Cleanup for a worn out 73cj5

Pulled it off my old 74 cj5 jeep.

 

I finally finished hooking up my marker lights, turn signals and brake lights last night which means my jeep is street legal for the first time in about 20 years!

Took her out for a spin last night and DANG! The spedo isnt working....... It wont read anything past 10mph. Im sure I connected the spedo cable up correctly, I guess I need to go back in and unhook it and try again?

 

So I have not had much time this past week to work on the jeep, several exams comming up so its study time. However I took a break and toyed around with her today. I was in the cab and my arm brushed the horn button and I hear a loud click!

It was very strange so I pressed it again and the button keeps clicking. I suddenly realized that somehow, someway, at some point without me realizing it I had installed the wiring for the horn button on the steering column when I replaced my wiring. Heck I didnt even know the button was still there.

So after several min of screwing around I found the horn from my 74 cj5 in a parts box and started tracing wiring and found the powered wire to the horn. I got the wiring hooked up, made a new ground wire (the one with the harness was cut as the previous owner did not have a horn) and hooked it all up. I pressed the button and suddenly the horn came to life! It scared the hell out of me though as I was not expecting it to work and it was sitting right next to me.

It was a very exciting moment for me, sort of along the same lines as making my windshield wipers work for the first time in 15 years lol

 

Well after discovering grey goop in my valve cover and comming to the conclusion that my head gasket or something along those lines is leaking I have decided to rebuild the engine.

However that wont happen until may. In the next week I will be dissasembling the top of the engine and installing a new gasket set. This will allow me to inspect the pistons and a few other things to see what damage has occured over these past 38 years.

Before I do that however I am currently finishing up the wiring (putting it in a nice orderly fashion behind the dash) and have taken apart my Meyers hard top to install my Bestop soft top in preperation for summer.

Also my new M100 trailer will be getting a good going over around March 14th. She is gonna be sand blasted, a new rear panel installed and a nice Olive Drab paint job put on. It will be painted as a USMC marked trailer.

 

Wow

 

Well I finally got around to taking and posting some pics

Here are the pics under the valve cover, almost no grey goop however alot of engine sludge and I know for a fact my manifold gaskets are bad so Im going ahead and replacing all the gaskets.







Here are some pics of the interior, anyone recognize the dash its from my wrecked 74cj5. Also I nabbed the Sparten turn signal and it works like a charm. The new seats are nice too.

 

Pulled the exhaust and intake manifolds off tonight, tomorrow the head will come off and I will put the new gaskets on the jeep.

Kinda bumed as it was a nice day out here today.....mid to high 40s and thought to myself...hey I wanna take my jeep out for a drive, however that wasnt gonna happen lol

 

That is a nice looking hardtopR)R) I like how you repaired the 2 holes in the top , I was just going to weld a plug over them. Your jeep is coming along great and I am still going to try and get to Rockford for the reinactment. John

 

Getting ready to trailer the jeep to my buddys shop back in my home town. Leaving at 10am tomorrow. I need his tools to take the head off, also plan to put a new tub on this week providing my funds will support the purchasing of it.

Anyway pics of the tear down will come by the end of the week. I hope everything works out lol

 

Here is what I completed over the winter.
new battery tray
Painless wiring harness
All new dash
All new instruments in dash
Original backup lights
new left and right fenders
Round brake lights
New valve cover gasket
new pcv valve
new carb
Swing away rear tire carrier
tail gate
Bestop softop
starter
coil
battery cables
starter solinoid
sparkplug wires
Front seats
Sparten turn signal
wheels/tires

This summer I plan on tackling the cosmetics as well as putting a whole new suspension system on it as well.

So here it is, the fruits of my winter labor

 

Good looking ride!

 

Thanks

I did some more work on her today. Simple things like painting the mounting brackets for the tire carrier a matching yellow, stuff like that.

So a replacement suspension is scheduled to be put on in the next couple weeks. However I know nothing about the available kits or which company to go with.

Can anyone suggest a manufacture and kit? Im looking to install a stock replacement suspension consisting of new front and rear leaf springs, shocks, shackles, and mounting hardware.