A few years ago, the engine in Andy's ZJ quit. He and Darrin dropped the
oil pan and saw a broken rod. Now that the shop is built enough I can take
projects on, I thought I'd take a swing at getting this ZJ back on the road (and
off the road).
07/18/09 Darrin and I took a drive to Andy's house to get the
Jeep. The battery is long dead on this Jeep, so we used jumper cables from
Andy's Camry and used the winch on the Jeep to pull it on the trailer.
When I got home, Natalie helped and we used the tractor to get the Jeep in the
shop and on the lift.
07/25/09 I've been trying to get the exhaust out of the Jeep,
but it's not cooperating. I thought the tough part was going to be the
bolts that hold the Y-pipe to the exhaust manifolds, but those came off easy.
The tough part is the silly slip joint where the Y-pipe meets the cat.
08/02/09 I finally got the exhaust out. I ended up
taking the sawzall to a straight section of exhaust. I'll have to sleeve
and weld this back together when the time comes. Looking at the crankshaft
and pieces in the oil-pan, it appears that the rod cap or cap bolts are what
failed first. The pieces of the rod are down in the pan with nothing left
on the crank (for that cylinder). I think the the cap let go, then the
crank hit the remaining rod until it broke from the piston. What bothers
me is the rod for the other cylinder that shares the space on the crank is not
in the right spot. That rod is probably bent or weakened and I'm
particularly concerned about the crank. Darrin has a contact that can get
us an engine from a vehicle recycler for $500 and I'm thinking that's the best
course of action.
8/04/09 I got a decent shot of the crank missing the #8 rod
today.
