Build Thread Goin Postal

[gliryan]

I bit the bullet and chopped the yoke off one of the shafts and shortened it about 1/2". Then I welded it back up. Its now in the rear of the jeep!

I'm pretty excited as I also got the fuel tank cradle more complete, done really minus some way to hold the cell down, and I ran the fuel line to the carb. I can add some gas and attempt a start now! Probably will this weekend

 

[gliryan]

So today I got some decent work done. Got the rear driveshaft all tightened up on both ends, two new belts for the power steering and water pump, put the power steering lines on, ran the motor, put gauges in, tore off the front brakes in prep for the discs too.

The disc caliper brackets I'm getting are coming off of a Dana 44 of the right era, but it doesn't have closed knuckles like the d27 does… So hopefully that works. Also there is a nasty grey sludge coming out of the location where the brake backing plate bracket bolts up with the 6 bolts into the knuckle. Is that that stuff from the diff or just the closed knuckle? I suppose either way I should check inside the differentials and change the oil.

 

[gliryan]

caliper brackets torqued down, steering mocked up (not welded yet), and insulated the fuel cell from the metal it sits on.





Finally it moved from it lair! I've got issues to deal with yet, leaky brake line or two and rear drums not working are high on the list. Power steering isn't leaking and it works great, tranny grinds on initial shift into gear maybe half the time I shifted into gear in my driveway but the clutch seems to work fine. I'm excited.







After lunch got some more stuff done, smaller things. CB and antenna installed but need the cable for the antenna, huge bus mirror, fastened the fuel line and rear brake line so they don't move around much, fastened down the fuel tank, and hooked up a choke switch!

 

[Petescj]

Feels good to have her move under her own power huh? Congrats , job well done.

 

[tarry99]

Gliryan,

Just curious , on your steering. I see you added some long high steer arms to your spindles and moved the tie rod to the farthest position away from the spindle and put the drag link on the closest position to the spindle, Did you do it that way to slow down your steering?

 

[gliryan]

Yeah it definitely does Pete! I took it around the block just now after getting the front shocks mounted and putting an exhaust of sorts on it.

Tarry thats just the way it ended up. I had my friend make the arms for me and drilled 3 holes on each. Well they ended up being too close together to use any but the outer two. The only reason I installed them this way is because the pitman arm lined up best with that hole, leaving the far forward for the tie rod. And it actually still goes to full lock as far as the axle is concerned, so all is well. Turns around in my driveway super easy, so no issues there.

 

[gliryan]

Lengthened a driveshaft for the front today and installed it, only to find out that it doesn't have nearly enough travel. I think the way the stupid long shackles are make it so that the axle travels front to back much more than usual. Going to have to get some square tube and make a new one...

 

[gliryan]

finally a working front driveshaft. Its super beefy, so I won't have to worry about it, ever.

 

[gliryan]

Great first wheeling trip in the rig at the open house of our local park! It went everywhere I wanted it to go, but was running lean a couple hours into it. Didn't break anything, even though I would have understood if an axle let go.




Things I noticed tonight after fixing a couple of things I knew I wanted to tackle. The first is the tie rod bent from hitting the pitman arm bolt. I moved the tie rod down farther but it still touches it. So either I move the box up or grind a little off the head of the bolt. Maybe I'll get a fine thread bolt there and grind material off the nut and threads. Also talked with a friend about my loose ujoint on the intermediate shaft, and then realized the extra column I got with the jeep was one that can now bolt in. Yay for tilt columns! Just need a chev intermediate shaft with a good joint on the end.

Another area needing attention was the brake booster. I hooked it up to the carb because I didn't think there was a port on the head/manifold. One was pointed out to me at the open house and so I plumbed it into there and it works way way way better. I also cleaned the carb and drove it around a bit. It runs like it was before now….so even though the carb was super clean there must have been something in there. As soon as I find my electronic fuel pump I'm going to put it in by the fuel cell for added push up front. Not bad work for a couple hours.

I'm not sure what my next small project will be after that. I might seriously look into removing most of the body lift. Unfortunately that means I'll have to do work to my rock sliders, since they are attached to the frame and body :ievil.gif:

 

[BC CJ]

Yeah man! Cool rig you've got there. Looks good on the trail.
Thanks for sharing the build, keep us posted... get it, posted.

 

[mtnwhlr]

You did a great job on it I'm very impressed and i'm glad to see you out having fun with it and are proud to say built not bought.

 

[gliryan]

Thanks!

Well I've got the body lift itself down from 3" to 3/4". I just cut the plastic spacers to the current size. Unfortunately a couple more issues than I thought came up. First the grill wouldn't fit low enough due to the power steering box, that was easy enough to fix though. Then I needed to raise the radiator so the shroud fit around the fan blades. I need to re-fasten the fuel cell in place. And I need to make new rear body mounts, should be easy enough.

Then I noticed it wouldn't steer. Well the intermediate shaft is now pressed between the frame rail and the motor mount. So I need to move the column up a little. This might be alright though because I might switch to my tilting GM column I have here. Unfortunately that column is a couple inches longer than the cj one I have in there, and ideally I'd like it to be a couple inches shorter…

But, it looks better now. The body fit better than I thought it was going to, wish I would have done this before "finishing" the jeep. Story of my life

 

[Petescj]

I think some wise soul told you to do this in November. No worries , love what youve done with it so far. Cool project.

