Jeep Wrangler Forum banner

DIY Anonymous Support Group (Class is in session)

2K views 21 replies 14 participants last post by  Off Pavement 
#1 ·
This is meant to be a fun thread. This is the Do-IT-Yourself Anonymous support group discussion thread. From here on out referred to as DIYA. This will be where we come clean and share our stories of how things actually went when we decide to take on our DIY Jeep mod projects.

SETUP:

So you've decided to perform a MOD or do some type of service/repair on your Jeep yourself instead of paying someone else to do it for you. You know all the merits and rewards of doing it yourself. You've shopped around for parts, you came to the forum, asked some questions and got some good advise/tips. You browsed over the install instructions, looked up some step-by-step guides and may have even watched a few YouTube videos of others performing a similar task. You seen others post, that this shouldn't take you anymore than 2 hours to complete. You purchased all the necessary tools and other accompanying knick knacks (lubes, loc-tite, etc) you think you'll need. I'M READY!!! I CAN DO THIS!!! are your famous last words before diving in and doing the task yourself.



Instructions steps will read:
1. Insert bolt through holes, place washer on bolt and tighten nut onto bolt with 18mm wrench

Your ACTUAL steps tend to go like this:
1. Holes aren't aligned to insert bolt...find scratch all or some other tool to use to pull holes into alignment.
2. Insert bolt, still not fully aligned, bolt very snug, use hammer to tap bolt through holes.
3. threads of bolt are now boogered up, nut will no longer screw on, but holes are perfectly aligned, go to hardware store and get replacement bolt.
4. Insert bolt....ahhhh complete. Take a short break to relieve frustration of how a 2 second task just took you 30 minutes.
5. place washer on bolt
6. start to thread nut with one hand while holding 18mm wrench in other.
7. Drop nut....nut rolls into some God forsaken hidden location in the chassis.
8. Spend time searching for nut, see nut lodged in an unreachable location, get mirror, flashlight and magnet telescopes to retrieve nut....nut retrieved.
9. thread nut on by hand....."now where did I set my 18mm wrench down at?" Search for wrench....find wrench.
10. Start to tighten nut with 18mm wrench. Realize standard 18mm closed end wrench has very little clearance room to tighten where I'm lucky if I'm getting a 1/4 turn of the wrench to tighten. Realize, this is going to take all day to tighten.
11. Go look for 18mm ratcheting wrench, realize that's the only size you don't have in a ratchet wrench.
12. Make trip to usual tool store to purchase 18mm ratchet wrench. Find out they don't carry an 18mm ratchet wrench. Go visit another tool store and purchase an over priced 18mm ratchet wrench.
13. Get back home,Tighten nut with ratchet wrench.
14. Realize, in all my extended frustrations, I forgot to put anti-seize on threads of bolt. This is one of the main reasons you wanted to do it yourself, so meticulous care was paid attention to in the install and to save yourself some grief if future repair was needed.
15. loosen nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
16. apply anti-seize on bolt threads
17. re-tighten nut with 18mm ratchet wrench.
18. Clean up and put away the 10 tools you had to use, instead of the originally planned one tool.
19. take a smoke break, that was stressful, but step 1 has been acomplished!!!
- Planned time <1min. Actual time=2 hours.
20. Go to step 2 of instructions.......:doh:

Seriously, I know I'm elaborating some in my example but ALL these things have happened to me at one time or another taking off and putting on a single bolt on projects. Am I the only one?

I know I'm not......please share your DIY stories that didn't go exactly as planned.

This is a 12 step program, so always remember, the 1st step to recovery is admittance. The next step is being able to look back and laugh at yourself because you know if you shared your actual experience, others would likely laugh at you and you would feel embarrassed. I'll follow up by posting one of mine where there are quite a few to follow. :D

Most of all let's keep it friendly and ENJOY!! :thumb:

DIYA Slogan: "It doesn't cost that much more, to just do it yourself."
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Hi my name is Rednroll....

<Forum members in unison> Hi Rednroll!!!

I've been a DIYer for 30 years.

