71 Wheeling Rig

If I use your plates, I need to fabricate shock mounts. Probably upper and lower. Outside the scope of this current round of work. I do like the plates though.

 

I used U-bolts Direct: https://www.uboltsdirect.com/

Haven't used them before, I just did a web search and they had a decent price for bolts+shipping. The quality seems fantastic.

 

That could almost make a guy want to light one up...

 

My problem is that once I start needing to do fab work, I might as well go with YJ springs.

Scope creep at its finest.

 

I'm lucky that my shocks are already too short and holding the drop short. For the front all I need to do is trim the outside flange shorter and weld some round stock with Cotter pin holes onto the outside flange.

If my shock length were good I would drill the upper shock bracket rivets and shim it up with 3/4" bar stock or tube with internal crush sleeves.

 

Been busy with other things, but did get the SmittyBilt seat on the driver's side too:


The ride quality is drastically improved with the seats and yanking a leaf from every spring. The shocks didn't seem to make much difference.

I'm happy with it for now.

The dogs wanted to go out for a drive tonight, so we did a loop around the neigborhood and then played with a Jeep a bit on the property once we got home:




Did a better flex test in our swale. It took a bit of a run to get it to this spot where it was maxed out and rocked back and forth a couple inches. Since I've got open diffs in both ends, it was a bit of a struggle to get it out :




The shorter springs in front definitely don't drop as much as the rear:


The fronts are on the my XJ bumpstops:


If I want a little more flex, it looks like I have clearance to trim another half inch or so off the bumpstop. I'd need to check it steered both ways though:


Great droop in the back:


With the one leaf removed, I'm finally hitting the rear bumpstops while flexed. That wasn't the case before:


Can't really trim the bumpstops back there. Even though there is vertical space above the tire, the back of the tire is pretty hard into the inner fender:


This picture is a good illustration of the chassis/boddy flex in these old Jeeps. Note how crooked the bumper is relative to the grill and how much the top is getting stretched by the body flex:


I still need to get the new U-bolts installed. While I'm at it, I'm going to attempt a re-arch of the front springs to get it to sit level. It still drives me nuts how nose low the BDS springs are. We'll see how the re-arching goes.

 

Well, I've stopped making this thing into a hard core offroader because I like the shiny original paint too much. That doesn't mean we don't use the heck out of it. We use it to run the dogs all over the property and go for Sunday drives. It does those jobs great as is, but there are a few things I already have parts for that I still want to get done.

Here's a couple of them.

First is a carb swap. It runs fine with the Edelbrock 4bbl, but it evaporates all the gas out when it sits for more than a day leading to lots of cranking at startup. It also has idle issues when it's really hot out (like climbing hills in low range at 95+ degrees). When that happens, I have to lock the manual throttle up a bit to keep it running.

Amazingly, I really don't have any complaints with it offroad. I blocked the bowl crossover, added spring loaded float valves, lowered the float level, and lowered the fuel pressure to 3 PSI. In that config it seems to work well at all angles.

I know I could do fuel injection, but the Jeep works well enough as is, that it's not worth the hassle and a thousand dollars.

My solution? A $50 Quadrajet for a 1970 Buick 350 that belongs on this engine and a $25 rebuild kit:


They are known for working well offroad. We'll see if the gas evaporates slower and it's less temperature sensitive.

Rebuild and manual choke conversion coming soon:


The other item is a D30 front axle. I picked this up last year at the Puyallup swap meet and am finally getting around to it:


It's already got 3.73 gears to match the rear axle, so that's nice. I'm going through it figuring out what I parts I need to freshen it up for install.

Item one is a bent tie rod:


Brake drums need to be turned at the very least, but it's nearly as cheap to just buy new ones. Not really looking to do a disk conversion on this Jeep. 11" brakes will be plenty good enough upgrade:


Sadly, it looks like the brakes were done shortly before it sat for 20 years. It definitely needs wheel cylinders, and I think I'll change the shoes too:


Wheel bearings and seals all look great so I'm not going to mess with them:


I'm stuck on this spindle right now. The other side came off pretty easy smacking the sides of the spindle with a dead blow. After two hours messing with this one including adding heat and penetrating oil, I've only gotten it out about a credit card thickness:


I'm sure I can get it off with another couple hours of pounding, but it's not particularly fun. I've ordered a slide hammer adapter.

The axle seals and spindle bearing look good on the passenger side anyway, so I'll just reuse them:


The U-joint, however, didn't look so hot:

 

That Dana 30 looks like too much hassle, you need someone to take it off your hands?

 

Put the nut and washer back on and use it to hook your slide hammer to.

 

I thought about doing that, but then I don't have an excuse to buy a new tool!

 

That's my grandma right there! Grandpa was surprised when she wanted a GNX! She did not get a GNX

 

Very nice work .

 

Thanks! I appreciate that! I'll be doing a similar thing soon on my DJ-3A. First I need to finish the floors, and make a new exhaust system. Then it's on the radiator.

 

Whelp. Not even a year out of that radiator:


I was super careful that NOTHING was rubbing the radiatorIN ANY WAY last when I installed it. Doesn't matter. Seems to be leaking somewhere around here where the lower radiator hose is:


As near as I can tell, it's where the core tubes hit the end cap, but it's hard to tell. Sigh. Another radiator ordered and more time/money gone for no good reason.

Stuff like this is making me less thrilled with this hobby.

 

Had the same problem with the radiator I bought on eBay for my armchair wheeler. OEM style one lasted about 9 months, bought a 3 core eBay unit, lasted about 3 years, maybe 4. Got lucky on my second attempt at factory style (but third radiator!)

 

This will be number three for this Jeep. The first one lasted 3 years and only failed because it had something rubbing on it. The current one failed in a year. Not even any serious offroading on it in that year.

The Jeep is so built around that specific Griffin radiator that I'm trying #3 and crossing my fingers rather than doing a bunch of fab work to fit another brand/model that may or may not be any improvement.

 

I don't know the available services available in the Pullman area but if this type of issue raises its ugly head again, there is an excellent radiator repair shop in Yakima. Their name is Webber's Radiator.

 

I'd be very curious to hear if they're working on aluminum radiators. I asked/begged my way into convincing an industrial radiator shop to do the 68 radiator. When I went back with the armchair wheeler radiator the owner told me he didn't do the aluminum ones, said in his experience they were too fragile once they started leaking.