Latest / Jeep Talk Show / Ep. 35 How to Fix a P0740 Torque Converter Code on Your Jeep

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Ep. 35 How to Fix a P0740 Torque Converter Code on Your Jeep · Jeep Talk Show

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Sunday December 18th
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2011 episode number 35
0:34
It's that time again XJ
0:36
Talk Show is on the air!
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Okay so it's a podcast but you know what
0:41
I mean. Anyway here's Tony.
0:44
Thank you and welcome to another episode
0:46
of XJTalk.com show. It's a mouthful but
0:51
some find it interesting.
0:53
My name is Tony. The handle or nickname
0:56
on XJTalk.com is Mudroy.
1:00
It's been a little while since I've done
1:01
a podcast. I've been
1:02
meaning to do one and
1:04
I've done a lot of preparations on
1:07
getting things going, making
1:09
things sound a little better.
1:11
And I think I've been paying more
1:13
attention to making things sound better
1:17
instead of actually doing the podcast.
1:20
I get in that bad little circle of
1:24
messing around and messing
1:25
around and not actually doing.
1:27
It's a lifelong problem. It's like all
1:30
these Jeep parts I got
1:31
laying here that I need to
1:32
put on my Jeep. I need to get out there
1:34
and do it. Actually it's
1:36
good weather to do it here in
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the Houston area because it's been pretty
1:40
cool out. And for a fat boy in a hot
1:45
city, well close to a city,
1:49
it's a it's a welcome relief to have some
1:52
cooler weather to work in.
1:56
So we'll get started here in just a
1:57
second and thank you very
1:59
much for joining in with us.
2:05
XJTalk.com. It's where you
2:07
go when you're not off-road.
2:41
And it'll probably be after Christmas or
2:44
Christmas before I do
2:45
another podcast, so let me wish
2:47
each and every one of you members and
2:49
listeners alike a very, very Merry
2:52
Christmas and a very
2:53
Happy New Year, although I'm sure I'll be
2:56
having a podcast before the New Year.
2:58
In my normal day-to-day work, I actually
3:03
at this time of year,
3:04
they do a shutdown of such
3:07
a lot, and I guess it
3:08
saves them some money.
3:09
I've kind of gotten used to it.
3:10
I've been with the company I'm working
3:13
for for three years
3:13
now, and it's kind of nice
3:15
because right at the end of the year, I
3:17
can count on days off.
3:19
The downside to that is that I get X
3:22
number of days for
3:23
vacation, and I have to wait and
3:26
see how many days they're actually going
3:29
to be shut down at the end of the year.
3:31
So it's kind of a forced vacation, but
3:34
especially in these days and
3:36
times with the year-to-year
3:37
the way the economy is,
3:39
it's great to have a job.
3:41
And it was right as the economy was
3:43
getting bad when I got this job.
3:45
So three years later, same job, same
3:50
horrible thing that I
3:51
have to look out for, forced
3:53
vacation during the holidays.
3:55
So no, I'm not complaining.
3:57
It's nice to have a little more leeway in
4:00
things, but it's good.
4:02
I remember, I think it was the first year
4:04
that I was working for this company.
4:06
I took my red 98 Jeep out on, wasn't
4:13
Creekside, Spring Creek.
4:15
There was a little park up in Spring,
4:18
Texas called Spring
4:20
Creek, and I went up there with
4:22
Arganard, first name of Reenie, and
4:28
another XJ Talk member
4:30
that has since moved on to
4:32
a CJ Scrambler and doesn't visit the site
4:35
very much more, not
4:38
very often, unfortunately.
4:40
But because I was kind of interested in
4:42
seeing that Scrambler build.
4:43
But anyway, we three went out there.
4:46
I think there were actually those four of
4:47
us that went out there.
4:48
And I took my oldest son
4:49
for his first off-road trip.
4:52
He was about 22, 23 at the time.
4:55
So it wasn't like he was seven or eight
4:59
years old, but he really enjoyed it.
5:01
It was quite a lot of fun, and it was a
5:04
good feeling taking all
5:08
the effort that I'd put
5:10
into the build, taking it off-road and
5:12
getting it up and over obstacles.
5:15
I wouldn't say that it was any great rock
5:17
crawling event or anything like that.
5:19
It was just dirt, a little mud.
5:21
But from just being on the streets most
5:23
of the time, it was a
5:25
definite change and got
5:27
a little adrenaline rush because you
5:28
never know when you're,
5:30
in my case, daily driver
5:31
might get damaged.
5:34
Back whenever I was doing off-roading
5:36
whenever I was in my early
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20s, I was still concerned
5:40
about damaging my truck.
5:42
But I guess I was less knowledgeable
5:47
about what could happen.
5:48
And I blame that on experience as I've
5:52
gotten older and seen more things.
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And I think probably the worst case has
5:56
been the internet because
5:57
there are so many stories
6:00
of people rolling their vehicles,
6:04
flipping them over,
6:05
doing a lot of totaling them,
6:06
basically.
6:07
Lots of comments of, "Well, let's just
6:09
make it into a buggy,"
6:12
or, "Yeah, that'll buff
6:13
right out."
6:15
I did not want that
6:16
happening to my vehicle.
6:17
I'm very attached to my vehicle.
6:19
Love my Jeep.
6:20
And I don't think I mentioned on the last
6:23
podcast, it's been a little while, we are
6:26
now a three Jeep family.
6:28
Well, I did mention
6:30
about the 99 Jeep Cherokee.
6:33
My hopes, and I may have expressed this,
6:35
my hopes were that I
6:36
would be able to get a Jeep
6:39
Cherokee, another Jeep
6:40
Cherokee, for my wife to drive.
6:41
But hopefully, I would be
6:44
able to get her a Jeep Wrangler.
6:46
She had wanted the Jeep Wrangler from
6:48
when she was a very
6:48
young adult, and the same was
6:50
true for me.