DIY JK Project: Heater core flush

So I've been having some heater problems this winter, I've been trying to diagnose. I suspect a possible bad heater core or blockage within the heater core. I read some forum posts of others doing a heater core flush. I watch some YouTube videos of the various methods others have done. Sounds like a 30-60 minute job and one simple enough I can do it myself. I have all the tools I think I'll need. Air compressor, CLR, replacement coolant, various pliers, etc. I'M READY!!! I CAN DO THIS!!!:thumb:

How my 30-60 minute project went (multiple blunders and one big one):
- Identify inlet and outlet heater hoses in the engine bay.
- Decide disconnecting the hoses at the firewall connection will be more difficult and harder to reconnect than disconnecting at the engine connection side of the hoses. So that's what I'll do.
- Top hose, very easy to reach and easy to disconnect with a pair of pliers.
- Bottom hose, harder to reach and get a pair of pliers on the hose clamp to remove.
- Investigate taking off from underneath rather than from the top.
- maybe pulling the fender well lining back will give me some better access to it. Removing fender well lining, wasn't in my plans and don't feel like figuring out how to do it. Pry fender well back and hold it there by inserting a crow bar. Still difficult, hose clamp is turned in opposite direction to get pliers on it.
- Get vise grips instead to try and clamp them on the clip.
- a lot of effort....but at last...got the clamp released in open position. I can't turn the vise grips from underneath to pull the clamp back enough....time to go back up top.
- need some more room to reach down far enough, valve cover breather hose needs to be moved out of the way.
- Remove valve cover breather hose from air filter and shove the hose up under something to keep it out of the way. (This is the setup to my mistake to come.) ;)
- slide clamp off, hard time pulling hose off from the top....back underneath, yank bottom heater core hose off.
- drain the coolant.
- Let's start the reverse flush.
- I want to limit the air compressor to 15-20psi, compressor limit adjust doesn't work very well on any setting lower than 30psi. Want to figure out how to solve that problem, because I don't want to end up destroying the heater core and make the project bigger and more expensive.
- insert planned compressor hose adapter into outlet heater hose....too small, doesn't seal good enough. Time to go to the tool store, I now have 2 problems to solve which require additional unplanned tools that I don't have.
- Honey, I have to borrow your car to run to the tool store........Her: "What else is new?"
- Pick up a finger adjust limiter valve with gauge for further pressure limiting, some multiple air compressor adapters with various diameters to make a better seal with the heater hose. Good to Go!!! Head back home.
- Picked a good size adapter to fit the heater core hose, wrap some black tape around for a good seal.
- Get 3 gallon jugs with water, perform multiple back flushes....everything going well now.
- Pour in some CLR in the heater core.
- Time for dinner, good timing to let the CLR work on any debris/clogs.
- Come back 1.5 hours later, should have been plenty enough time.
- It's now dark outside and hard to see. Clamp a Halogen light on the hood.....ahhh, much better that will work.
- Start to Perform flush to get all the potential gunk and CLR out of heater core. Halogen light burns out.....where are my extra bulbs? :thinking: Search around, find them hanging on my work bench peg board right where I left them. Get tools to disassemble light and change bulb.
- Peform multiple forward and backward flushes with water. Notice it takes about 1/2 gallon of water to fill core before water starts running out the opposite heater core hose end.
- One more flush of water should do it...........(big mistake ahead)
- Pour in 1/2 gallon of water.....hmmm??? Strange, no water running out of other hose yet? Must be too dark and I just didn't see it drain out. Continue to pour.....still no water out other end.
- Get a flashlight so I can see end of heater core hose better. Continue to pour water. Still no water coming out opposite hose end.
- Finish pouring entire gallon of water into hose and still don't notice any water. What the heck is going on??:thinking:
- Put flashlight on the hose I've been filling. This hose connects to the valve cover!!!!:jawdrop:
- The valve cover hose I had tucked up and out of the way came unhooked and was laying right next to heater core hose and I grabbed the valve cover breather hose by mistake....they're similar diameter.
- I just poured an entire gallon of water into my engine through the valve cover breather hose.:doh:
- Ummmmmm....Honey, I need to borrow your car again to run to the store. I need to go buy some oil and change my oil.
- Drain my oil....see water pour out the oil pan drain plug followed by recently changed 1 week old oil. Yep....it must be true, water and oil don't mix. :D
- Let sit for 30min to drain water/oil.
- Finish changing oil.
- Use air compressor multiple times to ensure heater core was dried out.
- Reconnect heater core hoses.......ugh, that bottom hose again reconnecting. Ahhh....not so bad, things do get easier with experience.
- Jack up front of Jeep, fill up coolant. Let run for 30-45minutes and burb cooling system multiple times.
- Good to go!!! Let's go take her for a drive and test out my heat, it's now pretty late and really cold outside.
- Back up out of drive way and hear some wheel rub.....Hmmmm??? My 35's never rubbed before?
- Back into street, and hear a metal clank on the pavement.
- Stop and get out.....DOH!!!:doh: I forgot about the crow bar I logged in between the fender well lining and the tire.
- No damage....Whew, that was a close one.
- Drive for 20 minutes down the highway.....Heat is working GREAT!!!!!:thumb:
- Drive 20 minutes to get back home. Notice on the drive home my heat was getting cooler and cooler the more I continued to drive.
- Heater problem the same as when I started by the time I got home.
- DIY project= FAILED!!!:doh:
- Go clean up and put away the multiple assortment of lights, tools, air compressor hoses/adapters and fluid containers which were much more tools used than originally planned.

