401 CJ7 JEEP BUILDUP

2011-03-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Back in the May 25 2006 post I showed the fabrication we did to mount the 20 gal. poly fuel tank. This post shows a bit more detail and also the new sending unit from http://www.4wd.com/ They had everything needed to replace all the rusted and wore out parts for this tank which is from a 1982 to 1986 CJ with the 20 gal poly tank. Sending unit part number is CRO5362090 at $30.99 which I believe is made by Crown and is a dead ringer for the original, fuel sending o-ring part number OAI17730.01 at $.99, a fuel inlet filter part number OAI17728.01 at $5.99 and the fuel sending unit lock nut part number OAI17727.02 at $3.99 by Omix-Ada. We thoroughly washed out the tank with a degreaser then finally water and tested for any leaks and found none, so I was happy with our $20.00 flea market purchase. Blasted the skid plate. hit it with etching primer then semi gloss black. The way we mounted the filler neck to the body we will be able to use straight fuel hose directly into the tank eliminating any need for special pre-bent hoses. All in all the 20 gal. tank is a comfortable snug fit that will give us rust free worries and more capacity which I'm sure we will need for that 401.

2011-02-28T17:17:00.001-08:00

Finally found a finned aluminum differential cover at our local u-pull. If you remember ours was missing from the Isuzu housing that we got. This one had some slight damage to the lower fins, (probably from a jack) but using a die grinder I was able to round them off and blend it in, one can hardly notice. I then had it bead blasted by the local boys at Hill Top Sand blasting from our area, then gave it a good coat of etching primer (this works great on aluminum) then a couple coats of silver Hammerite. Still has that aluminum look but don't have to worry about oxidation. We installed this on the front housing only because the rear housing is out of view due to the larger 21 gallon poly fuel tank that we adapted. Tie rod clears nicely which was a concern but these covers actually have a flat face. Next post I'll show the tank and new sending unit.

2009-08-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

We got steered a little off course since the beginning of the year, so lets see if we can get back on track by talking, what else "steering". First a bit of an update on the young lad. He got himself into Williamson free school of mechanical trades in the power plant curriculum. http://www.williamson.edu/ For anybody who isn't familiar with this school they take only 100 boys total and distribute them over 6 courses, power plant, machine shop, carpentry, paint, masonry and horticulture. It's a 3 year course with an associates degree and it is free, yep free tuition. Their goal is to produce respectable productive members of society with no strings attached. And they have companies knocking on their doors for these students with job offers. Hey more money for the Jeep fund. Of course the summer was spent rebuilding and installing a 2.2 engine to replace the 1.8 in his Subaru. Now don't get me wrong, it was a good learning experience, but the Jeep got dusty. On to the steering. Sent the original box out to Chip at Power Steering Services. http://www.powersteering.com/ They do a complete rebuild and convert your box from a constant 17.5:1 ratio to a variable 16/13:1 ratio, that's a difference of around 4 1/4 turns down to about 3 1/2 turns. I had the box on my J10 converted to 12:1 ratio (around 3 turns) but Chip didn't recommend that for a short wheel base CJ. Check out their websight for a full rundown on services. These boxes have a lifetime warranty, which uses your stock inch fittings on the hoses and cost $278.00 out and back. Yeah you could get an F body box from the junkyard but it will have metric fittings and you would be hard pressed to find one with 4 mounting holes. With the warranty and quality of work Chip does it ain't worth the aggravation. I can't say enough about him. Give him a call, he knows his stuff and you wont be disappointed. Installation went well with just enough clearance for the larger sway bar mount. The dropped pitman arm as stated in an earlier post is from a Wrangler, but what I did was file out the 4 wider indexing keys on the inside spline so it could be clocked at every tooth as compared to only 4 different positions as in the stock application. This gives me total control to index it to clear the radiused tie rod. To give a little bling I used button head socket head stainless steel bolts on the top of the cross member and even added the same bolts on the passenger side holes and just nutted them on the bottom for a more symmetric appearance. These I got from MSC http://www1.mscdirect.com/cgi/nnsrhm

2009-01-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

Let's save some money on the rear brakes, now that doesn't mean cutting quality. I don't know if anybody has priced new or rebuilt Isuzu Rodeo rear calipers or not but they ain't cheap. $80.00 per side for rebuilds. So I did some checking and got a rebuild kit from Auto Zone http://www.autozone.com/home.htm part number 071-7983 caliper kit made by Beck/Arnley http://www.beckarnley.com/ and covers both calipers for $36.99. Comes with piston seal & boot, wire snap ring, bolt boots, bleeder covers and grease. I'll walk you through the rebuild which is not all that difficult if you know the proper sequence.

Started by disassembling the old caliper by forcing (LOW PRESSURE) air through the hose hole and slowly ease out the piston till it's almost out then remove by hand. (Be careful here as it can go flying if you build up too much pressure, and keep your fingers from between the piston & outer brake pad flange). Remove the bleeder & inspect the bore and piston for any pitting. Mine were really nice. I plugged up the piston bore and bead blasted them, courtesy of my cousin who has http://classicjunkyard.com/ and some of the big tools I don't have (hey whats family for), then soaked in kerosene & blew them out. Hit it with degreaser, plugged up the bore and threaded holes then etching primer and the mandatory red. Here's what comes in the rebuild kit.

Start by lubing the piston seal and bore and install seal in groove making sure it is seated

Lube the piston groove & boot and install boot, then strip down over piston as shown.

Insert piston into bore until it reaches the bore seal then work the bottom flange of the piston boot into the groove using a blunt probe seating then install the wire snap ring. You can rotate the piston and boot to simplify this procedure.

Then taking a length of wood across the piston compress it all the way into the bore. If everything was lubed well this should go pretty easy. Install the bleeder and rubber cap and the caliper is done.

Now the caliper bracket. This was prepared in the same manner as the caliper but then took a wire brush from a gun cleaning kit to clean out the bolt bores.

Lube up the bores and bolt boots and push into place.

Now load them up with your favorite pads, I used Wagner http://www.federal-mogul.com/en/AftermarketSolutions/NorthAmerica/BrakingSolutions/Brands/Wagner(Brake)/ part number WAG ZD580 which are equal to OEM purchased from the friendly boys at B&S Auto Parts in Pine Grove for $33.71 So for a total of $70.70 and some paint we came in under half of rebuilds.

Now all I gotta do is figure out where the rest of these parts go.

2008-08-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Reassembled the front rotors after paint then torqued down the hub to the rotor to have them turned, you must do this to simulate a mounted wheel to eliminate any runout. Whenever you have rotors like these always make sure you give them the inner bearing races, because they will need them to do the turning. These were all but new rotors to begin with so they took very little to clean up.

Yeh, he's into it !!!

Modified the stabalizer shock bracket from what we originally mocked up for more clearance and eye appeal. We actually took two brackets and cut and welded them to form a 90 deg. This way there will be more clearance at the diff. cover.

