Build Thread 1986 CJ7 Rebuild - Chasing my youth

[Masscj7]

Hmm, maybe I’ll hold off and do the stock arms. Don’t plan on driving in the rain too much anyways.

Bilzean, the seal was the OEM one. My father and law cleaned it up and it was seal very pliable. He was a glass guy for 30 years so I’ll put my faith in him.

Been lots of little since. Fought my brake pedal sticking and had to notch my pedal arm, no idea why. A little body filler to my modded gas pedal. And had to hit the folding seat handle cushions with some 303 Protectant and they came to life.




Tried some of the SEM plastic paint, stuff laid down awesome on the column shroud. Also have a awesome hardware store a little ways away where I was able to get some black painted stainless screws for the shroud.





I had been fighting my ebrake return spring after I tore the original apart and sandblasted, painted and rebuilt. Got sick and tired of it, so I threw it to the side. Ordered another used one. So if course I wanted it to look like my refurbished one. So I threw it in a container of Evaporust this time without disassembling. Well, got side tracked and didn’t get back to it for two weeks and when I pulled out, the same damn return spring had disintegrated in the solution. Grrrrr. So I took a chance on an NOS one from Greece off eBay, and got damn! Perfect! Got in 4 days and only thing is the white lettering has yellowed.






I also built my own vacuum leak detector and it worked great. No leaks other than the studs on the Holley throttle body. But Holley said those should seal up with some heat cycles of longer drives.



And then lastly, the best part, should wait till the end, but couldn’t help myself.




Much better


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[Belizean]

Nice find.

 

[Armyvet25]

Nice Write up, Nice work, Nice Jeep !!!

 

[Patrick]

Absent dash pad, wide brake pedal for automatic application. Finish that single TC stick smooth and chrome to match floor shift for that balanced matching awesome look…

 

[Project86]

Very clean and finished looking. Great job.

 

[Masscj7]

So hadn’t done much on the rig from a running standpoint since I had my first drive at the end of August. So came out a couple of weeks ago to get work on the oil pressure gauge and sender and it won’t start. Cranks, but no fire. Noticed I have only 20psi of fuel pressure. So do some T shooting and nothing obvious. So here we go. Drop the tank again and well, it was out of gas! The new Crown sender needed adjustment and it just seemed to be giving some real flaky ohm readings. But the big surprise was the Eastwood tank sealing I had done.
Oh !


The reviews on the product were ehh, some great, some not so great. I felt that I followed the prep to a T, but it’s only had two gallons or so in it and less than a year and it was peeling already. It hadn’t clogged my pick up but it would eventually.

So new tank purchased and one of our fellow CJ owners talked me into a Tanks Inc floatless sender. Well, the piece works great on my gauge but the mounting flange holes were way off. So bunch of time spent filling the holes and retapping them.




I really wanted to utilize the stock sender location. One because it was the right depth for the length of the sender I purchased and I just like the look of having it there and not trying to plug the OEM hole.

But it had a good ridge stamping to it. So I busted out the hammer and dolly and flattened it pretty good. Tacked in the sender mounting ring as well as the fuel pump ring. I didn’t like how the hole was a little to big and only half of the gasket was going to really contact the tank under the sender, so I layed in some ugly filler welds and ground down the snot to give a little more surface area.

This time instead of doing the tank sealer (was worried about corrosion after I cut the pump hole) I’m going to do the Eastwood brake caliper paint. I’ve used this stuff several times and it stands up to brake fluid, acetone, break cleaner and I would assume gas as well. Just want to head off corrosion.












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[Armyvet25]

First time my tank gives me problems after installation, it gets ditched for an aftermarket fuel cell, and I plan on using an external electric fuel pump designed to handle today's ethanol (10-15%) fuel.
Nice job on the sender, have to figure out what I'm doing there yet, haven't decided on the fuel gauge yet either.

 

[Masscj7]

I flipped flopped on an external fuel pump or an in tank one, and I landed on the in tank because this will be almost exclusively a summer time, no doors and no top rig and I don’t want to hear the pump. But from a service standpoint dropping the tank sucks.


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[TSB8C]

I flipped flopped on an external fuel pump or an in tank one, and I landed on the in tank because this will be almost exclusively a summer time, no doors and no top rig and I don’t want to hear the pump. But from a service standpoint dropping the tank sucks.

I also prefer an in-tank pump for the same reason - the sound. Perhaps consider cutting an access port in the rear floor over the tank for any future service work without dropping the tank.
Video link

 

[Armyvet25]

I flipped flopped on an external fuel pump or an in tank one, and I landed on the in tank because this will be almost exclusively a summer time, no doors and no top rig and I don’t want to hear the pump. But from a service standpoint dropping the tank sucks.


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mine will be the same, no top or doors, but might go in tank, not sure yet, if I do, I'll be customizing the tank mounting for easier removal or bed cutout with access door

 

[Belizean]

Mine is an in tank and so far it is great. I can only hear mine for a couple of seconds if there is dead silence, when I turn the key on.

 

[Armyvet25]

I think even if I mount mine outside rear frame area, I'll be hard pressed to hear it with a 350 carburated engine hugger headers even with some kind of decent full exhaust, the drivetrain/exhaust will prob drown it out

 

[Belizean]

I have this out of tank pump I bought from Holley probably 2-3 years ago. For my Sniper engine project. Decided later to go in tank. If there is anyone that wants it, I will ship on your wallet account.

 

[Armyvet25]

I have this out of tank pump I bought from Holley probably 2-3 years ago. For my Sniper engine project. Decided later to go in tank. If there is anyone that wants it, I will ship on your wallet account. View attachment 77129View attachment 77130

will it work for a carburetor, or will it be forced to restrict too much even with a regulator

 

[Belizean]

Not a clue, but since it was for EFI I would say probably not. Give it a read tonight, while you are tossing a log on the fire. It’s 75 F right now, time to take a ride to test the Jeep some more.

 

[caveman]

I have this one for my carbureted rig. It's noisy but have had no problems in the ten years that I've had it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/2003867008...5I0ZB+htDZJwe6cVb6Hz29bVCbXQ|tkp:BFBM1p7705ph

 

[Masscj7]

Been real busy with work and then had some family stuff to pay attention to, so haven’t touched the Jeep in weeks. But one of the last things I did was drop the roll bar in and find that I didn’t like the size of the standard size washer to match the bolt size.
And I don’t know why, but I really prefer the painted hardware look. I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s my project. So of course I already had had the painter paint a batch of washers, but the didn’t fully cover the mounting holes and just didn’t seem to look right. So I went and got some larger ones and did it all over again with my painter.

Finally got them back this weekend and decided, nice small project to ease back into the garage.

Comparison of washers.





And really glad I went with the body color painted roll bar.



Time for me to get back rolling on this.


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[Masscj7]

Well, again, can’t get over how fast time flies. Last posts says at the end, let’s get going on this and I look and that was 3 month ago.

We’ll finally have all the wiring cleaned up and complete. Fabbed up a bracket for a couple relays. All cables to battery and starter loomed. Sniper harness pruned and cleaned up along with primary harness.

Where it started.




Cleaned up the relay sockets


Battery bracket and relay mount done


Final loom and cleanup



Lastly, got an appropriate sized air filter assembly in (needed to hit that Summit Free shipping threshold)



Hoping to get front fenders and final grill
Mounted this week.


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[Masscj7]

Next big step.






Next is try to figure out the million pieces I have for headlights. I only took 2 pictures 3 years ago. Dammit


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[CJ]

Next big step.






Next is try to figure out the million pieces I have for headlights. I only took 2 pictures 3 years ago. Dammit


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Only a million?