The beginning of my '53 CJ3B build/resto

Anyone have any suggestions for removing a rusted on steering wheel? I've been PB Blasting it for better than a week now and have a gear puller on the end with three quarters stacked in the center of the tube... no go, the quarters develop a perfect hole in the center from the center shaft of the puller or stacked three at a time, a 1/4" bend through their centers.
Otherwise, very little gotten done today. I pulled off the starter and water pump. 'Bout all I can do until I get the body off and the engine out.

Oh yeah, anyone have any suggestions on the next tool purchase I need to make, an angle grinder? 4 and 1/2" or a 7"? Minimum amperage? Gotta grind down the rust and paint from body and frame. TIA

 

Have you tried Coke yet?

 

Huh? Coke?

 

Coke eats rust like anything
I unsezied my F-Head with it

 

Pretty cool how well mechanical advantage can work. I easily put a hole in the first quarter and then tried stacking two more and dented them outwards a good quarter inch. Maybe dented isn't the proper word... more like raised a lump in their centers. Maybe I'll still try passing them in change.



A friend of mine passed along to me a great link with a few ideas from the CJ3B.com page... http://130.15.62.164/CJ3B/Tech/SteeringWheel.html I'm surprised that I didn't think to find it before myself. I'm always crawling that site. I'm going to try a couple things there including a different bearing puller. At least I do have a nice gear puller now. I've put a few regrettable chips in the wheel now and maybe made a few cracks worse, but they were there before. Lets see what I can come up with tomorrow!

 

i hope that you have better luck then i did, i tried everything and couldnt get my wheel off so u cut it off, which always works.

 

if your still working on the steering wheel. try putting the puller on and tapping the back of the wheel with a hammer. also the coca cola idea works pretty good.

 

Sweet looking rig! I love 3b's. I have a 3a on the way, but wish it was a 3b. I couldn't beat the acquisition price for the 3a however. I'll be watching your build. (soon to be my) 3a is in worse shape than your 3b.

 

Coke.. or Pepsi, that is the ???

 

If you want to get technical about it I used
Brody's home style classic cola

I think its all the same stuff anyway

 

Yeah, I'm still working on the wheel. Been busy this past week and so I haven't done too much. Also, pretty frustrating... I've tried tapping on the back of the wheel with a section of 2X4 and a hammer while the puller is on and nothing. I've even scribed a line in the column to see if I'm making even minute changes... nothing. I'm ready to try the coke idea, but how am I going to apply it? Plus, I have Diet Coke at home. Any idea if there's a diff? Sugar vs. saccharine? I can't believe that I'm even asking the question of whether diet vs. regular is better for my jeep.

 

As for the steering wheel problem, can you take the whole column out and then press the wheel off? Sometimes your mechanical advantage has to come from something hydraulic!

 

I've hit a bit of a wall until I can financially afford a bit to work with. The wheel is still on. I'm patiently spraying the PB Blaster, but it's a no-go. I'll probably cut it off and get a new wheel or search Ebay for one. the only other thing that I was thinking about was trying the wheel bearing puller idea on the 3B link, but if it doesn't work, then I'm for more cash and still need a new wheel. I need to save up for a cherry picker and engine stand yet before I can get much farther. I just bought a cheapie HF grinder and realised that I don't know what I should be using for a disc. I tried a few test grinds with a 120 grit flap wheel and found out that if I wasn't careful that I could get uneven grinds pretty easily on a flat section of body panel, but on a section of the frame, it seemed to be fine. Should I be using a wire wheel to remove rust and old paint?
Plus, any thoughts on another topic that I started thinking about- 6 vs. 12 volt? The replacement f head has a 12v alternator already, but then I'd have to replace all the gauges (which I'd like to keep...) but don't know if that's really important or not.

 

I originally thought of this too, but someone reminded me that I'd just drop bearings all over the garage floor. Plus, the internal splines on the steering wheel are probably shot too, so I will just start over with a new one. I figure that the cost of a new one won't be much more than time and money spent on more pullers, etc... Plus, I don't want to ruin the splines on the internal shaft.

 

So, lots more to report on. I've been so busy with life that I haven't had too much of a chance to write about the stuff that has gotten done. Long story short, I met another local jeeper who had an old military steering wheel remover kit. It was basically a large c-shaped device, sort of like a c-clamp about a foot in length. At the bottom, the end was flared into two fingers that fit exactly underneath the wheel and clasped the column. At the top was a screw fitting that tightened down against a couple of different sizers that came with the kit. It was like a solid socket that had pins of differing sizes that fit into the hollow end of the tube with the bolt removed. Craig had also welded another socket onto the top of an old steering wheel bolt with another spacer in there if you had a horn button still attached, so that it wouldn't get mashed. After weeks of wrestling with this wheel, it cam off with a pop in two or three twists of the wrench. Now, I'm thinking of restoring the wheel. I found this kit through Eastwood. Anyone have any opinions on it or other options?
I also have a few neat stories about another jeeper that I met, though who I met Craig, accidentally. Hopefully, I'll get the time to write that later on today.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/...?itemID=2569&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=2569

 

Any luck with the floor pan on the B? Is there a difference between the 3A and 3B?? Anyone?
I bought my dad a 53 CJ3B for his B-day that needs a floor bad, cant find a listing for a replacement anywhere.

I have a 52 CJ3A I am going to start on this year sometime. Good thing they make every body panel under the sun for that thing.

 

Thanks for the advice on the anti-seize. yeah, that wheel is going to be greased up good and plenty. I have heard of a few sources for floorpans for a 3B, but the best is supposedly Jeep Panels Plus.
I guess that the website isn't up and running anymore, but here is a phone number. The listings are for military only, but thats because of the website its listed on. I'm pretty sure that he builds all makes and models. HTH
http://www.g503.com/dealer/jp-m.htm

 

Well, I finally have the body off the frame. I hemmed and hawed climbing way up into the 20' high rafters to attach a chain and a comealong, but got around to it. I probably could have used a couple of extra ratchet straps too, but I made do with what I had on hand and inched it up a bit at a time over the steering column while pushing the frame forward. Unfortunately I sorta painted myself in a corner because I couldn't push it farther than the end of the wall. But I managed to get the body down on the floor and on some 2X4s so I could push it out of the way. Now I have about 50 pounds of old mud, grease, oil and acorns to hose from the frame.