Total time of 30-60min DIY project= 7 hours. How rewarding!!!:appl:

Next time, I'll cut that time in half, I promise. :bop:

What you got fellow DIYA members? I know you're out there. ;)
 
#3 ·
WOW!!! 222 views and not one DIYer willing to step up. Either everyone's projects always go according to plan or you're in complete denial and an intervention is needed.

Or I killed you all with that wall of text I posted and need to post the crib notes version. :lmao:
 
#10 ·
Only had the Jeep for 3 days, I am sure plenty of stories to come. But around the house I can't complete a project without going to the hardware store at least three times. And my wife never let's me forget the one time I didn't turn off the breaker.
 
#12 ·
My best example, and where the phrase "It doesn't cost that much more to just do it yourself" originated.


Several years ago the clutch slave cylinder on my 2000 Ford Ranger went south. These slave cylinders are concentric and mounted around the transmission input shaft inside the bell housing. The only way to replace this $40 part is to remove the transmission.

Being of the mindset that if you have to pull the transmission anyway, you might as well replace everything you can while the access is easy, I opted to go ahead and replace the clutch plate, pressure plate, throw out bearing, flywheel, and pilot bearing.

The throw out bearing came with the slave cylinder, so there was no additional cost for that. The clutch rebuild kit came with the clutch plate, pressure plate, and pilot bearing for about $250. The Flywheel was about $50.

So, I'm up to close to $350 now for a $40 part.

I'm lucky in the fact that my dad (God rest his soul) built a pit in his garage, so I could stand while performing the work to the under carriage. It still took several hours to remove the drive shafts, remove the transfer case, and remove the transmission. This is a 12 year old daily driver in the rust belt, so most of the bolts were stubborn. Plus, on the Ranger, the front drive shaft is attached with 4 8mm 12 point bolts. The 8mm 12 point socket split trying to remove the first bolt.

Trip to Sears to have it replaced under Craftsman's lifetime warranty.

Finally got everything apart, after about 4 hours or so.

Removed the old slave cylinder and throw out bearing, and replaced it with the new unit.

Removed the clutch plate, pressure plate, flywheel, and pilot bearing.

This process went really well, and only took about and hour or so.

Next, I reinstalled the transmission, transfer case, drive shafts. Another hour or so.

This is a hydraulic clutch system.

I didn't bench bleed the slave cylinder. At the time, I didn't know about "gravity bleeding" where you just open up the bleed valve and pour fluid into the reservior and let it drain through. So, I tried to bleed the clutch system like you would bleed a brake system...by pumping the clutch, then holding while a second person releases the bleed valve and then tightens after the air and fluid get pushed out.

I must have done this for 2 hours, and gone through 1/2 gallon of brake fluid. Still didn't have a clutch.

Called it a day. My wife picked me up from my mom's house and drove me home.

The next day I went back to it.

After reading up on how to bleed the clutch, I realized that pumping the clutch was the worst thing you could do. It actually sucks air into the master cylinder.

So, I removed the master cylinder, and while it was out, decided to just replace it rather than reinstall a 12 year old master cylinder with 160,000 miles on it. There's another $40.

I bench bled the master, then installed it, hooked up the hydraulic hose. I immediately had excellent clutch response.

