WK Grand Cherokee Diesel

[pmbrunelle]

Here they wanted to ban the hellaflush/lowered/stance/tire stretch cars.

The province didn't bother banning stanced cars, instead they regulated ride height and banned threaded adjustable suspensions (dunno if any cars come from the factory that way).

My Fiero will end up illegal with threaded spring perches, but nobody will bother to look because it's not hellaflush.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Here they wanted to ban the hellaflush/lowered/stance/tire stretch cars.

The province didn't bother banning stanced cars, instead they regulated ride height and banned threaded adjustable suspensions (dunno if any cars come from the factory that way).

My Fiero will end up illegal with threaded spring perches, but nobody will bother to look because it's not hellaflush.

Stupid laws always make things hard for people who aren't causing problems.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Got the upper ball joints changed out over the weekend.

Here's the collection of hardware from the right side. This ball joint was definitely worn, but wasn't "bad". The originals were VERY tight... almost too much for the 6 foot tall arbor press... but 250# of me bouncing on the handle did the job.

I bought replacements with an adjustable offset in order to correct the loss of caster from lifting the front end. They came in AC Delco boxes but say SPC on the parts themselves.
They have a slotted base that presses into the control arm from underneath. The ball joint registers in the base and the stud goes through the slot. There's a slotted "cap" thats marked for easy adjustment that installs into the control arm's ball joint socket from above. The ball joint stud is an extra fine 9/16 or 5/8" thread, goes through the whole stack and gets pulled to 120 ftlbs.

*BE CAREFUL* pressing the slotted seat into the control arm. For the second unit, I pushed on the "edge" of the slot and the part ended up cracking instead of pressing all the way in. I didn't notice until I had it back to the vehicle, so I installed it. The aforementioned 120 ftlbs pulled everything together and correctly seated the slotted seat.
Push only in the slot, directly opposite the feature that presses into the control arm.



And installed:



Here's the left ball joint that came out:

https://i.imgur.com/vahhofz.mp4

[embed]https://i.imgur.com/vahhofz.mp4[/embed]

Maybe that's a 211,000 mile original?

EDIT: Oh yeah! Way less clunky to drive and much better straight line stability afterward. Steering is less vague, although it's boosted so much it'll never feel truly good.

I also replaced the mangled battery terminals that were causing me to get a low voltage light with new marine terminals. The negative terminal dropped right on, as both old and new had 5/16 or 8mm studs. The stud on the old positive terminal was 6mm, while the new one was 3/8". I had to very carefully sculpt the connector tab until the hole was centered, then drill that out to fit the stud on the new terminal. Works great and low voltage warning stopped coming on.

[ericjon262]

Here they wanted to ban the hellaflush/lowered/stance/tire stretch cars.

The province didn't bother banning stanced cars, instead they regulated ride height and banned threaded adjustable suspensions (dunno if any cars come from the factory that way).

My Fiero will end up illegal with threaded spring perches, but nobody will bother to look because it's not hellaflush.

Stupid laws always make things hard for people who aren't causing problems.

So true. Its a touchy subject for some people though, because in some instances, like "hella flush" and "squatted" trucks, that the safety of the vehicle comes into question, in manners that could cause injury to persons other than the operator.

I just can't stand modifying a car in a manner that is detrimental to every aspect of the vehicle's overall performance, for the sake of looking "cool"

</Segway >

Those are neat ball joints, were they expensive?

[The Dark Side of Will]

So true. Its a touchy subject for some people though, because in some instances, like "hella flush" and "squatted" trucks, that the safety of the vehicle comes into question, in manners that could cause injury to persons other than the operator.

I just can't stand modifying a car in a manner that is detrimental to every aspect of the vehicle's overall performance, for the sake of looking "cool"

</Segway >

Those are neat ball joints, were they expensive?

Yeah, and unfortunately police culture has developed such that police have demonstrated over and over again that they can not be trusted with the authority to determine what it safe and unsafe without it being spelled out in law.

//

They're pretty expensive as ball joints go, but way cheaper than aftermarket control arms. RockAuto has them for $75 each.
Rock listing for AC Delco: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.ph ... 0&jsn=1336
Rock also lists the part with the SPC label for $75 each... I didn't notice that before. That's on wholesaler closeout and does not have a "product page" like the AC Delco ones though.