6:52
And in fact, and I'm certain I've told
6:54
this story before, when
6:56
we bought this 98 Jeep
6:58
Cherokee, we were looking at a black TJ,
7:03
black with hardtop and
7:05
standard transmission, et
7:06
cetera, et cetera.
7:07
So I was able to find a 2003 red, exact
7:15
same color red as the 98
7:18
Cherokee TJ, and had 93,000
7:23
miles on it, five speed, 4.0, and really,
7:29
really nice shape, hardtop.
7:31
And it has the full doors, the hardtop,
7:34
and it needed a little work.
7:37
The struts on the back glass wouldn't
7:40
hold the glass up very well.
7:43
We took the top off of it right away.
7:46
That was one of the big reasons for
7:49
wanting that, for both of us really.
7:52
But it had 32 inch all
7:56
terrains on it when we got it.
7:58
And I tell you what, I'm just really
8:00
surprised at the gearing.
8:05
There's such a huge difference, and I
8:07
know I've heard this
8:08
before, but I've never experienced
8:09
it.
8:10
There's such a huge difference between
8:12
the gearing with a, oh, I
8:14
should say the perceived
8:15
gearing of a standard
8:19
versus an automatic.
8:21
Because that Wrangler with the same 4.0,
8:26
but with a standard
8:27
transmission, to me, I can't
8:31
really tell a difference in it having the
8:34
32 inch tires with the 307
8:37
gears and the differentials.
8:39
That was just really amazing to me.
8:41
And I guess it's just because you have a
8:42
lot more control over
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what gear you're in and
8:45
how long you stay in that
8:46
gear, and so on and so forth.
8:48
I think it's pretty funny.
8:49
I was having some problems with my XJ,
8:53
and I was driving the
8:53
Wrangler back and forth
8:55
to work, and I could get there out on
8:58
Jones Road whenever I
8:59
would leave the office and
9:01
get it into fifth gear.
9:02
I'm driving about 40 miles an hour, and I
9:05
was turning about 1100, 1200 RPM.
9:08
Just above idle.
9:12
Well I guess idle's around 700, 800.
9:14
So it was a few hundred RPM,
9:17
but still very, very low RPM.
9:19
Now I didn't want to try to accelerate
9:22
while I was in fifth gear
9:23
at 40, 45 miles an hour,
9:25
but it was really cool to be
9:26
able to see the RPMs that low.
9:30
And getting out of the freeway doing 70,
9:33
80 miles an hour, the RPMs get up there.
9:36
They're not up as high as
9:37
what they are for my 98.
9:39
Of course my 98 has the 456 gears in it,
9:43
and I get around 28, I guess it's around
9:46
2800 RPM driving down the
9:49
highway 70, 75 miles an hour.
9:51
So it's a big difference.
9:54
But when I learned that it had 32 inch
9:58
tires, my first thought
9:59
was, "Oh great, I want to
10:01
drop about $1500 on this to re-gear it.
10:04
I can't even understand how they're able
10:06
to drive the thing with this."
10:08
At that time I really thought that it had
10:10
the 355 gears like
10:13
what my XJ had and what
10:15
the 99 XJ has.
10:17
But no, unfortunately not.
10:19
And of course that's the sad thing about
10:21
the TJ, especially the,
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and I guess they started
10:25
doing this in the post 99 models.
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It comes with the Dana 35 rear end and
10:33
has a low pinion Dana 30 up front.
10:37
So if we were going to make this into an
10:39
off road vehicle, which
10:40
we're not, it's really
10:41
just a street vehicle.
10:42
My wife is not an off road person.
10:46
We've done some off roading, but it just
10:48
really makes her nervous
10:49
and it concerns her that
10:51
we're going to flip over
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just basically level and still.
10:55
So to each throw out.
10:56
But she does like sitting up high and she
10:59
does like the Jeep a
11:01
lot and she really, really
11:02
wants to be able to take the
11:04
top off of the Jeep herself.
11:06
So I've started looking into ways of
11:10
getting the hard top off.
11:15
And right now my steps and
11:17
I can easily take that off.
11:19
And I did get one of those best top
11:22
storage racks to
11:23
attach to the back of it.
11:24
So you attach the rack to the back of the
11:26
hard top and you unbolt it and pick it up
11:30
and tilt it and sit
11:31
it down on the wheels.
11:32
And now you have a couple hundred pounds
11:35
of hard top that you
11:36
can just wheel around.
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Now the next thing I really need to do is
11:42
figure out a way to
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store that hard top because
11:44
we don't have a lot
11:45
of room in the garage.
11:48
Fortunately, the TJ is
11:50
much shorter than the XJ.
11:52
So there is room to have the hard top in
11:56
the garage in the same
11:57
slot as the Wrangler, but
11:58
it makes it a little
11:59
difficult to walk around in there.
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And if you're going to do anything in the
12:02
garage, you really
12:03
need to take the Cherokee
12:06
or the Wrangler out.
12:07
So like I said, I was hoping that I would
12:09
be able to get my wife a Wrangler.
12:11
That doesn't mean that we are
12:12
getting rid of the 99 Cherokee.
12:17
Quite the contrary.
12:19
My oldest daughter
12:20
recently got her driver's license.
12:22
She first had her permit, but she went
12:24
ahead and got the driver's license.
12:26
And that's going to be her vehicle.
12:28
And her younger sister will start driving
12:32
probably in the next year or so.
12:34
And they'll share that vehicle.
12:37
Up until the time that, like my twin
12:40
friends used to do, fight
12:42
over the vehicle, I think
12:45
Gary would always complain that he did
12:48
all the cleaning and
12:50
putting the gas and everything
12:51
to the pickup.
12:53
And Gary just drove it
12:54
and left it empty and dirty.
12:58
So I got to see firsthand how two kids
13:04
deal with the vehicle.
13:05
And it was pretty cool.
