What did you do to your jeep today?

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Johnny O

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I had the LCA done under recall a while back. Before then, it was a bucking bull with every change in throttle!

Replacing *all* the front stuff triggered this alignment. I figured it would be near perfect after all those new parts and 7 hours at the neighborhood Firestone. Not so much. I'll probably run it in for a while and take it back under the 12-month warranty. ::shrug::
Never had good luck with Firestone Alignments. I use Jensen or Brakes Plus.
 

exacerbated

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Never had good luck with Firestone Alignments. I use Jensen or Brakes Plus.
Me, either, I guess. ;)

My regular favorite independent neighborhood shop lost their tech, so I went with the closest big-box place.
Unless they can make good on it for free after I put some miles on those new bushings, the hunt continues.
 

sota

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interesting.
I've got lifetime alignment from firestone on all my rigs. occasionally I have to take it back, but as of late they've been good.
 

sota

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06 khaki:
driver's seat belt latch, the red button part sits down inside it instead of popping up, and it's troublesome to get it to actually latch. I sprayed some WD40 in it and worked it like 50 times, and it seemed better, but now it's getting worse. any thoughts on how to fix it?
 

exacerbated

I think I made it worse.
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06 khaki:
driver's seat belt latch, the red button part sits down inside it instead of popping up, and it's troublesome to get it to actually latch. I sprayed some WD40 in it and worked it like 50 times, and it seemed better, but now it's getting worse. any thoughts on how to fix it?
Maybe not what you're looking for, but I usually take a little drive the junkyard for that sort of stuff.
 

seafish

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Try using more WD40 again but ALSO with using some compressed air to help the WD40 better penetrate, clean and coat the mechanism without having to take it apart. If necessary, you can even drill a small 1/8" hole down low in the plastic housing to better allow the WD40 to drain and flush out all the dirt and debris. Ive done this on multiple vehicles and it always works for me...even on the ratcheting mechanism and locking pendulum on the other side of the seatbelt. I used a rag or plastic bag around the buckle to keep from blowing the WD40 all around the inside of your car...it also let me see how much dirt and food crumbs ;) blew out from the mechanism, which was alot.
 
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Johnny O

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Me, either, I guess. ;)

My regular favorite independent neighborhood shop lost their tech, so I went with the closest big-box place.
Unless they can make good on it for free after I put some miles on those new bushings, the hunt continues.
As I travel a lot I try to use national chains for tires, alignments, and oil changes. (WalMart and Costco for tires, Jensen, JiffyLube, and/or Brakes Plus) I truly would rather use locally owned businesses, but their warranted work is useless when I am a thousand miles away.
With the Rubicon, there are some critical parts that I could do myself, but warranted work is better in case of emergencies like ball joint failure.
 

profdlp

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I had a five-year alignment plan with a national chain. I started it when I was stuck down in Virginia for a year. Got back here to Ohio and went in for a check. The guy comes back like three minutes later and says "You're good". I asked to see the before and after measurements and he claimed their printer was broken. This outfit specialized in selling tires, so guess where I DIDN'T go when I needed five new ones?
 

Deb'nKJ

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I've it a couple times (resoldering defrost tabs) using a cute little ratchet with the torx drive. Not too tuff if you're the right height and can use your head to hold the window when there's only one or 2 screws.
If I can manage to change an all steel XJ liftgate (with only the help of a pair of steps, a carpet off-cut & a piece of corrugated cardboard) I reckon I could manage but watch Project DanH replace the glass on a WJ for a few hints & tips.
 

seafish

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As I travel a lot I try to use national chains for tires, alignments, and oil changes. (WalMart and Costco for tires, Jensen, JiffyLube, and/or Brakes Plus) I truly would rather use locally owned businesses, but their warranted work is useless when I am a thousand miles away.
With the Rubicon, there are some critical parts that I could do myself, but warranted work is better in case of emergencies like ball joint failure.

Like anything, there are always two ways of looking at something like this...

1) buy less expensive parts and/or labor from a large chain store for ease of warranty and service...OR

2) buy more expensive and higher quality parts and/or labor from a reputable shop that are less likely to break and leave one stranded in the first place.

As an example, I will ALWAYS try to buy quality batteries made by East Penn Manufacturing. I do that because IME of over 30 years of using them in MANY vehicles, and even HD diesel equipment, they will OUTLAST their warranty period by a substantial margin. Also, and even more importantly, they will NOT leave me broke down or stranded when I am traveling, particularly offroad, where (thankfully :rolleyes:) there exist no big box stores to honor the warranty on a cheaper battery. Of course, it must also be said that proper battery maintenance IS part of the equation here!!!

I am also lucky enough to still have an excellent independent suspension/wheel shop in a nearby town. I am on a first name basis with them, and they have serviced all my family's vehicles alignment for many years now. I know that if this shop does the work with parts I specify (or even bring to them), I won't need to utilize a warranty, unless I do something stupid... in which case that's on me anyways.

You might be asking, How did I come to such a strange and more costly mechanical philosophy???

THAT question is fairly easy to answer and actually involves one of my first times needing to work on my first car, a 1968 Plymouth Satellite. (Dam, I do wish I still had that Sport Satellite today... NOT because it was an awesome car, which it wasn't, but because it's now worth ALOT more money as an underrated but still desired muscle car then back when I finally sold it for $3500, which, ironically is also about what my dad paid for it brand new 1968 :cool: ).
Anyways, back in 1976, it was also around the time that Kragens Auto Supply (predates Autozone or Oreillys) was breaking into the California discount parts market, and in doing so they were also offering many of the parts they sold with a "Lifetime Warranty."

So instead of heading down to Larrys Auto Parts, I thought to myself, well THAT just sounds like too good a deal to pass up and so I bought that water pump from Kragens.
And then spent about a half day replacing the bad one on my car with the one with the lifetime warranty. Again, at barely 16 yo, I was just learning how to wrench on my own and I was super pleased and excited when the job was done!!! SoI fired up that bulletproof 318 to take a test drive and check for coolant leaks and IMMEDIATELY heard a light growl from the water pump.
Yup... BAD bearings, right out of the box!!!!

Of course, Kragens gave me another water pump to install, but no one was gonna give me back that half day, and early on I realized that lower prices and a "lifetime warranty" come with an actual cost -- lower quality parts AND more down time… Lesson learned!!!

Anyways, thats my story and Im sticking to it...;)
 
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sota

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been studying videos on how to replace the solenoid pack on the 42RLE, with the trans still in the jeep.
you know, it doesn't look like THAT bad a job. and the part isn't terribly expensive (< $100.)
i'm betting I give it a shot in the not too distant future.
 

lfhoward

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been studying videos on how to replace the solenoid pack on the 42RLE, with the trans still in the jeep.
you know, it doesn't look like THAT bad a job. and the part isn't terribly expensive (< $100.)
i'm betting I give it a shot in the not too distant future.
I will be cheering you on. My transmission is at 218k and I wonder how long it has…
 
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