What Did You Do To Your Jeep Today?

It was a productive work session today on the jeep. I stripped a bunch of stuff off that I don't want. The rear swing away tire carrier came off. The rocker panel and rear corner armor came off and I was pleasantly surprised to find no dents and no rust underneath. There are a number of bolt and rivet holes though that I will have to weld closed when it comes time for paint prep. Last to come off was the soft top. I'm really liking the bare bones look of it now. I still have a long list of things to do but today I felt like I getting somewhere with the project!

 

Out of town over the weekend for step daughters 50th (shhh!). To keep this jeep oriented located a warn 8274 and pickedit up, awesome condition barely used and stored away for years complete with roller fairlead, bat cables controller andextra steel for mounts. Not satisfied with that, located 4 Wheel Parts in Sparks and ordered up a pair of ipf 920H h-4's and a gasket set for the warn. Haven't yet decided to buy or build a headlamp relay for the lights.

 

Got the accelerator pump linkage adjusted by bending (straightening out) the arm to initiate the plunger stronger. Got rid of the hesitation off the line when leaving from a stop.

 

ARG! All of this on a rolling chassis - tub is in back yard.

T98 / D-18 / Warn O/D

I installed / set the adjustable throwout bearing from Novak behind the 225 earlier. Found my stash of parts (90% of the time consumed).

Unbolted, managed the damn engine from flopping over (motorcycle strap across frame under oil pan, supported by antique 2ton floor jack I will be welding shut and tossing in the trash.

Dropped the transmission cross member. balanced the 250lbs or so of transmission / transfer / OD on my good floor jack, used another motorcycle strap as a secondary.

Lost my grip, lost the balance, and it rolled onto the floor with a thud (not a full splat). I was minding my body parts, that muther Fer is heavy.

had it almost back together then I let it over rotate and the throwout bearing came off with the fork... sugar honey ice tea.

Dinner time, then daughter to dojo for lesson. walk away for about 2 hours.

Come back and the motor is tilted to the damn floor, luckily my motor mounts are still intact. antique floor jack leaked down and let it all collapse (should have known better, doomas and put jack stands under stuff). dug out the cherry picker to hold motor up while working on the transmission.

Using a 2x4 block and a 4x4 block, I managed to lift the transmission high enough one end at a time that I could get another 2x4 cross-ways on one of the small harbor freight dollies. I balanced this dolly mess on my good floor jack (think 'transmission jack' frame with no adjustments, no secure lift pivot point, etc. - pure redneck 'hold my beer' scenario). then I lifted the transmission up, balancing gently, used a large screw driver to turn the output (the bolts for the rear drive shaft had nuts on them, so it worked perfect) to align the splines on the clutch and the transmission. then it's a game of tilt and shove... fought it a bit. ALL the while trying to keep my body parts out of the way of 250 pounds of steel, iron, dino fluid filled juice ballon incase it fell.

Sweating profusely, swearing mightily under my breath... 'light bulb.' I have same sized bolts for the bell housing to block that are 'longer'... find them, run 4 of them in, and now I have magical guides. So much easier. craptastic.

Oh, and I put the rear cross member up so the transmission wouldn't crash to the ground, sort of about 'almost' there (finger tight at first).

Then it was wiggle, jiggle, grunt and groan. First 1 bolt then another were started. then gently using a wrench to tighten these while wiggling (not to use mechanical power to reverse press stuff into the transmission case if it was fouled). then one at a time, remove the guide bolts and replace with my regulars... all the while fiddling the floor jack lever up and the cherry picker 'up' (as it was pulling up on the rear of the motor). a pump or partial pump at a time.

SHAZAM. it's back together.

DAMN I can only get the effing trans in reverse at this point. I used my breaker bar to roll the engine around a few times, stopping and jiggling, etc. Guess I'll have to pull the top cover off the trans. Going to see first though if may be the overdrive is in a weird state (like between in/out). this requires a plastic deadblow and my BAS - big-a-screwdriver... I have not finished the mount / lever for the OD yet.

Transfer goes into / out of HI / LOW and FRONT / REAR no problem (twin sticked it). Both transfer outputs turn as expected (in reverse) when turning the motor.

Going to try and light the fire on this thing before friday, even if it's a symbolic rev it up situation.

More to come... we shall see.