13:07
Gary had, it was eventually Gary's truck
13:10
because Gary and Gary's
13:12
parents got Gary another vehicle.
13:15
But Gary had this blue, 1973 blue pickup.
13:21
And he took very, very good care of it.
13:23
And in fact, that's how I learned about
13:25
using armor all on the
13:26
tires and spending hours
13:29
and hours cleaning your vehicle.
13:31
So yeah, we all had trucks.
13:33
It was pretty cool.
13:34
I was the first one to get a four-wheel
13:36
drive out of that group.
13:38
And we had some fun in the four-wheel
13:40
drive and made me a
13:42
lifelong four-wheel drive fan.
13:45
So anyway, a little bit of rambling there
13:47
about what's going on
13:48
with the Jeep family.
13:50
In fact, that's all we have here at the
13:53
motoroy household, our Jeeps.
13:55
We've got the 98 Cherokee, the 99
13:58
Cherokee, and now the
13:59
2003 Jeep Wrangler TJ.
14:03
And that's all we're
14:04
really planning on right now.
14:06
I think three vehicles is plenty and more
14:10
than enough to keep me busy.
14:12
The 99, if you've been listening to the
14:15
past podcast, I had to
14:17
express some concern on
14:18
the 99 that maybe we had
14:19
blown a head gasket on it.
14:21
And I guess it's always possible.
14:23
I still need to do
14:24
another exhaust gas test on it.
14:28
But we have not had any
14:30
further problems with it.
14:32
The only problem that seems to be a
14:33
reoccurring one is the belt squeaking.
14:36
And I was a little surprised.
14:39
I went and bought the $15 graduated thumb
14:44
belt tightening gauge
14:45
from O'Reilly some years
14:47
ago just so I could
14:48
tighten up the belt properly.
14:51
I can't judge the tightness of the belt
14:54
on these things because
14:56
they are so much tighter
14:57
than what I was taught back in the small
14:59
block Chevrolet days.
15:02
I'm very concerned about getting the belt
15:03
too tight and actually
15:05
wearing out the bearing
15:06
in the water pump.
15:08
So I got this graduated thumb.
15:10
I call it a graduated thumb because
15:11
basically it's just a
15:12
little thing that you move into
15:16
position and then put it on
15:17
the belt and you press on it.
15:18
And you press on it until it clicks.
15:20
And then you read to see how much this
15:23
little lever has moved
15:24
along this, you know, like
15:26
a ruler.
15:27
And it tells you there in pounds per
15:30
square inch how tight the belt is.
15:33
And I laughed when I saw it because it's
15:35
the same thing that I
15:36
was taught whenever I was
15:39
tightening one of the many
15:41
belts on the small block Chevy.
15:43
You put your finger or your thumb on
15:44
there and you move it
15:45
back and forth to see how
15:47
tight the belt is.
15:48
Well, that's what this is.
15:49
It just has a measuring device associated
15:52
with it so you can be
15:53
a little more precise
15:54
with it.
15:54
And my point is, is that I installed the
15:57
new belt on the 99 and
15:59
then I took my graduated
16:00
thumb and put it on there and tightened
16:03
it and tested and
16:04
tightened and tested and tightened
16:05
and tested.
16:06
And I got it up to I think it was 110
16:08
pounds per square inch.
16:10
And I went a little bit tighter on it
16:12
because it's a new belt
16:13
and I thought it probably
16:14
would stretch a little bit.
16:15
Well, you know, they're leaving.
16:17
My daughter and my wife were leaving the
16:19
other day and it's
16:21
squeaking with the air conditioner
16:23
on it starts squeaking.
16:24
So I need to go out there
16:26
and tighten it up again.
16:27
I'll put my graduated thumb back on it to
16:29
see if it has stretched.
16:32
I guess it's possible that the air
16:35
compressor, the air conditioner
16:36
compressor is a little
16:38
tight and it's causing the squeak.
16:40
I think I can make it tight enough so
16:43
that it won't won't
16:45
damage the water pump and not
16:47
squeak.
16:48
That's my goal, my personal goal.
16:50
The 98 doesn't squeak, but, you know, I
16:52
drive it all the time.
16:53
So I make sure that I get it right.
16:55
The other one I don't drive.
16:57
So I don't give as much attention to it.
17:00
I think that's just
17:01
probably human nature.
17:03
You don't think about it as much.
17:04
So anyway, the 99 is doing good.
17:06
Does not appear to be having
17:08
any issues, cooling issues.
17:10
We'll find out for sure next summer.
17:12
There is a plan in the works, though,
17:15
about replacing the engine in the 99.
17:19
I recently had some problems with the 98
17:23
in as much as the
17:25
torque converter would not
17:26
lock up.
17:27
I was having some problems with that,
17:30
what is it, P0740 code
17:33
coming up on occasion, like
17:36
in around July, I guess.
17:38
And it would come and go.
17:39
I would clear it and it would go away.
17:41
It was kind of interesting because of the
17:44
Bluetooth OBD2
17:46
scanner that I have and the
17:49
torque software that I had on my Android
17:51
smartphone, I was literally able to check
17:54
and clear the codes while driving.
17:56
And it's not recommended to do.
17:59
I think on some vehicles it could
18:01
actually cause the engine to stall.
18:03
I don't have any kind of issues like that
18:04
with mine, but I think
18:06
I read that someplace.
18:07
So just be warned if you
18:08
try to do the same thing.
18:10
But anyway, I would, you know, you can
18:12
check the torque
18:13
converter lockup simply by driving
18:16
at a steady speed around 50, 55 miles an
18:19
hour or over 50 and
18:21
then tapping the brakes.
18:24
Not stopping, not slowing down, but just
18:27
basically making the brake light come on.
18:30
When somebody is falling you too close,
18:31
that type of just tapping the brake.
