Heater core

With the cooler weather over the last month or so, we had the heater on for a few drives. With the heater on, we could smell coolant inside the Jeep. This could only mean one thing......that the heater core was leaking. Replacing the heater core is a big job, and we decided to tackle it before the weather got too cold. The basic steps are remove the steering column, remove the entire dash, remove the HVAC unit, split the HVAC unit open and replace the heater core, then put it all back together. Roughly 5 hours of fun.

While the dash was out we took the opportunity to trace the broken wire feeding the blower motor high speed (it has not worked at all). Well we did find the broken wire under the fuse box in the engine compartment. Fixed the wire and the blower motor now works on all speeds.

Front pinion seal, dead pedal and 4WD switch

Wow, the daily drivers have required a lot of work this summer, taking time and resources away from the Jeep project. Thus far this summer the TSX required a complete new A/C system, then after I changed the tranny fluid and coolant the timing chain jumped a tooth on the exhaust cam, so I had to change the timing chain on the car (9 hrs). Not to be left out the 4Runner needed a new timing belt, then we changed the diff fluids, and replaced the front brakes.

But finally we did a few jobs on the Jeep. Jason and I replaced the front pinion seal, to stop the leaking on the differential. You can see Jason getting right in there to disconnect the front driveshaft.

Another job I wanted to do, was install a dead pedal beside the clutch. The dead pedal is really just a foot rest when not using the clutch, but it allows you to push against it if you need reposition yourself in the seat. So with a bit of 18 gauge sheet metal and a piece of checker plate aluminum, I fabricated a pedal and welded it to the inner body work.

Lastly, we noticed that the 4WD indicator light on the dash did not work when the transfer case was shifted into 4WD. We checked the switch on the transfer case and found it was not working. We replaced the little switch with the one in the photo and it works now.