The Square Deal

I ended up remodeling my 46 year old spring plates a couple days back so I could use 1/2" U-bolts. I had to mill the shock mounts shafts and counter bore the nut seats along with milling the holes a 1/16" farther out. My original plan for this was a U-bolt flip on the new floater axle but that project is dragging to the point I decided to see if I can nurse my old 19 spline floater through the summer. I want this thing back on the road.

 

Trials and tribulations. I finally finished the rear Holbrook installation yesterday only to see the axle needed to go forward a bit to center the wheels in the openings.


The front comes off the floor about 17" before the opposite side starts to lift.




Today I modified Holbrook's pinion wedges and my shock plates and moved the axle 3/4" forward. No photos yet but that worked out well and keeps the tires off the tub at full stuff. It also put the slip joint right in the middle of its travel with normal loading so I don't have to modify the rear driveshaft.

 

Take 2.0. This is with the axle 3/4" forward.


Now I need to come up with some 7" bumpstops.

 

The final rendition of the rear bumpstops:


And while the fuel tank was out, a photo opt for the air reservoir.

 

Finished the remodel of the fuel tank skid plate yesterday. I had done a Fiat job on it before thinking that maybe 1/8" 5052 would be sufficient-only to dent the bottom of the tank right through the skid plate. If that happens again, I will no doubt have more problems than just another dent in the tank.

 

Hopefully, the final grill install, at least until I decide to paint it someplace down the road. The parking/turn bulbs are Super Bright LED's 1157 replacements. The Warn 81400 contactor is right behind the right side of the grill which kept the cables short. The spade terminals on 81400 are: 1) to 12V+ for winch in, 2) to ground, 3) to 12+ for winch out. I'm running the 12V+ through the accessory side of the ignition switch so the winch will only work with the key installed.




I ended up spacing the signal lights out 3/16" to give me a little more room for the right side pig tail which is very close to the lower portion of the radiator tank. I think the aluminum was 6061 T6 but it was just a scrap I had.

 

To badge or not to badge---

I put it off for 47 years but I'm POed enough with "Jeep" brand, I finally did it.



Now if I can come up with a "Hemis suck" bumper sticker----

 

We are not talking Willys Overland/Willys Motors/Kaiser Jeep Corp or even AMC here. Rather anything fiat had a hand in. Stellantitis: noun, inflamation of a posterior orfice from excessive repairs.

 

Details. I machined an aluminum horn button with a recessed center for the Willys wagon hood medallion.




The aluminum offset grab handle (1656A652) from McMaster-Carr appears to have been made just for this application.

 

More details. There wasn't any real estate left on the front bumper where I would want to mount the front plate and I didn't want to deal with one that clipped on the fairlead. I opted for mounting it under the middle of the bumper with a spring loaded swinging mount that can be locked in the up position.


The "up" position latch.


Plate mount in the locked up position.




Finished product. OK, should have used my thumb---


Locked up, it is essentially invisible. It shouldn't impede cooling in either position.

 

More details
I had about 0.005" slop in the transfercase shifters so I drilled/reamed the shifters for 5/8" OD bronze bushings and made a new shaft from hardened 4140 rod. The hardest part was just figuring out how to hold those weird shaped shifters on the table. I ended up clamping them to a piece of 3/4" plate with the long jaw Vise Grips and then clamped that to the table.






There is only about 0.001" clearance now. Nice and snug even without the spring clips and the bushings will be easy to replace down the road.

On other fronts:
"battery management", under the bed floor behind the driver's seat.

 

I finished up the winch wiring. I ended up using a modified KFI remote. I don't know about others, but I find the Warn pistol grip controller lacks something in ergonomics and is pretty awkward to use for the winch out position. KFI nailed it with simple. The switch is fully potted/water proof. The cable is 4 conductor, 16 gauge from Amazon wired "winch out", "winch in", 12+, and ground. The ground is for the LED I installed so one knows if the remote is powered rather than the "cab" controls. A SPDT maintained switch in the dash selects either the cab or remote. The quick connect is Amphenol 6 conductor twist lock. I ended up using a 1 5/16-18 thread back shell from a scrap T Rex controller. That may need revisited down the road. Someplace buried in the shop are some Mil surplus Amphenol connectors with the normal clamp for the cable.








Now, if Custom Splice actually sends me the 3/8's Amsteel winch rope I ordered 4 months back and which they immediately charged to my credit card. I told them to cancel the order last week and a couple days later get an email that it shipped. I'll believe that when I see it. I'm certainly not going to purchase anything else from them.

 

Trying to get any sort of synthetic wire rope from Amsteel is near impossible at the moment due to COVID related workforce shortages. But that was bad customer service on custom splice part not informing you of this..

 

The day's hiatus project, or an escape from the chainsaw. The transmission/transfercase are back in the 3B. My companion flange had a speedy sleeve installed on it 10 years back when I was running the normal National 462735/SKF 15450 seal. For this installation I wanted to go back to the stacked SKF 15655 seals. The position of those seal lips were right at both edges of the installed speedy sleeve. I used a heat gun and a piece of aluminum bar stock to remove the sleeve, chucked a D18 front output shaft in the lathe for a mandrel, and then used wet/dry 600 grit and crocus cloth on the companion flange. Not perfect but pretty close. In no way did I want an Omix or Crown part on there, plus I think that companion flange is one of the few original parts left on the B.

 

While I was looking to see if I had any better companion flanges hanging on the shop wall, I did find something useful.

 

I finally got the clutch slave cylinder buttoned up yesterday but I still need to draft someone to help bleed the system. The 7/8" ID cylinder is 83-86 AMC/Jeep application.


I ran both axle vent lines and the transfercase vent line today-all hooked up on the bottom ends. The rear axle and D18 lines terminate under the cowl on the firewall, the front axle just below the radiator cap. All are terminated about 50" off the ground. I machined out the filter/cap assembly for the front axle line today and will make something similar for the other two tomorrow.

The B officially went back on the insurance policy today so I best get my butt in gear and get it fired up. Getting close.

 

Whittled out the upstream ends of my axle/transfercase breather lines today.

 

The attention to detail , with a majority of homemade parts , is Amazing.