18:34
And when you do that, it sends a signal,
18:36
I guess, to the
18:37
computer and the computer says,
18:38
"Oh, unlock the torque converter."
18:40
Because, you know, we don't want it
18:42
straight through,
18:45
connected straight through.
18:46
We want the torque converter to slip.
18:48
And you'll see the RPM raise about 100 or
18:52
200 RPM indicating
18:54
that the torque converter
18:55
is no longer locked in tandem with the
18:58
transmission and everything else.
19:01
Or I guess really what I should say is
19:03
locked between the
19:04
transmission and the engine.
19:06
So what was really cool was whenever I
19:09
would get that code,
19:11
the P0740 code, the torque
19:14
converter was not locking up.
19:16
I could clear the code and
19:18
it would start working again.
19:19
And apparently that's very common.
19:20
That's the way it's supposed to do.
19:23
So that's what I was
19:24
doing for quite a while.
19:26
So I did some checking.
19:27
I bought some solenoids because there was
19:30
a possibility that the
19:31
torque converter solenoid
19:32
wasn't locking up or was
19:33
causing it not to lock up.
19:35
And I replaced those solenoids and it
19:37
went from being a marginal
19:39
problem to being a constant
19:41
problem.
19:41
So instead of it being occasionally
19:44
coming up and the torque
19:45
converter not working, it
19:47
went to, as soon as I hit 50 miles an
19:49
hour for 10 or 15
19:50
seconds, the check engine light
19:52
would come on.
19:52
You'd check it with a P0740.
19:57
And I could not get the RPMs to drop past
20:01
the 50 miles an hour.
20:02
So the torque
20:03
converter was not locking up.
20:04
So I did some investigation for a few
20:07
weeks and finally got
20:09
frustrated with it and started
20:11
talking to some
20:11
transmission repair shops.
20:12
And I was concerned that the result was
20:15
going to be, "Oh yeah,
20:17
your transmission needs to
20:19
be rebuilt."
20:19
Or better yet, this.
20:22
"Oh yeah, hmm, well, I don't know.
20:25
It could be several things.
20:26
How many miles do you
20:27
have on your transmission?
20:28
174,000?
20:29
Oh yeah, you need a full rebuild."
20:32
So I didn't really want to take it to any
20:35
of the big name
20:36
transmission shops because
20:38
I get, first off, I just don't like
20:41
having people work on my vehicles.
20:43
They do not care about your
20:45
vehicle as much as you do.
20:47
I don't care how they come across.
20:50
It's just, you know, if it was just
20:52
something I was paying on
20:54
every month and I had not
20:55
taken the time to add things, to replace
20:59
things, to take care
21:00
of, so on and so forth.
21:02
If it was two years old and it had
21:03
problems or three years
21:04
old and it had problems and
21:06
I was going to be trading it in and
21:07
getting it, you know, what do I care?
21:09
I mean, I just wanted to keep going long
21:11
enough to get me to the trade in.
21:13
And I just want to have it in a good
21:15
enough condition so that
21:16
I get top dollar for it.
21:17
So it's a little bit different whenever
21:20
you're modifying your
21:21
vehicle to do things and you're
21:24
taking the time to research and think
21:27
about and then taking the
21:29
hours to make the modifications
21:33
yourself.
21:33
So I was very concerned about
21:35
taking my vehicle to a shop.
21:38
So I was looking for something that was
21:40
perhaps local owned and not a chain.
21:44
I found a, I found what I thought was
21:46
perfect was a really nice
21:48
little radiator shop over
21:50
here in Katy.
21:51
And when I say Katy, I mean old Katy
21:54
back, the Katy from the fifties.
21:59
It's not really from the fifties, but if
22:00
you go over there and
22:01
look, it's it's much very
22:03
much a small town type thing as opposed
22:06
to the multiple
22:07
subdivisions that are called Katy.
22:09
But really, you can see a stark contrast
22:12
between the two, the
22:13
smaller homes, the larger
22:16
open areas.
22:18
They even have a feed and hardware store
22:20
in Katy that I love
22:21
going to because it reminds
22:22
me of the Lynchburg Feed and Hardware
22:24
store that I used to ride
22:26
my bicycle to when I lived
22:27
in Lynchburg, which is just a little
22:29
subdivision just outside
22:31
of Baytown and very close to
22:33
Highlands, Texas.
22:34
So if you're a Texan, you probably are
22:37
aware of the San Jacinto
22:39
Monument, the San Jacinto
22:40
battleground, the
22:41
battleship Texas, all that.
22:43
Well, there is a boat, a ferry that will
22:47
take you from the San
22:49
Jacinto Monument, Battleship
22:52
Texas side to the
22:55
opposite side of the channel.
22:57
And the opposite side of
22:57
the channel is Lynchburg.
22:59
So that little community is
23:01
that's where I used to live.
23:02
That's where I grew up.
23:03
It was really neat.
23:04
I had an acre of land to grow up on and
23:06
lots of woods to go
23:08
hunting with our pellet guns
23:10
and such.
23:10
So it was it was really, really cool.
23:13
I wish my my children
23:15
could have the same thing.
23:16
But it's very difficult
23:17
to find a place like that.
23:20
I feel and still be in
23:22
close to where you work.
23:25
My dad drove from
23:27
Baytown to Houston every day.
23:28
I think he drove 40
23:29
miles round trip every day.
23:31
At any rate, so it was like a feed and
23:36
hardware store that
23:36
was there at Lynchburg.
23:37
And it was pretty cool that feed and
23:39
hardware store actually had baby chicks.
23:40
So you could go over there and buy your
23:43
baby chicks and raise them.
23:45
And although I guess you could have just
23:48
put them on a
23:48
cracker, I would assume that
23:50
people grew up and then got
23:51
eggs or got eggs and ate them.
23:54
I know our neighbors did.
23:55
But anyway, at any
23:56
rate, it was a cool place.
23:58
So they have this feed and hardware store
24:00
in Katy and I like going over there.
