I got a little time hear and there over the past few days to work. Removed driveshafts, main crossmember,
Dana 300 , exaust, several brackets and have
Transmission unbolted and broke free. Have tranny chained to several jack stands and hope to get
Transmission lift from work today to get it completely out and ready for tear down.
Transfer Case is ready and all bolts, bearings and pins soaking. No real issues getting all these out. One of the
Dana 300 bolts that was supposed to have the nut come off instead of bolt ended up pulling the entire bolt out. I don't think it's an issue as the bolt just unthreaded from the case and backed out. I checked threads and they look great so I feel I should be able to just run it back in and now I have the nut loose it should be fine. I'm not sure if they were never that or just left out when Jasper engine was installed but it appeared that possibly 2 bolts were missing from bell housing. I think I got 4 or so smaller one and 2 larger 5/8"(1 on each side at about 3:00 & 9:00 position). A hole or 2 did not have anything? Cross member/support for drivetrain is very solid with only a spot of surface rust. I have to look up the small possibly 6" wide x 2" bracket at the very rear of
Transmission . The bracket is solid but whatever was between it and cross member is nothing but a gooey, sticky crumbling mess of rubber. I guess it is bushings that dissolved. I am replacing all bolts and bushings on entire vehicle so I'll figure it out and replace. Tranny oil looked good when drained but I'm still doing rebuilds on every component.
Dana 300 drain plug had a fair amount of metal shavings on magnetic tip so we will see what the internals look like when I get in it. Next I'm going to try and make my tire decision today and price around. I have a oem set of cj 15x7 rims that are white. I am going to blast them and coat either a matte or semi black. I think I've decided on Duratrac 31x10.5's which should fit the no lift and still be ok if I decide on a 2" lift. I have a decent set of aluminum 16" bullet holes that came on it that I'm gonna throw on craigslist for practically nothing to get them out of the way. Rear drums look like
along with e brake cables and lines so I will be junking all that. Have to replace small bracket on drivers side ride above cat that I believe help support heat shield(also rusted badly and will be replaced) that was in bad shape. So far frame, body mount supports, caged nuts and all have been good. Header and complete exhaust are shot and will be upgraded and replaced. I am leaning towards keeping the
AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l and rebuilding with some head work, possible cam, header/exhaust and definitely a different carb. Still researching those options. Not interested in efi since will not be a daily driver and I want the bay to be tidy as possible. When I removed all harnesses they looked great so I will most likely reuse and delete all unneeded wiring. It will be bypassed(SC is a non inspection state) and remove all unnecessary tubing and parts. I am keeping all original equipment that will not be used labeled and in boxes just in case. I think I am going to order a new
Transfer Case shift handle since that is the one that the threaded handle snapped off when I tried to remove. It snapped the complete threads off in the handle. Thought about trying to weld back but not worth the trouble. I do need to figure out how to get the threaded broken part out of the leather knob. It is in excellent shape and all the replacements I saw are plastic or rubber so I want to use it. That's about all right now. Be back in a few days. I'll add a few more pics now. I can't figure out how to add pics as I go in a post so sorry for the individuals you have to click on. The last pic is one I found of a Cj that has a similar look ride and tire type I would like with original rims.
