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Scott's '66 Continuous Modifications.

Discussion in 'Builds and Fabricators Forum' started by Buildflycrash, Feb 28, 2018.

  1. Oct 9, 2021
    Buildflycrash

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    Gulf Breeze FL...
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    this week along with the shock mounts I also made the brake lines neater. They were going straight down from the MC and were in the way of the PS Pump and changing the plugs. Now back to the firewall and down. Much better.

    [​IMG]

    Deleted the big proportioning valve and put in a single to the rear.

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    Fireball and givemethewillys like this.
  2. Oct 9, 2021
    Buildflycrash

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    Gulf Breeze FL...
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    Saturday morning time to clean the bench.

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    I sanded filler and put a final coat of primer on the passenger side tube fender.

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    More on tube fenders next post.
     
    FinoCJ, 73 cj5, Rich M. and 1 other person like this.
  3. Oct 9, 2021
    Buildflycrash

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    Tube Fenders.
    Chop chop.

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    Don’t do this.
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    You can do this.
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    and this.
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    some of this.
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    I made an inner support for the front bolts. The top bolt was going to be blocked by the tube so I welded it in.
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    Cut a hole in the inner fender. The angle of the fender changes here so I just stuck the tube thru the hole by a couple inches and left it alone.

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    I made the skin wrap halfway down the tube and welded it together.

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    Very amateurish body work.

    [​IMG]

    Calling it done.
     
    FinoCJ, homersdog, 73 cj5 and 2 others like this.
  4. Oct 9, 2021
    Buildflycrash

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    Almost done that is. I sealed the inner fender against the tube. Mud and moisture would definitely get trapped in there.

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Oct 9, 2021
    Buildflycrash

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    My wife is away this week so I did have some extra time in the garage. After the workbench cleanup I putsed around a while in the house and got into the camper to find wet carpets and moldy walls. Seems the camper leaks lots more when the slides are in. We did have a lot of rain in the past month and this was the first time I got in there.

    Jeep work.
    I started looking for the looseness in my steering and found the gear is loose on the mount.

    I bought a new rear crossmember off FB Marketplace last week so started looking at that too. I’m going to ditch the current swing down tire carrier for a swing out. I do like to use the tailgate for camping mostly so this will help.

    Here’s where it starts. Cut off old bumper.
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    Build new bumper bank.

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    It may be a few weeks until I get back to the bumper so I gave it a coat of primer.


    Here’s a good one. I welded the end to small to remove the ground clamp!
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    I had to split it and use a couple chisels to get the clamp off.
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Oct 20, 2021
    Buildflycrash

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    I did get that new rear bumper all welded up, grinded and primed.

    [​IMG]

    Lots of planning, work and welding left to replace the rear crossmember, attach the new bumper and build a swing out tire carrier.

    Haven't gotten anything done in the past couple weeks until last night when I removed the radiator, grill and PS pump. I am going to pull the PS gear next and figure out why the bolts have loosened and make sure that doesn't happen again.

    [​IMG]
     
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  7. Apr 4, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    Spring is here! The CJ is back on the road and it’s time to update the build thread. Like the past couple updates most of this stuff is in the “What did you do to your Jeep today?” thread. I also like to put stuff here so I can easily reference it in the future. This will take a couple long posts with a bunch of photos. Thanks for looking.

    Last couple posts from back in October I built a new rear bumper, modified the front fenders and did a little work on the brake lines. I think the Jeep has mostly been off the road since then. This winter’s upgrade/repair list included replacing the rusted/dented rear corners. The PO used a good thick coat of Bondo to get the corners close to straight. When I built the Jeep I had very little experience with any of this so I simply sanded the body a bit and painted right over it. A couple years of wheeling by an inexperienced driver (me) and the corners needed help. So I ripped into it…

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    To avoid having to do this job yearly I bought the Warrior Armor and cut it up to fit my situation.

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    Skipping ahead here I painted the rear 1/3 of the Jeep and painted the corners body color to match.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    I’m very happy with the final result.

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    [​IMG]


    IN the October 20221 posts I showed how I modified the fenders. I painted them at the same time I did the corners.