24:02
And in fact, they had the really big D
24:06
ring shackles like I
24:08
wanted to put on my tree
24:10
saver and tow strap that I got recently.
24:13
And they were about gosh,
24:15
they were about $13, I think.
24:17
But they were the really big ones.
24:19
So it was would be really easy to get the
24:21
the tree saver strap in there.
24:24
And I got a couple of
24:25
those from over there.
24:27
And they have, you know,
24:28
nuts and bolts and things.
24:29
It's not a huge place,
24:31
but it's it's very nice.
24:32
So at any rate, the I've
24:36
kind of lost my way up.
24:37
I apologize.
24:38
I've gone off on too many tangents and I
24:40
came back as far as I
24:41
could get and now I'm
24:42
lost. So anyway, that's
24:46
what's going on with the Jeeps.
24:47
We've got the three Jeeps and going
24:52
getting back over to
24:52
the thing that I probably
24:54
talked about from the start
24:55
is the the website XJTalk.com.
24:59
Now, if you're not familiar with
25:01
XJTalk.com, certainly you must be by now.
25:04
We've it's a little site that talks about
25:07
Jeep Cherokees and we talk about other
25:09
Jeeps and we talk about
25:10
things that aren't Jeeps.
25:11
So one of the things that we've been
25:14
doing here that's a bit different.
25:16
In October, we had a giveaway and it was
25:20
for a pair of Detour USA dot com.
25:24
A pillar light mounts and a pair of KC
25:29
highlight daylighters 100 watts.
25:32
And we basically what we did with that
25:36
one was we said who can
25:38
post the most the most?
25:39
Whoever can post the most wins.
25:42
And a gentleman by the name of Tim Fox,
25:45
I'm hoping I'm
25:46
getting that name right, won
25:48
those. And boy, he
25:50
gosh, what do you have?
25:51
600 posts or something in a month.
25:53
It was it was amazing.
25:55
And mind you, that was
25:56
during the month of October.
25:58
It was not total post ever.
26:00
It was just the the post in October.
26:02
And he did a real good job.
26:05
He's really helped us out with a post
26:08
counts and hopefully it
26:10
has helped the site getting
26:13
more people posted and getting more
26:15
people to post and more people to join.
26:17
Then in November, we we gave
26:20
away another detour product.
26:22
It was a brand new product that Mark at
26:25
Detour USA dot com has been
26:27
working on called a knuckle
26:29
bone. And he's got a thing for for bones.
26:33
He's got the tailbone.
26:35
He's got the backbone and now he's come
26:39
up with a knuckle bone.
26:40
The tailbone is a
26:42
bumper, a slimline bumper.
26:45
Well, I'm sorry, I'm
26:46
not saying that right.
26:47
The slimline bumper is what I got.
26:48
The tailbone is actually really cool.
26:51
It is a it's like a slimline, but but it
26:55
uses your stock bumper.
26:57
So the piece that attaches to your Jeep
27:00
Cherokee is similar to the
27:02
slimline, but you can still
27:05
use your factory bumper.
27:06
So you just kind of put a little cut outs
27:08
in there and you've got
27:09
you've got these recovery
27:12
points where you can put the de-shackles
27:14
and you can it has a
27:18
tire swing tire carrier
27:20
on it. And it's really, really cool.
27:22
I was I was really torn between getting
27:24
the slimline bumper
27:26
with spare tire carrier and
27:28
the tailbone.
27:31
I decided that I wasn't going to try to
27:33
keep my vehicle looking stock.
27:35
And I'd always thought to myself, you
27:37
know, if I ever build
27:38
another Cherokee, I'm going
27:39
to try to keep it stock looking, but
27:41
still have the ability
27:42
to carry a spare tire.
27:44
And also to the other part of it was the
27:46
backbone, which is actually not the back.
27:49
It's for the front.
27:50
And it's a bumper, a winch bumper.
27:53
Well, again, it uses your bumper that's
27:57
on your Cherokee, but it
27:59
has, you know, you notch
28:01
the bumper and you put the winch plate
28:03
and it has a winch plate
28:04
and then it has the two
28:05
player recovery points
28:07
where you can put D-rings.
28:08
So it's really cool.
28:09
You again, you can you can put a winch
28:11
and spare tire carrier on
28:13
your on your Jeep Cherokee
28:15
and still keep that
28:17
that stock look about it.
28:18
So it it really appealed to me.
28:21
I just went in a different direction with
28:23
a custom front bumper
28:24
winch bumper from detours
28:26
and the slimline from
28:27
detours, which I love.
28:29
I think it's great.
28:30
But there's something to say, something
28:32
to be said for for
28:33
having the stock look, but
28:35
having the function functionality of a
28:37
winch and carrying a spare tire.
28:39
Oh, God, I hated carrying that spare tire
28:41
in the in the cargo area.
28:43
That was that was the only
28:44
thing I could get in there.
28:45
If I went to Sam's to buy some groceries,
28:48
they all went on top
28:49
of the tire and it was
28:50
enough room there for it.
28:51
But it was just aesthetically, it just
28:53
didn't appeal to me.
28:55
And also, too, I was getting the carpet
28:58
stained with the oil from the tire.
29:00
So at any rate, I know that you guys I'm
29:04
turning some of you guys stomachs
29:05
because the way you look at
29:06
it is that's what a jeep's for.
29:07
You just make it dirty.
29:08
You system be the dub.
29:09
You're sitting down.
29:10
That's fine.
29:11
You do it the way you want to do it.
29:12
I'm going to do it the way
29:13
I'm going to do it anyway.
29:15
So what we what we gave away was this
29:18
knuckle bone and the
29:18
knuckle bone is this cool idea
29:20
that it's not a unique idea.
29:22
You guys have seen them before.
29:23
It's basically a tire carrier that
29:27
connects to your two inch
29:29
receiver on the class three hitch.
