Today was the first day my wife and I were able to get outside to work on the TJ since late February.
Man, but it felt good to get filthy, be sweaty, and suffer a busted knuckle. Short day, replacing seven parts in my leaking vacuum system. Afterward I ordered some additional parts to replace more garbage I discovered today.
Tried out a new battery charger that has an actual WORKING AGM cycle that effectively desulfates the old, dead cells.
I had to replace my Optima Red Top last year. It had been reading below 1.00v DC for some time by then, on the (rather embarrassing) order of two years. So this battery has been very deeply discharged for about three years now, in total.
I got it charged up today and it is now in reconditioning mode. The desulfation process works like TRIM on a computer's SSD. The charger can bring up the parts of a battery that can still be used so that it reads a strong 12-13 volts. But if there is severe sulfation the overall capacity suffers. Mine had been deeply discharged three other times, and the last time I managed to get it jumped it did not last long at all in the cold. I was told it was dead, probably shorted somewhere inside.
Not true. I had to hook it to my Odyssey in the TJ for about an hour and a half to get it up to almost 10 volts so the charger would even see it properly. Then I disconnected the TJ's battery and it ran on the charger all day without having to resort to any monkey business by using another battery to spoof the charger.
I did two other very old, very dead non-AGM batteries yesterday to try this charger out. Very slick, very well made, but about a hundred bucks from Amazon. I really like it, despite the cost. I made back the cost just by reconditioning these three batteries, so I am happy.
We put three gallons of RON 87 BP 10% corn garbage gas into the tank, too. I will ferry enough over in the next few days to get her filled up for the winter to keep condensation out of the tank. I had the tank almost drained when I put on the Savvy gas tank skid back in February. Starting her every two weeks or so since then has taken me well into the part that does not show up on the gauge, which for me is about a two gallon reserve. I ended up getting it down to just about the point where it would stall out. I hear that is bad for the injectors, so I started the slow fill-up process and will have it done in a day or two. (It will take me five trips to fill it with our gas cans, unfortunately.)
So, in all of that I think I have tracked down that pernicious and much hated vacuum leak. If so I will have a damned party! If not, I will have tossed more of my craptacular vacuum system and replaced it with stupid-spendy Mopar stuff. And that makes me happy, too.
Glad to be back. Hope some of you guys even remember me.
Later,
Wade
Here is a shot of the two badly dry-rotted (one with a big chunk missing on the bottom side) elbow vacuum fittings I need to replace. Any suggestions for these specific parts?
Man, but it felt good to get filthy, be sweaty, and suffer a busted knuckle. Short day, replacing seven parts in my leaking vacuum system. Afterward I ordered some additional parts to replace more garbage I discovered today.
Tried out a new battery charger that has an actual WORKING AGM cycle that effectively desulfates the old, dead cells.
I had to replace my Optima Red Top last year. It had been reading below 1.00v DC for some time by then, on the (rather embarrassing) order of two years. So this battery has been very deeply discharged for about three years now, in total.
I got it charged up today and it is now in reconditioning mode. The desulfation process works like TRIM on a computer's SSD. The charger can bring up the parts of a battery that can still be used so that it reads a strong 12-13 volts. But if there is severe sulfation the overall capacity suffers. Mine had been deeply discharged three other times, and the last time I managed to get it jumped it did not last long at all in the cold. I was told it was dead, probably shorted somewhere inside.
Not true. I had to hook it to my Odyssey in the TJ for about an hour and a half to get it up to almost 10 volts so the charger would even see it properly. Then I disconnected the TJ's battery and it ran on the charger all day without having to resort to any monkey business by using another battery to spoof the charger.
I did two other very old, very dead non-AGM batteries yesterday to try this charger out. Very slick, very well made, but about a hundred bucks from Amazon. I really like it, despite the cost. I made back the cost just by reconditioning these three batteries, so I am happy.
We put three gallons of RON 87 BP 10% corn garbage gas into the tank, too. I will ferry enough over in the next few days to get her filled up for the winter to keep condensation out of the tank. I had the tank almost drained when I put on the Savvy gas tank skid back in February. Starting her every two weeks or so since then has taken me well into the part that does not show up on the gauge, which for me is about a two gallon reserve. I ended up getting it down to just about the point where it would stall out. I hear that is bad for the injectors, so I started the slow fill-up process and will have it done in a day or two. (It will take me five trips to fill it with our gas cans, unfortunately.)
So, in all of that I think I have tracked down that pernicious and much hated vacuum leak. If so I will have a damned party! If not, I will have tossed more of my craptacular vacuum system and replaced it with stupid-spendy Mopar stuff. And that makes me happy, too.
Glad to be back. Hope some of you guys even remember me.
Later,
Wade
Here is a shot of the two badly dry-rotted (one with a big chunk missing on the bottom side) elbow vacuum fittings I need to replace. Any suggestions for these specific parts?
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