Build Thread 79 CJ7 "They’re coming to take me away aha"

[Petescj]

Looking good. I know exactly how you feel about the getting down on your knees situation. Hopefully some more after some more healing all will be good for both of us. Boy for under $300 I wonder if it's worth me getting new cable or a whole new winch?

 

[007]

Looks great folks! Personally, if I had to winch myself about every time I went out I might consider a Warn, but in any other case (including my own) a Badlands is perfect. We have a few where I work mounted on trailers and don't have any problem with them.


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[mriplaybass]

Pete: I guess that the warranty just expired, on us that is. The bodies are just wearing out! New pains every day. The winch is currently on sale at HF for $294.78 using coupon code 64793915

007: After having to use a come along to get my son's Acura MDX up on the car hauler after the radiator blew out on the road last week, we are going to order another one for the trailer. Glad to know they work out for that.

 

[mriplaybass]

[FONT=&quot]We had a few days last month that the temps were kind of spring like, so the CJ bug bit, and we decided to bring “Chip” out of the barn, and back into the shop to start on this years upgrades. Problem is, by the time I got the shop cleaned out, the temps had dropped back below 0, and the Jeep would not start! So for the next few days, I would put the charger on, wait until the next day, and with gas or ether down the carb, try again. No luck. It ran great when I parked it in the barn last fall! Why won’t it start now? About a week later, there was a reprieve in the weather, and temps soared into the 20s. This time “Chip” roared to life with no problems.
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[FONT=&quot]I decided to adjust the brake proportioning valve since the driveway was covered in ice. I know, red neck method, but it worked. I just kept on backing down the driveway, got rolling in 2nd gear, and gently applied the brakes. Kept on doing this, and gradually adjusting the valve until I was happy with the balance of when front and rear brakes engaged.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Now into the shop, and let the real work (frustration?) begin! First on the agenda was to see if there was some obvious cause for the starting difficulty. I removed the air cleaner, and could not believe what I saw! 2 of the 4 carb mounting lobes were broken!
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[FONT=&quot]This carb has been on for almost a year. The bolts have not been tightened, or anything changed. It appears that the phenolic spacer just gave out and crushed, thereby causing uneven torque on the carb bolts, and failure of the carb base.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I posted my woes on another thread, and a generous friend whom we wheel with sent me a “retirement” gift. A rebuildable carb! Thanks again Posi![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Once again, we enlisted the help of our oldest son to perform the rebuild, and all went well. I hope to install it this week, although testing may be a few weeks off due to no fuel tank currently in the Jeep.[/FONT]







[FONT=&quot]As of right now, there are several projects taking place on the Jeep. None of them completed, but most of the improvements are at least heading in a positive direction.
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[FONT=&quot]Since last summer we have been making due with a hastily put together spare tire carrier that did not allow us to open the tail gate. We decided that a swing out type of carrier is what we wanted. I checked out some of the ready made ones, and decided that for what they cost, I could probably make one that I would be much happier with. I searched Google, and various threads on this forum and others, and this is what I came up with.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I had a couple of old ball bearings that I believe came from a 1970s vintage snowmobile engine, some cut off sections of pipe, and about 12” of 1” cold rolled steel bar. These are the materials I had laying around, so this is what the entire carrier will be built around.[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]Let the fun begin![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I started by making a mock up for the bearing by drilling a hole in a piece of 2x6.[/FONT]






[FONT=&quot]I placed a spacer on the bottom of the 1” bar for the bearing to rest on, and used the washers as an offset so that the pipe that the bearings will be housed in would have plenty of space to rotate without hitting the bumper.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The bumper is a piece of 2x4x1/4 rectangular tube. I drilled a 1” hole through it for the pivot bar to go all the way through. The bearing housing was made by inserting another piece of pipe into the main pipe, drilling holes in the main pipe, then rosette welding the 2 pipes together. This keeps the top and bottom bearings spaced the way I wanted.[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]Once I was sure there was adequate clearance between the bearing housing and the back of the Jeep, I tacked on the swing arm.[/FONT]





[FONT=&quot]Next the upright and the lock down tab were added.[/FONT]





[FONT=&quot]After adding the wheel bolt plate and hanging the spare tire on the back end, I discovered that there was going to be a lot of movement against the bearing while wheeling. Change of plans. I decided to add another bearing to the top.[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]This bearing was a whole lot easier to make! If I had known these bearings were only around $6 each, I would have just purchased them for the bottom and been done with it! These bearings have lock collars, so I did not have to go through all the fooling around making the housing the way I did for the bottom one. Just drill the holes, and lock the collars! The lower bearing and swing arm are held in place by a bolt that threads into the top of the 1” pivot bar.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Also, being SAE sized, I did not have to grind out the bore like I did on the metric bearings to fit non metric pipe and bar. But I did save almost $12 by using the old bearings!! YIPPEE!!
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[FONT=&quot]Cross braces and tow points in place.[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]The open ends of all the tubes were welded closed, and all that remains is to turn it over to the wife for clean up and paint. Since the gas tank is currently out, I am going to wait to install the carrier until some exhaust work is completed. I’m not thrilled using the smoke wrench right next to the gas tank![/FONT]

 

[mtnwhlr]

Nice work it should work great

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Nice work it should work great

LG

 

[Petescj]

Did you ever think of moving now that your retired?

