Curse of Drew

I've been working on my jeep for the last month now. I re-ringed the engine because I was loosing too much oil and compression. It turned out that I had 3 cylinders with borken rings!!!

After I got done with that, I decied to put in power brakes in. I stole a master cylinder and hanging pedal setup from a Cherokee. Still working out the bugs with the system… I may need an adjustable proportioning valve installed on the rear lines to keep them from locking up.

With the power brakes, it requires vacuum. I only had one vacuum source coming out the back of the carburator, and that was for the PVC valve. I tried to tee off it, but it just wasn't enough.

One of my buddies gave me one of his carbs to slap on. It had vacuum up the yin-yang. So I took the old one off and installed the new one. It fired right up, but there was a horrible "clicking" sound. We thought that it was the starter sticking, but I couldn't be that lucky.

Apparently, there is a screw on the baseplate of the old carb (rochester 2g) that is in the middle of the bottom of the carb. Guess what, that screw wasn't there when we were accounting for all the parts / tools. You could see where the screw was just balancing on the gasket on the web of the intake manifold. I guess that I am lucky by having this happen in the shop and not someplace where I'm not supposed to be.

So, off came the manifold and head. Of course that screw had to have a lock washer on it also. The screw went into # 4, and the washer went into #6. Broke the hell out of #4 piston (piston skirt exploded and rings shattered) and the #6 piston was pitted and the top ring was crushed.

I got the new pistons and a new ring kit in from Kanter (www.kanter.com). Good place to do business with.

I will be working on it tonight. I got the pistons installed on Friday, but I noticed that my timing chain has about 1.5" of slack while I was underneath the jeep, looking up from the oil pan. I got a new timing set (2 gears and chain) and will be working on that this week.
I noticed that I have the spring loaded chain tensioner on the passenger side, but I couldn't see the "chain guide" on the drivers side. I hope that it's still there, because I can't find anywhere that carries them. I will be digging thru all our "old" engines tonight to see if I can find one.

BTW, all this is because I wanted more vacuum for my stupid brakes.

I ended up drilling / tapping a port on my intake manifold for the brake vacuum.

I've been hearing "The Curse of Drew" a lot around the shop lately .

 

Gotta love old Jeeps..... Yours have a name yet? "The Curse Of Drew" would be a good one!!

 

I usually call it "Ralphie" (from the Simpsons).

The name fits in most circumstances, unfortunately.

"GO BANANA!!!"<---- quote

 

Wow - what a chain of events.

Sorta related - my dad had a valve spring break on his 340. Went into 2 different cylinders and burst both pistons, cracked the block and cracked one of the heads. You got out lucky!!!

 

Me fail english? That's unpossible!

But I know how you feel. Was trying to do a tune-up on my old Exploder a few years ago. Broke a spark plug, ceramic went plop down into the cylinder.... A few days and a top end overhaul later, and I had gained a slow oil leak that remains to this day.

 

I'll be sure to strip a couple of bolts taking the water pump and front timing cover off tonight. That should be enough for one day inorder to maintain the dreaded "Curse of Drew"

 

Had a Triumph GT6 was setting the carbs and at that moment one of those screws came out sucked into the engine and rattled around then before I could turn the engine off the screw was spit out the exhaust valve. I used a borescope to inspect it, all was ok. I was lucky!