 

Yep, that's why we all love working on these things...such relaxing therapy!

 

make sure your shift forks are in the right position when you put on the top plate.

 

Yep, it was all working well prior to me dropping it gently last night. Assumption here is it was a whack that's got something in a wonked position.

 

I made me a little helper for that kind of work


the welded socket fits snug enough in the jack to prevent tipping, and the plate bolts to the crossmember with the 4 skid plate mount holes

 

My '68 cj5 project sits under a tarp on the driveway. I'm near Seattle and it's been raining and raining and raining. It temporarily stopped raining this afternoon and I was able to install a new clutch cylinder.

The original owner was handy with a torch. He made this bracket which precisely positions the cylinder in a location with no room to spare. The bolt holes in the bracket appear to have been "drilled" with the torch. Here's the original bracket and cylinder:



I mildly doctored up the bracket and installed a new cylinder. You can see where I wire-wheeled the rust of the old cylinder to find the stamped numbers. A google search quickly found a replacement.

 

Repaired my back up lights today. While underneath I decided to put a cable tie on the wiring harness where it was tied with a wire. When I took the wire off the harness fell off the frame rail. It was obviously not the first time to fall like that and you can see where the wire was resting on the exhaust.


I cut out the bad section and installed wire loom. Secured the repaired wiring back to the frame.

Filled the holes in my tail gate with some footman loops I received in a parts bag that came with my M100. They have no function but it was free and will keep the cab warmer.

 

Pulled the top off of my transmission. Shift rods were jammed when i dropped it. Fixed it.

Rolled the jeep frame and engine out of the garage. Shines in the setting sun.

Trying to fugure out a way to remount the rear gas tank so it is better.







Of course, no holes line up on the rear of the frame either on the tank or on the skid pan

 

memory serves me poorly, but I recall thinking I'd have to fab a proper mount when I pulled it. Going to see if there's a proper piece of angle iron lying around tomorrow, drill holes, weld some nuts on it, then clamp it on and try the fitment.

I see a minor crack on the 'vent' return tube at the joint on the tank (1" tube next to filler). I think this is an opportune moment to use some JB weld for now.

sending unit on the tank appears that the wire to the gauge is 'loose' in the unit and likely not in working order. A new sending unit might be in order. Will pull the locking ring and the unit to see if it looks copacetic or not. Now seems the time when the tank is empty and out of the jeep to make sure the sending unit is good.

 

Amen!!

 

I spent the day working on making mounts for my 'intermediate rear gas tank' in the '69. The po did a good job of cutting out the triangle brace, I wasn't keen on the config for the tank.

After deciding I'd use the cross member over the rear axle as the mount ... crap. I have to double check full squat on the rear now...

Anywhooo...
I figured out what I needed: I needed a piece of 1 1/4" angle that was 3 inches long (1/8" variety). Then I mated it to a piece of 3" flat stock (1/8"). Then after welding, grinding and welding some more, I had a 'yup' moment. As in, Yup, another piece of angle and I have what I need.

Better part of a couple hours dinking around, grinding off old rusty angle iron, rooting through what little flat stock I had... and


viola...

I just recreated a piece of channel that's 3" across the back and has legs of 1 1/4". I thought when I started... if I only had a piece of channel...

upside: I figured out how to weld again. I burnt tender spot on my thumb thru the hole in my glove and on my index finger too whilst playing hot potato with steel I either pulled out of the chop saw, or finished welding a bead on (and then grinding the bead down to make it pretty).

Upside, after grinding down smooth, I didn't have any voids. Occasionally, I got off track a little of my seam (and zip, zap, grind it was fixed).

yep. That's progress. Not sure tho, if channel can be had in 3" with 1 1/4" legs in 1/8" material, and better yet, I didn't have to buy a stick of it, I only needed two 3" wide pieces...

I'll call that 'practice' - I don't weld enough to not have every moment be practice. In fact, I think practice is continually making yourself better at stuff... whoa... I gotta have dinner and a 'beverage'...

 

I took a bunch of pictures today after stripping away stuff off the Jeep that I didn't want. Soon some body work will start as I weld up holes, the leaf springs need to be changed out and the fuel system needs to be changed from propane back to gasoline.

 

Wow Karl that's a stout little jeep you got there! I wish I could hit like button more than once!