Reminders on why I’d rather work on my Jeep.

This thread and recent work on my ‘89 Laredo inspired this post.

Reminders on why I’d rather work on my Jeep.

Last week I replaced my track bar in my ‘89 Laredo and discovered the reason it failed. There was a wrong size castle nut on the upper connector.

I didn’t realize the problem until I tried to attach the new track bar with the old castle nut. When the cotter-pin holes lined up with the “castle top” there still was about an 1/8-1/4 inch space from locking down the stud. I checked the old track bar thinking it was different threading but it was the same as the new one. I couldn’t believe it and quickly ran out to NAPA and got a full size castle nut and it locked down perfectly. And yes upon removal of the old castle nut it had the cotter pin through it.

My head just shakes when I see this stuff with my Jeep. How can mechanics be so stupid? It was obvious the nut didn’t lock down and how hard could it have been for a mechanic to get a proper castle nut or at the very least use a couple of washers to make up the difference?

But below is why I really became serious on working on my Jeep as it could have been a life threatening situation.

About three/four of years ago I had a two fuel injectors replaced by a local garage and a week later gas started leaking out the front connector of the fuel rail. I quickly drove to the garage and showed them the leak and the mechanic that installed my injectors took my Jeep. After 20 minutes he fixed the problem. I asked what the problem was and he says he didn’t have an O-ring at the time he installed the injectors so he just used grease to seal the quick connectors. I asked if he installed an O-ring to stop the leak this time and he mentions in an off hand way that a couple days earlier he was cleaning out his tool chest and found an O-ring and used that one. Luckily I was driving locally when this happen. Can’t image if I was driving on the Parkway or Turnpike and my engine caught fire. Can’t image if I was a little old lady driving with a time bomb under the hood!

Been working on my Jeep religiously ever since!

John

Great post John, I have to agree.

I had a small shop replace my ball joints a few months ago. I noticed a squeak a couple of days later coming from one of the front tires. I also noticed the boot wasn't seated on one of the replaced ball joints. Took it back and they tried to tuck the boot back into the ball joint and inspected for the squeak. The kid grabbed the front wheel and it was loose...wasn't sure if they torqued it wrong or what but the wheel bearing was hosed. The other wheel had some play too. Also, the "tucked" ball joint boot never stayed put, even after a couple more trips.

I finally got my way after a couple of weeks. I fought with the owner and he finally replaced both wheel bearings (charged me for the bearings but not labor) and the ball joint with the bad boot. When I told him parts manager at the Chrysler dealership said the balljoint needed replaced and they should cut me a deal on new wheel bearings, the owner of this shop finally gave in.

Not that I would wanna ever replace ball joints....but yeah, some mechanics really suck.

This is why I do all my own work,period.You can't trust these a$$holes they don't care about your vehicle.I have heard too many horror stories about people paying $600.00 for BRAKE JOBS!!I have been know to do front brakes for $30.00....and they are done right.

Doing all of your own works means having a maitenance friendly vehicle for me it's jeeps,granted some things suck to work on on a jeep......but it could be alot worse trust me these newer cars are not designed for the shade tree mechanic!!

I just put a front cv shaft in the gf's 97 accord,that was fun.......the ignition switch was more fun!!Doing stuff like that makes you realize how easy itr is to work on a jeep.....

I do my own work also, but I can see where the mechanic’s mess up. They are interrupted several times while working on your vehicle and it’s easy to forget where you were at in the repair process.
BTW My name will be turning red in a week or so. Checks in the mail.
I've learned alot on this forum and I want to help out.

Just as there are idiots on the road ,and trail, and in here. and everywhere else I can think of, yes there are idiots in the shop..........but not every one in the shop is an idiot ...... like some would have you believe......if you cant manage to do all things yourself find a good shop to go to....as an A.S.E. Certified Master technicain (as well as several other certifications) this is more than a minor annoyance to me.

I know a few mechanics that run very good shops, fair pricing and decent work. I agrre that there are some idiots, but there are also some very good ones, get references. Any shop that won't give out references is suspect to me.

majic_tech said:

....but not every one in the shop is an idiot ...... like some would have you believe....

Click to expand...

I understand but I wasn't trying to make a blanket statement. But I’m jaded with my Jeep as I'm "four for four"...meaning taking my Jeep to four different garages and coming out with different problems then went in with.

In addition to the above experiences in my first post had the ball joints replaced by a front-end specialists shop because of death wobble. But only to drive away with bad front vibrations and noise that was not there previously. I took the XJ back to them three times and just gave up having them trying to find and fix the problem... There’s a very good chance that they pulled the hubs with a wheel puller and damaged one of the hubs as I just replaced both and one was bad.

I’m still looking for an excellent mechanic....wished you lived near by!

I have my 90 XJ apart in the garage doing a Alarm/Remote Starter install.

I really enjoy how simple the truck is to work on. The interior comes apart quite nicely along with components in the engine bay.

The only thing I have noticed that sucks is the odd Torx bits. It probably like when you guys come across a Robertson.