Venting
Danno
Jeeper
Im going to use this forum to vent a little, because I need to to protect my wife and I figure you folks might understand my frustration. I found this 74 CJ5 in Indiana, looks good, sounds good, runs good, good rubber, owner says its his daily driver and runs near perfect, Ill take it! Its my second jeep, my first was a 94 YJ and I loved it. So now I have another, Im extatic. It has brand new best top seats, but they are so far forward that I cant drive it comfortably at all, So I have to cut out part of the wheel well to move it back about 8 inches, no prob. I can do sheet metal, Ill fix it at home. So heading home to Huntsville, AL, about 100 miles out it starts pouring, with no sheet metal under my <-BAD WORD->! And I loose the brakes (SCARY)! Crawl on home with my tail tucked and soaked. Next day I find the right rear wheel cylinder blown up, replace both cylinders, both rear break lines, both master cylinder lines and bleed brakes. When I get to the front brakes the steering locks up, my partner asks if he's hitting something, I tell him no and to quit &^$(ing aroung so we can get done. He cranks the steering wheel and the steering gearbox input shaft knuckle falls apart on my head. After cussing I start inspecting and find that the lower of the three mount points is broken off! and the other two bolts are hand tight. (*^&*&*!!! Now frustrated beyond belief I forget about the brakes and go get a new knuckle, replace it, weld on the broken mount point, tighten up the bolts, figure out how to adjuct the square bearings down into the bell housing and try the steering. It works, YAY, temporary releif. So, back to the brakes, I quickly get pissed off again when the wont hold pressure and start taking (*^#$$ off and find a pinched main line up above the tranny (dont ask why it was run above the tranny). Replace line, bleed brakes again, brake pedal still slowly goes to floor. #@**$#&!!! Now Sunday night, have to work on Monday so quit, carefully drive jeep to work this morning, brakes work with pumping. Take break and take jeep to brake shop (I dont wanna work on them noooo more)! make appointment for Thursday, on the way back to work, something falls apart in left front wheel, I can hear it clanking around and brakes are rubbing hard when pressed. I stop and look, cant see nothin, not takin the wheel off here, may not get it back on, then theres gonna be a tow truck bill. So Jeep goes back to brake shop, better to sit there than in the parking lot at work. So now Im at work, no Jeep, bill comming from brake shop, and Im fuming. Next time Im in Indiana, the guy I bought the jeep from that told me it was "near perfect" had better have moved. Thanks for letting me vent. More will follow as the saga unfolds.
Danno
Danno
Many have put money into a CJ and found out that it needed much more. So far the things you have found are actually quite minor - yet they are a pin in the butt.
