What's Inside the Big Scary Jeep

Here you will find out about what's inside the Big Scary Jeep.

It's not so scary after all, unless, of course, you're my dog.

The following details what was done before I bought the truck.

Current modifications:

After a brief period of calm, however, the transmission started to slip. OK, that usually means it needs more fluid. But, there came a time when no amount of added fluid would help things. So, after getting towed home by SlushPuppy, (being driven by a not-so-happy-wife), the transmission was pulled for a replacement. The CFSJA community pulled through (as usual) and I sourced another TH400 and a garage to install it. Trust me, typing the experience is a lot easier than actually DOING it. After quite a few weekends of work, the new transmission was in.

The brakes worked OK, but not well when wet and I didn't care for the whole pedal-almost-to-the-floor-when-I-want-to-stop feeling. So I pulled off the wheels and ran smack into three very large and rusted flat head SCREWS that held on the brake drums. Fortunately, they had been previously removed and some even had anti-seize on them. But for the others, it took a week of soaking with WD-40, a broken impact driver and my electric impact wrench to break free all the screws. And after the drums came off, I found that it was impossible to find exact replacement shoes. The ones available locally would have had to have been cut with a sawsall to fit properly. I tried a modification of my own, but it didn't work out. So the truck sat. For almost a year. An entire season of four wheeling was missed. :-(

The PS pump still hasn't been replaced, yet, But I was able to slide the t-case back and slather more gasket sealant on the QT/TH400 mating surface. And despite my best efforts, it sealed. No more red leaks. The reason it leaked B4 was because of a weird design that has a "channel" running on one of the mating surfaces from the output shaft bearing to about 1/4" away from the end of the mating surface. Thusly, that entire surface must be sealed in order for it not to leak. Who came up with THAT design???

After finding out that the parts store didn't have a pump and reservoir assembly for the year I thought I needed, I went back home to pull the pump off the truck and make SURE of the type of pump I needed. In fiddling around, I found that it is VERY easy to remove the reservoir. So, with a $16 seal kit and a few hours of my time, I was back in business, since all I had to do was replace the reservoir seals. I didn't open up the pump assembly itself. Interestingly, the pressure hose seems exactly like the one for my 88 FSJ. Supposedly they were supposed to be different, as the FSJ steering box in the 715 was rumored to be a mid 70's box.

After fixing the PS pump and taking it for a spin, I discovered Quadra-Trak fluid spewing out my vent hose. YIKES! I pulled the fill plugs and fluid poured out. Hmmm... I did some research and also queried the CFSJA and IFSJA lists. It turned out that the case had been overfilled. It had leaked before, but this was the first time I had the vent hoses connected and could see it leaking. After draining 2 1/2 mason jars worth of fluid, the t-case is running just fine. I also went out and bought a black steering wheel cover to hide the hideous tan/yellow color that always stuck out in photos of the truck. This was the first accessory that I've bought for the truck in a LONG, LONG time. Yeehaw!

In an even more unusal departure from the norm, no problems were encountered on the trail run, which was intended as a "shake-down" run, to see what else needed attention. I discovered that my motor mounts need to be replaced and I need to bolt/tie down the stuff in the bed better. Both issues are not a big problem. The truck did fine on the way to and from the trail. I'm sure that the fact that the roads were mostly 40-45 mph roads also helped. There was one short section that was 65 mph, but the traffic was light so that was not an issue. Performance on the trail was fantastic. It was almost like point-and-shoot driving, The truck went where I pointed the wheels. No questions asked. The large tires seemed to swallow up the smaller rocks and even some of the larger ones. Despite the stiff heavy duty springs, the truck seemed to soak up a lot of the bumps from the rocks on the trail. In short, I'm quite thrilled with the truck's performance.

JULY 2006: I know, July has barely started as I write this.... The Big Scary Jeep is down temporarily while I figure out why I don't have brake lights. I'm hoping it's just a fuse. I replaced the front fenders and part of the header panel on SlushPuppy and have not had time to dig into the fuse box. SlushPuppy no longer has a boogered up header panel or rusting/bondo'ed fenders. Most people wouldn't notice the difference, but of course I do. <g> I also acquired a cherry picker so I will be bringing the 401 into the garage and will start the process or tearing it down and evaluating it for future usage.

MAY 2007: Finally, another update.... The beginning of 2007 saw the arrival of a disc brake conversion kit. (See M715 Disc Brakes link at the top). The end of April saw the final completion of the installation of said kit. The kit is very well made and easy to install. The length of time was due to me only spending weekends on it and messing around with master cylinders and finally finding that the brake booster was faulty. A dual diaphragm booster from an 1986 FSJ solved the problem and I now have front disc brakes on the Big Scary Jeep.