29:35
Trailer hitch and what Mark came up with
29:38
was a way to do it where
29:40
it would lay down from a
29:43
vertical position to a horizontal
29:45
position, not backwards, but to the side,
29:49
which is to me a much
29:50
better idea because now if you have you
29:53
come out to your vehicle and
29:55
your parked around other cars,
29:57
you can actually get that wheel down and
30:00
off in a parking lot.
30:03
And also to what if you just want to open
30:06
up the back hatch and if
30:07
it's a one of those, one of
30:09
those spare tire hitches that lays back
30:12
again, you need to have some
30:14
room between the back of the
30:16
vehicle and where the
30:18
tire is going to lay over.
30:19
So I thought that was pretty cool that
30:20
this thing actually lays
30:21
down to the side instead of back
30:24
going straight back.
30:25
And he also put some things in there that
30:27
makes it very easy to secure
30:30
the knuckle bone to the two
30:33
inch receiver so that
30:34
it doesn't get stolen.
30:36
I mean, you know, gosh, it would be it
30:38
would be horrible to come out
30:39
and see no spare tire and no
30:42
carrier.
30:43
So he's developed a way to lock that
30:47
thing in place and it has some
30:50
anti-rattle stuff built into it.
30:53
So it doesn't rattle.
30:55
It's difficult to steal.
30:57
Of course, anything can be stolen.
30:58
It's difficult to steal and it I think it
31:01
handles up to 33 inch tires.
31:03
And I think it really depends on where
31:06
your two inch receiver is.
31:09
If it's up high, like built into the
31:11
bumper, then you may not
31:14
have as much clearance.
31:16
If it's down low, then
31:18
you may have more clearance.
31:19
If you have eight inches of lift on your
31:21
vehicle, you're going to have, you know,
31:24
more room to drop the
31:25
tire down.
31:26
But really Mark's guidelines is it's good
31:30
up to a 33 inch tire.
31:31
And don't quote me on that.
31:33
Go to XJ talk, go to detours.com and
31:37
check out the specifics.
31:40
If Mark doesn't have the knuckle bone up
31:42
on a site yet, just send him
31:43
an email or give him a call.
31:45
He'll be happy to talk to you about it.
31:47
And I think the things
31:48
were going for like 250 bucks.
31:50
So, and it doesn't cost as much to ship
31:53
because it's not as heavy as a full
31:55
bumper, which is the beauty of
31:57
the tailbone and the
31:57
knuckle bone as well.
31:58
They, they're not as
31:59
heavy as the full thing.
32:01
Um, the full size deal.
32:03
I know cause I've paid a lot of shipping
32:05
getting those, uh,
32:06
heavy bumpers, uh, um, from
32:09
Massachusetts and then
32:10
Kentucky to, uh, Katie, Texas.
32:13
So we gave away the knuckle bone.
32:15
Actually one of our moderators, uh, won
32:18
it that, uh, the November contest was,
32:20
uh, getting people to,
32:24
uh, new members to register on the site.
32:26
And, uh, they had to
32:28
mark you as a referral.
32:29
Uh, and not only that they
32:31
needed to make at least two posts.
32:33
So it was kind of a point system.
32:35
You know, I think you got two points for,
32:37
um, a new member, a new member referral.
32:40
And then you got, uh, three points for
32:43
every post that they made.
32:45
And the interesting thing was, uh, we had
32:47
a couple of people that I actually
32:49
thought was going to win
32:49
it that, uh, had, um, uh,
32:52
several members join, but those members
32:55
didn't post very much.
32:56
And, uh, Steve had one member join.
32:59
And I don't think it was even his intent
33:01
to, uh, to try to win the, the, the win
33:04
this prize on the contest.
33:06
He was just being a good guy and, and,
33:08
and referring people to the site and the
33:10
guy that he, uh, that he referred, you
33:12
know, put him down as the person
33:14
that referred him and then got on there
33:16
and was just posting.
33:17
Gosh, I guess he did 30, 40 posts during
33:19
the month of November.
33:20
And, uh, uh, he won by, uh,
33:23
Steve won by a wide margin.
33:25
He had the most points and, uh, he, he
33:27
just received the, the knuckle bone.
33:30
I think, uh, yesterday, day before, uh,
33:33
well yesterday he, he posted up on XJ
33:36
talk about, uh, the, uh,
33:38
how it mounted on the vehicle.
33:39
Now Steve already has, he's already gone.
33:42
He's a big fabricator.
33:43
He's done a lot of work to
33:45
his, uh, to his, uh, uh, XJ.
33:47
It's a really interesting story.
33:48
Uh, you should check that out.
33:50
Steve, which is a 4.3 LXJ on XJ talk.com.
33:54
And he's done a lot of work.
33:56
And one of the things he did is he got a,
33:58
uh, one of the old
33:59
stock, I think this is right.
34:00
I think, I think that's a, an old stock
34:02
XJ, um, uh, tell a spare tire holder that
34:06
you have on there, Steve.
34:08
And, uh, he modified it
34:09
to fit on his, his vehicle.
34:11
It's, it's, uh, he already has that on
34:13
his, uh, custom
34:14
aluminum bumper that he built.
34:18
But, uh, since it does have a two inch
34:19
receiver, he went ahead and, and, you
34:21
know, uh, mounted it up and took some
34:23
pictures and showed how it worked.
34:24
And it was a real, real nice ride up.
34:26
And I really appreciate that, Steve.
34:27
Thank you.
34:28
Um, but, uh, I think his, uh, his intent
34:31
is his son has a, an XJ as well that does
34:35
not have a spare tire carrier.
34:36
So I think, I think
34:38
that's where it's going to go.
34:40
I think that's where it's, it's destined,
34:42
but it was, uh, it was nice to
34:44
see it on, uh, on Steve's rig.
34:46
Now, you know, I'm saying this and I
34:48
might may make Steve feel really bad.
