Santiago Peak, click to enlarge.

Click for more.

Overlooking Orange County, click to enlarge.

Recovering burn area, click to enlarge.

Main Divide Trail, click to enlarge./a>

Mill Creek Bridge, click to enlarge.

It was a brief but fun day, at least I got a little bit of dirt under my tires and I hadn’t been on that trail in a very, very long time.  Fire roads are fun.

More photos can be found here.  Click me, click me!

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See more below.I ordered a universal laptop mount from Jeniko, I’ve been wanting to figure out a laptop mount for my Jeeps for awhile so that I can run my navigation software while on the go.  Instead of going through the trouble to build one I purchased a well-built and economical mount from Jeniko.  The mount is a very good basic mount although I did have to modify it slightly in order to install it.

I started out by using the base as a template to mark the mounting holes so I could pre-drill them.  Since I was going through carpet I wanted to make sure I had the holes exactly where I wanted as carpet and insulation has a tendency to grab self-drilling screws and throw them off course in the blink of an eye.

The only issue I’ve noticed with the mount was they painted the mount after cutting and tapping, because of this I had to run a tap through one piece so that the set screw would run in smoothly.  This was important because this is the screw you remove in order to take the entire mount out of the vehicle, I will be doing this a lot for theft prevention and because I’ll be using this mount in multiple vehicles.

Here is the base installed, this is what remains of the mount when you remove it from the vehicle.

Because the Cherokee interior is a rater small space I wanted the mount to take as little room as possible so I cut about five inches off the main boom and then drilled an additional mount hole so I could tuck it in closer.

Once I did that everything is done.  In the future I plan to modify the laptop table so that it holds the computer more securely.  I might also make a brace for the vertical arm if the table shakes too much while on the road.

Sequoia

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More details below.
I decided to get a Cobra 75 for the ’96 because it is a neat small package and has weather channels.  Since this is such a small, clean radio I had to do an equally clean installation.  As a bonus the install was a lot easier since I already had the interior completely torn apart.

Since CB radios draw a very small amount of power I decided to use the OEM accessory circuit, this way the radio is only powered when the ignition is in either the Run or Accessory positions.  I started out by tapping into the fuse panel and routing the wiring underneath the drivers side kick panel, sill plate, and carpet.  I brought the wires up through the hole for the power seat wiring.  I also ran a custom antenna wire to the drivers side quarter panel using the same method.

Power & Antenna wiring, click to enlarge.

Connection box set in place, click to enlarge.

I routed the antenna cable to the inside of the quarter panel and terminated it to a solder on PL259 panel mount connector.

Back side of connector, click to enlarge.

Front of connector riveted into place, click to enlarge.

Radio installed and testing complete, click to enlarge.

After installation I made myself a very simple CB antenna bracket that is more than strong enough for highway duty.

Antenna bracket, rear, click to enlarge.

Low-profile antenna bracket, click to enlarge.

Taking my time and planning the installation really made it turn out well, the installation was very clean and almost looks factory quality.  When I remove the antenna bracket and radio control unit it’s virtually invisible.

Control unit tucked away. The friction of the seat and console holds it in this position under all driving conditions. Click to enlarge.

Control unit/mic, click to enlarge.

Instead of putting an ugly hook somewhere on my dash board I simply got a microphone hook from Flying J and hook it to my rear-view mirror. This keeps the radio at read and the speaker at ear-level. Click to enlarge.

I expect many years of trouble-free service out of this.  As a bonus I can get another connection box for under $30, wire it into another vehicle, and moving the radio is as simple as detaching the control unit/mic cable and plugging it into the other vehicle.

Sequoia

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Tip:  Go into full screen mode to see it better.

That’s it.

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Unfortunately I was unable to quickly repair the existing AW4 by rebuilding the valve body, since I don’t have the time to rebuild it right now I got a replacement transmission and torque converter from a friend of mine. Before I put the “new” transmission in I replaced the front pump seal (most common leak point on any automatic transmission) and flushed the transmission coolers and lines. I don’t really have a whole lot of photos of this project because I was too busy working to take pictures, here is what I do have.

