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I had just got the jeep out of the mechanic's garage after a 2 months stay. Painting, Tinkering, Steering assembly, Air filter, brake pads/cylinders taken care of. My first day to work with jeep, in its new avtar was met with exclamations of the highest sorts "Super maga", "Rocking dude', "Sexy beast", "Wow", "uhh- ahhh" and so on.

By evening the jeep's steering had no play at all, it refused to recoil after a turn. Day 2, the battery died and had to get it charged while i took another battery from mechanic. Day 3, the alternator stopped charging the battery, Day 4 the indicators and horn would all of a sudden, start and stop. Day 5 the tool box key could not open the tool box, one of the newly re-stitched rear benches had a loose nut and the left front door had lost a beading.

Iam a more spiritually inclined then religious person but the 6 days of mayhem got me thinking, Do jeeps succumb to evil eyes ? A recently repaired jeep seems to attract more eyes and words than a new car itself. So what is the remedy ? I had even driven the jeep to a small temple right outside the garage and then taken the jeep home. Yet misfortune followed me through last week. i even took the vehicle to the garage between day 3 and day 4. Now the mechanic is getting sick and tired of having me there every 3 days. He says I should continue driving the jeep for a while and then bring it back for an overhaul.

Or am i just associating things in the wrong direction and assume these things tend to happen and a visit to a good mechanic/garage should do ?

100 % Correct , you need a good mech not a baba/guru , think practically my analysis ;

1) its a rebuilt jeep -- expect so many things for few months & some thousands of km of run , things will settle dow one by one , have a lots of patience THIS IS NORMAL , you are just having couple of more problems thats all

2) your mech has made a big mistake , he could have kept the newly built jeep for a week & taken few trials & done some checks before handing it over to you 2/3 rds of your problems would never have occurred

3) Your problem list indicates use of 'Non Genuine / Substandard ' spares

4) give some rest to yourself ,your pocket & the Jeep for a week , think over at fresh ( as the pocket gets pinched it pinches the mind too ) start fresh ,after cooling down

5) with rebuilt jeeps you need to have lots & lots of patience , it TAKES time but finally gets sorted out ,trust me

6) think Positive , this is your Jeep , may be its causing lesser problems for you then to some another person


I am a believer , I believe that vehicles have souls too but then you need to treat the 'thing ' properly in a practical way . when we fell ill we just dont stop at praying to god we also choose a good doctor & best treatment --why ? its the same with the Jeep --- Practical thinking

I have gone through all this , have restored & owned two Land Rovers ( avg 35 years old , the current one is the second ) I know the pain , I have seen people getting desperate & selling their dreams , Have Patience

there is nothing like catching a bad eye

Sudarshan

I can relate to what you say & disagree with it at the same time. Most of the mechanical failures can be attributed to the mechanic himself - his incompetency , lack of knowledge or sheer laziness, the rest of the blame can be put on parts which can be of poor quality even if they are new (quality control in India is a unknown concept) When it comes to vehicles (or most things in life for that matter) a bitter lesson to learn is you have to get most things done under supervision or you should have a strong involvment or a throrough checkmark routine in the process (or do them yourself if you can) , the later comes only with knowledge & experience, Few months back I had the packing changed of my engine (RE STD350) , the mechanic assembled everything back , I took the bike and went on to the nearest fuel pump , filled up the bike and then went home , overnight the petrol leaked out due to the pipe being disconnected. I blamed myself for not checking everything which I visibly atleast could. I do not belive in the concept of an evil eye (or for that matter any superstition) and I am neither religious nor spiritual. Never get disheartened , Have patience , get involved & JEEP it.

Its not a Evil eye, its just a JEEP thing it you will take time to understand

agree:It surely is the jeep thing. I consider you to be lucky, My gypsy stalled on my way to office many times. Its like you have a damn cool machine, but it won't start.

You shall face lots of these miniature problems for few more weeks, but at the end you will really be satisfied.

