My New 1958 Cj5, Brake And Tranny Questions

Great advice. I bought my 56 on a whim - too much time surfing the internet after shoulder surgery. Once I recovered enough to drive it (not something you can drive with one arm) I only took it out a couple of time before tearing up my shoulder again. During the four month recovery from that surgery, I started ordering parts to upgrade and rebuild virtually everything. Fast forward a year and a half and it is finally back on the road.

Now that I am able to put some miles on it, I would probably have done a few things different. In the end, it still drives and sounds like an old Jeep. Mine already had been upgraded to 11" brakes when I got it. Turned drums, new wheel cylinders and pads, it stops just fine. If I was starting out with the original 9" I probably would have gone with disc on the front.

Nice looking Jeep - looks like a great starting point.

 

Everything seems to be stock and in good functioning order. I am familiar with death wobble issues as I have a lifted Cherokee and they are famous for having wobble issues. Once I figure out which way to head with the brake upgrade, I plan to replace bearings seals etc. in the steering while I'm in there.

 

These are what came on it. I do like the way they look, but it may be more efficient to go with something a bit smaller. I have 31x10.5 on my Cherokee and they function very well. It would be nice to get a little more power to the ground. The brakes definitely have a little "pucker factor" when going down a steep hill.

 

Understood - I should have specified. However, intuitively I think a 31x10.5-15 is quite large for a F134 Jeep. Especially without power steering ... a smaller footprint would be a better compromise. I could be wrong ...

If you want to put it up for debate, I suggest you start a thread with that title. You could make a poll, but I kinda think the specific responses from owners of similar Jeeps will be more helpful.

 

On the T90 rebuild, I had the same problem with 2sd popping out of gear. I done an extensive rebuild, the springs for the syncro tabs, or dogs, in the parts kit were flat, kinda like a snap ring. They were so stout they locked the syncro up tight.
I replaced the wire type springs and all was fine.
I don't recall if I got the parts from Morris or Novak but just a heads up to watch for.

John,,,,,

 

Well I had to make some repairs to pass inspection here and boy some of these reproduction parts sure are hard to work with. I replaced the brake arm which wasn't too bad after spending an hour removing the paint from all the inner mating surfaces so it would fit on the post and then heating and bending to get it into place was fun! I also had to replace the steering bellcrank as according to the inspector would fix the play in the steering (which it did not). That took forever and resulted in a lot of dremel grinding to the castle nut, replacing some of the new parts with old parts as the sizes were way off and in the end did not make much of a difference. I hope to pass the re-test this week without having to further address the steering at least for now.

 

Does anyone have experience with the disc brake kit listed on ebay? Advertised as no grinding for install and I was curious if this outweighed the extra cost for the parts?

1941-1971 Willys Jeep CJ-2A,CJ-3A,CJ-3B,CJ-5 Drum-to-DISC BRAKE CONVERSION KIT | eBay