Your looking at some graduation presents here. From your friendly AutoZone http://www.autozone.com/home.htm front caliper #C528 and #C529 at #14.99 each and these things are complete with new bolts, bushings and o-rings. Brake pads #MKD52S at $22.99 comes with clips. Just added the manditory red paint. I will probably end up using J10 front hoses but will have to fab. a bracket, this way it keeps things simple when it comes time to replace. Alot easier to get a stock item than a custom made one.

All mounted and looking good. Just make sure the bleeder is in the up position, if it's not they are on the wrong side.

And as promised (just one post too late) on all fours. I'd say he looks pretty happy. Although he did promise his school buddies (and some chics from what I here) a ride in it at graduation, of course they are all busting his ass because it's been 4 years so far. Yeh well, good things take time and we feel confidant that so far things are done right with safety first along with some modern technology thrown in. So now he's off to higher education with the outlook looking good. There is alot of little things I can do now like steering box, brakelines (with some trick brackets I have in mind floating around in my head)e-brakes and such. So don't think I'll let you hanging, as long as Blogger stays online I'll be posting.

2008-08-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

Well as usual we found something else to hold us up for a little bit. It just seems this thing doesn't want to get on all 4'S. These here are the, I guess for better lack of words dust shields for the front backing plates behind the rotors. Just couldn't bring myself to install these in this condition. Had to drill out the spot welds then was stuck with how to replace them.

The ol brain was churning and I figured they resembled a small dish, so I started raiding the kitchen cupboards with no luck. Even kept my eye's open when we went shopping. Of course my wife couldn't figure out what I wanted in the kitchen isle all the time. Then good old Tractor Supply http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Home_10551_10001 came through, found some small pet dishes, and in stainless steel no less. Cost around $6.00 for two of them. It even has the spanish on there so those little Chihuahua dogs know where to get a square meal.

The sides had a bit of a taper to them but it was do-able. Traced the pattern from the old ones then cut it out with a hole saw then drilled and tapped the backing plate for some 8-32 stainless button head cap screws. Just make sure the screws don't extend through because this surface locates on the spindle nose. Except for the tapered sides they are the correct diameter and hieght.

2008-03-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

After washing out the grit and grime like we did for the rear housing we disassembled the carrier and found a cracked spherical thrust washer for the one spider gear. Turns out it's only available in a $90.00 spider gear rebuild kit. The spider gear shaft also had excessive wear. We took apart the 3:07 gear set that came with this housing and found good parts like the shaft, washers and spider gears so those were
substituted. We didn't have the luxury of having the pinion shims with this set so it was hit and miss without having a pinion depth set up tool, and couldn't find one to borrow. After spending a good part of a Sat. afternoon putting this carrier in and out and trying to get a good contact mark on the ring gear we walked away from it. Although I must admit Jeffrey was getting pretty quick at it. Sunday came and a new outlook, I stood
there alone while he was up at 4:30 at his job milking cows analyzing the situation and tried to come up with a method of finding the centerline of the axle tube, which is what is needed to set up the nose of the pinion. It dawned on me that if I measured with my dial calipers from the gasket surface down to the top of the carrier bearing race, then removing the carrier and measured the diameter of the race, divide in half then add that to my first measurement I would know where that centerline was in relation to the gasket surface. From that point I added the 2.625 (the standard measurement for a Dana 44 from the axle centerline to the pinion nose) I would have a number from the gasket surface to the pinion nose. Now the markings on our pinion was "0" so I didn't have to add or subtract any amount from that 2.625. I found that the pinion was .015 too low which means I had to add a .015 shim. Did that and got a good measurement and put the carrier back in, adjusted my side to side of the ring gear to get my required .008 to .010 backlash, painted up the ring gear for a marking and was rewarded with a good contact mark. Hey that wasn't that bad, wish I would have thought of that on Sat. Makes ya
realize that walking away can be a good thing. Now all that was left to do was disassemble one more time, put the proper pinion bearing preload shims in to get the required 15 inch pounds of torque, yeah that's right inch pounds not foot pounds. If you don't have an inch pound torque wrench 15 inch pounds equates to 1.25 foot pounds, 1 inch pound = .0833333 foot pounds. Just multiply 15 by .0833333. Installed the oil slinger, seal, yoke and a fresh washer and nut. Then added a .003 shim to each side of the carrier
bearings for preload, spread the housing with my home made spreader and drop in the carrier, torque down the carrier bearing caps and take some final indicator readings. This can be a very time consuming endevor, we got by with minimal tools but can see why a professional charges what they do. They earn every penny. And who knows I might be talking out my butt and find out 1000 miles down the road that it would have payed to have it professionally done. Time will tell. Next post maybe we'll have this thing on all fours.

2008-02-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

Assembly commenced on the rear rotors at the bench to make sure all our fabrication was honky dori, it seemed to be, so we took it back apart to lighten the load when it came time to hang it on the springs. I made up my own greasable shackle bolts by taking a stainless steel bolt and drilled a hole halfway down the length on a lathe with a #3 (.213) dia. drill which is the tap drill size for a 1/4-28 thread to accept a grease fitting. Then I milled 2 slots opposite each other along the length in the area covered by the urethane bushings with a carbide ball end mill. A crossed drilled hole was put in connecting the 2 slots with a #38 (.101) dia. drill at the position where the 2 bushings met, then tapped the end for the grease fitting with a 1/4-28 tap. The urethane bushings were cross notched where the 2 inside ends met, this will allow grease to flow through the bolt and to the inside and outside of the bushings. Everything I hear is that these bushings
are prone to squeaking, so hopefully this will take care of that. The axle was then set on top of the springs, and as I was gathering the u-bolts, Jeffrey says something doesn't look straight. I figure, how can that be, but sure enough it was not straight. That's when you start to get this bad feeling in your stomache. Here it turns out that there is more than one hole on the bottom of the spring pads and one of them wasn't centered on the leaf spring bolt. I won't tell whose side it was, but I'm glad he spotted it before the u-bolts were torqued down. We then installed the u-bolts and sway bar and torqued them to spec. Slid in the axles and rotors, painted the caliper brackets red to stay with the performance image and thing were looking good. The calipers will also be painted red but didn't get them yet due to the fact I couldn't find them for under $75.00 apiece, and we didn't need them right away. Priority is to get this thing down on all fours. At this point I was curious to see how good a job I did welding the Isuzu ends on so I mounted a magnetic base to the frame with a dial indicator on the rotors and only had .005 runout, within the limits, so I was happy. Next we'll tackle the front housing.

