Tag Archives: jeep repair

College Rock and more Jeep work

On the 8th Sukes and I decided to check out a new climbing location–College Rock over near Hopkinton, MA. We’d heard we would need a lot of webbing, so Sukes picked up two 50 ft sections for anchors, which turned out be be enough.

When we got there we were the only ones at the wall, which we thought was a bit odd at around noon, but soon some other climbers showed up, and we watched a few mountain bikers go by.

The wall was a little bigger than I expected, 30-40ft in most sections with something close to 30 distinct routes. There was a bit of a topo in the form of a diagram labeling which features were routes, but not the difficulty. Unfortunately, we were too busy climbing to snap any photos, but I’ll be sure to post some next time we head down there. I also thought I’d be a terrible belay partner if I tried to get any photos of Sukes while on belay.

The area was a lot of fun, and we spent the entire afternoon trying out various moves. Neither of us topped out on any routes, but that was fine. The wall itself is shaded, while on top there was some exposure to sunlight.

We chatted a bit with a very experienced climber who informed us we’d set on approximately a 5.10 and a 5.9, depending on how true to stayed to the classic routes. Sukes belayed him a bit while I messed around on another route–many of them have tricky starts. We then watched him climb, and downclimb a 5.11. It was some of the best climbing I’ve seen in person, ever.

Eventually, with sore fingers, we called it a day and declared it’d be a sweet spot to come back to.

The Jeep

I’ll keep this short, but I’m sure you’ll love to hear my continuing adventure of fixing the Jeep (the beast). Upon return from Acadia, I began to realize that the overheating could’ve caused other issues in the engine, especially since its over 15 years old.

Since then, I’ve diagnosed a bad thermostat, mechanical fan clutch, as well as a possible head gasket leak. After a successful repair and replacement of both parts, I also was going to give some liquid head gasket sealant a shot, but it looks like there are other issues. The heater air isn’t getting warm, and the car is still overheating, which leads me to believe coolant isn’t circulating due to either airlock in the engine, or more likely, a failing water pump. The impeller on the water pump is press fit onto the pump body, which, when it gets too hot, could loosen up and cause the impeller to fail.

Luckily water pumps aren’t very expensive, however, it should be a bit of a repair, since I need to remove the fan and fan clutch (again), power steering pump, loosen the serpentine belt, and potentially loosen one of the tensioner pulleys. Fun stuff.

Update: I replaced the water pump and in this case it seemed to fix the overheating/coolant circulation.

Acadia Part Two

Since Jon (Sukes), Mike and I had such a great time last fall up in Acadia National Park, we were eager to get up there again this season. The opportunity came sooner than we expected, since my family and some friends rented sites at MDI campground for 5 days. My family has made it up to Acadia almost every year I’ve lived in Mass., so meeting them up there for the weekend seemed like a great way to continue that tradition.

Acadia National Park takes up most of Mount Desert Island in the northern corner of Maine. It’s a beautiful place for all sorts of outdoors activity, from hiking, to running, biking, kayaking, canoeing–and it’s all in one spot.

This time it was Jon, Julian and I who made the trip. We hopped in my recently fixed Jeep and started eating up miles. Everything was going smoothly until this happened:

My Jeep, broken down (again?) on 95.

Just our luck, right? The Jeep made it 240 miles without any issue, then failed us only ~40 miles from Acadia. My only solace was that it wasn’t the Crankshaft sensor.

Luckily Jon had AAA and we broke down under 3 miles from Bangor, ME. We could’ve instead ended up miles from any repair shop. We grabbed a hotel for the night and barely made last call at a random bar nearby, which gave us a chance to experience Bangor nightlife (there wasn’t much).

Stretching our legs

The mechanics at ViP opened at 7 and made quick work on the repair. A tensioner pulley had sheared clean off and gotten my serpentine belt all tangled up inside. Not cool, Jeep.

We got on the road again by about noon, made it to the island, got our park pass, put together a hike, and were on the trail near the Jordan Pond House by 3ish.

The weather had been a bit wet the night before, so we figured Sunday would be the better day to climb.

In fact, things were just clearing up, and as we began our hike on the Jordan Cliffs Trail, the fog lifted and the sky began to clear. It was turning into a great afternoon!

