Old Red Maintenance Thread

My caster (measured on the kingpin cap) was essentially zero before the shims. Consensus on this forum seems to be a target of 5-6 degrees. In your case, 4 degree shims are probably the way to go.

 

Thank you for the response and all the posts.

 

Mcgruff on the forum makes nice ones.

 

A couple of random things.

The jeep currently has a return styl fuel pump on it, but it is a non-return tank. The return port is simply capped on the pump. I ordered a non-return pump so I could get rid of the cap, didn't have time to swap it out and threw it in the spares kit for the Colorado trip. When the pump on the Jeep failed, I was proud of myseld to have a spare, but when we went to swap it on, the fittings are completely different. The non-return pump had 1/8" pipe thread fittings. The return style has 1/4" flair fittings. I did not have enough fittings to make my spare pump work, but luckily FinoCJ had a spare pump and we were up and running.

I *finally* got around to getting the needed fittings for the non-return pump to make it a viable spare and threw it back in the spares kit:



I was looking at the frame on the Jeep tonight and noticed both from frame rail are cracked in front of the front spring hanger. Both end short of the bumper, so I'm going to stop drill them, V-notch them from the top and weld them up when I get a chance. I'll probably weld up the lovely torched holes in the frame rail while I'm at it.

Left:


Right:


It will be a while 'til I get to it though. Have to weld up the moweer deck and finish the last room in the house first.

 

Since there's snow on the ground, it was time to ditch the bikini top and put the hardtop back on. I decided to take a couple minor top-related projects while I was at it.

First, I scraped off the faded-to-mono-color "Lefties Have Rights Too!" bumper sticker and no-longer- reflecting stick-on reflectors:


Then I replaced all the door handles. The rear one had busted off, the driver's door had a key lock but no key, and the passenger one had no lock. I found a key matched set of garage door locks, but the screw spacing was different. Before I attempted to slot the holes, I figured out I could do a little grinding and modify the old bases and new handles to work with each other.

New handle on the old base for the rear hatch. You can see where I had marked to slot the holes:


After 3 1/2 years of owning this Jeep, I finally have a working rear latch!


For the top itself, I disassemble it to uninstall, store and install it. My wife helped me put the top part up on the windshield/rollball and I did the rest myself.

Windshield fillers installed. You have to take them off for the bikini top to fit right:


Roof lifted into place:


One side panel in and the other side propped up so it's panel can be inserted:


Both side panels bolted in:


I was partially dreading putting the top on because its SOOOO loud on bumpy roads (like all the roads around here). I knew lot of the noise was coming from the hatch supports. They had all kinds of slop in them and rattled like crazy.

I squeezed the rails in the vice until there wasn't any slop. This made a HUGE difference. Now you can go for a drive in the Jeep with the top on and have a normal conversation. I should have done this years ago!


hatch installed:


Swapping out the door latch handle:


New handles with matching locks everywhere:


Done:

 

Hey, the top and jeep look good.
I've never driven any of my jeeps with a hard top attached. I actually have a hard top for the 3B and the cj6. Maybe I'll someday try restoring one of them.

 

Really minor update. I posted a picture of my battery on this thread What Goes Here?, and a few folks rightly noted the metal bar battery hold down was a bit close to the terminals. That's a pretty high amp fuse that could let all the smoke out of the battery.

To remedy that I ordered a "original style" 12V hold-down from Walck's. I also ordered a battery spacer. The AGM battery I have in it only comes in a Group 34 size that is 1" shorter than the original group 24 size. There weren't enough threads on the hold-down bolts, so I used hacky spacers. If I'm pulling things apart, I should fix that too.

Before:


Hmm. Turns out the new battery hold-down also wants to be a busbar. This is closer to the posts than my old homemade hold-down:


Yeah, it's rubber coated, but we all know how long that lasts before falling off. A little hacksaw work on the positive side made me feel better:


Done. Less likely to short and an no ugly spacers on the bolts. Had to find a large diameter heavy washer for then engine-side bolt:


I'm still not super impressed with the hold-down. I might find some fiberglass reinforced plastic or oak to make a non-conductive one.

 

I used a camouflage ratchet strap. Better than a bungee cord.

 

If it's camouflage, how can you tell if it's still there?