2008-02-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

The rebuild went rather well on the rear Dana 44 rear housing. A rebuild kit was purchased from http://www.4wd.com/ part number 8744 at $89.95. This comes with all the good stuff, like Timken bearings, seals, shims, pinion nut, ring gear bolts and sealer and marking compound, no overseas crap. For the price you can't beat it, although a set of instructions of anything would have been great. Since this was our first time at setting up a rear, I wasn't about to wing it, which I've been known to do. I found a good set of detailed instructions on the internet at http://precisiongear.com/. http://trailhed.com/images/d44/d44p2.jpg and http://trailhed.com/images/d44/d44p3.jpg and http://trailhed.com/images/d44/d44p1.jpg and http://trailhed.com/images/d44/d44p4.jpg
We first started by carefully washing out all the sand left over from the blasting process and even took a wire chimney brush on a drill and ran it through the tubes. All threads were chased with a tap so as to get proper torque readings later on. First thing I did was to make up a set of "setup" bearings, these I honed with a drill mounted cylinder hone so they would slip over the both ends of the carrier housing and sanded the O.D. on the pinion races on a belt sander. This allows for repetive install and removal until you get the proper shim thickness. (One thing that was quite tedious was mastering the stroke on the drill mounted cylinder hone, I overstroked a few times, and we all know what happens when you overstroke. It wasn't pretty. Imagine a long flexable drill mounted 3 stone cylinder hone winging at 1000 rpm's and coming out of the hole on the vise mounted bearing!!!) It got the job done, but I think I need a new cylinder hone. I do see now that Precision Gear offers "setup bearings" that are made just for this purpose. Might be worth looking into. Just follow their detailed installation hints from the links I listed above. These are very informative pages and have lots of pictures. Since this rear already had a 3:54 gearset in it from the junkyard things were pretty well in spec. but we went through the whole procedure as a learning tool for the front housing which will require a gear change, so hopefully we gained enough knowledge to do that one right also.

2008-01-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

Been a while but I think we're over the hump. Well maybe not "the" hump but certainly "a" hump. Frame and related parts are sandblasted and painted, now comes final assembly of the chassis. Hill Top Sandblasting 479 Hetzels Church Rd, Pine Grove, PA. 17963 (570)- 345- 6695 did the blasting and paint work. Super nice guys, a dying breed of sorts. These brothers have a mobile blaster that they use to contract out really big jobs, but will do smaller stuff at their shop. They also do glass etching and decorative stenciling on rocks with whatever you want etched on. These guys take pride in what they do along with very reasonable prices. Give them a call first so they can tie "the dog" otherwise it WILL jump up on the side of your vehicle. Ask for Ed and tell him the guy with the "67olds" license plate sent ya. Turns out he has a 455 big block olds engine in his 19 foot boat. (really hauls ass) The paint I got for them to use was Limco brand acrylic oem black quick mix "LMPQ900LY" with "LMSLR12GL" Limco 1-2-3-4 reducer and "KCPWL8" wet look hardener. This was sprayed on top of SEM green self etching primer. This stuff really dried hard after a week. Can't even pick at it with your fingernail. All these supplies were gotten from Klines Auto Inc 648 Mauch Chunk St Pottsville, PA 17901 (570) 622-4010 (570) 628-2943 and ran me a total of $113.06. Assembly will commence as soon as we clean all the grit from the rears and set up the ring and pinions which I'll be doing a piece on next time. We plan on going with red calipers and brackets just to stay with the perfomance image in which you'll be able to see a hint of them thru the factory chrome rims. If you look over the photos you can see how we molded in the front shackle reversal hangers. I didn't like how the 2 bolt heads stuck out the side of the frame so I cut some 5/8" round stock and slid them thru the hangers and frame keeping them just under flush with the frame and button welded them and all around the perimeter of the mounts, then ground everything smooth. Gives it a more molded in look, again not really noticeable to the casual eye but there, never the less and without sacrificing any strength. Stay tuned, it's starting to look like something now.

2007-06-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

OK, here we go. I pulled the Jeep axle and slid it into the Isuzu housing and it fit except of course for the length and I thought all would be fine, but found when I put the rotor on the axle flange it stuck out 3/8" further and would not line up with the caliper. I would have to turn the bearing shoulder and seal area back the 3/8" to allow the axle to move in further thus locating properly with the caliper. Now before I did this I had to mark my axle tube where it would be cut off so as not to disturb my 56" track. I cobbled up this simple fixture to hold a felt tip pen to mark the housing, that way holding the relationship of the axle flange (track) to the housing. Both sides are marked in this manner by clamping the fixture onto the axle flange and rotating the marker around the housing tube. Then I modified the axle shafts on a lathe where I work. At the same time I cut the diameter of the axle flange down so that the Isuzu rotors would seat properly. In fact, Jeffrey met me there by getting off school early and made an educational field trip out of it. Hey, he has to learn some how, right? After that was done the axles were slid into the Isuzu housing, clamped on the fixture and marked the Isuzu housing in the same manner.
I made a holding fixture from 3/4" plywood to support the housings while I sawed them on my band saw, the other end was supported with a steady rest. Now that I had the end pieces from the Isuzu, they just had to be spliced on to the Jeep housing in the same manner that my axle shop spliced the one side when they narrowed it.

I turned up some tubes to fit into the housing to bridge the weld joint again on a lathe. Now it turns out that the Isuzu housing tube is thicker than the Jeep (same outside diameter but smaller inside diameter) so I had to step the diameter on these tubes that I made. They were made to a slight press fit.

I should mention at this time, that before the ends were cut off the Isuzu housing, I took a degree gauge and mounted it to a place on the ends and recorded the degrees. This was accomplished first by removing the diff. cover (oh that's right somebody already took that) and placing the gasket surface onto a level flat horizontal surface and took the reading, then did the same to the Jeep housing to locate the new Isuzu ends so that the calipers would be in the same orientation.

After the ends were pressed on, the housing was positioned on my workbench which I know is level and flat, with the gasket surface on parallels and the ends were squared off the table, then flipped the housing 90 degrees and squared again. This was done several times to assure accuracy. I then tack welded the joints, checked it again then mounted the backing plates, axles, rotors and calipers to make sure everything lined up. Then final welded, jumping back and forth from each side to eliminate warping, then left it air cool.

The final very important thing that was done was to drill out the stud hole to 35/64" to press fit the 12mm. x 1.5 studs which is crucial to center the rotors, because Jeep uses a smaller 7/16" x 20 stud. I then found lug nuts on a trip to Carlisle http://www.carsatcarlisle.com/spring/index.asp from a vendor calling himself The Lugnut King http://lugnutking.com/ with the same 3/4" hex size with 12mm. and 7/16" threads. Very knowledgeable guy and great prices and nobody will be the wiser. Just don't mix up the front and rear lug nuts. This way you only have to carry one lug wrench. So there you have it, $45.00 killer disc brakes with easily obtainable parts that you can get at your local parts store. And here is the best part, I just sold the Isuzu gear set on Ebay for $50.00 Hell I just got paid $5.00 for putting them on. Now maybe if we don't find any new good ideas to put on this thing we can get it tore down, finish the welding and get it sand blasted and painted. Damn you JP, stop writing those informative articles.

