Tuesday, February 5, 2013

02-05-13

It was beautiful weather today, bright and sunny with temps in the mid 70’s.

It was also a fairly productive day
.

Around 9:30 I crawled under the jeep to see what was rattling and found that though the exhaust system was still tight, one corner of the muffler was very close to the heat shield and would rattle against it at times. I tried prying the heat shield away from the muffler but every time I tried, the muffler would move away. When I relaxed, the muffler would just return to the same position as before and the heat shield would not move. Eventually I noticed that there was a Brace holding the heat shield. I took the long screwdriver that I had been using as a pry and placed the tip against the center of the brace. With a large hammer I delivered a few blows to the end of the screwdriver’s handle. The effect was to bend the brace and move the heat shield up and away from the muffler.
Thus, hopefully eliminating the rattle.

After that was completed I tackled the job of replacing the Valve cover. When I ordered said valve cover I also ordered a gasket and new grommets.
I had thought that I would have to go to Blythe to purchase sealant for the gasket.
Dave came over and gave me a tube of sealant so that negated that trip.

When I unpacked the the valve cover I found that it came with its own “O” ring installed so there was no need for the gasket or the sealant.
Also when the valve cover was ordered I ordered new grommets for the PCV. The grommets that they sent were the wrong size. Fortunately the grommets in the old valve cover were only a couple months old so I removed them and put them in the new valve cover.

The whole job was completed with no more than the normal struggle when doing mechanical work.
I took the jeep for a test ride and didn’t hear any rattling. when I got home I lifted the hood and found no oil leaking from the Valve cover. So far the repairs appear successful.

Tomorrow we are taking a ride into the Kofa reserve we will see how things hold up.

  

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