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    I’m not convinced I love these tube fenders yet. Great clearance for the 33” tires and now I own a flat fender Jeep but I’m looking for some good stock fenders. Then I can switch things out for wheeling trips, How long does that take – an Hour?
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2022
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  8. Apr 4, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    Continuing

    The rear bumper fabrication I showed above is also now finished. I replaced the rear crossmember and built a new swing out tire carrier as well.

    [​IMG]

    I used a kit from ( I think) Barnes. For the pivot and clamp.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]



    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2022
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  9. Apr 4, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    The next part was the "Learning Experience" of the build. Replacing one engine with another engine that had just about as many issues as the first!

    As mentioned the Dauntless was pretty beat up from the valve drop into the cylinder. Many of you will remember I changed out the piston and valve in the campground in Colorado . I had put back in a decent piston but the exhaust valve didn't seal well at all. The head was beat up from the valve bashing around in there before it broke thru the piston. It was loud from one cylinder and sometimes sounded like an old one cylinder engine. Here's those pictures again.


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    So Home from the summer trip Rubicon > Moab> Colorado I searched for a drop in replacement. I had the 231, but again, I was unsure of the condition. I found a rebuilt Dauntless but getting it to Florida wasn't going to be a quick thing. So I went ahead and put the 231 in the Jeep. The first run was bad! The engine smoked A LOT and after 10 min I had a large puddle of oil on the garage floor.

    [​IMG]

    The smoke might have somewhat cleared itself as the rings became unstuck and resealed but that puddle of oil wasn't going to fix itself no matter what. From what I already knew about the Buick 231 from reading on ECJ5 It was clearly the rear main seal. I have never been inside an engine past dropping the oil pan but I knew Y'all would be with me. I bought new rings and bearings then dove in!

    [​IMG]

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    Putting on the new rings I found one piston was damaged so it would not allow rings to install/spin properly. Another search and delay to find new stock pistons. Then a few more days at the machine shop to have the rods switched over.
    Finally I'm an engine builder!!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Everything back into the jeep and run it again and it sounds awful! There is something binding, scraping, screeching inside the engine. Pull it again (3rd time since Oct). Again I know very little about enginge building but have heard that the rods should move slightly on the crank but there isn't any clearance on one of the rods and zero end play on the crank. A friend was helping me look at this part and we found the bearing caps are not a tight tolerance item. We loosened the caps a little and used a prybar to move the caps back and the crank forward and somehow made the needed clearance so that the rods didn't bind and the engine turned over by hand much smoother.

    [​IMG]

    Everything back into the Jeep. run the engine again and.... another big puddle of oil on the garage floor! It sounds much better so I feel good about that. It seems that the time before this I either got the rear main seal correct or i just didn't run it enough to notice a leak. I could have tried to rework the seal with the engine in the Jeep but I'm getting pretty good at pulling it so I do it again for the 4th time.

    The rear main on a 231 has a large cavity on each side of the rear main cap. I understand the preferred method of sealing this is to use RTV. I unfortunately missed a important step... becouse the cavity is so large the RTV sometimes does not cure. Like putting the cap back on the tube the RTV in the neck cures but the main tube stays uncured. Apparently the reassembly requires one to use some sort of moisture inside the cavity to cure the RTV. A wire dipped in water several times and poked around (thansk Lockman) or a toothpick soaked in water left in the cavity (Rich M.) seems like a great solution. Heres a photo of the cap after I wiped the RV out of the cavity (after it being in there for a week).

    [​IMG]

    You can see how the open end cured about 1/4" into the cavity but then - like a tube- it didn't cure further.

    Reseal the rear main and wait several days for a new oil pan gasket then put it all back in the jeep and put all the stuff back on the engine (and spend a couple days in prayer). Now run the engine again and try to get thru the 20min high RPM break-in without a puddle of oil.

    Success!!

    Well mostly. It is leaking somewhere but much much less, it may be the valve cover or the rear seal. I have a skid plate that covers the front of the bell housing so its hard to tell - maybe its the Transmission or TC. Its to much to ignore for long but I am going to ignore it for today. ODAAT you know.

    Here's a nice picture...

    [​IMG]

    And remember that drop in I bought that was going to take a while to get to Florida. Well it showed up the next day after the break-in.