2007-06-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well we were all ready to tear down for final welding to the frame when I stumbled upon an article in JP Magazine http://www.jpmagazine.com/ on Dana 44's in Isuzu Rodeos and Honda Passports with rear disc brakes. "Hold the horses, this needs some attention". Turns out these things come with 12" rotors with internal e-brakes, 6 lug bolt pattern the same as our Dana 44 Wagoneer axles and a finned aluminum diff. cover. Had to check this one out, considering I was going to buy a conversion kit off Ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Rear-Disc-Brakes-Jeep-Cherokee-Wagoneer-w-park-brakes_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ42605QQihZ013QQitemZ230109416674 for $499.00 that used Cadillac calipers but was holding off on doing so. This was a really nice set-up but hey, I'm cheap. So with tape measure in hand, or in this case if anybody knows me, on my belt, off to E-Z Pull we went. http://www.joesusedautoparts.com/EZPull.html We only found one but that was all we needed, a 1994 Isuzu Rodeo with complete rear end (except for the finned aluminum diff. cover, somebody already scarfed that one up). $35.00 if we took it off or $45.00 if they burned it off for us. Needless to say we left them burn it off. Rotor to rotor complete. Took some rough measurements and the axle tubes are the same dia. as a Wagoneer, so for $45.00 I figured I would gamble. Now this will be the 3rd axle housing that Jeffrey and I have CARRIED out of this place and was hoping it was the last. These thing just keep getting heavier or I just am getting older. Got it home and tore into it and found some amazing things. These axles use the same wheel bearings and seals as Jeep, have a very simple caliper set-up and an internal e-brake that would put some small compacts to shame. (Minor note of interest, I have tried to buy these bearings at my local Auto Zone for a Wagoneer and am told they are not available anymore, so I asked for bearings for a 1994 Isuzu and low and behold they put them on the counter in front of me. Hmmm!!) Now the article in JP was an installation of the whole axle housing into a Jeep by changing mounting brackets, but since we already had our housing narrowed with the offset differential for the Quadra Trac we had different ideas. Next post I'll show you how we modified what we had and got rear disc brakes for $45.00

2007-02-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Trying to make a decision on hardtops, we picked up a CJ top for $75 without a liftgate but then found out the liftgates rust out and finding a good one was out of the question. They do make fiberglass ones but am told they are flimsy and fit poorly. So we contemplated on a Wrangler but couldn't find a nice one in our price range (read that as cheap) but got a second chance offer on this one on Ebay for $275. The only problem with a Wrangler top with a CJ tailgate is that the gate opens up from the inside and the liftgate can't be opened up with the gate shut. Sort of backed myself into a corner. (I like corners, makes me think of ways to get out.) We will definitely go with the Wrangler because of bigger windows, and all glass lift gate with wiper. Unfortunately we didn't score one with a rear defroster. The fit to the body is great, a testament to Shell Valley http://www.shellvalley.com/ The tailgate shouldn't be that big of a problem fitting an outside activated latching system. I'll keep looking for some kind of flush mounted latch during my trips thru the junkyard.

2007-02-03T05:26:00.000-08:00

Frame ties, If you got a fiberglass body don't leave home without them. I have seen these thing in alot of variations, some good and not so good. Now I don't proclaim to be an expert, or posses any mechanical engineering knowledge, but some how I don't think a section of 1 1/2" pipe welded to the side of the frame is going to do much to save your ass in the event of a roll over. This is my kids life on the line. After much thought on this subject we decided to go with 2 x 3 x 1/4 wall rectangular tubing. Maybe a little overkill but I don't think so. I took an adjustable bevel gauge to get the angles and transferred them to cardboard, made some adjustments then transferred these to a piece of 2 x 3 wood. Kept tweaking the angles on my radial arm saw then finally put it to metal. All I did was cut a v shaped section at the bend, not cutting thru the one wall, that way I wouldn't have to rely totally on my weld. Just heat up the area of the wall and bend close and weld the 3 remaining sides. The decision was made to notch the end to fit to the top outer corner of the frame, that way any force would have to be transferred down and in on the frame rails, thus literally having to collapse the frame rails rather than a shear force if they were fastened to the outside of the frame. I would rather have the frame take the force and work for me versus a weld to the side of the frame rail. The passenger side tie also had to be clearanced for the fuel filler hoses, so I simply cut a section of 1 1/2 pipe and layed it in the corner of the tie and weld. 1/4" plates are then welded to the top of the ties and bolt directly into the rear roll bar mounts. Hopefully these will never have to be tested, but at least give us piece of mind knowing we went above and beyond.

2007-02-03T04:36:00.000-08:00

Been awhile since the last post, but we are pecking away at it. It is the little details that take the time but will be worth it in the long run, if for anything else, personal satisfaction. Anyhow we decided to tuck the exhaust up a bit higher so that means notching out the rear crossmember, again for that muscle car era look. It really didn't take that much time other than measuring several times before cutting. Something anybody with a drill press and welder could do. We decided to go with 2 1/2" exhaust diameter so we got some 3" diameter pipe, cut it to the length that the crossmember is thick then sliced it a little less than half. Used a hole saw the same diameter as the outside of the pipe. Since the pilot drill on the hole saw would not be engaged in the crossmember during cutting you must securely (and I do mean securely, otherwise it will kick back) clamp the crossmember to the drill press table. Use a slow rpm, a light feed and plenty of cutting oil. Once that was cut thru simply lay the section of pipe in and weld. Finish it off with some grinding and you end up with a personal custom touch, not really noticeable to the casual observer but somebody looking over the details of your rig will appreciate. I guess sort of a wow factor. Not that this thing with a 2" lift really needed the extra ground clearance with tucked up exhaust, it was just something we wanted to do and it was easy.

2006-09-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

Installation of the hood scoop went better than we thought. As mentioned earlier we weren't sure if it would clear the factory Laredo stripes. I was pondering this at work one day (yes sometimes I do have time to daydream in between pushing the cycle start button on that cnc machine) and remembered the all original 1981 Laredo setting along this guys house we spotted several years earlier. So we cut out a cardboard template and went on a road trip. The guy had no problem with us checking out the fit, after he removed the machete from the hood. (I guess it was there to scare off nosy Jeep enthusiasts). As luck would have it, the scoop would clear with no modifications. We just marked the centerline of the hood on the hood and template, lined up the template front to back on the line and after making sure the back mounting studs would clear the underhood bracing, drilled out the six holes. Some fender washers and nuts and it was in place. The studs will later be cut off and capped with acorn nuts for a more sanitary look. Since it was mounted cowl induction style, we trimmed the bottom of the opening to angle front for a more scoopy (is that a word?) affect. We were after a different look without being too bazaar. The bulge hoods just stuck out too much, too obvious. This is a more subtle look without taking away from the classic Jeep look and adds a little hint of muscle car flavor, plus gives us a mounting surface for those all important 401 emlems.

2006-08-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey wanted some kind of hood scoop for the CJ and we had looked at some "Bulge Hoods" which all had a raised center section but it just took away from the classic design that he wanted to retain. So the search was on. We needed something that would be close to the shape of the center raised section of a stock hood and the 401 emblems had to fit on the sides (that was a must) . These emblems were puchased off Ebay from member "berg102" http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=berg102&items=25&page=1&amp;amp;frompage=-1&iid=-1&de=off. These are really top quality metal (not plastic) hand painted U.S. made. The hood scoop came from CJ Pony out of Harrisburg, Pa. http://www.cjponyparts.com/. This is strickly a Ford Mustang store so we felt a little out of place, but the people could not have been nicer. They even went out to the dumpster for a piece of cardboard so we could scribe a footprint of the scoop so we could see before we bought it, if it would fit the hood. The hood scoop had to clear the Laredo stripes we planned for the Jeep. If we would use it with the opening towards the front it would interfear with the stripes. So Jeffrey decides "how about cowl induction"? So we turned it around with the opening in the back and everything should clear. We might order a stripe kit first to make sure. As you can see this thing comes with studs glassed in so installation should be a snap. Stay tuned for the installation.

