Cascade Wanderer
Adventurer
Impressive. Looks like you know what you want, and are doing it without spending much money. NICE little rig!
2003 KJ Limited Build in Progress
- Thread starter the_dealer
- Start date
the_dealer
Observer
Thanks, that was the whole plan...stay as cheap as I could. My tj got totalled, so I swapped the goodies over to an Lj. That's been an expensive project. I wanted something I could load up and stay gone for a week with the family, be a decent dd, and still be able to hit some decent trails
the_dealer
Observer
Well now that I finally got the weird handling issue taken cared of (alignment), I can move on to the other things I've been wanting to get to. A few weeks after I got my KJ I flushed the tc to find more metal shavings than I wanted to see, and found alot of play in the front output shaft bearing. The NP242 in my KJ has always made a loud growling noise, and had a bunch of front & rear output bearing play.
I grew fond of the full time 4wd option of the 242 in heavy rains, but other than that it didn't get used. I also got tired of the issues getting it to lock and unlock my front tires.
I opted to swap to the np231 from another KJ, and came across what I felt like was a good deal. Total cost was $150, and had just over 33k miles on it. I watched them pull it, and was surprised how clean the thing was. The only thing they did was wipe the grease from being removed, and mark the crap out of it with a grease pen. They even gave me the shifter and lever with it.
I feel like I got a pretty good deal with it, so I hope I'm not proven wrong
I grew fond of the full time 4wd option of the 242 in heavy rains, but other than that it didn't get used. I also got tired of the issues getting it to lock and unlock my front tires.
I opted to swap to the np231 from another KJ, and came across what I felt like was a good deal. Total cost was $150, and had just over 33k miles on it. I watched them pull it, and was surprised how clean the thing was. The only thing they did was wipe the grease from being removed, and mark the crap out of it with a grease pen. They even gave me the shifter and lever with it.
I feel like I got a pretty good deal with it, so I hope I'm not proven wrong
the_dealer
Observer
Started the swap today, and made some decent progress considering the limited time I had to work on it. I knew the Np242 had seen better days, but I didn't really know how bad off it was. I found the chain was stretched pretty good, the front output bearing was toast(over 1/4" of play at the yoke), rear output shaft slightly bent + a little bearing slop, and leaky rear output seal. I used this as a time to inspect things that are usually hard to reach, and came up with a list. I got the NV-231 in place and bolted to the trans. The trans mount bushing literally fell apart, the breathers have seen better days, and the x-member bolts weren't looking so good.
Tomorrow I'll be extending/replacing all the breathers, getting a new trans mount, put in new x-member bolts, and new rear ds u joints. It's the typical scenario when wrenching on a Jeep...replace one thing, and find 6 more problems. I'll take some good pics in the daylight.
Tomorrow I'll be extending/replacing all the breathers, getting a new trans mount, put in new x-member bolts, and new rear ds u joints. It's the typical scenario when wrenching on a Jeep...replace one thing, and find 6 more problems. I'll take some good pics in the daylight.
the_dealer
Observer
Here's a pic of the old worn out NV-242, it's had a rough life. Sorry for the crappy pic, I guess I wasn't holding the camera still enough
Here's the NV-231, bolted in with no mods, which was pretty surprising.
I still need to spray some simple green on it and clean off the ATF+4 I spilled while filling it.
Here's the NV-231, bolted in with no mods, which was pretty surprising.
I still need to spray some simple green on it and clean off the ATF+4 I spilled while filling it.
the_dealer
Observer
I knew I had a slight valve cover gasket leak on both the driver and passenger side, but was more of an annoyance than a problem. Last weekend I was playing around with a new diagnostic tool and noticed I was getting some misfires on cylinder #3 and #6. Cylinder #3 wasn't enough to be concerned about, but #6 was right under the number to set off the CEL. I decided to test all 6 coils, and check/regap all of the plugs. I have less than 5k miles on the plugs, so I had a strong feeling something else was wrong. I get to cylinder #6, and the plug galley is soaked with oil, and so is the inside of the coil.
So that explains why I was losing more oil than the spots in the driveway showed. I also found out the oil filler tube seal was in bad shape, which was another place oil was leaking from. Luckily my gasket set came with a new one. Here's a few pics I took during the replacement.
There's wiring and hoses all over the place, but it looks worse than it really was.
Believe it or not, the rear bolt wasn't as a pita to get out as it looks.
I had a welcomed surprise when I got the valve cover off. With 197k miles, I wasn't expecting it to be this clean. For some reason the picture makes it look like the cam is scored, but it's not. I think the weird lighting, oil residue, and filter setting on my phone made it look that way. I've torn into engines with 80k miles that showed more wear. The timing chain and tensioners looked pretty good as well
The drivers side wasn't near as bad, and only had some wiring and vacuum lines to move around.
I toyed with the idea of painting the valve covers red, but I didn't have the time to do it. I was having some people over to watch some college football, and plans to go wheeling tomorrow. I don't think my #6 coil will live much longer since it's been soaking in oil, and I've had issues in the past with a couple of the others. I have 6 new Mopar coils coming to me, and I'll go ahead and put 6 new plugs in. I've been wanting to get rid of the 2 cheap O'Reilly's coils before they start having problens. Since I'm wanting my rig to be as reliable as possible, Mopar seems like the best bet for sensors and ignition parts. The aftermarket stuff just doesn't hold up like OEM.
So that explains why I was losing more oil than the spots in the driveway showed. I also found out the oil filler tube seal was in bad shape, which was another place oil was leaking from. Luckily my gasket set came with a new one. Here's a few pics I took during the replacement.
There's wiring and hoses all over the place, but it looks worse than it really was.
Believe it or not, the rear bolt wasn't as a pita to get out as it looks.
I had a welcomed surprise when I got the valve cover off. With 197k miles, I wasn't expecting it to be this clean. For some reason the picture makes it look like the cam is scored, but it's not. I think the weird lighting, oil residue, and filter setting on my phone made it look that way. I've torn into engines with 80k miles that showed more wear. The timing chain and tensioners looked pretty good as well
The drivers side wasn't near as bad, and only had some wiring and vacuum lines to move around.
I toyed with the idea of painting the valve covers red, but I didn't have the time to do it. I was having some people over to watch some college football, and plans to go wheeling tomorrow. I don't think my #6 coil will live much longer since it's been soaking in oil, and I've had issues in the past with a couple of the others. I have 6 new Mopar coils coming to me, and I'll go ahead and put 6 new plugs in. I've been wanting to get rid of the 2 cheap O'Reilly's coils before they start having problens. Since I'm wanting my rig to be as reliable as possible, Mopar seems like the best bet for sensors and ignition parts. The aftermarket stuff just doesn't hold up like OEM.