The needed Jeep parts arrived in the mail a few days ago, but I had a lot of medical stuff, and other (good) things, before I could get back to finishing up this work.
I spent today replacing the rear engine mounts–actually it’s the transmission mount and also a transfer case mount. It took four hours to clean the grime that was loosened by the penetrating oil so I could find the bolts and nuts, and then about an hour and a half actually doing the work. What a nasty messy job!
I would have been finished more quickly, but I kept getting up to wash my hands and wipe off the tools. I suppose it seems odd that someone wants clean hands and tools while working on an old car, but that’s how it is for me.
Everything is back together and the Jeep runs fine. I no longer can push the transmission several inches. This should take care of the fan hitting the shroud problems, although it will likely come back in a few years because the leaking oil from the gearboxes will degrade the material in the transmission mounts.
Fixing the gearbox leaks is fairly easy, but to do it well is one of those ever expanding projects. To stop the leaks one replaces all the gaskets. But replacing the gaskets requires the cases be clean. Cleaning the cases is best done by soaking them for several days in a strong solution of lye and water. But one must remove the internal components from the gear boxes before soaking the cases. And, even though the transmissions are working well, “why not overhaul them” while they apart. The gearboxes are simple and overhauling them is not difficult, but it’s not something I want to do right now. My first priority is to finish up the landscaping so we can get the house ready to sell so we can move to a more rural area.
When I was all done with the work, I spent almost an hour in the shower getting “de-grimed”. The two best things I’ve found for this are liquid soap like is used to wash dishes in the kitchen sink and a very abrasive pumice soap sold by NAPA Auto Parts. The pumice soap is used for my hands and maybe my arms. The dish soap for everywhere else. I’m not one of those “macho men” that will use that pumice soap *everywhere* 🙂
The tools are all lined up on the workbench, but are not cleaned. They are also a mess. Tomorrow I’ll take care of cleaning them and putting them away. But first, I need to go to the optometrist. I was supposed to do that today, but the optometrist’s office had a water pipe leak that required the electricity be shut off to fix the leak…so they are seeing Friday’s appointments tomorrow.
I hate leaving the grimy tools laid out like that, but that is better than putting dirty tools back into the tool chest.
Random thoughts 
Lava used to be the go-to hand soap. Are there any junk yards with a gear box?
I would be *amazed* to find a suitable junk yard transmission that cost less than 2 or 3 times a king’s ransom.
My truck uses a rather rare variant of a very commonly used transmission. The cases are different, but the internal parts are the same.
Fortunately there is still enough demand for the internal parts that the parts makers are still producing them.