2006-07-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

In this view you can see the difference that the shackle reversal made in moving the front axle ahead, centers the wheel a little better in the opening. Can't wait to get those 31's mounted on those factory chrome wagon wheels. Had to cut out for the taller wide track shock mounts, a saber saw made quick work of this. Start out by cutting only a little at a time. It's easier to remove than to add. We will probably add a rubber shield to cover the outside of the shock and mount to help cut down dirt from entering into the engine bay.

2006-07-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

Lost no time in placing the body on the frame, (just had to see how it looked). Even the rollbar fits well. I had gotten an installation video from 4 wheel drive hardware http://www.catalogs.com/search_3.asp?id=959&depid=33 to get a little educated, and picked up a few things from it. The way they start out, they place four 2" spacers at the middle mounts and measure the remaining mounts, then mount the hood, then the fenders and grille and whatever length mount the grille takes that's what is is. My problem with this method is that it wont always cosmetically look ok. I wound up with way too much of a gap at the rear crossmember and next to none at the grille. Trying to correct this we kept adjusting the mount lengths in the middle which kept rocking the gaps back and forth. I finally got tired of doing this so instead I started with the rear crossmember, Got a nice 1/2" gap then put two 1" mounts up front as a starting point. I checked for clearance in the middle which was ok. Then the hood was mounted, the fenders and the grille. The grille mount was adjusted until it was cosmetically correct by lifting the front of the tub which in turn allowed the front body mounts to fall into place. Now that the front and back where correct we made sure everything cleared in the middle, measured the rest of the body mounts and cut them. Now keep in mind we put no body lift on this, if you do, it can still be done using this method with a lot less hassle. Reinforcing strips are used at the mounting points of the body and fenders. This made for a very ridgid setup, you could actually lift at the grille and lift the front of the body if needed. I can remember going to shows and seeing Jeeps with no body lift with a very unsightly gap at the rear crossmember or at the grille. If you start in the back this can be elliminated. Again I can't say enough about this Shell Valley body. Give them a call or check them out on the web. http://www.shellvalley.com/

2006-07-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would show you the one man lifting device I made. I took a length of rectangular tubing and sliced it (channel would also work I just didn't have any) then welded on some slotted pieces to hook a length of chain into. A piece of 3/4" thick wood goes between the body and the tubing (now channel) to protect the body. A length of pipe longer than the body is wide was cut with a piece of metal with a hole in to fit my chain hoist was welded in the middle along with 2 bolts (heads down) to keep the length of chain from sliding on each end spaced just a little wider than the body. The center link of each chain was painted red for easy identification of the center link. Just hook the ends onto the bracket and run up over the pipe onto the bolts. The channels can be slid front or back to find the balance point of the body.

2006-07-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Finally, "the body". Bought the tub, fenders and hood from Shell Valley out of Nebraska http://www.shellvalley.com/Replicas_and_Jeeps/Jeep/faq.asp I was a little leary buying sight unseen but they had a good reputation and the guy I dealt with "Dana" seemed pretty knowledgeable and up front. Little did I know but these guys are really into what they do. Shipping would have been $500.00 but I found out that they come into Carlisle for the kit car show with their cobra bodies so I asked if they had room to bring my body along and they obliged and only charged me $300.00 for shipping. Body cost was $2,174.00. Well I must say I was very happy when I saw the quality of the body. Double wall construction. All the other bodies I have seen had one downfall, the upper back corner of the door opening, where the door latch is, flexed and made shutting the door a chore. I can tell you right now, this one don't give at all. The tailgate opening was my other concern, would the stock steel tailgate fit. I positioned ours and had a nice even gap all the way around. I can only hope the steel doors will fit the same. They did bring a fiberglass windshield along at my request to look at. They explained that if you run with a soft top or no top that they have a tendency to flex, but is alright with a hardtop. The quality again was first rate but with the chances of this hardtop coming off I passed in favor of a steel one. I just know it will rust, you just can't seal them totally. Maybe I'll just have to try a little harder to convince Jeffrey to leave the hardtop on. To transport the body I cut some 2 x 6's to fit across the bedliner and ran straps to the hold downs at the front and back near the floor, this way the box for the hood slipped right underneath and the fender boxes I put in the tub. Next post I'll have some installation tips.

2006-05-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

We picked up this 20 gal. poly. gas tank at the Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance http://www.bmja.org/ yearly flea market in Orwigsburg for $20.00 and a skid plate from I guess a Wrangler at EZ Pull & Save in New Ringgold. (Phone 570-386-2171). All we had to do was lower the skid plate and change it from two hold down straps to one. A length of steel was added to the second crossmember to achieve this. Also sliced a little off the right side to clear the leaf springs. A new rear crossmember was fabricated from 2 x 4 box tubing. Just cut holes in for the frame rails and slid it on. Take notice we had to reverse the shackle mounts to clear the new crossmember because it is bigger than the frame. The centerline of the shackle pivot point was kept the same so as not to disturb the geometry. The old tub was set on to scribe a radius on the ends of the crossmember to match the body. This will give a bit more protection for the corner of the body and I never liked how the factory crossmember looked anyhow. We are also thinking about notching out the crossmember for the exhaust, this should look pretty trick. We'll just take a piece of pipe and slice it in half and notch out the crossmember and weld it in place, sort of muscle car era look.

2006-05-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

A little safety goes a long way in the shop, and we always try to practice that. Here is Jeff drilling out some reinforcement plates for the front shock mounts. The originals were shorter and welded to the frame, but since we switched to a wide trac axle we needed the longer shock towers as on the later Jeeps. I think the frame I took these off of had crush sleeves inside the frame rails, so we added these plates to eliminate any collapsing of the rails. Front shocks, again the good boys at B & S Auto Parts came thru with technical data so I could measure and come up with a standard shock. Also Monroe, part number 34821, cost $73.46. I took measurements off the donor frame but then moved them front to coincide with the shackle reversal moving the axle ahead. I also took a hole saw and drilled a drain hole at the bottom outside of the shock tower to eliminate any dirt and water being trapped between the shock mount and frame.

