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69 Jeepster “rebuild” By A Guy Who Now Knows A Tiny Little Bit!

I’m getting ready to start my headlight relay conversion. Battery voltage is 11.83 and voltage at the junction block is 10.33, so I am definitely losing a lot through the switch/existing wiring. The battery is about a year old, so I suspect the original alternator is the reason I am only maintaining 11.83V at the battery. I’m going to charge the battery and see what I can get it to and go from there.
 
The chemical potential of a lead-acid battery is 12.6 volts.
IME when they are fully charged they show a little higher than that, like extra electrons are stuffed in by the charger?
Capacitive loading?
11.83 is too low.
I would clean and reseat all the connections first - bright metal, tight and a little dielectric grease.
Suggest you get a good maintenance charger and leave it on for a few days, like a Battery Minder or Noco (I have both - both work well).
Then test with an electronic tester: Ancel or Topdon should be good
You can also test your alternator with most of these testers.
 
I charged the battery and it held at 12.56V

Headlight relays are done. It is noticeably brighter. I could get a little more if I changed to 50W headlights, but I think this should be fine. I have 30 or 35W halogens from NAPA.IMG_7828.jpegIMG_7829.jpegIMG_7830.jpegIMG_7832.jpeg
 
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What I did to my JEEP today:

Hopefully this is a mistake to be made only once in my life. I lifted the hood last night in order to peek at the wiring while working on my CJ5 and forgot to latch it back. Super unhappy right now.

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Fresbone said:
What I did to my JEEP today:

Hopefully this is a mistake to be made only once in my life. I lifted the hood last night in order to peek at the wiring while working on my CJ5 and forgot to latch it back. Super unhappy right now.

View attachment 104627
Click to expand...
ouch when the 7 did this it smashed the windshield too...
 
Fresbone said:
What I did to my JEEP today:

Hopefully this is a mistake to be made only once in my life. I lifted the hood last night in order to peek at the wiring while working on my CJ5 and forgot to latch it back. Super unhappy right now.

View attachment 104627
Click to expand...
I did it twice on my CJ the first couple years I owned it. I think (hope) I learned m lesson.
 
I found a good body guy to work in it. I’m going to have him fix a rusted through spot on the tailgate at the same time, so I’m back on track. I have been driving it to and from work this week (GMC at the body shop - this one wasn’t my fault!) and it’s nice and cozy with a working heater and carpet.pics to follow.
 
I patched a damaged area and put in a new weld nut on the front fender where the horn was mounted. The engine compartment is a mess with respect to paint. I believe it is the faded original prairie gold. The exterior was painted over with a lighter color. Therefore it is Just primed for now. If I need to pull the engine, I will tidy up and repaint the engine compartment.
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I also installed a stereo in the Jeepster. I used a Ghost Box 3.0 (which is an amplified with Bluetooth) secured under the glove box and a RetroSound R-410N speaker (which is a 4x10 speaker with dual tweeters to make it “stereo”) mounted to a piece of 1/4” MDF to adapt it to fit the original speaker mounting studs. It is run by switched power and automatically connects to my phone. The sound is meh, which I suspect is from the speaker, but I will play around with it and see how it goes. It is a completely clean install with no modifications to the vehicle and no visible components.
 
Got the horn working. The copper pin that contacts the back of the steering wheel was worn down. I made a cap/sleeve to go over the pin using brass tube from hobby lobby and silver solder at the tip. I spelled this out in another thread when I was troubleshooting it.
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My current problems are:

(1) Figuring out whether the parking brake line is secured. It currently doesn’t do anything which I assume is because the end of the housing is dangling.
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(2) Eliminating the gap between the windows and the B pillars. I don’t think the front to back door adjustments are advertised and I think I need something to take up space between the B pillar and the weather seal.
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(3) Waiting for the hood and tailgate to get back from the body shop.
 
I was stumped on the way the hood prop attached to the hood. My hood prop looks different from the parts book. I’m going to park this pic here for posterity.
I found this pic from before I taco’d my hood. Note the dim pre-relay lights getting 11.85V through the switch.
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The sequence is 5/16 washer-spring-5/16 washer-neoprene washer (not in the parts book)-hood-5-16 washer, 3/32 cotter pin.
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New stereo/speakers. I installed a Ghost Box 3.0 (a Bluetooth amp, the jury is still out on this) under the glove box and a pair of Kicker KS40 speakers behind the dash speaker vent. It works seamlessly is fully concealed. There is good treble and mid range, but obviously no bass. I think there is plenty of power, but I might upgrade the amp at a later date. I tried the Retrosound 4x10 stereo speaker at first and it sounded awful.

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