Me again, I thawed my engine and got her running again, temps are all good and everything seems fine. It ran for about an hour to an hour and a half, no problems and then I took it around our block (about a mile) two or three times. It killed about half way around the block (thankfully up the hill) and I coasted it home. When I try and turn it over it just grinds like the starter's not grabbing...???

 

Smack it with a BFH

 

Is the battery OK?

 

it's a new battery I bought today.

 

I have over a foot of snow that I don't get to enjoy in my jeep this weekend. HOWEVER I do get to enjoy crawling under it this afternoon to pull the inspection plate and check my flywheel out. yay!

 

Yea let us know what the teeth on the flywheel look like.

 

something worth noting is the fact that I piled through a four foot snow / ice pile that the snow plow left behind near the ORV park...I also put a tire in the ditch but was able to back out (on solid ice...I LOVE 4WD). No serious impacts or anything, but do you guys think the cold could have weakened my flex plate? I'm waiting for it to warm up to about 30 degrees around here before I head out and crawl under her. Update in about an hour.

 

I wish I could help you, but I have to say you are like the 2nd person I have heard about in the last week or so who plowed through a snow pile and now has their Jeep in the driveway in need of work.

I've seen guys hit lower mounds of snow only to have it rip stuff off their jeep.

The guy I bought my 95 XJ from left the exhaust system behind in a pile of snow.

I'm guess that plowing through pile of snow is an activity to avoid.

Hopefully your trouble is easily repairable.

 

I've been under it (SO COLD) and it doesn't look like I've lost anything. Still trying to break those inspection plate bolts (without freezing).

 

so...i've been under that jeep too long, all of my joints are totally frozen...question, the 18mm bolt on the right side of the inspection plate seems HUGE. Why such a big bolt? Try as I might I'm having an impossible time busting it loose.

 

OK, maybe I'm not smart enough to own a jeep. While struggling to see my flexplate through the partially attached inspection plate, I noticed there was a finger tight bolt on the starter...tightened it back up and had a bear of a time getting it to start but it did. so now I'm guessing the loose starter caused the teeth to strip? I checked my flexplate as well as I could and it seems to be in good shape. So I'll pull the starter and check it out.

 

QUESTION: Is there anything I can do with the vehicle running to rule out the flexplate?!?

 

you can pull the starter.. it might have a dead spot.. I had that happen once... the teeth were missing on the starter... Did the starter look old? After you got it running was it making any werid noises?

 

I sent you a pm..

 

I replaced the starter, the nose cone was completely missing. I tried to fish everything I can from under the flexplate (there's about 1/4 inch of space to fish stuff between the bell-housing and the plate) but there's still a sound when I run it...just an occasional ping...i.e. the nose cone pieces bouncing around waiting to screw something up. The bolt that was loose was not the starter bolt, it was one of the main bolts that mounts the tranny to the engine. Why it was loose I can't imagine.