My "Saturday = Jeep day" turned into a "Saturday = Lawn and Jeep day". After mowing the lawn and all that jazz, I turned my attentions to good old Olive. I started by trying to follow the electrical lines through the car to see if there were any discontinuities. After seeing no obvious gaps, I tried to turn her over again. Same result. The next plan - wait for Papa Flick to show up with a voltmeter to figure out where the problem sits. The problem with that plan - Papa Flick could not make it over. So the day was spent doing more cleanup of both the Jeep and the garage. I do think I might know what the problem might be. I found out this weekend that the solenoid on the Jeeps are a pretty finicky part. They tend to go out fairly regularly, so I may just have to replace that for the electricity to get to the starter. Determining if that is the problem, for now, is my next step to getting that baby fired up.
On Saturday, I did end up getting underneath the passenger seat enough to remove it. I also cleaned the storage bin under the passenger seat and gained access to the side step bolts in that bin. I got all but one of the bolts off on each of the side steps - the ones I removed were all hex head bolts. However, the two remaining bolts have a regular screw head on them. Add the rust factor and you have a strip/no torque situation. After struggling with that for a while, I decided that maybe cutting the bolts off might be the easier method. It is really too bad I did not go get that angle grinder when Robert found those on sale. Also a possibility - breaking the nuts off the bottom of the bolt. Either way, I need to buy a new tool. Dang!
This week is going to be fairly hectic as we have a lot of stuff going on (softball game tonight, Rockies tomorrow, Sarah has a haircut on Wednesday, we are doing a Sam's Club trip with Mama Flick on Thursday, a work BBQ after work on Friday, the dogs are getting groomed on Saturday, Kourtney comes in on Saturday afternoon, picnic at my parent's house on Saturday evening, leave Sunday morning for Mexico). Somewhere in there, I have to pack for a week on the beach. Based on that schedule, I don't think there will be much work done on the Jeep in the next couple weeks. Good news is that July is pretty open, so I will most likely be elbows deep in grease for that month.
I love being able to take my time on a project like this. I don't need the car on a daily basis (or ever, really), so I can get things done when I have time. And having the Jeep in the garage means anytime I get bored or need something to do, I have something waiting for me!
1 comment:
sounds like fun. I've replaced the starter solenoid a couple of times. A good way to check if it's the problem is to jump the solenoid and see if it will start to crank. If it does, then you know its either the solenoid or the ignition switch.
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