Cowiche area snow wheelin' (Report)

[Ceg]

On Saturday January 5th, 2008 "FJ CRUZER" and I headed up Cowiche Ridge to play in the snow.

The snow had iced over since the weekend before and was good to get up on until I hit this big snow drift.

I finely made it through and headed to the next snow drift.

"FJ CRUZER" called me on the CB and said he was stuck. I turned around to go help him. I thought he may have slid of the trail at the last snow drift, but I found him stuck on flat ground. LayemStr8 came up in "Little Woody the grocery getter" as were working on getting "FJ CRUZER" unstuck.

We headed back down the ridge.

We stopped and played at the rock pit. LayemStr8's Little Woody did great for having little tires.

I missed getting the picture of "FJ CRUZER" climbing the hill.

"FJ CRUZER" some how got stuck again and LayemStr8 used Little Woody to get the FJC moving again.

Recovery lol Video

We headed down to Cowiche Mill Road and ran it up.

After a water crossing there was a hill climb so I kept going until it flatten out. I took some pics of the deep snow as I waited for the others.

Again I get a call on the CB saying the FJC was stuck. I turned around and headed down. The FJC was off the trail onto another one.

 

[Ceg]

I try to pull the FJC out but the driver felt he was going off the trail.

LayemStr8 got stuck turning around

I tried to back up the hill to winch the FJC forward but for some reason my XJ would die every time I tried to back up. I couldn't get it to move more than a foot or two before it would load up and die. Now we had two rigs stuck and one that was in the middle that couldn't back up.

I used my winch to pull LayemStr8's rig back on the trail. I drove forward off to the side so LayemStr8 could pass. LayemStr8 went up to turn around.

LayemStr8 pulled the FJC back onto the trail with Little Woody.

LayemStr8 lead us out incase my XJ decided not to run forward.

We stopped at the DNR parking lot to say our good byes.

As I was heading toward Yakima on Summitview when "FJ CRUZER" called me on the CB and told me my XJ was smoking. I looked in the rear view and hardly could see LayemStr8 flashing his head lights at me. I pulled over and found tranny fluid dripping and burning in the exhaust. I could not see what was going on since it was getting dark. I just drove on since I was close to home.

This was a fun run.

 

[pokey]

looks like a great time . Darn toyotas always getting stuck take a lot of time though:stirpot:

 

[Poohbair]

Sweet!

 

[jeffs88toy]

that little jeep goes go in the snow nice:awesomework:

 

[jakes89f150]

lol that thing got stuck everywhere,
did you figure out whats going on with your tranny?

 

[Ceg]

lol that thing got stuck everywhere,
did you figure out whats going on with your tranny?

It looks like ATF is coming from the torque converter. The dip stick reads at the full mark. We are guessing the sensor on the flex plate wasn't working right because of tranny fluid on it. We will know more on Saturday when we swap trannies. I have a spare.

No wheelin' for me this weekend. :booo:

 

[zig80toy]

Sweet pics and nice write up, as usual.:awesomework:
Sorry to hear about your trans Ceg...:booo:

 

[Bodaciouscj7]

Looks fun, I am gonna have tohaul my heep over there one of these weekends (Girlfriend lives in yakima so I am there at least every other weekend) and tag along with you guys

 

[gasman1]

Looks like you guys had a fun time :awesomework:

 

[Ceg]

Looks fun, I am gonna have tohaul my heep over there one of these weekends (Girlfriend lives in yakima so I am there at least every other weekend) and tag along with you guys

Right on!

 

[zukkev]

sounds like the front pump seal went out, but as for the crank sensor failing in reverse due to ATF? If that were the case, then you'd die going forward too!!!(Fluid on sensor wouldn't matter what gear your in!); I've seen it a hundred times---check the wiring to the crank sensor where it goes down from the top of the intake, can sometimes get chaffed, or melt on the exh manifold, shorting the wires------->think about it ,going forward, the engine will tend to "torque" away from the wires, and in reverse, it will move toward the wires!!! check it out---there should be a little metal "trough" back there where the wires should be going thru,they sometimes will come out of said "trough", and lay on manifold.

 

[Ceg]

sounds like the front pump seal went out, but as for the crank sensor failing in reverse due to ATF? If that were the case, then you'd die going forward too!!!(Fluid on sensor wouldn't matter what gear your in!); I've seen it a hundred times---check the wiring to the crank sensor where it goes down from the top of the intake, can sometimes get chaffed, or melt on the exh manifold, shorting the wires------->think about it ,going forward, the engine will tend to "torque" away from the wires, and in reverse, it will move toward the wires!!! check it out---there should be a little metal "trough" back there where the wires should be going thru,they sometimes will come out of said "trough", and lay on manifold.

Well we have not got it apart yet but we can not see any problem with the sensor wires. It was loading up like the sensor was bad. It was parked over night and now does not loading up at all.

 

[LuckyBoyOne3]

looks like a ton of fun

 

[Ceg]

Here is the repair I thought I would share.

Friday evening Test Dummy flat towed the Tweety Jeep over Scott's.

Saturday morning we put the Jeep into the garage.

Out with the broken AW4 tranny.

We removed what will now be the spare NP242.

Nothing like the cherry picker falling apart and dropping the replacement tranny.

We were lucky it didn't hit the ground hard.

Time to slide the replacement tranny under the XJ and bolt it up.

Since we had a warm place to work, we decide to put the new thermostat in. The bottom bolt is iffy so we hope it goes back together right.

Scott reminding us we have a good head if we need to use it. I think he just wants us to do more work.

Here goes nothing.

Now we have to put it back together.

It was nice to have heat. :headbang:

We got it together. We are headed back over on Sunday and tested the XJ out to make sure everything works right. She seems to be good to go.