2006-05-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

How about a little driveshaft technology? Since we put a 2" suspension lift on this thing and with the longer pinion nose of the Dana 44 the already short drive shaft exceeded the 10 deg. max angle per a single u-joint. Plus looking down at the driveshaft it did not line up with the differential by 1 1/2". So now we have a compound angle to deal with. Everything I have read states that if the pinion angle is parallel with the output shaft and it doesn't exceeds 10 deg. a single u-joint can be used at each end. What a lot of people do if the angle does exceed 10 degs. is they tilt the pinion up so that it is parallel with the driveshaft. That's ok if you run a double carden joint on one end and a single on the pinion end. You see it takes 2 u-joints at the same angle to cancel out any vibration, as they turn they do not run at a steady speed, they run fast & slow. Therefore a second joint on the same end is needed to cancel out any vibration. When the driveshaft is parallel to the axle it will not set up a vibration. In our case we could have gotten away with tilting the pinion up if the pinion would have been in a straight line to the driveshaft looking down on it, but it was 1 1/2" off center. (compound angle) So we needed a double carden on each end to cancel out 2 different alignment issues. Several shops told me it would only vibrate slightly at different times and that a double carden was not needed. Well this thing is going to be street driven, and if it can be built with no vibration, then it will be built with no vibration. I knew of Tom Woods http://www.4xshaft.com/index.html but figured a local shop would be cheaper. The same shop that shortened the axles also did driveshafts. So I told Hartman Driveshaft and Axle, of Reading Pa. what I wanted. At first he claimed that we didn't need a double carden on each end that the vibration would be minimal. I persisted, even gave him some carden yokes to reuse and gave me a verbal quote of $500 to $600. Till it was all said and done the total was $944.73. OUCH!!! Now don't get me wrong, this shop does super quality work, did a great job on the axles, and takes pride in their workmanship. The killer driveshaft will never brake and the quality is impeccable, I'm just saying, shop around. I could have had the same shaft built by Woods and delivered to my door with a warranty for $650.00. Oh well, at least the front drive shaft is stock and only will require a rebuild.

2006-05-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

Moving to the rear we added a sway bar from Addco Manufacturing http://www.addco.net/. They make sway bars for all sorts of vehicles. (Got one for my J10 years ago and they even made a special one for my CJ5). Part number OOK1-260-OU. 3/4" diameter and cost $134.00 for the CJ7. I was a little leary that the bend in the center of it was going to clear the offset differential. Turned out the way they wanted it installed, this was going to interfere with our exhaust plans. It was to be installed with the center bend going over the driveshaft, fastened to the bottom of the frame rails, with the legs pointing towards the back and the ends fastened to the top of the leaf springs. Our plans for a dual in/dual out transverse muffler hung from the crossmember above the axle wasn't going to cut it. So I turned it around with the legs facing forward and the centered bend going over the top of the axle the way I originally thought it was to be installed. Luckily there was enough clearance for the offset differential. Had to fabricate mounts welded to the top of the axle tubes, and then another set of wedge shaped mounts welded under the frame rails. I used their u-brackets, but ran into a problem with their links not long enough. Did some measuring and determined that a set I had for the front of my 1967 Olds 442 were the perfect length. These are made by TRW http://www.trw.com/home/main/0,,,FF.html part number 18053. The rear shocks were gotten thru B & S Auto Parts. They were kind enough to copy spec pages out of their Monroe gatalog, http://www.monroe.com/ took that and determined which ones we needed, they are part number 34802, cost $77.95.

2006-05-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

I told you earlier I would fill you in on a 401 that I stumbled on, so here it is. I called Jasper Motors http://jaspermotors.com/ about a 4.2 engine for my Eagle and just for the heck of it asked if they had any 401's. The guy laughed, said "the last core that came thru here was $1000.00." I told him about the CJ project, and he said "you should talk to my brother Ross Peterson, he's an AMC guru." Called him up and told him what we were into and he asked if we had the 401 built yet? No we aren't that far yet. Wanna buy one already built with 7000 miles on it? Turns out he built it himself for a Wagoneer he had, then ended up selling it minus the engine to a friend of his. It is built basically stock .030 over with premium parts and then balanced, has a rare R4B Edelbrock intake that was made for AMC to use in the SC/Ramblers. The torque curve is a little too high for the CJ, so we will be selling the intake. In the Wagoneer with a 400 Turbo and quadra trac, on a wet road moving at speed and dumped it into 2nd gear it would brake all 4 tires loose. By this time I'm figuring this thing is out of our price range, but had to ask how much? $3000.00!! Crap, I can't have one built for that. The bad part was he already sent adds out to AMC publications to sell it, but they didn't hit the news stands yet. So I had very little time to think it over. So needless to say I sent a down payment and picked it up 2 months later. He had a really nice run stand, so we could hear it run. You could actually put your hand on the valve cover and hardly feel it running that's how well balanced it is. Can't wait to get this thing installed.

2006-05-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

This post will get a bit technical so if part numbers and details bore you, you might want to move on. If you think you might like to duplicate a steering set-up like this then I can save you a lot of aggravation and money on Advil, read on because this turned out pretty sweet.
Do in part to switching to Dana 44's and keeping the Wagoneer spindles we ended up with only one tie rod end hole on the passenger side instead of two like the CJ. This proved to be troublesome in figuring out a tie rod set up. The Wagoneer tie rod has an intregrated tie rod end and would have to be shortened. We wanted to eliminate problems in the future when a tie rod end goes bad that another custom tie rod wouldn't have to be made plus the down time. Also with the shackle reversal moving the axle forward 1 1/2" brought the tie rod that much closer to the pitman arm. I see now why M.O.R.E.
http://www.mountainoffroad.com/ doesn't recommend a dropped pitman arm, it would obviously hit the tie rod. But we wanted to keep everything as parallel as possible to eliminate bump steer with the 2" lift and that meant a dropped arm. The dropped arm came from a 1987 Wrangler (square headlight) as did the beefier sway bar. The good old boys at B & S Auto Parts in Pine Grove loaned me an extra spicer parts book and after a few nights of reading and measuring I decided on a tie rod end incorporating a tapered hole for a drag link for a 1/2 ton Chevy. This gave me the same size ball end as a Wagoneer (bigger than a CJ) and the extra hole that was needed for the drag link that was eliminated off the spindle. (Spicer part number 401-1275. cost $18.29) The only problem is that this end is designed for the driver side of the Chevy thus the tapered hole, which was designed for a steering dampener was facing the wrong way, but happened to be smaller than the draglink tapered end. The hole had to be enlarged from the other end. So I did some searching for tapered reamers and found what I needed on Ebay. Damn isn't technology great? The reamer is an Xcut brand #5952, 1 1/2" taper per foot, bought from Ebay seller tltrades at his Ebay store XKUT for $47.99. I measured with a dial calipers what the large diameter of the hole should be and put a piece of tape on the reamer to get the depth, then mounted the tie rod end on a drill press and slowly reamed it out. The driverside tie rod end is a Spicer part number 401-1134, cost $34.89. The main tie rod is the only mildly custom part, but if you never damage it, will never need to be replaced. It is made from a 1979 Jeep J10. I have seen these in 2 versions totally straight or a bend to give extra clearance for the pitman arm, get the straight one. Cut off the end with the lefthand thread to a length of 32" and have the end rethreaded 7/8 - 18 left hand, this will be the only machine shop work performed, unless you have access to one. I am a machinist by trade so I was able to take it to work and wrote a program for a cnc lathe and thread it there. You will also have to put a bend in it, at a 13" centerline from the lefthand threaded end to clear the pitman arm. ( Of course do this after it's rethreaded or you wont be able to chuck it in a lathe.) The bend was perfomed with a hydraulic pipe bender from Harbor Freight http://harborfreight.com/ item number 32888-svga cost $74.99 and a little bit of heat. The tie rod end and tie rod are connected with Spicer adjuster sleeves part number 425-1002 cost $7.33 each. The drag link is a Spicer part number 405-1009 cost $46.00. The threaded end was shortened by 1" and rethreaded with a 7/8 - 18 righthand die purchased from MSC http://www1.mscdirect.com/cgi/nnsrhm part number 03938180 cost $32.62. A Spicer tie rod end, part number 401-1224 cost $49.88 and another adjuster sleeve rounds out the drag link. Connect this end to the Wrangler pitman arm. As you can see everything is pretty well parallel and as the suspension travels the pitman arm now clears the bend in the main tie rod. You can also install a shock dampener and brackets from a J10 with no clearance issues. The sway bar from the Wrangler can be mounted in the stock location on the frame, but the legs are straight unlike the curved down ones on a CJ requiring longer connecting links and is also wider. Well it just happens that unmodified links from a J10 are the correct length, but will have to be mounted on the inside of the swaybar instead of the outside. The tapered holes in the sway bar are facing the wrong way for this. You know that reamer that was purchased for the tie rod end? Yep, same size, just mount on a drill press and ream half way thru and the tapered bolt can then be used from the J10. This makes for one beefy set up with full adjustability, and readily available replacement parts that can be easily modified at home.