So, all told, the parts I actually NEEDED totaled $40.

I spent over $400 on parts and took about 16 hours installing them, and probably used $30 worth of gas going back and forth to Advance and Sears.

I think a shop would have probably charged me $500 or so on labor to have this done.

I did end up with a brand new clutch from the pedal all the way to the transmission, but I really hadn't planned on that in the first place.
 
#13 ·
Sounds familiar. Must be part of the DIYer addiction. While you have things apart, you might as well fix the other things surrounding it, if they need fixing or not.

It took me 4 full days to install my lift, where most say it shouldn't take you anymore than 8 hours. Well, heck if I didn't have a few other side projects going on while I had things apart and installing the lift. Lubing and repainting my rusted chassis and axles was much easier to do, with all those tires and suspension parts removed. Decided while I was under there, and would need to bring it to a shop for alignment anyways, I might as well replace the tie rod and drag link steering components. I was considering replacing the steering stabilizer while I had that all apart but talked myself out of it, because I thought too many changes would give me a harder time trying to figure out what was wrong if I messed anything up. :D
 
#14 ·
Good thread - my buddy and I wrench on our Jeeps quite a bit and our mantra is "third times a charm" for the many times we had to remove and replace the part we just removed and replace since we forgot that washer or part A was inverted as compared to part B etc. etc. etc.
 
#15 ·
I have one to share. Nothing extreme and this is going to make me look pretty stupid but I always look back on it and laugh.

Never been a DIYer or known anything about cars/trucks except how to change oil until my Jeep came along. Well one of the 1st mods I did was transform my stock bumper into a stubby with those VDP end caps.
I had no collection of tools at the time like I do now so I borrowed my brother in law's sawzall. He had no blades so I went to home depo and bought 3 so he'd have a couple when I was done (just to say thanks). I had known from youtube that I would be sawing through metal behind the plastic bumper so I had it in my head to get blades for cutting metal of course.
Here's where my mind failed me. While browsing the wall of blades I saw "metal" and grabbed 3 and off I went. What I didn't know is that I bought blades designed for cutting wood that may have some metal in it (nails, screws, etc). I didn't realize this until later (we'll get to that).
Jumped into my project and started with the driver's side of the bumper. Turned the saw on and here we go, no turning back now. It was loud with tremendous vibration, sparks, I was fighting really hard to keep the saw from wandering. With all my might I wore completely through 2 blades with no teeth left. Good thing I got extras.
Tried to get through the passenger side of bumper with the remaining blade but didn't make it all the way, this blade is toast. So here I go back to home depo for one more blade when I notice on the wall of blades that I did NOT buy the correct ones to start...I'm a dumbass.
Purchased the correct blade this time and it cut through the rest of the bumper like butter...smooth and easy. I thought wow that project would've been 10 times easier with the correct tools haha. It was still a fun project though. Live and learn.
 
#21 ·
I thought wow that project would've been 10 times easier with the correct tools haha. It was still a fun project though. Live and learn.
I had a very similar experience trying to drill holes into bricks to mount a mailbox. I was using regular titanium drill bits. They'll rip through metal. They should be fine with this right??

Later that day I discovered that there's such a thing as masonry bits. :)

I think I may have saved myself a car related story for today. The weather was beautiful but my regular wrenching buddy was busy.

I've got my winch sitting in my garage just waiting to be installed. I must have thought about doing it myself a dozen times today.

That probably wouldn't have ended well without a helper. :D
 
#16 ·
My real frustration has always been the simple stuff. My example: lug nuts. Every time any of my vehicles has EVER been serviced by a shop, they crank the lug nuts on with a pneumatic wrench, to the tune of 800+lb/ft. This makes it a SERIOUS pain to remove. I'll run down the case of a friend who needed to replace brake pads, and to cut the wall of text to something manageable, I won't go through the actual brake pads part that was simple, I'll strictly talk about removing the driver rear wheel.

Step 1 - Loosen the lugs before jacking up the back end. Simple stuff.
1a-d - 4 lugs loosened, one was a bit tight but 1/2" drive 19mm deep-well took it down with a bit of coercing

1e - 5th lug nut. No amount of coercion, breaker bar, breaker bar with extension pipe, PB blaster, etc will get this thing off. Time for the big guns

Out comes the impact driver, with 19mm impact socket. This lug is coming off. Crap, the socket is too short/fat to reach the lug nut. Off to the hardware store to get a 19mm deep well socket.