...Holy cow... I just looked them up on the SPC page. SPC MSRP's them at $197! That's almost competitive with aftermarket control arms. Jeebuz.
https://www.spcalignment.com/component/ ... &pid=23420

The description claims greaseable and pic shows a grease fitting in the top of the stud. Mine do NOT have that feature, which is interesting.

[The Dark Side of Will]

My dad had the Jeep inspected last week, and I installed the front plate mount and plate, so now it's actually road legal in the Commonfilth of VA.

The A/C blew ambient or warmer the weekend of 6/05-6/06. Along with inspection, my dad had the shop's AC guy check up on it. It was the first diesel Grand Cherokee he'd ever seen. My Benz has a variable displacement A/C compressor which does not cycle. Apparently, the Benz diesel in the WKGC also has a variable displacement compressor, as the high side pressure went up and stayed up. The A/C guy blew a can of freon into it and it got better... <sigh> but what really needs to happen is to vacuum the system out and recharge it with a known weight of R134. The relationship between high & low pressures & system function with R134 is not nearly as direct as it is with R12, and the systems are more sensitive to being correctly charged... so unless you actually charge it by weight, you really don't know how well it's charged.

Also, the dryer leaked a little bit, so I need to go ahead and replace that. Since the system will be open for that, it can then be correctly charged. The Denso dryer is $27, so not bad at all.

I did not get to fiddling with the air bag sensor last weekend, but the A/C was blowing cold. The weird airflow issue persists... although it blows cold when I ask it to blow cold, so it doesn't fit the symptoms typical of the blend door actuator malfunction that is probably the most common failure mode judging by the number of YouTube tutorials on it.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Got two bottles of the Mopar LSD additive and two quarts of the special Mopar T-Case fluid on order from Summit.
My dad ran into the local drivetrain guy at CarQuest. That must be where all the cool kids in town hang out. He showed the guy the Jeep and it was the first diesel Grand Cherokee he had ever seen. My dad mentioned that it needed a new pinion seal and the guy was immediately suspicious of the diff bearings.... So I'm going to have him deal with the pinion seal and evaluate the axle for bearings.

If the ChryCo 8.25 rear may need bearings, what's up with the front? Front diff bushings can also go on these vehicles and I haven't evaluated mine yet.

I like my women like I like my Jeeps... 20 years old with lots of problems!

[The Dark Side of Will]

Didn't get any actual work done over the weekend, but my dad drove the Jeep down to pick up his girlfriend for a 4 hour round trip. He said it did fine, covered 200 miles and still indicates more than 1/2 tank remaining.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I was hoping I was getting the Jeep to the point of being an imperfect DD. As noted, my dad put a couple hundred miles on it. He said it has prominent gear noise from the rear. Last night and today I put a couple hundred miles on it, and it does indeed have prominent gear noise from the rear... I'll have to take the drivetrain guy for a test ride and get his opinion on it. He probably didn't have the axle turning fast enough or transmitting enough torque when he was listening to the bearings.

The A/C guy at the normal stuff shop said he'd need to pull the radiator to get the receiver dryer out. Looks to me like he'd just need to pull the air box and maybe the intercooler hose I replaced, then he'd have access to it with a socket and extension. I'm tempted to blow it down and do the swap myself, then just have him recharge it.

Also still need to do the airbag sensor and the backup proximity sensor.
Then figure out what's up with the airflow doors
Then replace some capacitors in the infotainment unit, which has a common "blank screen" failure.

And probably replace the diff bushings
Then install Bilstein front shocks
Then it'll be time for brakes...

[The Dark Side of Will]

Had the all-important "First Stranding" milestone this weekend. This is an extremely important event the timeline of returning a shitbox to reliable service, because getting over it means you have fixed the first and closest major failure that can leave you somewhere.

I went to Subway Saturday night--I know... wild child--and when I tried to leave, the Jeep gave a slow crank that petered out to nothing before the ECM could synch. Subsequent attempts sounded like the starter solenoid was clicking, but that stopped too after a few more tries. All other electrical systems functioned and the battery wasn't low. We verified starter relay & fuses this morning then brought it back to my dad's house on a rope, pulled by none other than my Bug Out Rig Brutus the Duramax Van.

The starter is on the left side of the engine, right above the front diff. On the diesels, the catalyst is on the right about where the starter would be, so it's probably a good thing the starter isn't over there. Also diesel-specific is that the engine mount bracket straddles the starter and must be unbolted from the block to R&R the starter. Feh.

