What did you do to your jeep today?

[Johnny O]

Parking brake is on my list of Liberty to-do’s also.

Cheap to do, hell to adjust. I’m beginning to wonder if there is some trick to it. Same set up as the drum brakes on my Bug, but neither the VW or service manual has been much help. I adjusted them half a dozen tries before giving up for the day. If I adjust them so they hold, the shoes drag on the drum. If I adjust them so they don’t drag, they don’t hold at all.

 

[lfhoward]

Cheap to do, hell to adjust. I’m beginning to wonder if there is some trick to it. Same set up as the drum brakes on my Bug, but neither the VW or service manual has been much help. I adjusted them half a dozen tries before giving up for the day. If I adjust them so they hold, the shoes drag on the drum. If I adjust them so they don’t drag, they don’t hold at all.

Yeah it is hard to thread that needle. Been there.

 

[profdlp]

I redid my parking brakes six years ago and still don't have them adjusted right. Got to a certain point where I realized it would be easier to throw a set of chocks in the back and fiddle with that every time I parked somewhere. (Which I do not do either.)

 

[lfhoward]

Part of it is making sure you have equal tension on both cables. For years mine was unbalanced where only one wheel’s parking brake was engaging. I could never get it right until taking the center console off and realizing that the star wheels in the drums were at drastically different positions. And one was affecting the other.

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[tommudd]

My ebrake on the 03 hasn't worked since first rear diff swap 2 days after I bought it
That's over 100,000 miles ago LOL

 

[Johnny O]

Part of it is making sure you have equal tension on both cables. For years mine was unbalanced where only one wheel’s parking brake was engaging. I could never get it right until taking the center console off and realizing that the star wheels in the drums were at drastically different positions. And one was affecting the other.

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Thanks for the tip! I’ll check this ASAP. Makes sense since both linkages were seized on mine when I bought it.

Around home, it’s not a big deal, but I end up in a lot of places Where an e brake might come in handy if the hydraulics fail.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Mine hasn't worked since 2015 lol.

 

[Deb'nKJ]

It's alright for those who have no inspection, but ours have to work - at least once a year. Of course the problem with many automatics is they fail inspection because the last time the e-brake was applied was at the previous year's inspection (less of a problem with rear discs - except Jeeps, whose e-brake shoe linings seem prone to delaminating)

 

[Johnny O]

Driving to the labs this morning, there was a loud THUMP under the hood, then the belt started squealing. Thinking I lost an Idler, I pulled over and grabbed the spare from under the seat. Popped the hood to do a quick swap out to discover a squirrel must have been hiding out when I left the house and got caught caught up in the belt.

The horror. The horror. Its like a furry can of spaghetti sauce (with meat) exploded.

Can now add "Meat Grinder" to Bert's utility functions.

 

[lfhoward]

Eeeeeewwwww

 

[lfhoward]

Read this to my wife who has a horrible migraine headache today. She says she shouldn’t find this funny but she does. And it was a wonderful distraction. The poor bushy tailed tree rat.

 

[profdlp]

I've heard of road pizza, but this sounds more like road chili.

 

[Deb'nKJ]

"tree rat"? The only person I've known use that term was my late mother - so I'd always rather assumed it was a North Devonshire dialect thing - obviously not!

Johnny, you sure have a strong stomach, if you could get close enough to positively ID the species.

 

[lfhoward]

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[duderz7]

Similar thing happened to my friends chevy truck many years back, only it was three kittens. Happened on startup, 1st little kitty came out in two pieces, 2nd little kitty came out 6 feet long, and 3rd little kitty went meow, meow, meow all the way home at about mach 6.

 

[Johnny O]

"tree rat"? The only person I've known use that term was my late mother - so I'd always rather assumed it was a North Devonshire dialect thing - obviously not!

Johnny, you sure have a strong stomach, if you could get close enough to positively ID the species.

There’s only one species of tree rat left here. ( called them that back in PA… pigeons are air rats) The 13 line ground squirrels went extinct about ten years back…plus the tail was on the AC compressor.

Took two hours to clean the mess out. Not fun on a hot day.

 

[lfhoward]

Probably one of the few to ever bbq squirrel meat on your exhaust headers.

Not a clean up job I would envy.

 

[CherokeeLiberty]

There’s only one species of tree rat left here. ( called them that back in PA… pigeons are air rats) The 13 line ground squirrels went extinct about ten years back…plus the tail was on the AC compressor.

Took two hours to clean the mess out. Not fun on a hot day.

No more stripies? We have them all over in the prairies in MN, along with the bigger flickertails.

 

[Johnny O]

No more stripies? We have them all over in the prairies in MN, along with the bigger flickertails.

Used to be endemic. Even had one that lived in my yard, but as things go in suburbia, they are all gone now. Have to go west to see one.

They swear there’s fox squirrels here, but all I see is grays.

Is a **** shame as the 13s are pretty cool.

 

[Johnny O]

So after hours of cleaning, Bert smells like redneck BBQ after the drive to work. Gonna leave the bloodstains on the ventral side of the hood as a warning to others.