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Working on a neighbor's WJ - miniproject

2K views 32 replies 10 participants last post by  Moco 
#1 ·
I'm not Jeep guy, but helping out an old neighbor of ours whose daughter's 2000 Grand Cherokee 4.0 with about 190K is getting long in the tooth and needs some things that need immediate attention. The neighbors moved about 2 hours away so Im having her drop the truck off next weekend and will work on it for a couple of days to knock out some sorely needed maintenance and preventive maintenance items. I had a chance to mess with the truck a week or so ago, but Ive spent the last week gathering parts assembled for it.

I figured it would be a good idea to join the this forum in order to take advantage of the tremendous knowledge and to have a lifeline in case I needed something during my project. The following is a list of items I plan to tackled on this Jeep next weekend:

  • Water pump
  • Shocks - front and rear
  • Tie rods, inner/outer left and right
  • VC gasket
  • Spark plugs
  • Timing Cover gasket
  • Oil Pan Gasket
  • RMS
  • Fuel filter
  • oil change

Last week when I had a chance to mess with the truck, I did the following:

Installed new thermostat
Replaced Radiator hoses
Replaced + and - battery terminals and cleaned battery
Replaced hood struts

I dont have any pictures of the WJ, but will document my work on the truck next week as I make progress.
 
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#2 ·
So here is a parts list of things I've compiled:

WATER PUMP: Gates 42293
WP INLET Tube: Dorman 56398
THERMOSTAT HOUSING - Dorman 902-306
SHOCKS: Monroe 37161 and 37162 - not a big fan of Monroe but these are the mid level line and I got them for about $30 a piece at my local store
VC GASKET: Felpro VS50458 R
TIMING COVER GASKET: TC45458
RMS: Felpro BS 40612
OIL PAN GASKET: Felpro OS 34308 R
SPARK PLUGS: NGK 3459
FUEL FILTER: WIX 33929
TIE ROD ENDS: Mevotech Supreme; MES3472, MES3473, MES3474, and MES3475
 
#3 ·
Looks good to me. Either champion copper, or ngk v power copper are good choices for plugs. Never used mevotech tie rod ends, but check out Moog if you are ordering online. Honestly, I've had good results with autozone tie rod ends and they have a good warranty. Everything else looks like a ideal shopping cart. Good luck with the project and thumbs up taking care of him and his daughter. Nice to hear about the good in people!
 
#6 ·
So I have a couple of questions to direct at the forum, one especially that Im grappling with.

I.) Do I drop the transmission pan and do a fluid drain and fill with filter change? The default assumption for this truck is that it has had little maintenance. Aside from taking the truck around the block once or twice, I havent driven this Jeep and am not sure of the condition of the transmission - Im afraid to kill it with new fluid and filter. At this point, Im going to wait to see when the truck gets here, how the fluid looks on the dipstick. If it looks and smells decent, Im going to pull the pan and replace the filter, fluid, and gasket. If the fluid loos like crap, Im going to hold off and recommend they start saving for a trans. Any thoughts?

II.) In general, I've always viewed timing chains as a 'no service' item. But on this 4.0 motor, Im going to be right there, and theyre so cheap, should I replace the timing chain? Are the chains known to go slack on these engines at <200K miles?
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the headsup. I only have a couple of days to work on this truck, so I need to address the most pressing issues first. Ball joints look OK for now, will get them next go around. Serpentine belt is serviceable and has good life left in it. Trying to keep expenses down, hoping drag link is in good condition - which at first glance it appeared to be.
 
#11 ·
Another thought comes to mind. When I did the water pump on my 4.7 a few weeks ago, I found that both the idler pulley AND the tensioner pulley had bearings that were feeling a bit crunchy. :eek: I replaced them both since that's a seemingly insignificant part that can leave a rig stranded. :( NOTE: The Gates tensioner pulley listed for this application was NOT the right one. I ended up buying the Hayden one since it has the correct profile on the front. Here's a pic of the old correct one (left) and the new wrong one (right). Supposedly you can leave off the factory dust shield/washer to make the Gates fit, but Jeep is too cheap to have included a part that they didn't think was required. ;)
 

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#12 ·
Thanks for the info Harry.

Last week, I got a chance to look at the Jeep. The complaint was that it was leaking coolant and overheating. There was clear seepage from the thermostat gasket area and the upper radiator hose was torn. I replaced the hoses, thermostat, and water pump gasket (the pump looked good and I was trying to keep costs down). Unfortunately, the seal on the pump had failed as well and I have go back and replace the pump as its leaking significantly.