 

Metal strap screwed to firewall bent the other end to use a bolt into the stock bolt hole.

 

Finally got around to fixing the cracks in the frame.

Right side crack:


Left side crack:


I didn't want to remove the rivets, so access was tight. Inspired by Project Binky, I bought a $37 1/2x18 belt sander off Amazon. The finger sized tip worked great:


Grinding a V-groove into the right side crack:


Welding it up:


Still had some low spots:


Hit it again with the welder:


After grinding/sanding, looks good enough:


But.... I didn't grind the V deep enough, so the bottom of the crack was still showing below. I booger welded it while dodging falling molten metal. After some grinding the crack is gone and it doesn't look any worse than the factory welds:

 

Let's try to do better on the left side crack.

A deeper V-notch this time:


A much better job filling the notch with weld this time. (I added a little bit more on the very end after the picture):


Only the tiniest mark showing after sanding. Good enough for me:


Fantastic penetration through the bottom this time. No extra welding needed:


A spot spray with some Rustoleum semi-gloss black after wire brushing and degreasing. Once it sees some dirt and weather, it should blend right in with the rest of the frame:




Some day I'll weld up those torched holes in the frame rails, but that's lower priority than getting the cracks stopped.

 

I didn't know you had a thread for your '69, Fireball. I've always liked this Jeep.

I'm the same way about needing to drive a project occasionally to keep me interested, and I'm doing a similar "maintenance update" build on my '73. Currently the goal is to get it plated in the spring, all it's currently lacking is brake/tail lights and turn signals.

 

Great job on the Jeep, I looks great.

Jack

 

That seems like a nice doable goal. It sure is fun to get these old things back on the road again. I know they're just lumps of metal but I think they appreciate it.

 

Bringing this tread back from the dead.

I'm getting ready to disable the '71 for a while to install the T18. Before I do that, I need to catch up with some of the maintenance on the '69 so I have at least one running Jeep.

First is the rear U-joints. They weren't real bad, but you could feel some slop when wiggling them.

Eww, dirty:


Using the old vise and socket method to remove the old joints:


After an hour of scrubbing and degreasing, the driveshaft was ready for paint:

It all seems to be original. All the forgings say Spicer and even the U-joint caps have the spicer logo. I've got some older NOS Moog U-joints to replace them.

This should be all back together tomorrow.

After that:

• Need to find out where the slop in the right wheel is. Feels like it's a kingpin bearing. I have new bearings for it if needed.
• I have one bolt that doesn't want to torque on the left spindle. If I'm replacing king pin bearings, I have the studs to replace the spindle bolts while it's apart.
• I also have new front U-joints I might as well replace while it's apart.
• Need to get some knuckle pudding. Since it's got sealed U-joints, I'll probably just use cornhead grease.
• The pitman arm needs to be replace as the ball is more of a lozenge.
• The steering gear itself has tight spots just off center indicating flat spots on the pins. I have everything to rebuild it, but I might try a Tight-Steer and kick that can down the road a bit.
• There is a bit of wonky wiring to clean up on this Jeep too.

 

I have some kingpin bearings and seals for a D25 if you need spares. I don't need them.

 

It probably wouldn't hurt to have some spares. Sending a PM.

 

new U-joints installed, driveshaft back in:


Grabbed the test pilot for a late night test drive. Everything seems good:

 

After careful investigation, the looseness on the right front wheel was just the wheel bearing. You can only feel it when the tire is on. There wasn't enough leverage to feel it by wiggling the brake drum. The king pins and tie rods all seem really tight with no slop at all. I adjusted the wheel bearing with the tire on this time. It took another quarter turn of the nut to get rid of the slop but have no drag.

Pulling things apart:


I got it back together after dark, loaded up Emmett, avoided all the suicidal deer on five miles of gravel roads to get to pavement, and then tested it at 45-50mph where it would get the steering wheel shimmy (but not quite death wobble). Huzah! No shimmy. That was an easy fix and I can kick the can of rebuilding the knuckles down the road for a later project. I didn't really want to do that anyway.

Next will be working on the wiring and thinking about pulling the steering gear/column out to freshen that up. While the windshield is down, I should install the new gasket I bought. I also have a plan for a class one receiver hitch so I can actually hook our Bantam trailer to one of the Jeeps.