Build Thread Here we go again............

[TnCJ]

I've had a small "weird" noise coming from the front of my recently rebuilt engine. Just a "chunk chunk chunk" sound that was only noticeable at idle and only when the engine was warm.
Sooo, the paranoid person that I am and thanks to the internet I was concerned that it was a symptom of "cam walk" a condition where the cam is moving forward and hitting the timing chain cover. which over time can lead to failure of the cam.
Yesterday I decided it was time for exploratory surgery and to remove the timing chain cover and see what was going on in there. Not a real hard job but it does require taking the radiator off, removing the fan, harmonic ballancer, alternator and of course the timing chain cover.
All was going well until I got to the crank bolt, it broke free pretty easily but was tight all the way out. I knew that wasn't good but I was going to get it out no matter what. Seems my concerns were right, the bolt was stripped and the threads in the crank were pretty mangled. Off to town I go searching for the elusive 1/2 X 20 tap. Stopped at every parts store in town and finally had to buy a complete tap and die set just to get the 1/2 X 20. Got back home and finally got the tap started straight and slowly the process of straightening the buggered up threads. I'll have to say, that crankshaft is made of some very hard steel!!!
After I got that chore done I removed the timing chain cover fully expecting to see massive damage from the cam coming into contact with the cover or at least a loose timing chain that was slapping the cover. Not the case!! It was in pristine shape with nary a scratch, the timing chain was tight as well.
I did notice that the harmonic ballancer was not in great shape so I scrounged up the ballancer from the old engine. It looked to be in decent shape so I decided to use it.
Long story short, everything went back together fairly easy, filled the radiator back up and took a test drive. Got home and the mystery noise was still there but not as bad.
So moral of the story is..................a 40 year old Jeep gonna make some noise.
I'm going to drive it till it breaks.

 

[Belizean]

All Jeeps make noise, but that being said, there are some you never want to hear and can be bad and detrimental to your Jeep

 

[TnCJ]

My fuel gauge and temp gauge had been giving me problems ever since I got my Jeep. I was sick and tired of guessing how much fuel and what the coolant temp was. Sooo I bit the bullet and ordered a Speedhut Speedometer. I also ordered a new Stewart Warner volt gauge because the glass was cracked on my old one and it matches my oil pressure gauge.
It took a couple of weeks to receive my Speedo because from my understanding they custom build them one at a time and probably because they were on sale.
I received it yesterday and since I had already dropped the dash I got to work on it. Working with electricity is not my forte and although the directions were well written they still left me scratching my head on a few things.
I had labeled the wires when I removed the old speedo. But honestly the only wires you will reuse are the high beam indicator, left and right turn signals, 4X4 indicator, light dimmer, and brake indicator.
The install went pretty good! After a couple of hours I had the illumination, high beam indicator, and turn signals working. Speedhut furnishes a new temp sender but I had to modify it a bit for my engine. The temp sender on mine is under the thermostat housing and the flats for a wrench made it too large to screw all the way in. I used my bench grinder to "round" the sender off to give me enough clearance to fit. It made it a little harder to tighten it up but a pair of channel locks worked ok. After that was done I hooked the other end to the snap connector and fired him up. I took the radiator cap off so I could see when the thermostat opened and waited for it to warm up. When I saw coolant circulating I checked the gauge and it was not moving???
That left me scratching my head because that is one of the easy connections. I fiddled around with it for awhile but by this time it was way past my bedtime so decided to give it a rest till morning.
This morning I rechecked my connections and found that I had one connection wrong. On one of the pigtails it called for a ground, a 12 volt dash lighting and a keyed ignition. I had the keyed ignition hooked up to another 12 volt lighting. I found the correct wire and hooked it up. My multimeter verified I was getting voltage to the sender. Hooked it back up, fired the old boy up and waited for circulation. To my relief the needle started moving!!
The fuel gauge wiring was much the same, Speedhut furnishes enough wire to run all the way to the back and this pigtail is also plug and play. Instead of dropping my gas tank I spliced into the existing wires as close t the tank as I could. I was concerned that the sending unit in the tank was bad but so far so good, it is showing 3/4 of a tank which should be pretty close. I will verify when I refuel.
Next up was hooking up the GPS antenna which controls the speedometer, odometer etc. It screws into the back of the unit and the antenna base is magnetized. Easy peazy!!
Since my dash and dash pad was off, the windshield down, and the top was off and it was pouring the rain I couldn't verify that the speedo was actually working. I reinstalled the dash and pad, put the windshield up and reinstalled the soft top and doors and with fingers crossed hit the road. Whew, what a relief when I saw the needle on the speedo move!!! I drove around a bit and everything looks great. Temp hand moved to around the middle of the gauge, fuel level dropped a little, trip meter worked, it's alllll good!! Very much impressed with Speedhut.
I have a new DUI distributor waiting for installation but that's for another day.