2006-04-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

After hastily spending $250. On a wide track front dana 30 so we could obtain the 56" track we still were not sure what to do with the rear. As I stated before an offset differential amc 20 was never produced in wide track, only a centered differential version was made after quadra trac was discontinued in 1979. So after some very precise measuring it was determined dana 44's from a quadra trac equipped Wagoneer could be used by shortening only one side of each housing. This could only have worked out better if we would not have bought the dana 30 front. Needless to say we lost are asses on that purchase. So here is how it all went together. Front axle from 1979 quadra trac Wagoneer, shorten driverside by 4" and move spring perch in to give 27 1/4" spring center to center, (which is stock CJ). This will give you a track of 56", equal to stock CJ wide track. The original long driverside axle shaft can also be cut down and resplined, no need to have a custom axle made. The passengerside spring perch is cast into the housing and cannot be moved, but just happens to be in the right spot, and since we switched to Wrangler front springs they are the same width as Wagoneer. Otherwise the spring perches on a dana 30 wide track are too narrow. This will also align the pinion angle up correctly. And remember that the shackle reversal kit moved the axle ahead 1 1/2", so if you stuck with a dana 30 you would have to lengthen the front driveshaft 1 1/2", BUT and this is the neat part, a dana 44 differential housing is 1 1/2" longer, OH YEH, a stock front driveshaft bolts right up, no lengthening. Use the Wagoneer spring u bolt plates and relocate the driverside shock mount to match the passengerside. Upper wide track bolt on shock mounts will have to replace the welded on narrow track shock mounts.
Okay, rear dana 44 from 1979 quadra trac Wagoneer. Shorten the driverside by 2 3/4" and relocate the spring perches to the bottom. Again the stock axle can be shortened and resplined. The differential center line will still be off center by 1 1/2" from the transfercase but if you use a double carden driveshaft it will eliminate any vibration. The alternative to this was to shorten the passengerside by 1 1/2" and the driverside by 1 1/4" but then you would have to get custom axle shafts made for both sides. It worked out cheaper to have a double carden driveshaft made. The rear spring u bolt plates are stock CJ with the shock mounts with the u bolt holes elongated with a milling machine tc accommodate the bigger diameter axle.
So there you go strong dana 44's front and rear to handle all the torque from that 401. We stayed with the 6 bolt lug pattern because we had factory chrome wagon wheels and is a stronger set-up. This also gives you G.M. type front disc brake calipers which I prefer over the CJ type, a little easier to change pads. Keen eyes will see no rear brakes, you can stick with the drums or go with rear disc brakes like we are.

2006-04-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Took a little down time from the building process and found this at are local Turkey Hill for a couple of bucks and had to buy it. Stripped the bazaar shade of green and repainted it in black and got some pinstriping and dry transfer letters from the hobby store. Put some "bare metal foil" also from the hobby store on the grille and fabricated the roll bar from brass tubing. The Laredo look is what we are shooting for on the real thing.

2006-04-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

Well the springs finely got here. We wanted only a 2" lift for several reasons, safety, looks and the fact that a dropped pitman arm is not needed until after 2". We certainly didn't want to be bothered with bump steer, since this will be a daily driver and should be a pleasure to drive. We also wanted to go with 31" tires and with a shackle reversal kit it moves the front axle ahead by 1 1/2" which if you look at a side view of a stock CJ the front wheel is too far back in the wheel opening. So when you go to a larger tire you end up with clearance problems. The springs I got from my local Chysler dealer Outten in Hamburg, Pa. http://www.outtencars.com/location/hamburg-pa/index.jsp The service manager there is Brian Moyer who also runs Blue Mountain Jeep Alliance Club http://www.bmja.org/ He is a real Jeep guy and he advised me on the springs. We used Wrangler front springs part # OK-BDS-00420 and CJ rear springs part # OK-BDS-00425. These cost a total of $317.89 and was cheaper than a lift kit in which we would not have used many of the parts and also this way I could mix and match Wrangler/CJ springs. The Wrangler springs ride softer than the CJ and are also wider than CJ so we are hoping the rear springs are not too stiff. The reason we didn't go with Wrangler rear is because they are longer and I didn't want to have to mess with relocating spring mounts. I guess we will find out after it is on the road if we made a mistake or not. The rear part of the shackle reversal kit comes with a bushing tube that must be drilled and welded into the frame. The instructions for locating them are based on an assembled vehicle with all the weight. We didn't have that luxury. The shackle must be a little past centerline with all the weight on, it will bump and actually lift the Jeep when it tries to move back as the suspension travels. We actually had them too far front and when I got the bright idea to compress the springs with a bar clamp, the shackle moved too far back and ran out of travel. So I had to redrill the frame and weld in filler pieces in the original holes. Oh well, lessons will be learned. The bushing kit is from J.C Whitney http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/StoreCatalogDisplay/c-10101/s-10101 catalog part #38166 or mfg. part # 1-1005 or 1-100 and cost $29.95. They are of the urethane type and I am sure will squeak. Gonna try and install some grease fittings to compansate.

2006-04-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

Two views here of the shackle reversal kit ordered from M.O.R.E. http://mountainoffroad.com/more.htm I ordered the unwelded kit version because it was cheaper and I wanted my son to learn some valuable welding.
The kit number is 7686-20 for $165.00 plus $24.29 shipping. To line everything up I stuck a threaded rod through both assemblies and again took lots of measurements. At the time I hadn't yet ordered the Wrangler springs for up front and since the CJ springs are narrower I used the back springs which are the same width as Wrangler springs to mock everything up. Make sure everything is square to the frame rails because if not this will only shorten the life of the bushings. Had to do a lot of shimming and tweaking (sledge hammer) to obtain this. For more info on the pros and cons on shackle reversals check out JP Magazine http://www.jpmagazine.com/ they did a great article.