 

[Peanut Butter]

Good work!

 

[Posi]

Well done!

 

[mriplaybass]

Thanks everyone! Still a bit more work to do on it, but rapidly coming to completion.
No plans to move now that I am retired. Just the thought of trying to move a lifetime of accumulated stuff is enough to make me want go back to work! Besides, We finally have our shop set up to do the things we want to do until we degrade to mere couch potatoes!

 

[Petescj]

I was just wondering if we'd meet in another state by chance. Vicki and I have plans to move to Virginia in another year or 2

 

[007]

79 CJ7 "They’re coming to take me away aha"

That's awesome. Looks fantastic!


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[mriplaybass]

My wife has family both in Virginia, and West Virginia. Wisconsin may not be the off roaders dream, because every attempt at creating an off road park gets shot down, but everything else here is just great! We hope to get out East sometime in the next few years to do some wheeling.:jeeplove:

 

[Hedgehog]

Something to consider:

I've been thinking about your tire rack, something has been bothering me about it but couldn't quite put my finger on it. You've attached the bottom to the bumper and the top to the body. It occurs to me that the bumper is attached to the frame which moves more or less on it's own and the top is on the relatively thin sheet metal of the body. If you look at factory tire racks they are either ALL on the body or all on the bumper. I fear that frame flex just might transmit to the upper attaching point causing it to tear the heck out of the body's sheet metal.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

LG

 

[mriplaybass]

Something to consider:

I've been thinking about your tire rack, something has been bothering me about it but couldn't quite put my finger on it. You've attached the bottom to the bumper and the top to the body. It occurs to me that the bumper is attached to the frame which moves more or less on it's own and the top is on the relatively thin sheet metal of the body. If you look at factory tire racks they are either ALL on the body or all on the bumper. I fear that frame flex just might transmit to the upper attaching point causing it to tear the heck out of the body's sheet metal.

Hmmm, Good point Hedge. There are a few things that are not visible in the pics though. First, I originally designed the tire rack without the upper tie in's. Problem is, when I hung the tire, I could see that there was going to be a lot of give bouncing down the trails which would eventually lead to more give and eventual failure.
Although the carrier is pretty solid, the bearings are somewhat loose inside the housings allowing for some flex. As far as how the body is mounted in relationship to the frame, there are the usual body mounts throughout, however at the roll pan, there are an additional 3 mounts besides the factory mounting points between the body and the bumper that although rubber, are quite rigid not allowing the rear of the body to flex a whole lot.
The original carrier that I made, which did not swing out, but was completely rigid, mounted the same way. Lower mount connected to the bumper, and the upper to the body. Never had a flex issue. As a matter of fact, the upper mounts are attached to an area where the PO filled in with bondo, and even the bondo did not crack with all the off road bumps and bangs.
Thanks for the observance though, catches like this really help me with future designs.

 

[Petescj]

If you find it does pull at the sheet metal put some steel plate on the inside of the tub where the carrier mounts to strengthen it and disperse the tension.

 

[Hedgehog]

I think your bearing issue is why folks including myself use tapered wheel bearings for this type of hinge. If tight there is no bearing sloppiness there. At that point the spare tire movement is from metal flex not a loose bearing.

I put a lot of steel in my tire carrier with only one truly solid attaching point, the tapered bearing, and one latching point. When closed the latching point carries some weight, but the bearing carries the major part of the load. I actually do fear that it won't hold all the weight. Itself + 5 gallons of water + 5 gallons of fuel + the tire hanging off the rear. We will see how long mine lasts. I'd like to do just as you have done by using a second mounting point.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

It was a common issue with the OEM Jeep CJ carrier to tear the body from off road shake'n.
If you ever watch a CJ in front of you on a twisty/rocky trail. You will be very surprised at how much the frame and body really move separate of each other.
LG

 

[Lumpy Grits]

I think your bearing issue is why folks including myself use tapered wheel bearings for this type of hinge. If tight there is no bearing sloppiness there. At that point the spare tire movement is from metal flex not a loose bearing.

I put a lot of steel in my tire carrier with only one truly solid attaching point, the tapered bearing, and one latching point. When closed the latching point carries some weight, but the bearing carries the major part of the load. I actually do fear that it won't hold all the weight. Itself + 5 gallons of water + 5 gallons of fuel + the tire hanging off the rear. We will see how long mine lasts. I'd like to do just as you have done by using a second mounting point.

HH-You have about 74 lbs just in liquids, not counting the cans weight. How much does the spare tire and what ever else weigh?
Should you be think'n about a 2nd support point? Sure would hate to see the carrier fall off and cause a accident.

LG