Spend the next 30 minutes intermittently impacting and soaking the lug with PB Blaster. No such luck, my friend. Impact wrench too hot to touch, lug nut too hot to touch, wheel is starting to get hot.

Take a break, time to think. Not counting this time in the overall assessment at the end. After taking off the rear passenger wheel and doing the pads and rotors, note to friend he needs calipers and brake lines - rust is holding more together than actual metal. Also adjusted passenger side parking brake shoes to where I think they're good, but can't tell for sure because driver side needs adjusted, too.

Back to soaking with PB and impact driving for another 20-30 minutes. Finally, it spins! Pull the impact back to see that all I've managed to do is tear the 19mm shell off of the 18mm nut inside the acorn lug. Well, crap. At least getting the shell out of the 19mm socket wasn't TERRIBLY hard, just a couple of minutes with hand tools and hammering and prying and cursing.

Drive down to hardware store, Find 18mm deep well impact socket is ONLY available in the deep well impact socket SET. Everything else in the set available individually, but not 18mm. Grumble, buy socket set, return home.

Repeat actions of soaking in PB blaster and hammering away with the impact driver, another 20 minutes and the impact driver is too hot to handle. Time to do more thinking.

While the impact driver cools down, we hand-tighten the other 4 lugs, back them off a couple threads, and go driving around to exert more force on the stuck lug. Come back to the driveway, spray more PB blaster on stuck lug, back to the impact driver sounding like a jackhammer on this damn thing. 10 minutes of this cycle and SUCCESS! It spins!

No wait... back off the impact driver and see the 18mm nut is pretty well rounded off. Cursing ensues, much gnashing of teeth and such. Out comes the 17mm deep well impact socket. If this don't work, nothing will.

Sledgehammer the 17mm onto the stripped 18mm nut. Give it a couple extra whacks for good measure (and to hopefully shock it enough to let go of what has to be a TIG-weld strength bond with the lug bolt)

15 minutes of PB blaster spraying and impact driver hammering later, extreme measures must be taken. Loosen up the other 4 lug nuts another thread or two, proceed to drive circles in the cul-de-sac, park the tire against the curb, run it up onto the curb and slam it back down off the curb, etc... Keep in mind the 17mm impact socket is sticking out the side of the wheel and will not ever be separated from the lug nut again - casualty of war.

Let's give this one last try before we need to cut the damn thing off and get a new unit bearing. PB blaster, Impact driver, mental fortitude, cursing, sweating, grunting, more cursing. 15 minutes of this cycle, and all of a sudden Zzzzzip the lug nut is off! Hooray! Now we can do the actual work we started!

--On to step two!--


Cost of this one lug nut:
2 cans of PB Blaster ($16)
1 replacement lug nut (free to me for having extras laying around)
1 new to my tool inventory 19mm deep well socket ($6)
1 new to my tool inventory deep well socket set ($30)
1 sacrificial 17mm deep well impact socket ($5 to replace)
4 F'ing HOURS of blood sweat and tears



TL;DR - 4 hours and $57 worth of tools and supplies to remove ONE stuck lug nut.

O_E
 
#19 ·
Key-Tastrophe

Hello, my name is Jordan, and I DIY when I shouldnt.

Today's incident: Spare Key Catastrophy

My Jeep has manual locks, and like all JKs, they're an anti-theft chipped key. At the dealership, they cost a fortune, because dealership. Especially if you lose one of the two factory keys and they have to *gasp* PLUG IN TO YOUR COMPUTER to program a replacement. Fortunatley, Amazon carries blanks for $16 CAD. Woohoo! I can do this! It's a simple matter of ordering a key online and having a local hardware store cut it to match one of my two factory keys, and then keeping two of those keys somewhere safe. That way, when, not if, I lose my keys, I can still start the Jeep and replace the lost key.

As an aside, I've left a key in the ignition with the vehicle running TWICE in the last 6 months, so I decide to have an additional non-chipped key cut to open the doors with next time THAT happens.