As usual click on any image to see it larger:

Rear of transmission dipped down, engine view.

Transmission dropped down with transfer case installed. To get the transmission to drop this far you must detach the transfer case shift linkage. I left the rear driveshaft attached to the transfer case so I wouldn't have to mess with the slip yoke boot.

Transmission about ready to be pulled, I really need to invest in a proper transmission jack

Old transmission out. As the Haynes manual would say "installation is the reverse of removal."

Sequoia

Update, 2.5.2010: Unfortunately in the rush to get the “new” transmission in I screwed the job up and sent some small pieces of metal through the planetaries.  After removing and reinstalling the transmission two more times, once to reseat the torque converter and again to remove the 4th gear planetary and clean it out it still makes noise in reverse, first, second, and third.  The good news is that the noise does not affect operation and there have been no problems in the approximately 7,000 miles I’ve put on the transmission since.  I will rebuild the AW4 I removed from this Jeep and re-install it at some point in the future.

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See more information below:The European-spec Cherokee has slightly different lighting. The tail lamps have a different arrangement, the early model parking lamps are amber instead of clear, there are no side marker lamps, and they have a small repeater turn indicator on the front fenders. I had my buddy Rainer in Austira find me a complete set of lights and send them off to me, about a year later I got around to installing them. The installation is pretty straight forward, take your old lights out and put your new lights in. The only more advanced things you need to do is drill a hole for the repeater lamp (I have not installed these yet as the lamps I have are broken) and wire in the rear fog lamps if you so desire.

I started out by bringing a circuit back fro my rear fog lamps. I tapped into an auxiliary fuse box I have and brought a 14g positive wire (protected by a 10a fuse) back to the right quarter panel area. Then I took a 22g wire from a dashboard switch and brought it back to the same area, I wired both to a relay then ran my wires out to the tail lamp areas. To cross over to the drivers side tail lamp I routed the positive wire underneath the rear cargo area trim, there is sufficient clearance here to keep the wire from being damaged if your put it in the correct area, I picked up the grounds for each fog lamp bulb locally. After I got that done I took my US Spec lamps off and put the European spec ones in place. I retained the front side marker lamps for now because I did not install the repeater lamp, when I put the repeater lamp on I will remove the US Spec front market bulbs (EU spec is simply a reflector).

As usual click on any image to see it’s full size counterpart.

EU spec on left, US spec on right.

US spec park lamp.

EU spec park lamp.

Rear fog lamp on. Turn indicator is amber field above fog lamp, then backup lamps above that and stop/tail at the top.

That’s it, with those simple little steps my Jeep looks just a little bit different from all the others out there. I also think the amber park lamps look a lot better than the clear lamps with a black grille.

Sequoia

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Read more below.After waiting for awhile to get the parts I am finally trying to fix my AW4.  I started out by taking the two halves of my valve body apart and thoroughly cleaning them, be careful not to lose the check balls or valve retainers while doing this.

Lower valve body, click to see it bigger.

While cleaning up the valve body I removed each valve to inspect the bores and clean them up.  I also made sure that the check balls were in the correct location.  Be advised that the AW4 manual floating around the internet is only valid for earlier AW4s, later transmissions use a different check ball setup which can be found in a Jeep factory service manual.

Upper valve body cleaned up and assembled, click to see it bigger.

Lower valve body with gasket installed, click to see it bigger.

Now you place the gasket on the upper valve body and then lay the separator plate down.  Then you have to grasp the valve body and separator plate together with both hands and flip them onto the lower valve body, holding them together tight will ensure you do not lose any check balls.

Putting valve body together, click to see it bigger.

Now just bolt everything together and install it into the transmission.  Be careful to make sure the gaskets do not flip up or get out of position and this will give you trouble down the road.

Valve body assembled, click to see it bigger.

Transmission put together, click to see it bigger.

Ready to fill, click to see it bigger.

Unfortunately this fix didn’t fix it.  I’ll be putting another transmission in soon.  It was a good experience though and will work out for me when I get around to rebuilding this transmission.

