Jeep Wrangler YJ Hydraulic Clutch

I replaced the hydraulic master cylinder (MC), line, and slave cylinder (SC) in the jeep the other day.  I learned some things along the way.  If anyone is interested here are some details.

1.  Remove the hood.  Yep, that's what I said.  The MC is almost impossible to remove without making some more room to get the two nuts off.  The bottom nut is accessible to a socket wrench with an extension but the top one not so much.

2.  Detach the double cable set from the firewall and pull them out of the way.  Also remove the long rod that connects the firewall to the front of the jeep.

3.  I bought one of these flexible 1/2 inch wrenches to get to the top nut.

4.  Worked great.

5.  Took the bottom nut off with standard 3/8 socket and extensions.

Now for the learning part.  This all happened on the second time through this job.  The first time I bought a MC and SC set with a nice stainless steel line but I could never get it to bleed correctly.  Bleed.  Install.  No clutch.  Pull it out.  Bleed.  No clutch.  So I gave up.  Drove down to the AutoZone in Melbourne and bought one in a box that already had fluid and was properly bled.  Installed.  Pushed on the clutch once and all was well.  Jeep shifts like new.

Also, the OEM formed line did not lie on top of the forward propeller shaft like the stainless steel one did.  I don't think that I ever did get that line routed correctly.

6.  Put the hood back on.  I thought that this might be a little difficult as putting doors and hoods and things like that back on and realigned correctly is sometimes difficult.  I put the hood back on over the engine and then put the four bolts back in but didn't tighten them.  I then propped the hood up with the hood prop and realigned the hood where it was before by looking at the paint.  I then tightened the bolts.  Closed it down and it latched perfectly.  So far, so good.

A Wonderful Invention

My chop saw.  Or miter saw:

For years I've been toting my skill saw around the garage
It's heavy and it's awkward.  Hmmmmm.

Why did Larry add that brace at the bottom of the saw stand to just one side?

My dad had a motto.  Actually he had several.  One he used often on us boys was, "The wheel is a wonderful invention."  I thought of this as I was bent over trying to lift the saw to move it.  It's clunky and it's awkward.  So I added a brace to one side and now I can easily move it with my hand truck.

Toolbox Organization

A while back I received some toolbox foam organizers.

These are very cool.  One thing that I like about them is that you can instantly tell if a tool is missing.  Sometimes I leave things lying around and forget to put them back.  If I open the drawer and one is missing I go searching to find it and put it away.

That's all very cool and useful.  Looks cool too!  Well, except for the things that have accumulated since I carved out the spaces for the existing tools.  Some tools are happy and some are still all jumbled up.  Oh well.

But I made a mistake.

Can you see the mistake?  Yep, every time I slam the drawer closed the pointy things slide out of their nicely carved homes and migrate towards the back of the drawer.  My nice, neat mind liked the look of all the pointy things sort of facing up.  Or away.  But I should have put them in the other way.  That way the butt ends would prevent the migration, which doesn't happen to the screwdrivers and pliers.  Who knew?

Now I could just take out the foam and turn it around and that would solve the migration problem, but then the chisels would be in the back of the drawer.  Harder to reach.  Or I could start over and carve a new piece of foam.  Or just forget it.  Which is what I've done the past several years.  Maybe when I retire :-).

Hey! Larry's Back

Hey.  What's going on?  Is Larry back?  Well sort of.

After I retired from Scoutmaster I mostly stopped updating my blogs.  But then I had some inspiration for some more posts.  But then other things happened and I didn't post those ideas.  And then more things happened and now I'm past some of those things and I still have some ideas.  So here they come.

Didn't say I am a great writer but I do sometimes have ideas.  I've been watching some YouTubes, particularly the machinists.  Pretty cool.  But I don't have a GoPro and I'm not sure that I want to do video.  I think I'll be better with photos.  We'll see.  Have fun.

What is That?

What in the world is that?  It's a firewood holder.  I built two of these.  They are side by side in the firewood house.

The original firewood house had a bunch of untreated wood and was getting ready to fall down.

The firewood shelves are 2X4s laid on edge and separated by 2X4 width.  This allows bark and chips and sawdust to drop to the ground.  Just an idea that I had.  I built one of these for my mom when she lived in North Carolina.  I then built the one that we've had in the backyard, shown above, about 10 years ago.

The new firewood house was a canoe rack but the canoes went to the scout troop.  I put a roof on it and now it's the firewood house.