2006-04-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Now that we have everything disassembled we can clean it up. I had said that this Jeep came out of Florida, well I think some of it came along for the ride. Then they wonder why the shorelines are diminishing. We must have washed out a ton of sand. Took a long garden hose and fished it up through the frame rail, worked really great. Found two areas that needed replacement with fresh metal. It was luckily confined to the boxed areas where the metal is of thinner gauge and not in anything structural. Simply cut out the bad areas and bent and shaped new material and welded in place. Be careful in doing the welding as not to get one area hot at one time, it is possible to bend a frame rail, rather stitch short areas and let cool before welding again. Take lots of measurements before and after. Haven't decided yet on what primer and paint to use to protect this yet. Would like to rust proof the insides of the rails. I don't know if any shops have a long wand to stick up the rail and spray it from the inside while dragging it out. Maybe if somebody out there knows of anything they can let me know. I have time for this yet, as we will be doing fabrication next.

2006-03-30T17:12:00.000-08:00

After we rolled the chassis back into "headquarters" (damn I gotta get rid of that sign) out came the 400 turbo and quadra trac. These will be rebuilt and reused, we are firm believers in this set-up. Have it in my J10 with over 200,000 trouble free miles. Reliability is great, you can still get parts and the full time traction is outstanding. Did I mention a 401 is going in this? oh yeh, that's the title of this blog. It was originally a 304 jeep but a previous owner installed a 401 and the "Jeep Shop from Chester Springs" pulled the engine for a customer and sold us the rest for $500.00. I already had a rebuildable 401 core so wasn't worried. In the meantime we stumbled across a 7,000 mile rebuilt one. More on that later. We yanked the rears and leafsprings and was left with a bare frame. Found a couple of rust throughs, but all in the boxing sections, not in the major frame areas. This Jeep came out of Florida so it lead a better life than here in the northeast. We are also going to experiment with the 400 turbo by installing "switch pitch". This was used by G.M. from 1965 to 1967. What it is, is a variable stator torque converter which gives you hi stall, low stall in one unit. In other words hi performance and fuel economy at the flick of a switch. You can also split shift it as you manually run up through the gears. I have a couple of these transmissions laying around so I'll keep you updated. A shackle reversal up front along with YJ springs are also slated for this project. Want to go with wide track (56") axles. The front is no problem but the AMC 20 offset differential rear was never made in wide track version, because wide track wasn't available until they stopped using quadra trac after 1979. I am not crazy about using spacers with 2 piece axles, so we'll see.

2006-03-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

See this little critter? That my friends is a catalytic converter. I had the great pleasure of beating it to a pulp then driving over it. You will not see one of these on this Jeep. That's one of the great advantages of building your own vehicle. No smog equipment. How? do you ask. Well it seems in this part of Pa. you need to have originally equipped
smog devices installed, (they don't have to work, just be there) even on a "reconstructed" vehicle. but if you read further you will find that a "specially constructed" vehicle does not, because it is built from various sourced parts and suppliers, not from an existing vehicle as with a reconstructed one. Therefore all you have to do is take your good title and turn it into a salvage title. Now you have parts with proof that you paid your tax on it. Now you take this title along with your other receipts (you did keep them right) and apply for a specially constructed title. No year will get assigned to it and will be "emission exempt" with no mileage restrictions. And it is all legal. It is the same as starting out with no title and going to a junkyard or other sources for your parts, show that you paid tax on those parts and apply for the specially constructed title. And now you have the satisfaction of abiding by "their" rules. Don't you feel better now? True duals baby!!!

2006-03-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

Well it just keeps going. Here we are two generations of Jeep building. Jeff senior on top in 1980 building his CJ5 and junior on bottom doing his thing at present. You just can't describe the feeling that comes from building a Jeep. The knowledge, respect, satisfaction, glory and bonding. All I can say is get your kids involved and they will gain all those traits. The memories that come out of something of this magnitude will last a life time. The parts hunting, bartering and trading. The new freinds that you will gain and places you will go that you normally wouldn't have if not for this mechanical wonder. And yes, even computer skills are learned when making up fake I.D.'s to get into those "no one under 18 allowed" u-pull junkyards. These are all life skills that will come in handy later on down the road.

2006-03-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

Hooked it up to the J10 and drug it down back in the bush where I just happen to have an old rack from another J10 that made a good cradle for the old body. Hung on to the body for future hole measurements to transfer later to the fiberglass body.

2006-03-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

Time for a little R & R. Young Jeff is pretty good at inline hockey so naturally when the roll bar and hood came off he envisioned a goal net. How about that 79 J10 behind him? 250,000 miles and still going. If you look real close you can also see a 79 Cherokee Chief Golden Eagle to the left of the garage. Yeh we like are Jeeps.

2006-03-16T16:26:00.000-08:00

And now it's time for lift off. Guess I'll have to put the camera down and give him a hand. It's alot lighter without all those extra parts in there, of course the rusted out floors also help.

2006-03-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Here we are in Ghostbusters Headquarters, (got that sign from Burger King when the kids were younger, I think it's time to put it on Ebay.) Teardown began almost immediately, this is the easy part you really don't have to give a rat's a-- about damaging anything. After we got the front sheetmetal off, it was alot easier accessing the fire wall, wireing and brake stuff. Jeff is starting to get hooked on the smell of WD-40 though, it's like he can't get enough of it. We did tag any useable items and took lots of detailed photos for future reference. Believe me when I say it's easy to forget.

2006-03-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Here we are at home getting ready to unload. The trip was uneventful , which was a good thing. Homer said he hasn't lost one yet.

2006-03-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

Here we are the weekend of 4th of July 2004. Now if that isn't a happy face nothing is. Powered by enthusiasm, I'd say. All we had to do to transport was to strap the torque converter in so it wouldn't fall out and load it up. That's Homer from "Moyers Car Care" of Friedensburg. Pa. doing the roll back thing, he's a real car guy that loves his job.

2006-03-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

Here it is as we first layed eyes on it in May of 2004 at "The Jeep Shop" in Chester Springs, Pa. http://www.thejeepshop.net/ Originally from Florida, we checked the frame for rust and said ok. The owner would remove the 401 that was presently installed for a customer and we could have the rest for $500.00. The rest being a 400 turbo with quadra-trac. power steering, manual disc brakes and a dana 30 up front and amc 20 in the rear. Along with a tilt column and tac dash, a totally waisted body and a good set of sellable tires and wheels.

1977 QUADRA TRAC JEEP CJ7 BUILD UP

2006-03-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Jeff and if you found this sight you also must be interested in a Jeep CJ7. This project got started in May of 2004 as a ride for my son, also Jeff, when he was 14. He wanted to build a Jeep with a fiberglass body as a cool first ride. I had built a 1963 CJ5 in 1980 with an AJ's fiberglass body using original running gear, read that as a 4 cylinder 3 speed with overdrive, as cheaply as I could. So I figured why not, the kid wants to learn, work his butt off with summer jobs to help finance the project, and hopefully have some respect for the thing when it is done. Also I confess that I had a passion to build another the way I really would have liked to build one. And with the wife's blessing we had a green light. So enjoy the pictures and build up and learning curve process and tag along for the ride.