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Read more below.After draining the fluid and removing the transmission pan I was greeted by great globs of RTV, apparently the last person to work on this did not want it to leak.

Click to make it bigger

The fluid was rather dark and stinky (not overly burnt smelling but very dark) but it sure made pretty reflections in the afternoon sunlight.

Click to make it bigger

So since I suspect a hydraulic problem I went ahead and removed the valve body from the transmission.

Click to make it bigger

Click to make it bigger

Then I took the valve body apart to check it out.

Click to make it bigger

While looking at it there was one clip that was not in the correct location although it might have slipped out of place while I was taking the two halves of the valve body apart.  Also the gaskets between the separating plate and the valve body halves were really brittle and had some cracks, it is possible that this was the issue.  I also found that I was missing one check ball, I’ll need to get the parts and put it all back together but I can’t find any other problems, of course I’m not exactly a transmission technician.

That’s it for now, more next week!

Sequoia

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A bit more below…

Today I finished putting the engine together and started it up.

Once everything was together I primed the oil system, this is a crucial part of engine building that makes sure oil is everywhere it should be.  It’s quite easy to do on an old school engine like a 4.0, to start with just remove the distributor.

Click to see it larger.

The oil pump in old American engines is driven by the distributor.  The distributor is driven by a gear on the camshaft which is in turn driven by the timing chain (connected to the crankshaft).  Manually cycling the oil pump is as simple as jamming something in there and spinning.  AMC oil pumps have a female slotted drive so all you need to do is take the shank of a large standard screwdriver and jam it into a power drill and you have an oil pump tool

Click to see it larger.

Then just stuff it in the hole and spin away!  This distributor turns in a clockwise rotation so the drill should be set to forward.  Because I tend to be overly cautious I ran it for about five minutes before buttoning everything back up and starting the Jeep.

Click to see it larger.

Now that the engine is back together I can finally diagnose the transmission trouble.  It turns out that Reverse does work, it’s just very, very weak.  I suspect there is a hydraulic issue in the reverse circuit.  I’ll probably take the pan of the transmission tomorrow and poke around.

For now see it in it’s complete goodness!

Click to see it larger.

Sequoia

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Red more below.Nancy and I got the engine hoisted up, pushed it into the Jeep, and mated it to the transmission.  As usual I do things differentely, instead of taking the engine top bolts (those stupid Torx E-12s) out from the bottom by dropping the transmission I remove the engine front mounts and ears and drop the engine down as far as it will go.  This allows me to remove those bolts from the top side which makes things a lot easier.  Here is the engine sitting low:

Click to se it larger.

I ultimately got the engine about 99% installed this weekend.  It is currently in tight with most everything hooked up. I only have to install the radiator, fill it with oil, install the airbox, and connect the battery and it will be ready to run.  I would have gotten it done today but I had to make an unplanned bone yard run to get some bolts the previous owner lost.

While I was working on the crossmember I noticed more previous owner screwups.  It seems that they stripped out the drivers side nutzerts for the crossmember, this was probably related to the ghetto transfer case drop (twenty washers) failing at some point.  Here was my fix for this.

Click to see it larger.

I simply tack welded a nut to a bit of 1″ bar stock.  Please excuse the shoddy welding, this was done by a novice welder with a Mobi-Arc so it looks like crap.  I don’t care though as long as it works.  For those fellow XJ and TJ folks out there yes, I got the idea from the trackbar nut on a Jeep Dana 30.  Here they are in action, they worked perfectly, I’d imagine this method was a lot easier than the previous owner’s method of split lock washers and fishing nuts in place with duct tape (there were about four or five nuts in the frame rails).

Click to see it larger.

You may also notice the decidingly less ghetto transfer case drop.  I’ve had this sitting in the garage for the past four or five years, about time I put it to some use (I always meant to put it into a raffle but never remembered to grab it).  Now I just have to try to remember to call Rubicon Express to get one more spacer puck for the transfer case skid, since this has an NP242 I need to space the skid as well.  I actually don’t much care for transfer case drops but with the 2″ lift on this Jeep it is necessary.

That’s it for today.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get it running this week.

Sequoia

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