Actually drove it tonight for the first time since late October. In that time I replaced the steering box & hoses, master cylinder, rebuilt the transmission (and replaced the pump), and replaced all the bearings in the rear end. That was a lot of stuff to have overhauled, so a lot of stuff to monitor as we drove it for the first time. And here's what we now know:
- Transmission is working great, although it stillseems to be leaking from the bellhousing. I'm hoping it's just that I overfilled it but I'm skeptical.
- I made a huge ordeal out of the dipstick, but ended up that the thing sealed up fine w/o any rtv, just the factory o-ring. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- I also made a huge deal out of finding a pan with a drain, but ended up not using the off-the-reservation pan I found. Problem was I already had a buddy weld in the bung for the transmission temp sender in that pan. So the pan I'm actually using doesn't have the bung, so no temp gauge (which I hadn't installed yet anyway).
- I bought a new torque converter but was completely unable to seat it, so I ended up re-using the old TC. The only reason I was doing this work was because of a leak, not because of any real damage inside, so I felt ok re-using the TC. However, it's worth noting that I'm still leaking from the same general area, so maybe the TC is part of the problem? I'd be surprised if the seal was bad, I lubed it up good first. I'm praying that I overfilled it and it's puking out the vent behind the torque converter. Checking the level, I am over the max line. I'll just have to monitor it and see if I end up losing a ton of fluid or if it levels off.
- Rear end appears to be flawless, or at least plenty good....
- ....but those 3.07's on 33's is way worse than I remembered. I see a re-gear in our future.
- Steering box is a huge improvement...
- ....but now I can feel it wanting to wander, so I need to look at the rest of the components.
- Brakes are ok...
- there is still that big WHOOSH when you hit them (only with the Jeep running) and the pedal is not as firm as I would like. But it seems to stop fine.
- I replaced the wheel cylinders right before I parked it to do all this work but I can't bleed the driver's side. The bleeder screw doesn't want to fit any socket or line wrench.
- Oil pressure gauge shows ~40 while driving, but pretty much goes to zero at idle. I replaced the sensor with a cheap one a while back(as is my way) but in my experience a poorly functioning oil pressure sender will go to zero randomly, where as this one definitely only wants to go to zero while decelerating (foot off gas) or at idle.
- I'm thinking oil pump maybe?
- But could this be a sign of wear elsewhere in the engine?
The best part was that my daughter actually got to drive the jeep she bought 5 months ago. She loved it.