One interesting that I ran into was that the previous hillbillies that worked on this truck has spliced the electric fan to the truck's harness directly (God knows why - I suspect they either destroyed the connector during removal/install or they had a fan that had the wrong connector for the harness). So to remove the fan, I had to cut the wires connecting it to the harness. To re-install the fan I spliced in some 10 gauge electrical connectors. Theyre not exactly OEM, but should hold up OK:





As you can see, this engine suffers significant oil leaks:



I shouldve replaced the WP when I had the chance:

 
#16 ·
something to interject- if the oil pan is leaking at the back where it meets the transmission, it also might be the rear main seal- while you're doing the oil pan, the rear main might be worthy of doing.

it is a bit of a headache, but stops a significant leak.

another item- if you're dealing with the vacuum lines on top of the valve cover, there's a good chance that you will break the plastic elbows. get extras ahead of time- they're cheap and your local parts place will likely have them.
 
#17 ·
something to interject- if the oil pan is leaking at the back where it meets the transmission, it also might be the rear main seal- while you're doing the oil pan, the rear main might be worthy of doing.

it is a bit of a headache, but stops a significant leak.

another item- if you're dealing with the vacuum lines on top of the valve cover, there's a good chance that you will break the plastic elbows. get extras ahead of time- they're cheap and your local parts place will likely have them.
RMS is part of the to do list - its the small Felpro box in the photo. I'll look into getting the elbows - thanks for the heads up.
 
#18 ·
One thing to keep in mind regarding the overheating issue, because I didn't see it mentioned, is the electric radiator fan relay. It's a somewhat well known issue with WJs having the fan relay fail and the fan either only operating at low speed or not at all. The issue will usually present itself, as it did in my case, in stop/start traffic, especially with the A/C or defroster on.

For the year you're working on, the relay would be located under the passenger side headlight attached to the frame. Instead of taking the whole front bumper off most people just cut a hole in the plastic and replace the relay that way.

Hopefully what you've done with replacing the water pump and hoses takes care of the overheating, but just wanted to throw that out there in case the overheating continues. Good luck, and good on you for putting in the time and effort to help someone else out.
 
#20 ·
Does anyone know what this is? Its this rubber thing between the transmission and engine block. Its obscuring the last bolts to the oil pan, but the only way I can get to those two bolts is to obliterate this rubber piece. I just need to know what it is so I can replace it. Its already half torn away in these photos:



 
#21 ·
I got the main bearing cap off, but the main bearing cap doesnt have the 'ears' to take the bottom of the RMS:



Should I just cut off the ears? Every write up / youtube Ive seen for the RMS on a 4.0 has the depression for the ears. This is a 2000 model year 4.0. What gives and how to best approach getting this done?
 
#23 ·
Just did the exact same maintenance items to my new to me 2004 WJ with the 4.slow. The proper RMS should have come without the ears as they changed the rear main cap in 2000. You can cut off the ears of that one though and proceed. That stupid plastic thing (I have no idea what it is called) blocking the rear most oil pan bolts had just enough give (when I got all the oil and crud around the head of the bolt cleaned out) to let a chrome 1/4" drove socket on it. It was a squeeze taking it off but went on much easier when it was all cleaned off. Im impressed you were able to save one of the PCV elbows. Both mine snapped when trying to take the vacuum tubes off them.
 
#27 ·
Just to update out the thread:

I did in fact cut the RMS, it was no biggie, I used the upper half as a template and gave a dab or RTv on the edges where it meets the bearing cap. The engine looked pretty good for a 190k miles survivor:



After some cleaning and replacement of parts, the motor sure cleaned up nice. It went from this:



To this:







Here she is ready to roll:

 
#32 ·
I would suggest to rent a pressure tester from Advance Auto. Pressurize the system to find the leak.

They've helped me find my leaks 3 times now!

_
Its a good idea. I have a pressure tester and when I first saw the truck a couple of weeks ago I did just that. I pressurized the system to the called for ~18 psi and looked around. There was a slight leak around the top radiator hose and and around the gasket for the thermostat housing. The system held pressure, slowly bleeding off 1 or 2 psi in 15 minutes.

I didnt get a chance to test pressure this last time around as the truck had to go back home at a certain time. If I get my hands on it again before it goes into a shop, I will re-test it and look much closer.
 
#33 ·
So to update the thread: the shop says that the waterpump was not maintaining a seal to the block because the bolt holes were stripped. When I took the original pump off, the old and corroded bolts mustve pulled threads out of the block. I didnt not see or notice anything unusual on the bolts. But on re-assembly, even though they took 22 ft/lbs of torque as per the manual, they apparently were not sealed correctly.

So there you go, Im an imbecile and didnt catch the problem. :thumbdown::thumbdown::thumbdown:
 
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