Looking down at the fog on Jordan Pond. All photos credit Jon, since his camera is way better than mine.

I asked Jon to get a photo of me and the cliffside. I think the pond was more interesting.

Sukes on the trail.

From my experience, the Jordan Cliffs Trail is one of the more strenuous hikes in the park. I’d kind of forgotten that the trail actually was directly on the cliff-side–one of the reasons I love Acadia hikes. In some places, one misstep could send you off the edge.

Julian taking in the view

As we neared the summit of Penobscot, at 1194′, the last of the clouds were lifting.

The top of Penobscot, lots of granite and wisps of clouds

We ran around on top of the peak for awhile, and then Sargent Mountain emerged to the north. I convinced my friends to do a link-up over to Sargent, and we set off.

Approach of Sargent, which was much greener.

On top of Sargent at 1373′

From Sargent we made a quick descent via another cliff trail, which put us at the opposite edge of Jordan Pond. We walked back right along the pond’s edge. All told we had a nice jaunt, I put our mileage at about 6.3 miles in just under 2.5 hours.

At this point we were starving, and the Jordan Pond House wouldn’t seat some sweaty hikers just for pop-overs so close to dinner time. We made our way back to the campground, hitting the grocery store for steak and some delicious local brews on the way.

The evening view from our campsite. It was low tide, and my families kayaks are tied up at the dock.

Time to climb

Despite the car trouble, with a few minor issues driving on the island, I found it hard not to have a great time on the island. Literally everywhere you look are great views and exciting things to do.

Sunday we got up early and hopped in the car to head to Otter Cliffs. There is tons of traditional climbing in Acadia, along with some spots to set up top rope anchors, but since neither Jon or I have the right anchoring gear yet, we were limited to the routes we had been at last year. Not that this was really a problem, since climbing over the ocean at Otter Cliffs is so cool.

Sukes hanging out down by the water.

We were the first ones there, so we had our choice of routes. It had been awhile since we’d used a top managed belay, so we set on a 5.7 to make sure we had everything in order. Pretty much everyone belays from the top of the cliff, because it is safer, uses less rope, and to keep the ropes dry.

Me on belay

Eventually some guided groups showed up to climb the 5.4/5.5’s as we alternated climbing the route.

Julian making quick work of the cliff

It truly was a beautiful clear day, just like the last time we’d climbed the cliffs. The only thing was the wind was pretty strong. Eventually we moved our anchor over, letting Sukes have a go at a tricky 5.10d.

Jon, part way up the 5.10d

He gave it a great shot, but eventually I let him down and we moved over to “The Flake” a 5.7/5.10.

Me taking my time on the Flake

Julian, nearing the crux

I took my time–too much time–getting up to the roof, the crux of the route. I again pumped out, and went around it to the left, my only real disappointment. Julian and Jon climbed quickly and with a bit of searching, found the holds to get over the left side of the roof.

Sukes belaying next to a guided group of climbers.

We were worried about the Jeep still, so we headed out around noon to grab lunch, pack up and head back to Boston. Luckily the Jeep pulled through and we made good time getting back. All in all, it was a great weekend, and we’re already planning our next trip up there.

At long last, my Jeep is fixed!

Although I’m withholding final judgement–the beast is fixed! Anyone who knows me knows I’ve had problems with my 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4.0 6-cyl for what seems like ages. It’s been having issues (well, one issue in particular) since at least fall of last year. I’ve only owned the car for 5 years now, and I didn’t want to give up on it just yet–most of the time it ran great.

Fixing the car was definitely an adventure involving a lot of research, trips from Boston to Autozone and my parents house to work on the car in their garage. I also had it in a shop a few times for minor part installs, in hopes they would have a solution.

Get ready for a long winded account of how I fixed it.

The problem

Last fall, my car started randomly “stalling” while I was driving–and it’s an automatic. This would happen at any speed, in any gear, at completely random intervals. For awhile I was completely stumped, sometimes I’d go an entire trip without a hitch, sometimes it’d be stalling left and right.

(If you’ve happened to find my site searching for a solution to this stalling issue, skip down to the solution heading.)

Eventually I had to start telling my friends, “hey, if my car stalls while we’re driving, don’t worry about it, it just happens sometimes.”