Did I mention it's basically inaccessible from everywhere? I can lie under the vehicle behind the left front tire and reach up and forward, coming in above the rear crossmember of the front subframe, and just touch the crank wire connector on the starter solenoid. The inner CV joints are not flanged, so dropping the diff requires at least pulling the axles from the hubs, and quite possibly splitting the lower ball joints as well. At least the driveshaft CV joints are flanged, so pulling the driveshaft only involves 12 bolts.

As I was pondering the situation, I saw light falling on the side of the solenoid. Where the heck is that coming from? It's coming through a gap in the body metal behind the spring/shock tower that's mostly covered by the plastic wheel well insert. Interdasting.

I pulled the wheel well insert and found this:



Hey, that's the starter... right there:



Yeah, right there:



Yes. Right. There.



R&Ring it still won't be easy, but at least now looks possible. I got the crank wire connector off the solenoid. It has 12V when cranking, so that pretty much verifies the problem is with the starter.

I had not seen removal of the wheel well liner mentioned in any write-ups or videos. One video showed a mechanic with a lift bringing the starter out between the diff and oil pan... on a 3.7 V6 vehicle. The diesel is enough bulkier that there is not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.

The vehicle probably needs diff bushings anyway, so dropping the diff wouldn't be a waste... just a much much bigger PITA.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Here they wanted to ban the hellaflush/lowered/stance/tire stretch cars.

The province didn't bother banning stanced cars, instead they regulated ride height and banned threaded adjustable suspensions (dunno if any cars come from the factory that way).

My Fiero will end up illegal with threaded spring perches, but nobody will bother to look because it's not hellaflush.

The way back machine reminded me that when EVOs and STi's first came to the US, owners were getting tickets for obstructed rear visibility with the factory wings on those machines. Local authorities can certainly be jerks about some things.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I replaced the starter on Sunday. I did not get the engine mount bracket back in; I'll get to that next weekend. WKGC cranks MUCH faster and fires up immediately now. The old starter was slow and unreliable, but I didn't realize how bad it was because I'd never experienced a starter in good condition before.
This is the NEW Bosch starter for the Sprinter. The crank wire terminal is the only visible difference. I'll touch on that in a second.

A write-up on Jeep Forum says to use elaborate ways to lift the engine... I just put a bottle jack on a 2x4 under the left corner of the oil pan.



View up from below:



This is what you have to do with the topside electrics to have space to reach down from above



Engine mount bracket out. Note that it has FOUR bolts. Remove the lower ones FIRST as they are the most difficult to access, and more difficult to thread out by hand when either one is the last bolt. Ask me how I know.



From the front



From the rear (starter side)



This is the crank wire terminal. It clips in place on a standard fasten/spade terminal.



Here it is in the "relaxed" state



Here it is with the tab depressed, releasing the tang that captures the terminal.



Because the starter terminals are different, I had to build this crank wire jumper. That's a 1/4" ring terminal on the solenoid end and a standard 1/4" fasten/spade terminal on the other end. The factory crank wire connector plugged directly to the fasten and captured it as designed, so I'm happy with it. It worked fine for the test start I tried.



Shot of the new starter

[The Dark Side of Will]

I was able to get the bolts for the mount bracket back in from the top reasonably easily. It wasn't that difficult of a job at all.

EXCEPT... On the third bolt (bottom front), as I was running the bolt to to snug the bracket against the block, the socket slipped on the bolt... and popped off the end of the extension... and F@#$%ing *DISAPPARATED*. Should have had it buttoned up in an hour or so. Three hours after I expected to be done, still wondering where TF the GDMF socket went. I've gotten eyes and/or fingers EVERYWHERE I can imagine the socket going. I took the belt loose and unbolted the A/C compressor from the block to see if it jumped back there. I want to do the same with the PS pump (even though it's ABOVE where the socket popped off), but I can't see where the bolts are and the standard service manual doesn't cover the diesel.

The AC pipe runs right inside the PS pipe, so if I could take the PS pump loose from the engine, I could move BOTH units out of the way and look down the side of the block to verify the socket isn't there.

My dad had an extra E12 socket, but GDMF what kind of **** luck is this...

And then...

I buttoned the WK back up and went to Advance for some body fasteners to correctly reinstall the wheel well liner. Battery light was on the whole way, instead of intermittently like it has been. Battery voltage is 11.47 and goes up to 11.6 when I shut the engine off.

So it looks like I need an alternator.