34:51
If he hadn't told his son that he was
34:53
going to give it to him and, uh, he likes
34:56
it so much, he's going
34:57
to keep it for himself.
34:59
If that's the case, Steve, I'm sorry.
35:03
But, you know, don't tell me if you don't
35:05
want people to know, or at
35:06
least tell me, don't say anything.
35:07
Cause I haven't made up my mind yet.
35:09
No, I think Steve's going to keep, uh,
35:10
keep his, uh, his
35:12
spare tire holder on there.
35:13
He again, it goes back to one of those
35:15
things where you do a lot
35:16
of time and effort and work.
35:18
You want to be able to, um, you know, sit
35:21
back and go, yeah, I did that.
35:22
And the neat thing about Steve is he's,
35:24
he's built some very
35:26
nice looking, uh, bumpers.
35:27
I like the, the rear bumper he has
35:29
because it has a space
35:31
for a winch in the back.
35:32
So, you know, I'd really like that.
35:35
That really would
35:35
impress the people at the mall.
36:07
Do you have a question or comment that
36:30
you'd like to hear on the show?
36:32
Just call 530-675-4102 any time of the
36:36
day or night and
36:37
leave it on our voicemail.
36:46
Hey, I just wanted to
36:46
tell you about XJTalk.com.
36:48
It's a great site.
36:49
There's no bashing.
36:51
Everybody's nice and friendly.
36:52
Great place to be.
36:53
Hey Tony, my name is Mike.
36:55
I go by Mafonzolo on the forum.
36:57
I've been a Jeep guy for about 10 years
36:59
and I own two XJs and one MJ.
37:01
I wanted to pass a trick along to you and
37:03
all the other XJ guys who are listening.
37:05
It has to do with the well-known
37:07
overheating issue with our XJs.
37:09
As you know, the mechanical fan clutch
37:11
that the XJs have is
37:13
thermostatically controlled
37:14
by a spring on the
37:15
front of the fan clutch.
37:16
It has been my experience that this
37:18
thermal control does not
37:19
operate as it should, even
37:21
on new clutches.
37:22
If you pull the fan clutch off the Jeep
37:24
and look at the front of
37:25
it where the wound spring
37:26
is, you will see that the outer end of
37:29
the spring is held by a
37:30
clip and the other end
37:32
of the spring is attached
37:33
to a shaft on the fan clutch.
37:35
The idea is that once the Jeep gets hot
37:37
enough, the spring
37:38
expands and turns the shaft into
37:40
engaged position, which in
37:42
turn engages the fan clutch.
37:44
This is why 180 degrees thermostat
37:47
doesn't help with overheating.
37:48
It's because the fan clutch doesn't
37:50
engage until the
37:51
temperature hits about 195 degrees.
37:54
I found that most of the
37:55
timing doesn't engage even then.
37:57
So the trick is to engage it manually.
37:59
Looking at the front of the fan clutch,
38:01
take the outer end of
38:02
the spring that is held by
38:03
the retaining tab and pop it free.
38:06
Sometimes there's a dab of glue in this
38:08
spot, just clean that off.
38:09
Once you pop the outer end of the spring
38:11
from the retaining tab,
38:13
spin it counterclockwise
38:14
180 degrees and lock it behind another
38:18
tab on the opposite side.
38:20
That's it.
38:20
Now put the fan clutch back on your Jeep.
38:23
This has the same effect as if the spring
38:25
were to expand under high temperature and
38:27
puts the fan clutch into
38:28
an always engaged mode.
38:30
When you start your Jeep now and drive
38:32
it, you should hear
38:32
the fan roar like a jet.
38:34
This is what the fan should sound like
38:36
with the clutch fully engaged.
38:38
None of the clutches I've ever bought or
38:40
used sound like this,
38:41
even with the Jeep running
38:42
hot, which leads me to believe that
38:44
thermostatic control on the clutch is not
38:47
sensing the temperature
38:48
of the motor correctly.
38:49
Doing this will keep your Jeep running
38:50
cooler in the hot weather.
38:52
Come wintertime, I just spin the spring
38:54
back around to where it
38:55
was so the Jeep doesn't
38:57
over cool.
38:58
Well, that's it.
38:59
If all this sounds too confusing, I can
39:01
make a YouTube video on
39:02
how to do it and throw
39:04
it up on the forum.
39:05
Well, that's it for me.
39:06
Keep up the great work and I'll be
39:07
looking forward to the next podcast.
39:09
Peace.
39:11
Well, that was a great tip and one that I
39:14
had read about before,
39:15
but it was beautifully
39:16
explained by this XJTalk.com member.
39:20
And it's another one of those, one of
39:25
those names, nicknames
39:26
that people come up with
39:27
that they have to explain to
39:29
me before I can remember it.
39:30
And he's Mafonzo low, which is basically
39:34
my funds are low, like
39:37
it is the case for all
39:38
of us that have had a Jeep for very long.
39:42
So really appreciate that, Mike.
39:44
And thank you for
39:46
taking the time to call in.
39:48
And if you would like to have your
39:50
questions or comments
39:52
called in, I mean, if you would
39:54
like to have them played on the show,
39:55
please call in and
39:57
leave them on our voicemail.
39:58
It's a 24 hour a day,
40:00
seven day a week voicemail.
40:02
You don't have to worry about ringing
40:03
somebody's phone and
40:04
bothering them at two o'clock in
40:06
the morning or having to speak with
40:09
somebody when you call.
40:10
It's just voicemail.
40:12
So if you call and just leave a message,
40:14
if you would say who
40:14
you are, what's your name
40:17
on XJ talk is, what's your first name and
40:20
where you're located,
40:21
that would be just really,
40:23
really cool.
40:24
It's just kind of an interesting thing
40:25
for people to hear, you
40:27
know, like if you're in
40:27
their part of the
40:28
country, so on and so forth.
