scrambler has been smoking a little. Not all the time, mainly after it idles for a bit, then you hit the gas, a bit of smoke. Considering that this vehicle sat up for quite a few years, and the condition of other rubber parts on the vehicle, I decided to change the valve stem seals. I bought them a few months ago, so what better time then now.

After about two hours of work, I had the valve covers off. This TBI engine has a bunch of stuff in the way: fuel rails, alternator bracket, ESCM bracket, engine lifting bracket, hoses, etc.

I am not going to do a "step by step", but this is what we did:

Put #1 on TDC
Hooked up air compressor to #1, to keep valves from dropping (about 125 psi)
Compressed springs on #1, one at a time, changed seals, reinstalled springs
Repeat for the other 7 cylinders

I had my buddy Nathan help me, since he has a compressor, and has changed these seals out before. Quick picture of the spring compressor installed on one of the springs:

Quick picture, with all new seals installed, rocker arm nuts still loose:

I still need to adjust the valves. What I did, before I removed the rocker arm nuts, I marked them, then counted the number of turns till they came off. Surprisingly, all of them took 13.5 turns to come off. So, for now, I reinstalled the nuts to the point where the pushrods would not spin freely between my fingers, then added 3/4 turn. This will give me a starting point, and on most of the nuts, was right around 13.5 turns total. Once I get my oil deflectors, you have to adjust the valves with the covers off, so oil will spray everywhere without some type of shield, we can finish the valve adjustment.

A few interesting pictures, think we found the source of the oil burning:

All of the old O-rings were hard and cracked.

The exhaust valve seals did not have a rubber type of seal, they were just plastic. Six of the eight old seals were super loose on the valves, which I am sure is not good for oil sealing. The old style seal is the "red" colored one, the newer style seal is the white one.

And a picture of all the new seals/O-rings, minus one already installed intake valve seal:

Also found this, probably the cause for the "slight miss/felt a little off" intermittent issue I was having, there were 3 like this!!!

So, once I get the valves adjusted/new set of plug wires, should be running like a Cadillac again!!

That's it for now.

 

[zero2wow]

Nice!
Sand cleans up a lot easier than mud! Well, kind of.

I agree !! and a lot less of a hassle... and not as muddy

z

 

[spankrjs]

I got back to work on this Scrambler this past Saturday. I replaced the melted spark plug boots with some spare. I also ordered/received some protective heat shield boots, not really a long term fix, and the "oil deflectors", so I could adjust the valves.

A few pictures of the deflectors installed.

They work really well. I started the jeep up, let it warm up, no oil spray. But, I decided to get cute, revved the engine to 2500 RPM, and suddenly little deflectors go flying and oil goes everywhere. Glad I was outside!!!

Once I found/picked up/cleaned the deflectors, I reinstalled them. I then adjusted the valves. This is how I did it, seemed to work great, others may have more experience.

1) Let engine warm up to operating temperature.
2) Loosened the first nut, slowly, till I heard the "KLACK-KLACK".
3) Slowly retightened the nut until the "KLACK-KLACK" was gone.
4) Added 1/4 turn to the nut.
5) Repeated for each of the other 15 nuts,
6) Went back and added a 1/4 turn to each nut.

That's what I did, seemed to work, I don't have any funny sounds. And, more importantly, so far, no more smoke.

But of course, something went wrong. While re-hooking up the fuel lines to the throttle body, I got a little ham fisted:

But, for now/temporarily, I was able to file the damaged threads off and rethread the fitting with a spare nut. It is super butch, but it is not leaking. But, it is temporary.

And a finished picture, after I cleaned the engine bay. If I wouldn't have revved the engine like a retard, no oil would have leaked out, the little deflectors worked great.

That was Saturday. On Sunday, I ran out to the junk yard and picked up two new fuel rails.

I spent about 45 minutes, must have looked at 60-70 trucks/Suburbans/Tahoes/Vans, only to realize that every factory TBI equipped GM truck has the fuel rails dumping straight back, NOT forward like mine. So, I found a 91 Caprice, and what do you know, same exact fuel lines as mine, AND the valve covers were on "screwed up" like mine were originally. So, I am pretty confident my engine came out of a Caprice, so I can say I have a "cop car motor" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, still need to change out the damaged fuel line, then a test drive, and hopefully I can call this little part of the project finished.

I hope I don't need to adjust the valves again. On this motor, it takes about 1.5 hours to pull the valve covers off, due to some of the brackets/fuel rails running over the lips of the valve covers.

That's it for now.

 

[Bad Karma]

whats stopping those oil deflectors from coming off when the valve covers are back on?

 

[wm69]

whats stopping those oil deflectors from coming off when the valve covers are back on?

I'm guessing you remove them after you adjust valves/ prior to reinstalling valve covers, no?

 

[spankrjs]

whats stopping those oil deflectors from coming off when the valve covers are back on?

I'm guessing you remove them after you adjust valves/ prior to reinstalling valve covers, no?

Yes, you only use the deflectors when you are adjusting the valves. Once the valves are adjusted, you remove them.

They have a "pointed" end that kind of plugs the hole in the rocker. So, instead of oil spraying out, it just kind runs out.

 

[Polarfire]

I can say I have a "cop car motor" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Is it the new Blues Mobile or what?!

 

[spankrjs]

Is it the new Blues Mobile or what?!

"It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

 

[Jeep Addict]

so I can say I have a "cop car motor" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea the one that chased down O.J. too!

 

[Polarfire]

"It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas."

Fix the lighter.

 

[spankrjs]

Fix the lighter.

Actually, the lighter works