Thank you all. Your encouraging words definitely help my dampened spirit. To make matters worse the jeep and I were supposed to be in full service at a friend's marriage. The jeep stalled at 2AM with 4 ladies (relatives of the friend's). Luckily it was opposite one of the ladies who got down (I started the jeep with 9 ladies and had been dropping 2 and 3 of them). So we all took refuge at their place till their husbands came to pick them up. Then a friend came and picked me up. The mechanic (well known in jeep circles) got a mouthful, as he had given his word. Ultimately Iam to be blamed, I dont have any mechanical knowledge and Im learning things with each jeep repair. :Frustrati

On the lighter end - your lady (jeep) was not happy with few more on boardlol:. I can understand your embrassment, but hey you will be know for this throught your life within your circle. A tale for your kids or grandkids!!!

But a assurance, with few more like this either you will become a mech yourself or you will chuck your jeep (passion dies out). You shall really gain a lot on this kinds of breakdown, after that you shall be able to identify the problem with a roar of your jeep.

Stay calm buddy, you shall wade through!!!

Hang in there buddy !
I can totally relate - the latest I'm hearing these days is :

Friend : Your car leaks ?
Me: Yeah - the windshield gasket's a bit loose - so it drips when in rain
Friend: Maybe you need to get a raincoat !
Me: {Nasty stare}:Frustrati

I've survived much ridicule, but believe this :
Every incremental repair / change I make - the Jeep get's that much better and I learn that much more about it

With Jeeps it's never a 100 meter dash - more like the Ironman triathlon (only brave souls dare do it)

Cheers! :thumbs up

P.S: I'm no mechanic either / the Jeep's the only vehicle I've got.

^ Bad rebuild w.r.t to steering issue and alternator issue.

Even worse with a mid-night breakdown. What was the eventual cause?

PS - But Hey -- its a jeep thing, you need at least 1000Kms of city/highway use to make it uber reliable before you can even remotely utter the otr word. Dont loose hope and think of selling right away, just drive it around for a few months/Kms and let us know the progress.

The issues you have mentioned are common be it a restored jeep or a old jeep, there is nothing to do with evil eye it's all technical issues which will get subsided/soughted out in due course of time, don't get disheartened but yes! I believe in evil eye and being a jeeper I can say it's high on these machines so mom/granny remedy is always good.

Take the jeep to the electrician/upholstery guy and address all the issues, and also make sure you get the periodical checks done up, check water/coolant, battery, breaks on a daily basis/timely manner and apart form this the most important aspect is every jeeper should be able to fix small issues on the jeep by himself.

Kingvikz
Just drive the jeep for some more time. Get ready to spend few weekends driving the jeep. If possible call a friend to come with you in another vehicle for support. You will understand the machine and its heart beat after few hundred KMs. Such problems are common for all old vehicles (Bullet??). You cannot blame the mechanic as he cannot anticipate all breakdowns. He can just replace faulty / suspicious parts not all.

Apparently the battery did not have enough charge, that's what the mechanic said and kept the battery for a day to charge. Issue repeated again once the battery came home. Again went to mechanic, this time he kept the alternator for himself and said it could the alternator and fixed a spare alternator (I needed the jeep badly at the wedding to ferry people), However the jeep still refused to start. Meanwhile whenever it did, the horn and lights came and went as they pleased. Took it to an electrician (called up Jammy in between for advice) electrician said the combination switch (indicator lever-connecting box) was broken. Took a bike n dashed to JC road, n bought a new combination switch. Then the steering wheel refused to sit snugly on the combination box, kept rubbing the plastic while turning. Problem attributed to bad steering assembly job. In fact the steering assembly lever arm and the rod that connects the tie-rods have a rubber bush tied with a small copper string/wire, the assembly itself is moving while the steering is turned.:eek:

We tried tighting the assembly, but its still went back to being loose. Drove the jeep with all these issues throughout the marriage (Had to do the manual transmission [read push the jeep along with 3 friends] every time). Anger, frustration and irritation was rampant within me. Its a well known mechanic and yet things went berserk after he said he had worked on all these. He smiled away when i explained all this to him and told me to bring the jeep back. Maybe its my fault that Iam not being very strict with him + the fact that Iam not well versed and am learning thing every time a part breaks down.please:

By the way the steering assembly is 2 weeks old. Rane steering assembly with universal joint. Mechanic was unsure on fixing it cause of length isues - outer pipe was too short and inside rod was too long. Got both fixed by initially exchanging outer pipe at jc road and then re exchanging it back when mechanic figured out a way, bought a steering-floorboard clamp and un-wielded the two nut holders on the outer pipe and re-wielded them few inches below to get pipe to sit correctly.

