Another 66 rebuild

Hey all,

I joined this forum a little while ago when I decided it was time to get my CJ back on the road (or trail). I have started a few threads and the influx of information has been amazing. I decided that rather than start a million little threads, I would start one big ole build thread.

So, without further ado, here is what I am doing:

I have a 66 CJ 5 that I had running at one point. I got the jeep as a birthday gift when I was 14 and it was a father/son project throughout highschool. The condition of the jeep was less than desirable, so we did a full rebuild. Motor was 100% rebuilt by myself. Its a good thing that the tolerances on old engines aren't as tight as newer ones. It might not run if that weren't the case.

Anyway, we rebuilt it all, had the body work done for us and had it professionally painted by a neighbor who is a classic car body work guy. Me in my infinite 17 year old wisdom thought that John Deere Yellow fading to John Deere Green was going to be the new style, so thats what we went with. When I met the body guy at his shop, he asked me a few times if I was sure I wanted a fade job with those colors. haha

So I got it running with 32" Mud Terrains and a 2.5" skyjacker lift, 1" Shackles, and a small body lift. It had 10" drums all around and the stock steering. It ran like a dream as long as I wasn't turning or braking. Either way, the jeep was amazing.

Then in college, I decided on a power steering setup and disc brakes in the front. Unfortunately I had no money at all so I disassembled everything and it sat for 6 years. Then I graduated, got a job, thought I was going to fix it, but I have been training as a amateur cyclist trying to go pro. So, no time to work on jeeps when you work 45 and ride 25 hours a week.

Finally this year I said enough was enough and I decided to get it going again. Here is what I have done so far:

1. Dana 30 is at shop getting new gears (4.27) put in
2. Picked up a brake booster and pedals from a junkyard cherokee
3. purchased a Howe Racing slave cylinder and master for the clutch
4. Boxed frame and had some plates and spacers made for the steering box
5. Bought a column from Speedway (32") and got 2 U Joints from flaming river
6. Took out rear end to take to shop.
a. I was going to do a FF set up, but just don't quite have the funds available
7. Picked up 4 35" Procomp X Terrain's on 15x10 rims

I am hoping to snap some pictures to get them up so you can see what I am working with.

 

Forgot to add, I am going to try to build a clutch mounting plate for the slave today. I saw a couple designs, but the pictures in the old threads have expired. If you have some cool pics of your design please post em here so I can take a look.

 

Sounds like a fun build...Post pics, I gotta see the yellow fading to green

 

http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?p=469286

 

Thanks, did you weld that to the transmission ro did you bolt it on with the transmission/bellhousing bolts? I tried zooming in on the pictured but can't tell 100%

 

Bolted into the bell housing bolts.

 

Didn't really have a lot of time to snap a picture, so he is a picture from when it was running. This is the only one I could find that shows the entire fade (lol):

 

Interesting....suddenly I feel like a 7up.

 

Ha I would rather that joke than the one my friends came up with. They started to call it the skittles jeep. I hated that.

On another note, does anyone have any ideas on how to get the bolts holding the stock steering box bracket out? The PO buggered them up pretty good. The bracket was cracked so I am guessing they were trying to replace it and screwed up. I have tried heat and those fancy easy out sockets. I even tried welding a nut onto the bolt, but the welds would take to the bolt. Any thoughts?

 

Bad luck strikes!

I had dropped off my Dana 30 at the rearend shop two weeks ago. I needed new gears, carrier and a rebuild. The shop is hands down the best rear end shop around and they don't kill you on price. Its Wzorek Automotive.

Anyway, I had bought bearings and seals about 7 years ago when I decided I wanted to do this swap. I just got a call from Carl the owner who said that none of the bearings and seals were correct. So I had to pay for all new bearings.

Also, since we cleaned out some of our scrap metal, the old spider gears got tossed, so I had to buy a loaded carrier. That front end just cost me a lot of money.

The kicker is, I bought the parts from a closed shop a while ago that was notorious (to me anyway) for ordering the wrong parts. I blame myself for not double checking years ago.

 

Great project and story to go with it. Here's what I started with for my slave bracket. It worked fine but tended to flex a little. It's 1/4" mild steel. I fabbed a support bracket that bolts to the t-case and supports the free end of the bracket.

 

Here's a shot of it with the other bracket attached. Sorry, it doesn't show much detail.

 

Posimoto,

Thanks! I actually looked at your pics as well as a couple other and created something similar. I used 3/16" metal (all i had) and welded the tabs on. I will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow.

I have been in touch with a guy about a 30 spline d44 to replace my 2 piece axles. It has a spool in it. I just noticed that your sig says you have a spool. Any issues with that and the 35" tires? I am thinking about keeping the spool in there.

 

I really like the spool. I've had a Lock Right and a Detroit and while I got used to their quirks on the road I didn't like all the slamming and banging they do to the drivetrain. One thing I've noticed is that you can't push the Jeep around except in a straight line. As soon as you turn the steering wheel the spool starts to bind up the rear. It's great offroad and it drives really nice on the road. And you get to chirp the tires on tight turns in the parking lot at the store! The only thing better would be a selectable locker and I'm doing that in the front axle now. But hey, a spool is a couple hundred bucks, my ARB was $1,000. Sure makes the spool sound good.

 

I put the box onto the frame to check the fit. Looks like I have to notch the cross member slightly for the steering fluid fitting. The one thing that is making me nervous is the steering shaft clearance to the exhaust manifold. Right now there is no clearance so I am going to move the column in the floor a bit. I think if I move the column over .25" towards the driver side it should give more room for the manifold. The question is... how much room do I need with motor mount flex?

I plan on finishing building the front axle tonight as well as tacking the PS box mount to the frame so I can mess with that a little more.

 

Here are some pictures from what i have done.



That is the clutch bracket I made. I finished painting it last night so I should be able to get it into the jeep tonight.

 

Here is my bracket for a 80' CJ slave cylinder. It's on my Chevy motor.

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Haven't done an update in while.

I have the steering column fitted and Just need to finish welding the Saginaw plate, then I will bolt that up.

I finished the Dana 30 and Dana 44 with the one piece axles. I went to put them in and then realized the spring plates wouldn't work. I did some searching on the site, and there are some expensive aftermarket ones with guards, there are U Bolt reversal jobs, and some custom plates. I would like to do custom plates, but not sure where to start. I might send R-P 4wd an email and see if they have some in the right dimensions or if they can make some. Then I will just weld on some shock mounts.

Any thoughts on this would be awesome!

 

You weren't too crazy on the colors. I bought an 82 CJ5 built for wheeling back in 2005. Almost exactly same paint scheme. Of course this is Wisconsin, so his excuse was that they're the packer colors. Too bad I had to sell it.

 

Hahaha, I love the wheels!!

I had thought about doing the wheels Yellow with Green pinstripes, but never did it. Now I have black wheels.