I did some routine maintenance stuff and cleaned a few parts, but even after reading countless posts on Jeep forums, I didn’t know where to start–it could be any number of things, for example, my Jeep computer could’ve gone haywire.

I took it to a shop, and they had no ideas. It was definitely an esoteric Jeep specific problem.

The arduous process

I then decided I’d have to figure it out myself and do the fix, rather than have a shop throw parts at the car and be charged premiums on parts and labor.

I started reading Jeep forums about similar issues–a lot of them. Whenever I had some time I’d try all sorts of keywords to locate someone who had my problem. There was tons of information on the internet, especially since Jeep owners in particular seem to love to tinker with their cars.

In the meantime I started replacing things that needed to be swapped out of my almost 16 year old car, and also tried a few parts that were my best guess from what I’d read.

I did a bunch of stuff, starting with simple tasks like cleaning the battery posts and throttle body. Eventually I replaced pretty much the entire ignition system–ignition coil, wires, spark plugs, distributor cap & rotor, and the cam shaft sensor. The spark plugs were worn, and the coil was cracked so it was good to get new parts in there. I changed my fuel filter and oil filter. I had the map sensor, o2 sensor, and coolant temperature sensor changed. I cleaned the IAC sensor, eventually changed it, then changed it back.

None of this fixed the problem, although it did help the car. It took a number of weekends to swap out the parts. Whenever I had a free day I’d go home and do just a few parts, since I didn’t want to install too many new parts and not be able to test the effect of each one on the car.

The solution

One part that kept being mentioned online was the Crankshaft Position Sensor, or CKP / CPS as I’ve seen people refer to it. At first I ignored looking at it, because it was one of the more expensive sensors, changing it involved becoming a contortionist (as one Jeep owner put it), and it wasn’t always the fix.

What the sensor does is magnetically determine gaps in the teeth of the crankshaft disc, and use the output voltage as an aid in the rest of the engine’s timing to control emissions.

Eventually I ran out of other ideas, and so I bought a Duralast Crankshaft Position sensor. Not to ruin the suspense, but if there’s one thing I learned while replacing this sensor, it’s this: Don’t Ever Buy Duralast Sensors for your Jeep. In fact, I plan to avoid Duralast if at all possible in the future. You’ll see why in a moment. I read warnings from other Jeep owners on the forums, but figured I’d be fine. I was wrong.

A few months ago I replaced the old Jeep CKP sensor with the Duralast one. It took awhile. The youtube video I watched said you needed to remove a bracket in front of the CKP bolt to get it at. Nothing is ever as simple as it sounds on an older car–this bolt and bracket were completely rusted together. Also, as I found later, you don’t need to remove this at all.

View from under my Jeep. The Crankshaft sensor is held in by the top bolt that is in the middle of the photo, and it goes into a slot on the right.

The results was this: the car no longer stalled (great!), but every 15 minutes or so in a cycle it would buck and miss and stutter and have no power when you try to accelerate. It was even less drivable. It actually took me awhile to link the change in the symptoms back to the new part, I think I just couldn’t believe that a brand new part could be faulty.

At this point I was desperate. I was so sure the new sensor was going to fix the issue, and now instead I had a new problem! What the hell.

The right part for the job

I redoubled my efforts on searching Jeep forums until I found a few threads that convinced me the Duralast part wasn’t going to fix the car, I needed a real MOPAR original Jeep part.

My Dad managed to swing by a nearby Jeep dealer, since of course I was stuck in Boston without a working car. He picked up a new sensor, and I came back on the train to do the install, a trip which was quickly becoming routine. I pulled the CKP out again, much quicker this time, only to discover that I had the wrong MOPAR part! I couldn’t believe it. The Jeep parts department at the dealer swore to my Dad it was the right one. Instead I had a harness for a Cherokee…not a Grand Cherokee.

This weekend for a third time I pulled the part, and finally swapped in the new (correct) one. After about 2.5 hrs of driving, I haven’t had an issue.

The offending part. The crankshaft position sensor.

This week I should finally be able to call my Jeep fixed, and not have to worry about repairs for awhile. It’s been a long road to this solution.

The underside of my Jeep.

Getting out from under the car after the succesful repair.

This repair wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my Dad and his expansive tool set, nor the countless posts on similar Jeep problems from various Jeep forums. If anyone finds this page who has the same problem and wants any information, feel free to contact me.