The last couple rounds of work on the van have been spent trying to exterminate the bugs, more bugs than I expected to have to deal with. Shortly after I put some fluids in, it was obvious that I had leaks. I was hoping they would go away after a bit of run time, but such was not the case. Even before I ran the engine for the first time, the left side axle shaft seal on the trans was dripping and so was the shaft seal on the power steering pump. After the first test drive it became obvious that the trans shift solenoid pack was leaking pretty bad too. The test drive also revealed a very bad banging noise coming from the left front suspension and a milder banging from the right. To add to my worries, there was a very noticeable chatter every time the trans shifted into third gear.
Of course the side that's leaking is much harder to do. The real kicker is that I put new seals in the trans before installing it.
I had determined that the banging noise was coming from the strut mount area, so I pulled the strut out instead of separating the lower ball joint to remove the axle shaft. Turns out that the shaft nut on the strut wasn't tight enough. This time I cranked on it to point that my home made strut tool bent. To tighten the right side, I decided to pull the wiper tray back off to access the strut while it was still in the van, which turned out not to be the best plan.
I switched from a National Seal to an SKF/CR seal. It's not obvious in the photo, but the CR is is definitely better quality than the National. Close inspection of the old seal showed no noticeable flaws.
Earlier in this project I had contemplated replacing the solenoid pack on the transmission but decided against doing so because I was already spending way too much money on it. That turned out to be a mistake. The only good part is that the price keeps dropping on these things. They used to be around two bills, but now you can get a genuine, made in the USA, Borg Warner on ebay for $65 delivered.
The biggest kick in the nuts on this thing was the leaking power steering pump. I can't tell you how many of them that I've re-sealed over the last couple decades and never had a leak. Of course the toughest one to get to has to be the one that leaks. To add insult to injury, the right axle shaft had to come out to get the pump freed from the engine compartment, hence the wasted time removing the wiper tray, as I could have pulled the strut on this side too. Since the strut was now good, I separated the ball joint instead. Also replaced the axle seal on this side just to be safe.
I usually avoid reman parts like the plague, but I spotted an old stock reman pump on ebay for sale by a surplus dealer that had photos of the actual pump I would receive. I could tell that they had installed a brand new shaft during the rebuild process, and decided to take a chance on it. My original pump was probably leaking because of the groove on the shaft that the seal made over time. The reman was a bare pump without a reservoir or pulley. Thought that would be good since the time I spent restoring my reservoir wouldn't go to waste.
It didn't take long before more trouble arrived on the scene. Even though it was just off a few months ago, the pulley is now seized onto the pump shaft and the nub snapped off while trying to remove it. A fairly common problem, but not one that I was expecting.
Called my buddy at the Chrysler dealer, but he didn't have one, though he found one at another dealer near me. One hour of driving and another $25 added to the tab, and we're back in business. Unfortunately, that's not the end of the problems.
Everything's back together and I fire up the van, and....Dammit! Now I've got a horrible case of the dreaded Chrysler minivan belt chirp! Not just at idle, but the faster the engine goes the worse it gets. I know what would probably fix it: pull the pump back out and move the pulley about 1/16 of an inch. Though there's no guarantee of hitting the right spot on the first try. An absolute nightmare. So I decided to hit the internet to see if they've invented some magic belt dressing in the last decade that will make the problem go away. Came across a YouTube video by ChrisFix all about belt chirp and he says that Dayco belts are the absolute worst for this issue, which is the brand belt that I had on the van. They don't tolerate any pulley misalignment at all, and he recommended switching to the Goodyear Gatorback belt, now made by Continental. Rock Auto's belt listings were dubious, so I hit ebay and again bought from a surplus dealer where they had a picture of the actual belt that I would receive. Installed the belt and it's as quiet as can be again. Kudos to ChrisFix!
Time for a road test. We should be 100% now! Nope. Head out onto the road, on comes the check engine light and the transmission won't shift at all. Stuck in 2nd gear in limp mode. Check for codes and I've got two trans codes for items inside the solenoid pack. First thought of course is that I got a defective solenoid pack. Before condemning it, I decided to run a Quick Learn procedure on the trans. I wasn't sure if my brick scanner could do it, but luckily it can. The Quick Learn really is quick. The entire process takes less than a minute. Cleared the codes, ran the Quick Learn, and headed out for another test drive. Check engine light off, trans shifting again, 3rd gear chatter and front suspension banging now gone. Yay!!! Now, if I had read the service manual before doing any repairs I would have seen that it says to run the Quick Learn any time you replace certain parts, including the solenoid pack.
I've gone out on a few more test drives and everything seems to be good. All the leaks appear to be resolved, at least for now. I need a warm day to see how the A/C is working and finish charging it if seems ok. Plus I have a little paint work to do on the left quarter. I had planned to get it registered and inspected this week but all the tag places are closed because of Covid 19, so it looks like it'll be at least another two weeks before we're officially back on the road again as I have a west coast run next week and will be gone for a while.
Jeff
