Members CJs BusaDave9's '79 CJ5

[BusaDave9]

Here is my '79 Jeep CJ5 the day I bought it. I bought it as a birthday present to myself on Sept. 29, 2008.

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When I brought it home I took the long way home. It was a 2 hour drive to pick it up. I took two days to get home.I drove it over mountain trails and passes. I spent the night in Ouray. Here are some more pictures of my maiden voyage.

This overhang is on the way to Camp Bird Mine near Ouray CO.



The above and below pictures are of the trail to Governor Basin.



The next picture is in Velocity Basin near Silverton CO.


Next is an old house in Animas Forks Ghost town. Yes, It was snowing in late September. I can't imagine why anyone would stay up so high in the mountains.
Okay, gold is the reason. This is a mining town.

The day after I got home I looked out the window at my CJ and said to myself "I could have sworn I had a spare tire when I bought that Jeep". Sure enough the tire mount the PO fabricated broke off. I reviewed my own pictures to try to find out where it broke off. I headed back into the mountains and found my spare tire on the side of the trail.

As you can see the PO fabricated a safari rack.I liked it even though I didn't want to put too much weight up there. I often put some gas, a folding chair or other light things up there.

I later had problems with the Safari Rack too. I added metal braces to repair it. Finally I decided it was a lost cause and removed it.

Some of the first things I did to the jeep was to remove the rear seats and put in a chest like what is often installed in the back of pickup trucks only smaller. I also installed one piece Jegs seats up front and 5 point harnesses.
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[BusaDave9]

Axles​

The PO installed 35 inch tires and kept 4.1 gears in the axles. This is okay if you started out in first but the T-18 has a granny low first. (It is intended to be started out in 2nd) Also the gearing on the highway was tall, like an Overdrive . This would have worked out fine for a daily driver but the purpose of my jeep was for trail rides. I wanted to be able to drive on the highways to get to the trails but I was not going to use it as a daily driver. I wanted lower gears. I installed 4.88 ring and pinion gears and an OX locker in the rear. The AMC20 rear end already had one piece axles. The front Dana 30 already had a Detroit Locker. I really like the OX Locker. It's a simple mechanical selectable locker. I just move a small shift lever to lock the rear diff.

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[BusaDave9]

Suspension Issues with the Shackle Reversal
The PO installed a shackle reversal and 35 inch tires. These tires would rub HARD against the fenders. Especially the front fenders.
How did I address this? I got out the power tools!
I didn't want to raise it any more. I like to keep my Jeep as low as possible but still have good suspension travel and articulation.
Here is how it looked when the suspension is compressed. This was shot after doing some fender cutting.

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The problem was the Shackle Reversal. This caused the front tires to move back as the suspension compressed. You can see in the above picture the tire still pressed against the inner fender and the nerf bar. If I were also to turn to the right then the tire would really grind against the nerf bar so it had to go. I got rock sliders instead.
Here's how it looked on level ground:

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By comparing the 2 pictures above you can see how far back the tires go as the suspension compresses. I thought the new rock sliders would give plenty of room for the tire as the suspension articulates. I was wrong. I still had to do some cutting to prevent my CJ from destroying itself when it goes over bumps. I would drive my Jeep into a ditch to put all the weight on 2 opposite corners to see how any tire rubbing would occur.

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You can see I have some pretty good articulation. The biggest problem with my suspension was the shackle reversal caused the front axle to move back as the tires would go over bumps.
I also had to cut the inner fender wells. I slit and flared the inner fenders by adding sheet metal.
As the axle would move back it presses the shock into the steering knuckle until the shock broke. The fix for this would be to move the shock tower back. I used a ford shock tower but I cut the base and had a friend weld it. I also raised the top of the shock in the process. Here is the end result.

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My new shocks were Doetsch Tech Shocks with an offset eyelet.

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The above picture is up side down. I put the offset end at the bottom so the shock could clear the axle tube as the suspension would compress.

I get 8 inches of travel in the front and 5 inches of travel in the rear.

I also needed to add bump stops to prevent the tires from doing any damage to the fenders (and vise versa).

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When it came time to get new tires I decided to get SuperSwamper SX Bias Ply tires. I think Bias Ply are better for off road. The sidewalls are as tough as the tread and they flex better. On the other hand they are worse on road.
The only size of SuperSwampers I could get was 36x12.5-15. It was a little bigger than I wanted but only one inch bigger diameter than my old tires. The specs implied it was just as wide as my older tires (12.5 inches). WRONG. the new tires were much wider than my old. The reason was the Bias Ply tires had a lot more sidewall bulge. Here are my old BFG Mud Terrain

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And here are my new SuperSwamper SX Bias Ply Tires

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They were so wide they rubbed the spring and inner fender well. I usually don't like wheel spacers because they add more strain to the ball joints but I decided to get a set anyway. I am glad I did. They helped out a lot and gave my CJ a more stable stance.
Once again I took my CJ out to check wheel travel.
Here is the right rear tire compressed.

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Here is the front left tire compressed.

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I had more cutting to do.
Here is how the front fender looks today

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You can see how I cut and flared the inner fenders. I moved the back of the inner fenders to the rear and added sheet metal where I flared the fender. I also added sheet metal just behind the front tires. With oversized tires mud and water flings strait up onto my battery and electrical connections. That is why I added the sheet metal behind the front tires as you can see in the above picture.
With the shackle reversal and springs that have a lot of arch that causes the front tires to move back almost as much as they move up. You can see from my pictures I would have plenty of clearance if the tires only went up and down.

 

[BusaDave9]

Engine

Engine
I have the AMC 304 V8 and I love it. It has an Edelbrock Performer Intake Manifold and an Edelbrock 1406 Performer 600 CFM Four Barrel Carburetor. I jetted the carb for high altitudes and installed the Off-Road Float Needle and Seat to help prevent flooding when my CJ is on rough terrain or at an angle.

I modified the ignition by doing the TeamRush upgrade. This entails installing a larger distributor cap, spark plug wires. I also installed an MSD ignition module. For details on this mod check out this thread:-->> Teamrush Ignition Upgrade

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[BusaDave9]

Other Mods
The PO installed a MileMarker Hydraulic Winch that works off the power steering pump. It has 2 speeds: fast and slow but fast is mainly used to reel the cable in or out. When set to slow that thing pulls like a tank but it is very slow.
I installed an AGR Performance Power Steering Pump to help power the winch.

I have also installed a Terra Low Kit into the Dana 20 Transfer Case . This lowered the low range gearing from 2 to one down to 3.15 to 1. It entailed replacing all the gears in the TCase.

In the above picture you can see the hand throttle I installed on my T-18 shift lever. This hand throttle lets me apply the gas while I still have one foot on the brake and one on the clutch. This is really nice when my nose is sticking out over a 1000 foot cliff such as this next pic on Black Bear Pass.

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More pictures of my '79 CJ5
This is on Black Bear Pass.

The picture above and the one below are on the trails north of Farmington NM.


This next shot is on the Iron Chest Trail near St. Elmo in central Colorado.



The picture below is also near St. Elmo in central Colorado.

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The picture below is at Kite Lake above Bear Town Site near Silverton CO.

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