So the Cheap Jeep is living up to its name... Needs a LOT more TLC than I was expecting: Wheels & tires, Fuel pump, fuel filter, T-case motor, pinion seal, shocks, starter, alternator, airbag sensor, parking sensor, receiver/dryer, infotainment black screen... CRD HEEP indeed.

And I haven't even gotten to the first oil change yet.

Got the alternator out Sunday





It's not NEARLY as difficult as the starter... just remove the airbox and the intercooler hose that I replaced and unbolt the fitting on the engine that connects to the fitting on that hose and you can JUST squeeze the alternator out.

The belt tensioner takes a 12 point 17mm socket. My dad slipped the belt off when I relaxed the tensioner, but you might be able to do both at the same time from underneath. There are two upper and two lower bolts holding the alternator to the block. The upper ones are fairly easy, but ratcheting wrenches make them easiest. Both lowers can be accessed by reaching between the steering rack and the diff. The front lower bolt is fairly easy as a normal ratchet will fit all the way in the access space and you can get a decent swing. The rear bolt is more tedious, as you'll only be able to get 2 clicks/swing on a 72 tooth ratchet. Don't even try it without a 72 tooth ratchet.

[ericjon262]

what a nightmare...

[The Dark Side of Will]

what a nightmare...

The alternator wasn't awful, but being the latest in a long line of very needy needs has driven home that the vehicle was not what I was thinking it was when I bought it.

A Jeep Forum member pointed out that the Sprinter 220A alternator will drop into the CRD WKGC by installing the WKGC regulator into the 220A alternator. The stock alternator is 180A... 220A could be good for winch use and extra lighting on the trail.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I took a few minutes this morning to clean some grit out of the clip on the alternator connector and got it to clip in. It's never been anything but fully seated, but now the clip is clipped.

I cranked it up and the voltage light was still on in the dash. I checked battery voltage with a meter while the light was on in the dash. Battery was at 14.3 volts, even while the the dash was telling me voltage was low. Aha.

I then had another duh moment... I can watch system voltage on BlueDriver while driving. I did that and never once did the ECM-reported voltage waver when the dash light came on. Now I need to do a deep dive in the wiring diagrams to figure out WTF is going on with that.

Also, the A/C seldom turns back on when I re-start the engine warm. It usually waits 1-5 minutes to start back up... kind of annoying.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Over the 8/21 & 8/22 weekend, I used the Jeep as a runabout around town and up the shop where The Mule is and back. Out of a couple dozen starts over the weekend, the A/C turned on immediately in all but three. For those three, it started up in about a minute. I guess it overheard me talking about it?

[The Dark Side of Will]

On the 8/28 0 8/29 weekend, the A/C started immediately every time I started the engine. Funky. I wish more problems were that easy to fix.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Labor day weekend, the A/C was back to its old tricks. Last weekend it was behaving properly again.

On one occasion on Labor Day weekend, I shifted into reverse and the backup camera feed came up on the infotainment unit. When I shifted to park, the radio display came up. That's the only time I've ever seen anything on that display, but it more or less confirms that the unit is fine except for the typical "black screen' failure, which is repairable by replacing some capacitors inside the unit.

The diff bushings are trashed. I have a new set. One of two bolts at each front lower control arm rear pivot is broken... I need to snag new bolts for both front LCA pivots, then get the old ones out, breaking them if necessary. At that time I can also replace the lower ball joints. Control arm work and diff bushings should be most of the work the front suspension needs.

I'm not sure what all is worn out in the rear suspension, but I should probably have a rod-end Panhard bar, just because I should. I wonder if I can weld a Watts link mount to the stock diff cover? Since this vehicle has Quadra-Drive II with electronic limited slip diffs, the cover is longer than the standard Chrysler 8.25" cover... and there's probably nothing available on the aftermarket.

ALSO: Since the vehicle has been worked on by Orangutans for at least some of its service life, the threads were stripped out of the holes for the two hold down screws for the fuel filter bracket and the hold-down screw for the boost pipe from the turbo to the kidney. If the hold-down screw for the boost pipe came out, the boost pipe would come off the turbo and problems would ensue. I got around to installing a Helicoil in that hole last weekend. I'll do the fuel filter hold down screws next weekend.

[Emc209i]

Get a gauge on the AC low and high sides. What you're describing sounds like a classic low refrigerant condition. I bet adding a little bit will stop tripping the low side switch.

It's more that something is always broken on them.

Curious if you've circled back to this post and realized he was right?