Jeep Enthusiast Forums banner

My first jeep and many lessons learned...

1K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Drkmoon 
#1 ·
I just wanted to thank the Jeep forums community for being so helpful to me. This is my first jeep and I guess it's true what they say, JEEP means just empty every pocket....how true it has been.

I have an '01 I6 auto with 3.07 gears, 2" bb, skyjacker hydro's, and 31x10.5 BFG AT's. I bought it in Sept. '07 and thought it could go anywhere, boy was I wrong.

Lesson's learned:

1. Look before you leap. I learned this the hard way. Back in January, I went on a wheelin trip and thought I'd go through this mud hole. Well, that mud hole was more like a lake than a mud hole. I just went barreling towards the hole and didnt' see that it had a 2' drop before the mud/water even started. The mud/water was up to my doors and at the angle I was stuck at, the water was past the hood latches. Needless to say, I got stuck and the water/mud was up past my doors.

2. Don't drive it far if after you've been pulled out (see #1) and all you have is 1st gear. I drove mine for about 50 miles before I was frustrated enough to get a friend bring his trailer and get me home.

3. Auto transmission rebuilds are expensive.

4. If you're going to rebuild your auto tranny, go ahead and have the stock vent plugged and a new vent put in place (I did this, and no worries about drowing anymore). I learned this here on the forums.

5. Water and mud is harder on more things than just the tranny. After my sinking, both my front and rear brakes had to be done (did this myself). After the swimming incident, my rig was pulling to the left when braking. Took apart the rears, and there were rocks in the drums and the between the springs. The springs were actually bent. The right front caliper was seized completely.

6. Don't overfill your grease joints. I did this on the joint closest to the front rotors. Well, when you overfill it, the grease goes all over the place and if it gets onto your rotors, well, you don't stop too well. Good thing I was only going for a test drive and no one was on the road. I skidded all over the place.

7. Leaving your jeep sitting in water isn't good for your u-joints either. After the swimming incident, my rig would squeek like an angry sparrow when you put it in reverse. I finally got around to checking them and replacing them last week. The joints were rusted with almost no grease left in there. Now that it's fixed, no more noise, and surprise, surprise, the jeep runs a whole lot smoother than it did right after my swimming incident. By the way, getting the u-joints out was a BIOTCH!!!!

8. If your bumper isn't fully attached, attach it before you go wheelin'. The previous owner didn't put in all the bolts for the bumper. He only installed the bolts on the top but not the ones on the bottom. Well, my mud hole was ice covered and it bent the bumper back and well, my fog lights also broke and had to replace them.

But I did have a blast that day :rofl: So after about 6 months, I have finally fixed everything (I still need to replace the fog lights, but I don't consider that a fix). I guess the biggest thing that I've learned is that if I would have been more careful, I would have saved myself a BUNCH of heart ache and money.

And this is what caused all of my carnage:



I hope you've enjoyed my story :cheers2:
 
See less See more
1
#3 ·
Sounds like fun. :p Glad to see the forum helped.

Really though, if your jeep is a 2001 and the u-joints were never replaced, they were due (or maybe even mostly dead) already anyways.
 
#7 ·
yes I also learned some of these the hard way this should be a sticky post!!! that mushroom cap style breather on top of that tranny is a terrible disign for a jeep it should have a tube like both the diffs,, damn you chrysler... tranny rebuilds are not cheap you are right on that one

edit : I avoid water now like its the plague
 
#8 ·
I did a hole like that last winter after a long cold spell...the ice was so darn thick you could feel the jeep climbing back up on the ice before it would break.

It was really cool but the ice (almost 3 inches thick) cut a gash in the sidewall of my BFG TA/KO big enough to let the air out in what seemed like less than a minute.

They were able to patch it so I ended up with a $160 matching spare.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top