40:30
And also too, they may want to ask you
40:31
some questions on the
40:32
site, but anyway, that number
40:34
is 5 3 0 6 7 5 4 1 0
40:39
2 5 3 0 6 7 5 4 1 0 2.
40:44
And you know, if you don't have one of
40:46
those plans, which most
40:48
everybody does these days,
40:49
where you can call anywhere in the United
40:51
States for free, or at
40:53
least that's part of your
40:54
plan so you don't pay extra for it, you
40:56
know, send me a message.
40:57
I can read your, your tip or your
41:00
information on the air.
41:03
Just send it to send me a private message
41:05
motor Roy on XJ talk.com.
41:07
Or if you'd like for me to call you, I
41:09
can call you and record
41:11
your, your message or comment.
41:13
Maybe even we could talk a bit.
41:14
So again, you can send me that private
41:16
message on xjtalk.com or
41:19
just drop me an email at
41:22
motor Roy at XJ talk.com.
41:25
So motor Roy at XJ talk.com.
41:29
We welcome and look forward to your
41:31
questions and comments.
41:33
Dial 5 3 0 6 7 5 4 1 0 2 and leave your
41:37
message on our 24 by 7 voicemail.
41:42
Well, guys, that's about it for tonight.
41:44
I really appreciate you taking time to
41:46
download listening to the podcast.
41:48
And hopefully we're going to have a few
41:52
more of these at a
41:54
regular basis and might even
41:57
be doing the video side of this here in
42:01
the next couple of episodes.
42:04
I've been looking at some high def
42:07
webcams and if we can find
42:10
some stuff for you to look
42:11
at besides me talking, it might be might
42:16
be something you can
42:17
look forward to seeing on
42:18
YouTube.
42:20
Which means that if you are interested in
42:23
watching some videos
42:24
on YouTube, xjtalk.com,
42:28
we put the videos up on YouTube first and
42:31
that's just youtube.com slash xjtalk.
42:34
So if you like videos, go over there and
42:38
subscribe to xjtalk.com or
42:40
xjtalk, I should say, and
42:42
watch the videos and you'll see see those
42:45
on the site as well.
42:46
So either place.
42:48
But you'll probably see the show if and
42:51
when we do the video
42:52
portion of it just on YouTube.
43:02
If you'd like to be a caller where we
43:06
interview you and talk
43:07
about what you're doing with
43:08
your Jeep or just things that are going
43:10
on, you know, laws
43:12
that may be affecting your
43:13
ability to wheel off road, new products
43:16
that are coming out if
43:17
you're a vendor and you've
43:19
got something to sell, happy to talk to
43:21
you about your product.
43:22
So again, you can use that same number,
43:25
530-675-4102 to give me a call
43:30
and we can schedule something.
43:31
Love doing the interviews, love talking
43:34
to people about their
43:35
Jeeps and you know, just
43:36
what's going on in their
43:37
lives makes the show interesting.
43:40
Well, it makes it more interesting for
43:41
me, frankly, than me
43:43
just talking all the time.
43:45
So thanks very much for tuning in and
43:48
hopefully we'll have a show next week.
43:52
If not sooner.
43:53
So just keep touching base back with the
43:56
site and see what we've
43:58
got available for you.
43:59
Everybody have a good night.
44:01
A very Merry Christmas
44:03
and a very Happy New Year.
44:04
Oh, and hang on at the
44:07
end of the show here.
44:08
I'm going to have a very special song
44:10
that a friend of mine did.
44:14
I just wanted to say XJ talk is the best
44:17
fucking site in the world.
44:19
And if you think you know a better
44:21
fucking site, fuck you.
44:23
By the way, this is Big M 350.
44:26
Oh, red Jeeps are sexy.
44:29
Okay.
44:30
And as a special Christmas bonus, here's
44:32
a original song done
44:34
by a friend of mine, Tom
44:36
Rapp, and it's called Christmas Cheer.
44:38
He created it last year
44:40
and it's a very catchy tune.
44:42
I really enjoy it and I hope you do too.
44:45
You can hear more of Tom Rapp's tunes and
44:49
read more about
44:50
what's going on with him on
44:51
his website, Tom Rapp show.com.
44:55
That's a rap with two P's.
44:57
Christmas is my favorite time of year.
45:07
Christmas is my favorite time of year.
45:12
Everybody knows when it's near.
45:17
Children yells and jingle bells.
45:20
Give me something no one sells and fill
45:23
that cup on up with Christmas cheer.
45:28
Christmas is the time to celebrate.
45:33
Throw some more of
45:34
that turkey on my plate.
45:38
Don't sit home, don't be alone.
45:40
Call some friends up on the phone and
45:43
fill that cup on up with Christmas cheer.
45:48
I know but I'm gonna
45:50
go and ask Santa for.
45:53
I'm gonna get a present just for me.
45:58
She's cuddly and she's
46:00
sweet, a girl that I adore.
46:03
Just put a gorgeous doll under my tree.
46:09
Christmas is the time to celebrate.
46:13
Throw some more of
46:15
that turkey on my plate.
46:18
Remember that you're not alone.
46:21
Read some letters from back home and fill
46:24
that cup on up with Christmas cheer.
46:27
[music]
46:40
I know but I'm gonna
46:51
go and ask Santa for.
46:54
I'm gonna get the only thing I need.
47:00
A quick ride back to my
47:02
hometown on his sleigh.
47:05
So I can have my darling here with me.
47:10
Christmas is my favorite time of year.
47:15
Everybody knows when it's near.
47:20
Children yells and jingle bells, give me
47:24
something to know oneself.
47:26
And fill that cup on
47:27
up with Christmas cheer.
47:29
And fill that cup on
47:32
up with Christmas cheer.
47:42
That's Tom Rap, tomrapshow.com.
47:45
Go over there and download your copy.
47:48
Merry Christmas everyone.