Morning Everyone! Sounds like we are all getting some weather today... Its about 40 outside rainy and windy!

 

55* and overcast here, going out to play a little basketball with the kids later.

 

Jay, sorry to hear about the cat. I couldn't imagine losing mine, even though I know I will someday. They are family, for sure.

Lisa, good news on the Jeep. I don't think it should be using oil though. Makes me think there might be bigger problems, especially with only two of the plugs being wet.

My wrangler had wet plugs and it turned out the CCV being sucked back into the engine was pulling waaaay too much vacuum and sucking oil out of the crankcase vent, oiling up the plugs. All of my plugs were wet though. Vented it to the atmosphere, plugged the vacuum port on the carb, and it's been okay since then.

I do know I have excess blow-by though, but compression is ~180 on all 6 cylinders so I don't know where it's coming from. Oh well. I'm not gonna try to fix it. When the straight 6 in the Jeep decides to kick the bucket, I'm going to but a Cummins 4BT in it. So...I'm not gonna hate you at all if you get Randy a 12 valve Cummins.

Scott, congrats on the baby. That's an exciting time.

Cris, that's funny that Troy was trying to talk trucks and you had to save is a$$...I could only imagine how funny it would have been if the guy he was talking to actually knew something.

Jeep's clutch is now replaced and working fine. Slave cylinder had a leak...no apparent reason. Just looks like a seal failed. Oh well, at least it's done and ready for the bad weather.

Speaking of bad weather, I'm not looking forward to it and this upcoming week. Tomorrow I leave for Iowa to do some audits -- Rock Valley on Tues, to Des Moines Tues night, audits there on Wed and Thurs...so anyone in Des Moines, let me know if you wanted to get some dinner...my truck won't be there though.

Anyway, supposed to start freezing rain and "measurable" ice here tonight through tomorrow...for the driving day. The low in Rock Valley Monday night is -14, and the high on Tuesday is -1! I am not excited about that cold temp. Supposed to continue to be snowing on us all week, as we travel. May end up not going at all if the weather is too bad in the morning. I'm doing this audit with my step-dad, and they'll evaluate the weather in the morning and make the decision from there.

Honey, I'm sorry, but my mind went straight to the gutter on this one.

This one is even worse.

 

Not windy here yet but raining. WTF? Most of the snow is now gone here also. Supposed to get down to -8 by tomorrow morning. Yes, that is minus 8 farenheit (sp?) No the wimpy celsius stuff Sheldon puts out there. haha Just busting your cohones Sheldon.

 

you have to remember that he's a candadian... they dont know better...

LOL

 

Ok Jeremy you got me beat there on the cold.

Edit: Very true Nolan

 

Jay, I don't want to have anyone beat on the cold though. I don't think I've ever been somewhere where it's that cold. We get down to single digits every year. On occasion just barely below 0 overnight here...but that even only happens every few years.

 

If you do not get at least an extended cab and a long bed, you're not going to be very happy much longer than a month.

Don't pay any attention to this Canuck Crap, this is like them telling us they get a ticket going 100 in a 55 zone, it ain't really all that cold or fast. Just sounds cool to them.

 

Sheldon, I hope you realize this is just friendly yanking on your chain. The US tried this metric conversion chit 20 or 30 years ago and our citizens raised such a stink about it, it is nothing but a bad taste left in our mouths today. But I gotta say it makes for some very confusing, frustrating tool boxes.

 

Thats what I did last year, I treated myself to it though.

Good luck on your trip Jeremy, if you actully go lol. That weather sounds horrible.

 

Hmm, hadn't thought about it that way. We'll test the cylinders. Its not worth anything, really...a '93 Heap...if it has major issues, it'll be put out to pasture. You never know though. We might just have some old worn out valve cover rings/gaskets. Part of the problem with this particular Jeep is that it sat in a garage for a few years, ample time for rubber parts to crack and fail.

So how hard was the clutch on your Heap?

Winter before last, Denver had a cold spell that landed us at -17 for a few nights. Dangerously cold. They kept finding homeless folks frozen to the streets downtown. Very sad stuff.

Very odd weather for sure. Its so warm outside, its creeping me out. I believe we're slated for that freezing rain also.

 

Snowmobiled last year when the HIGH was -20. That was interesting. Not as fun as zero to 20 above. lol

 

Haha look what ya started Chris, some canuck bashing!!!

As fragile and sweet of a guy I am, I can take it, no worries haha

 

I love Canada way too much to ever bash it. The girls, the beer, the scenery, the girls, did I mention the girls?? very friendly place I must say!

 

My Jeep also has a leaking valve cover gasket that fooled me for a bit, with oil on the plugs threads. Made me think the plugs weren't sealing properly, but was just oil coming from the outside.

The clutch wasn't hard at all, just very time consuming. Lots of stuff to be removed...driveshafts, starter, transfer case & trans, etc. I actually had a friend here in town who's another diesel guy (met him on PSN) that helped out with a lot of work. Although young, he's a hell of a good mechanic and has done lots of work on big trucks, including clutches on some semis. With both of us working on it, we didn't run into any snags at all.

The only odd thing we ran into was the pilot bearing. The new clutch came with a new bearing, but when we got the old clutch off, there wasn't a bearing to come out, but rather it was a brass or bronze bushing that's pressed into the crank. We were both stumped at that one. Tried to pull it out, but it was not moving. However the input shaft on the trans didn't look scarred up at all from it, so we just left the bushing in there and didn't use the new bearing. I figured that was best, especially because if the bearing seized up, there would be steel on steel, which could damage the input shaft.

Frozen homeless people...that is sad. Very unfortunate.

I'm worried about this weather. These audits have to be done so the company doesn't lose its ISO certification. I'm afraid my parents are going to try and push through it. They're going to be here about 10 am tomorrow to pick me up and head to Rock Valley. The trip to Rock Valley is 7.5 hours in clear conditions. I'm afraid if the weather is bad, it could take considerably longer and simply be dangerous. I believe the Registrar would grant an exemption though if the weather is just too bad...it's an act of God and out of control of both the company and the auditor.

It's gonna be a long week though. 7.5 hours to Rock Valley tomorrow, 4.5 hours to Des Moines Tuesday night after an audit day, then 4.5 hours back home on Thursday night after an audit that day. Total drive time for the week is ~ 16 hours and 1000 miles. Looking like it will be freezing precipitation the whole time as well. I hope the road crews in IA are pretty good.