Guess next on shopping list must be alternator. :(

Crazy or what, a alternator is easily serviceable - see my thread last post.

Worst case your diode set is burst, costs around 400Rs, get both bearings greased and entire coil assy cleaned with petrol, and of course change the regulator to a new one!! If you cant get it solved in bangy, be my guest in my mechanics place for few days, will get all resolved!!

Edit - change the brushes inside the alt too, costs around 90 each, iirc there are 2 in a alt.

Finally took jeep to Mechanic's garage last night. It stopped on a narrow lane and blocked traffic for a while. Few men helped push it to a side lane, while i scouted and found a battery shop nearby. Jump started it and took it to garage. Being an incline and having a train of bikes and cars behind didn't help my cause either.

Will go in the next few days and pick my alternator and give it to a battery shop near my home. Last days he'e been around helping jump start the jeep during the marriage.

Jeep woes continue.

July - 22: I call up mechanic and tell him I'll need the jeep for the weekend. (Jeep at garage since mechanic trying to replace worn out beadings of the door) Mechanic tell me to come by evening. Evening I go and he gives a smile and says Iam lucky. Apparently he took jeep for a trial and the clutch rod broke. He drove it back in second gear all the way to the garage and has now replaced it with another rod he got from his sources in Shivajinagar.
July - 23: I drive jeep with 2 more friends to Ghatti, a temple (Ghati Subramanya Temple Subrahmanya Ghati, Lakshmi Narasimha and Subramanya at Ghati), with the hope that i can even get a small pooja done for jeep as it has been more time in the garage than at my house.
We begin at 6:30 am from Bangalore and at 8:30 are still away from the temple. A 10 km stretch of road gives me the feeling of an OTR and suddenly the clutch pedal goes in and refuses to come out. Parking the jeep on the side of the road, me and my pals examine what could be wrong. We also find that unless we repeatedly pump the brake pedal, the jeep does not stop. 20 minutes later an old 540 with a half cut body and a small crane fitted on its back makes its way towards us. We signal the jeep to stop and its 3 inmates get down and come over to our jeep to examine the problem.

It turns out that the new fitted clutch rod was not a tight fit and it has come out of the ball joint. (Having spent 20 mins under the jeep, we guys had figured that out but were not sure of the solution.) Our new friends get under the jeep and 10 minutes later come out satisfied that they managed to re-fit the clutch rod back. They refuse any money despite our persistence and are kind enough to tell us that we are 30 kms forward from the temple. :Frustrati

We drive the jeep at snail pace fearing the clutch rod and brakes and reach the temple at 10:30. The pooja was conducted half-heartedly as we realised it was the repair guys who helped us more than the priest.

We reach Bangalore by 1:00 pm and head to a club to refresh. (Food and a can of beer) Arriving at my garage by 3:30 i tell the mechanic I have had it with him and the screw ups. He immediately lays a mat near the jeep and goes underneath. 10 minutes later he has found the reason for the chaos - Clutch rod is not a tight fit and that my old clutch rod could be wielded and put back. (540 clutch rods are hard to find he says) the brake problem seems to be the interesting part considering 15 days earlier i had replaced the cylinder and brake pads. The brake cable that transfers the oil has a leak. Every time we jammed the brakes the oil was pumped OUT instead of going to the cylinders. Mechanic says he'll take care of that too and sighs that things are not going my way (He probably checked every part that could make the jeep stop and yet there is always something else that crops up)

My level of depression and frustration was sky high that day. Thoughts of selling the jeep came and went in a fury. But at the end of the day, when i looked at my jeep before heading home, wondering about the creaking doors, jarring noises and loose nuts-bolts I could not help smile and say - "It happens. Its a Jeep and I'm a Jeeper" clap: