1963 Us Navy Dj-3a

Still plugging away at the front of the Jeep.

I don't know if anyone else has seen these, but these flat zip ties are kind of nice. It's hard to get as much tension on them, but the sure look a lot better and don't scrape your arm up when brushing by (and yes I have flush cutters, but the normal zip ties still have big bumps):


Here's a coupler I ordered from Summit to splice the lower radiator hose. Nice piece:


And the hose that needs about 3 inches taken out of it:


With trimming, it fits and just barely touches the oil filter, but not enough to cause a problem. I recall there is a smaller filter that fits, so I'll probably switch to that when I change the oil just because I can:


After the hose was in, I could "permanently" install the lower piece of the fan shroud.

I removed the bump stop spacer that prevented the axle from mashing the old radiator:


Installed the upper radiator hose:


Finally, I hooked up the power steering cooler:


A torque restraint cable, overflow bottle, and some modified battery hold-downs will more or less finish this part of the project. Then I need to make an adapter for my pressure bleeder and do some more brake bleeding while the fender is off for access.

All that will have to wait until Monday night. I'm heading to Seattle to see my dad and go to the Puyallup 4x4 swap meet this weekend.

 

That's a significant bump stop!

 

Yes, the previous owner had installed a CJ-5 specific radiator. A CJ-5 has a much higher hood and taller radiator.

Old radiator on right, and the new flat fender specific radiator on right:


The new one has less core area, of course, but is a little thicker.

When they installed the CJ-5 radiator, they lowered it to clear the hood. The bottom tank was a few inches from the front pumpkin. This is why they added the bump stop spacer.

I didn't take any specific pictures of the old setup before I tore it apart, but you can see how close the radiator was to the pumpkin here:


With the new radiator there is lots of clearance and I could get rid of the stupid spacer:

 

What time do you expect to arrive? We will be there first thing in the morning. I'll look for you.

 

I'm bringing my 83 year old dad along, so I think we come'll in around 9:30 to 10:00 to avoid the big line. I need to pick up some spindles from R&P so that will be the first place I go.

I'll PM you my cell number so we can text.

 

on the smaller oil filter I use either the Mobile M1-107A or Fram PH3506… I believe they were listed from a newer 231 even fire.

 

Thank you for the info!

 

Picked up my new 30 spline rear spindles from R&P at the Puyallup 4x4 swap meet. Billet. Nice pieces:


You can see how much larger the bore hole is compared to a stock D30 spindle:

 

I must have missed it, are you doing a full float 30 spline dana 44? Where are you getting the axles from? Other than being able to flat tow easier and still being able to drive on a broken axle, are there any other benefits above the flanged offset 44 from '70-'71? Is there any worry about the axle tubes being smaller diameter than the later 44's?

 

Yes, I'm doing a 30 spline full float D44 in the back. It currently has a Herm the Overdrive Guy 27 spline outer/19 spline inner full float kit on it. The Herm kits are notorious for being weak and breaking at the base of the 27-spline end. Rather than deal with a somewhat likely broken axle on the trail, I want to move up to a 30 spline setup. Other than the offeet 30 spline flanged D44 that came from the factory in my '71, they are impossible to find around here so it's not really a viable option.

I got the spindles form Richard at R&P. Sal at Vintage Jeeper was out of them at the time, but seems to have more in stock now. Brennan's Garage hasn't shown them as available on the web site for a long time. I got the axle shafts from Vintage Jeeper since he had some Moser made ones in stock ready to ship. Richard can have Dutchman make a set too. You can also get them directly to Dutchman or Moser if you know all the specs.

I'm going with flanged outers like a 3/4 ton truck and no hubs in the back. It won't help with flat-towing (although you could just pull the axles out). Hubs are just another thing that can break and 30 spline ones aren't available anymore anyway.

The primary advantages of this setup for me is that the wheel stays put if you break an axle shaft, and I can piece this all together without having a custom housing made. Realistically, a custom rear housing with custom flanged axles, bigger tubes, and a custom track width would be a better setup for similar money, but it's not "bolt-in" like the pile of parts I have.

By the time I have axles, spindles, a used 30 spline open carrier, a Spartan locker, a bearing install kit, I'll have $1500 or so into a rear axle with small tubes and no selectable locker that needs spacers to match the track of the front axle. Was it the right/smart solution? I don't know. Probably not, but it's the solution I'm doing for now.

 

By the time I have axles, spindles, an OX locker, a bearing install kit, I'll have $2500 or so into a rear axle with small tubes and a selectable locker that needs spacers to match the track of the front axle. Was it the right/smart solution? I don't know. Probably not, but it's the solution I'm doing for now.

FTFY

 

You're not too far from a high pinion 44 that needs spacers to match the track of the front axle.

 

I thought it was boats that were "bust out another thousand."

 

JEEP is Just Empty Every Pocket.

 

Worked on more odds and ends under the hood last night.

Crimped together a restraining cable to keep the engine in place in the event of a motor mount separation:


It's attached to one of the bolts on the back o the power steering pump:


Moved the battery hold-down bolts to their new location and trimmed them to length:


The one near the radiator is through the 1/8" thick battery tray and is pretty sturdy. The outer one is through the sheet metal fender. I added a 1/8" backing plate to prevent tear out in the event of a rollover:


The last under hood item that needs fab work is mounting the overflow tank.

One thought on location is here, but it's close to the alternator and it doesn't fit into the battery indent in the fender very well:


So I think I'm going to mount it on the other side. It interferes with the factory headlight terminal block here, but I won't be using that:


Not wanting to hack up the overflow bottle bracket and having an abundance of sheet metal, I decided to make a bracket like this:


And the bottle will mount like so:


Tonight's project is turning this cardboard into metal:

 

Move the battery strap off of the fender.

Weld some sheet metal to the tray and slot the hole in the fender or roll some metal rod in a slotted end of the new side strap.

 

There is no reason for that on a flatfender. The fenders, grill, and battery box are all hard mounted to the frame with no rubber bushings. In fact the fender bolts to the battery box just below my backer plate. There is no relative motion.

You can see the bottom grill mount bolt, fender brace, and the bolts between battery tray and the fender in this picture. No rubber anywhere, and the battery is secured:


The "crack" in the frame ahead of the shock is just the paint.

 

At first I was thinking along the lines of JW60.
After seeing that the fender and grille are still hard mounted to the frame, I understand what you did.
I say you have a good 2-3 Rubicon runs before the welds on that fender brace start detaching themselves from the inner fender. After that the fenders start to crack around the bolts that connect it to the grille. When I eventually fix my jeep I plan to reinforce the fender to grille area with 1/8" flat stock cut into a shark tooth looking shape to distribute the flex stress.

 

This I don't doubt. I just want to get it out there so I can see what needs to be re-engineered.

 

Did taxes last night instead of working on the Jeep.

I did find enough time after taxes to install the new parking lights from India:


More info on those in this thread: Parking Light / Turn Signal