    [​IMG]

    I didn’t mention it yet but I also installed a Holley Sniper on this 231. More on that next.....
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2022
  10. Apr 11, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    Time to get the Holley Sniper portion of this update in the books.

    I've gone to Colorado the past couple summers with the Jeep. As you know the carburetor tune must be redone when you move from 10' above sea level to 10,000'. Changing the jets and the timing and the mixture isn't really all that hard but its sometimes hard to get it all right the first days. If you break a gasket or lose a clip or a little ball or a spring your screwed unless you have a spare rebuild kit on hand (That's my suggestion for anyone going to elevation). They tell me EFI will solve all my problems (not) so I lay down $1500 or so for a Holley Sniper 2300 and a new in tank fuel pump. Holley says you only need to make 4 wire connections to install the sniper. That's not a lie but not exactly true either, it just doesn't count the several sensors you will need to install and then plug in. I'm not going into detail installation here but I'll just say it wasn't hard and if your prepared with a running engine the Sniper could easily be done in a day (or a weekend). Fuel pump and fuel lines were probably the things that took the most time.

    Here's my tank it is the 1979 15gal rear tank with the skid plate that holds the tank up. The in-tank pump that Holley sells for this tank is self regulated and requires no return line. No return line so there isn't a place on the sending unit to install it. I installed one anyway because I already had the steel lines on the jeep. I used the vapor recovery lines for the return and a rollover valve/vent.

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    Here's the EFI all bolted on.

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    I've been driving this a few miles a day to work and to the store and such now for a couple weeks with no problem, until yesterday. Yesterday we went on the first wheeling trip, total over 100 miles. The jeep got warm to 118* on the slow trails and 120 doing dounuts at the clay pit. The EFI completely shut down 2x on the trail and once on the 30mile return home.

    [​IMG]

    I pulled over and we Jiggled a couple Wires and pressed a couple connections with no luck. Sat there a few minutes and jiggled the wires again and it started and ran perfectly, until it didn't. The last time it died on the road it took 15-20 minutes before it started again. I spoke with Holley today and they say its a power issue. If the EFI loses power for even a second the engine stalls and the whole thing reboots. That doesnt explain why it takes between 5 and 20 minutes to restart but I'm looking for a problem/solution today.
     
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  11. Apr 11, 2022
    Jw60

    Jw60 Sitting up n buckled down. 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

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    That's a bummer on the EFI.
    Does it have a dedicated positive wire to the battery and a good ground system?
     
  12. Apr 11, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    Yes. Per the instructions both go directly to the battery. I have spade plugs on my ignition switch that aren’t all that secure. I have a feeling that was were the problem was.
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2022
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  13. Apr 13, 2022
    Warloch

    Warloch Did you say Flattie??? Staff Member

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    FWIW - my first foray into the EFI world I found it best to run BOTH positive and negative direct to the bat as I had similar issues in my first hard wheeling outing. Different system - same requirements from everything I have read.
     
  14. Apr 14, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    Yes same here. The ignition switch is only the trigger.
    So it might have been the inline fuse -part of the stock system- when I pulled open the fuse holder the fuse popped out. It had one bent leg and the holder should have held it tighter. I drove about 20mi again today with no problem. :shrug:
     
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  15. Apr 15, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    This was kind of poor planning...

    [​IMG]

    The one sticker I like on my Jeep..

    [​IMG]

    Luka says Hi.
     
  16. Apr 15, 2022
    Norcal69

    Norcal69 Out of the box thinker 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

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    Luka..... Best jeep anti theft device ever!
     
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  17. Apr 15, 2022
    Warloch

    Warloch Did you say Flattie??? Staff Member

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    That's one reason I mount mine on the side instead of the back.
     
  18. Apr 15, 2022
    OzFin

    OzFin Vintage Jeep Guy

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    Check the vertical weld by the pivot point / grease zerk area, in the picture it looks like it may have cracked.
     
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  19. Apr 15, 2022
    givemethewillys

    givemethewillys Been here since sparky ran it. 2022 Sponsor

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    Better than a trunk monkey!
     
  20. Apr 15, 2022
    Buildflycrash

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    Good spotting. It kinda does look like the whole weld is cracked. I’ll check it tomorrow. Thanks.
     
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