Well I've got the body lift itself down from 3" to 3/4".
But, it looks better now. The body fit better than I thought it was going to, wish I would have done this before "finishing" the jeep. Story of my life

 

[gliryan]

I think some wise soul told you to do this in November. No worries , love what youve done with it so far. Cool project.

stupid hard headed am I. I thought it was going to be more difficult than it has been. It looked like everything was going to interfere with the frame as far as the body. But, turns out it just sneaks past the problem points. Next time I get some advise like that I'll be sure to listen more

 

[Petescj]

No way , you did a great job. Now you had it out wheeling and have figured out things youd like to improve. Carry on. I'll be watching.

stupid hard headed am I. I thought it was going to be more difficult than it has been. It looked like everything was going to interfere with the frame as far as the body. But, turns out it just sneaks past the problem points. Next time I get some advise like that I'll be sure to listen more

 

[gliryan]

No way , you did a great job. Now you had it out wheeling and have figured out things youd like to improve. Carry on. I'll be watching.

Thanks! And good point.

I just got back in and washed up from a couple hours outside. My spare time is very little because I'm at school more than 40 hours a week right now, and I work every other weekends. And consequently have stuff planned for the weekends I have off… But today I pondered what I would tackle, and settled on the gas tank mount/fastening. I was going to rework the two straps that I had on before but changed it to one mount on the front of the tank. I'm unable to use the two indents built into the tank because the rear door shuts and leaves no room for mounting the straps between it and the tank.

I ended up welding a couple pieces together instead of bending one piece of metal into an "S" essentially because I couldn't get it to bend right or with a long enough flange for bolting. I used angle iron on the bottom to bolt to the floor. This worked great because I also needed to stiffen up the floor. It bowed quite a bit after cutting so much out for the tank. Then I used a piece of steel I had with a bend already in it and torched it to the correct size for the top, then welded them together. It works very well for the floor stiffening and for tank mounting. The one thing I'm a little nervous about is there isn't room to put much of a gasket between the plastic tank and the metal holding it in. This might not be a problem because it is not vibrating between the metal surfaces. But I have never used a fuel cell before.

yep, I still need to make a real breather for the tank, with a real filter on the end

 

[tarry99]

You should also consider on your breather a roll over valve. Basically a check valve that prevents fuel from coming out via the breather in the event of an upset. Don't need a fire!
You can find them at any place that sells fuel cells.

 

[gliryan]

Yeah the roll over valve looks like a good part. For now that'll have to wait. I need to buy a ujoint for the steering shaft. $70 later… Right now I've got the tilt chev tilt column in there, just need to redo the lower mount and that will be ready. Can't finish that until I get my joint though because I need the right length and angle of the whole setup. I'm going to cut off the stock cj joint, that will leave me with the 1" o.d. tube of the intermediate shaft. The chev column has a 1" dd end on it. I emailed the place I'm going to order from to make sure that my measurements match the way they measure their parts. Its hot as balls out today, and I'm burnt out.

I got the column on the way to being finished. Then I noticed the front right shackle bushings were a little loose. I tried to tighten them but they wouldn't get tighter. Eventually the bolt stripped. Cool. So now I have to grind and pull that off and get a new bolt. Those stupid stiff lock nuts suck. Pretty sure that caused this.

Linky
Single Needle Bearing Steering Universal Joint 18567

 

[tarry99]

Yeah the roll over valve looks like a good part. For now that'll have to wait. I need to buy a ujoint for the steering shaft. $70 later… Right now I've got the tilt chev tilt column in there, just need to redo the lower mount and that will be ready. Can't finish that until I get my joint though because I need the right length and angle of the whole setup. I'm going to cut off the stock cj joint, that will leave me with the 1" o.d. tube of the intermediate shaft. The chev column has a 1" dd end on it. I emailed the place I'm going to order from to make sure that my measurements match the way they measure their parts. Its hot as balls out today, and I'm burnt out.

I got the column on the way to being finished. Then I noticed the front right shackle bushings were a little loose. I tried to tighten them but they wouldn't get tighter. Eventually the bolt stripped. Cool. So now I have to grind and pull that off and get a new bolt. Those stupid stiff lock nuts suck. Pretty sure that caused this.
18567[/url]

You say you have the 1" DD coming out of the column shaft.......you should go 1"DD to 1"DD u-joint there to a 3/4"dd x 1"dd collapsible steering shaft and then another u-joint near the box that would be 3/4"DD to 3/4"x36spline. ......that is normally how you would get there and keep the angles correct. Angles on the u-joints not more than 35 degrees.

 

[gliryan]

You say you have the 1" DD coming out of the column shaft.......you should go 1"DD to 1"DD u-joint there to a 3/4"dd x 1"dd collapsible steering shaft and then another u-joint near the box that would be 3/4"DD to 3/4"x36spline. ......that is normally how you would get there and keep the angles correct. Angles on the u-joints not more than 35 degrees.

Jesus that sounds expensive for a POOR college student haha. The way it'll be now, shortening the shaft some and flattening the column angle, it'll be no where near 35 degrees. annnnnd forgot what else I was going to mention