How to house a homeless friend

This thread is top five for me....too much craziness despair to ignore...no, thank you

Glad to hear the housing issue is solved for now. I skimmed back through the thread and didn't find mention of it, so forgive me if I'm rehashing something - but does she have Medicaid? If not, that should be next...

The neutral safety switch is a pretty common issue. If you wiggle the shifter while turning the key, or put it in neutral it should start. My 99 Cherokee has been like this for years, but eventually I'll get around to installing a new one.

Yes to Medicaid, maybe to neutral safety switch.

It (the Jeep) was failing intermittently before, but now seems full-bad. Last time I was unable to correct the issue with jumpers, so I may have been jumpering wrong or it may be something else entirely. It's got other electrical issues, after all.

T55, it's been almost a week..... and the old adage 'no news is good news' applies here too?

In reply to 759NRNG:

I just left her new house!

It's great. Her landlord is basically her roommate. He's in his Kate sixties and she's in her early seventies. She has her own section of the house. I hope she stays a long time.

Of course the jeep is broken now. I think it's the ignition switch. Bypassing the neutral safety switch doesn't fix it but I can start it by jumping the solenoid terminals.

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

A new ignition switch is $15.

It's probably cheaper than an aftermarket sloppy mess.

In reply to tuna55:

But think how much "racier" the Jeep will seem with the inclusion of that mere button!

Tuna, I have to commend you for all the the help you are doing for the friend. I'm now experiencing a somewhat similar situation. My brother in law has made a few poor decisions and we have offered our couch for a month while he gets his feet under him. I have my concerns, but i'm hoping that he's changed. So far he's been respectful of our space and time, my wife and I are just trying to make sure we cover our bases a bit and figure out where our hard line of what can and cannot happen.

thedanimal wrote: Tuna, I have to commend you for all the the help you are doing for the friend. I'm now experiencing a somewhat similar situation. My brother in law has made a few poor decisions and we have offered our couch for a month while he gets his feet under him. I have my concerns, but i'm hoping that he's changed. So far he's been respectful of our space and time, my wife and I are just trying to make sure we cover our bases a bit and figure out where our hard line of what can and cannot happen.

Thanks dude! Anytime I can help, let me know. It's really hard figuring out where the line is between helping someone and enabling them.

"I just left her new house!

It's great. Her landlord is basically her roommate. He's in his Kate sixties and she's in her early seventies. She has her own section of the house. I hope she stays a long time."
What wonderful news in these trying times ....God bless you.

SO first I came to her new place with the ignition switch for a '94 Jeep XJ with tilt steering, at around 9:30 on Wednesday night. I took apart the dash, dropped the column, and found out that it is really a '96 Jeep XJ, and that I had the wrong switch.

Last night I came with the right switch (which she actually had cash to pay for!) and swapped it out. That fixed the radio, HVAC and a bunch of other stuff which had stopped working, but still no start.

Do you know how you're never supposed to assume stacked failure modes, because the chance of multiple simultaneous failures is so low? So that happened. I had to jumper the neutral safety switch AND replace the ignition switch. Both failed. Both at the same time.

Feeling pretty happy with the whole situation, I started putting all of my tools away, it's 10:30 now, and then walking back to the Jeep to get another load, I see that it's puking coolant everywhere. Apparently another freeze plug has failed.

For those who have not followed the saga closely, some well meaning fool put Dexcool in the cooling system about two years ago, and it immediately turned into brown mud, corroded the radiator, destroyed the water pump, clogged both radiator hoses, clogged the heater core, and one by one, destroyed the front two freeze plugs. THe ones you can actually reach.

The one I suspect now is behind the exhaust manifold, which is under and behind the intake manifold. Also behind the motor mount.

UGH

Ugh indeed... Does make you curse the rotten-bastard engineers who decided to create non-compatible coolants...

I never knew Dexcool destroyed freeze plugs. So why did GM feel the need to reinvent the wheel(coolant in this case)?

spitfirebill wrote: I never knew Dexcool destroyed freeze plugs. So why did GM feel the need to reinvent the wheel(coolant in this case)?

TL;DR

It's a long life antifreeze that is mostly OK if changed on time if used from new without mixing.

It also is incompatible with oxygen.

It also is incompatible with green antifreeze.

In this case, a leaky green cooling system was filled by a significant amount of Dexcool. The result is a mess. It's caustic I believe, and so it corrodes everything. It corroded the water pump impeller to nothing, and it's been causing freeze plugs to rot.

You have my heartfelt sympathy on the freeze plug. The only time ive r/r'ed an intake and exhaust manifold on a jeep inline 6 it was on an engine stand, and it was still a huge pain. Maybe the web has some tips or tricks to help line it up for install.

EDIT; Mine was a 258, hopefully they improved the design for easier service by 96.

gearheadmb wrote: You have my heartfelt sympathy on the freeze plug. The only time ive r/r'ed an intake and exhaust manifold on a jeep inline 6 it was on an engine stand, and it was still a huge pain. Maybe the web has some tips or tricks to help line it up for install. EDIT; Mine was a 258, hopefully they improved the design for easier service by 96.

It doesn't look easy. I am not looking forward to it. Is there a magical freeze plug remover/installer tool? I might buy such an animal.

I'm glad to hear your friend's housing situation is going well and that you made some progress on the Jeep, but am sorry to hear about the freeze plug issue. I'm hoping it's actually something simple like a hose!

I have used installers, they are kind of like a punch with an end thats made to fit the freeze plug. They suck to use. Dont bother. If the engine were on a stand they might be ok. Take the biggest shallow socket you have that still fits inside the plug. Smacking that does a decent job of driving them in. I usually put some type of sealant on them also to guard against leaks. To get the old one out if you tap one side in the opposite side usually comes out and then they come out pretty easy.

They have aftermarket plugs that work like a boat plug if you cant get an oe style plug in for some reason.

gearheadmb wrote: I have used installers, they are kind of like a punch with an end thats made to fit the freeze plug. They suck to use. Dont bother. If the engine were on a stand they might be ok. Take the biggest shallow socket you have that still fits inside the plug. Smacking that does a decent job of driving them in. I usually put some type of sealant on them also to guard against leaks. To get the old one out if you tap one side in the opposite side usually comes out and then they come out pretty easy. They have aftermarket plugs that work like a boat plug if you cant get an oe style plug in for some reason.

Let me clarify.

I know how to remove and install freeze plugs.

I am wishing for some magical animal to remove and install them when I have very little access.

iadr wrote: As an aside, OE late model Jeep coolant (pink-ish, IIRC) and Dexcool (coral-red) are mixed in our (Mazda dealer) shop regularly. Are we wrong in that? (I understand that is not what happened here). I was at a seminar when I first got into dealership parts that told me the few universal mixing coolant "Celsius" etc, are even worse conductors than ethylene glycol, so I have avoided them.

I do not know.

I know two things: I have seen pure virgin Dexcool turn into RTVish stuff after enough miles unprovoked, and I have seen green and Dexcool make mud within weeks or being mixed.

She doesn't have the $35 for intake/exhaust gasket and freeze plug and antifreeze and the $50 for a tow.

It won't go more than a few blocks without overheating.

I really can't work on it where it is, not to this degree, it's on the road on a hill, and I will need to jack things up to get there. I can't use her landlords driveway either.

She has no scoosh in her budget for a tow (to your place)?

759NRNG wrote: She has no scoosh in her budget for a tow (to your place)?

Nope! She's on tens of dollars budget. She'll have more next month.