With my Amazon sourced blank firmly in hand, I proudly walk in to the local Canadian Tire and ask the girl by the key cutting machine to make some duplicates (actually, she was a checkout operator with no-one in line, and for whatever reason the key cutting machine is behind the checkout lanes). What I SHOULD have done is turned around and walked out as soon as I saw that she was cock-eyed. No offence to people with a lazy eye, but as it turns out, this procedure requires visual accuity. She tells me that they can't cut keys from chipped automobile keys, because "it won't work".

"Oh, are you talking about the programming? Yeah, I can do that. I just need you to cut the blank so that it turns the lock."

She agrees to cut the key, on the condition that there's no warranty on the work and no return policy, because I provided the blank. So, she very carefully cuts the Amazon blank and a generic off the rack to match my key, I happily pay, and walk out to test my shiny new keys.

The generic blank turns the locks on both doors, the tailgate, and the ignition. Woohoo! That can go in the hide-a-key box and now I'll never be standing on the other side of a locked door watching my gas gauge slowly go down. The chipped key, however, is a different story.

I tried it in the driver's door. No go. Flipped it over to try the other side of the key. No go.

I tried it in the passenger's door. No go. Flipped it over to try the other side of the key. No go.

I tried it in the tailgate. No go. Flipped it over to try the other side of the key. No go.

Then I made the mistake.

I tried it in the ignition. And it turned. And it started the engine. That's all I really need to program a replacement key, so I'll just save it as one of the two "backup" keys. NBD.

:awesome:

So, since it's not programmed and won't keep the engine alive once I put it in gear, I take it out. Except it won't come out. In fact, it won't turn all the way back.

:atomic:

10 Push in, turn, nope.
20 Pull out, turn, nope.
30 Jiggle, turn, nope.
40 Bump, turn, nope.
50 Furiously google how to get a jammed key out of the ignition.

GOTO 10

After about 20 minute of :pullinghair: I finally got it out of the ignition.

Well, this sucks. I take a close look at the cut of the key, because if it kind-of turned in the ignition, maybe it was just a little off. Yup. One side was cut about 1/16" too high. On my original key, where a valley was level with the main "stock" of the shaft, this one was clearly not level, and at the highest plateau, it was practically level with the top peak. It must have been loaded a little to shallow into the cutting machine. That's fixable; I just need to ask her to load it in the machine and run it again, so I go back inside.

She won't do it. She assures me that if we try to cut it again it will just make things worse. I asked if she had a file at the key cutting desk that I could borrow (makes sense, right? What if, as a key cutter, you LOOKED AT THE WORK AND NOTICED THAT IT WASN'T QUITE CORRECT?) But nope, they have no files at the key cutting workstation.

Fine. Off to the tool department I go. Let's see... $9 each for files, large or small, or $24 for a kit of 6 tiny files, 6 big files, two handles, a wire brush of some kind, and a holding pouch.

SOLD! I don't own any files at all. So let's just buy all the files; they're such a great deal!

I took the files through the key-cutting checkout girl's till. She looked rather sheepish...

And to cut a long story abruptly short, I sat in the parking lot and watched the sun rise while filing away at my Amazon key and sipping my coffee. I think that I even managed to get most of the filings to not fall into the coffee cup...

And now that I've shaved 1/16" off of one side of the key, it turns all of the locks, and starts the Jeep. I tested it in the passenger door first. Because maybe I make a lot of mistakes, but I don't make the same one twice...
 
#22 ·
When I ordered my '13, in anticipation of delivery, I ordered and received a new set of front and rear bumpers and winch. The rear bumper box was pretty damaged on delivery, but it's a steel bumper so I didn't worry much about the box, just piled the parts up in the corner of my shop awaiting delivery...

About a month goes by and my spankin' new baby JKUR arrives so out to the shop I head to install bumpers and winch. Front bumper and winch were a breeze, but unfortunately I forgot about the damaged rear bumper box and when I picked it up, the bumper slid out of the box with my toe directly in the bumpers path to the floor.

After the painful FLO (frequent loud outburst), I limped around the shop, installed the bumper, then headed for the house to diagnose the damage...

A couple hours later as I was leaving the ER, I contemplated the cost of DIYing vs hiring professional help and decided the doctor alone was pretty enough that it was worth the trip, and the joy of leaving a blood sacrifice can always be overstated.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top