 

[TnCJ]

Installed my DUI dizzy today. It was pretty simple and it really is a one wire job. It took me longer to take all the old out than it did to install the new. I opened my spark plug gap a little per the instructions.
Got everything bolted down moved the spark advance thingie to where I was pretty sure where the old one was and the old boy fired right up. Timing was off a bit though and after a short test drive he was struggling a little coming up my steep driveway. I tweaked the timing a bit and he now runs like a top.
I don't own a timing light never have, i've always just timed by ear and feel or use a vacuum gauge. I may purchase one though just to see how close to 8-12 degrees BTDC I am.
My Jeep did run pretty strong with the old ignition system, but has always been hard to start, and really sluggish until the engine warms when the temps are cool. This morning was no exception and it took several attempts to just get him inside the basement.
It's supposed to be in the 30's in the morning so I am anxious to see if this upgrade will help with the cold start problem. Time will tell.

My overall impression of the DUI dizzy............
1. Easy install.
2. Starts on the first crank. [after the timing is correct]
3. Noticeable performance improvement, especially under load i.e. going up hills etc. It now goes up hills in 4th gear that I had to down shift previously.
4. Looks good. I don't really care about the looks but it sure doesn't hurt.
5. Hopefully my MPG's will improve a little.

Next up will be installing power brakes. Jeep stops ok but you really have to stand on the brake pedal.

 

[j6824]

My fuel gauge and temp gauge had been giving me problems ever since I got my Jeep. I was sick and tired of guessing how much fuel and what the coolant temp was. Sooo I bit the bullet and ordered a Speedhut Speedometer. I also ordered a new Stewart Warner volt gauge because the glass was cracked on my old one and it matches my oil pressure gauge.
It took a couple of weeks to receive my Speedo because from my understanding they custom build them one at a time and probably because they were on sale.
I received it yesterday and since I had already dropped the dash I got to work on it. Working with electricity is not my forte and although the directions were well written they still left me scratching my head on a few things.
I had labeled the wires when I removed the old speedo. But honestly the only wires you will reuse are the high beam indicator, left and right turn signals, 4X4 indicator, light dimmer, and brake indicator.
The install went pretty good! After a couple of hours I had the illumination, high beam indicator, and turn signals working. Speedhut furnishes a new temp sender but I had to modify it a bit for my engine. The temp sender on mine is under the thermostat housing and the flats for a wrench made it too large to screw all the way in. I used my bench grinder to "round" the sender off to give me enough clearance to fit. It made it a little harder to tighten it up but a pair of channel locks worked ok. After that was done I hooked the other end to the snap connector and fired him up. I took the radiator cap off so I could see when the thermostat opened and waited for it to warm up. When I saw coolant circulating I checked the gauge and it was not moving???
That left me scratching my head because that is one of the easy connections. I fiddled around with it for awhile but by this time it was way past my bedtime so decided to give it a rest till morning.
This morning I rechecked my connections and found that I had one connection wrong. On one of the pigtails it called for a ground, a 12 volt dash lighting and a keyed ignition. I had the keyed ignition hooked up to another 12 volt lighting. I found the correct wire and hooked it up. My multimeter verified I was getting voltage to the sender. Hooked it back up, fired the old boy up and waited for circulation. To my relief the needle started moving!!
The fuel gauge wiring was much the same, Speedhut furnishes enough wire to run all the way to the back and this pigtail is also plug and play. Instead of dropping my gas tank I spliced into the existing wires as close t the tank as I could. I was concerned that the sending unit in the tank was bad but so far so good, it is showing 3/4 of a tank which should be pretty close. I will verify when I refuel.
Next up was hooking up the GPS antenna which controls the speedometer, odometer etc. It screws into the back of the unit and the antenna base is magnetized. Easy peazy!!
Since my dash and dash pad was off, the windshield down, and the top was off and it was pouring the rain I couldn't verify that the speedo was actually working. I reinstalled the dash and pad, put the windshield up and reinstalled the soft top and doors and with fingers crossed hit the road. Whew, what a relief when I saw the needle on the speedo move!!! I drove around a bit and everything looks great. Temp hand moved to around the middle of the gauge, fuel level dropped a little, trip meter worked, it's alllll good!! Very much impressed with Speedhut.
I have a new DUI distributor waiting for installation but that's for another day.

Congrats on the install...sounds like you got her figured out

You probably saw it in the instructions, but you can calibrate your fuel sender if need be. Mine was spot on with the default setting, but it is adjustable.

Also, every once in a blue moon, you might lose GPS signal to the speedo for a few seconds. Don't panic...it'll come back. In four years mine's done it a handful of times depending on location,overhead obstruction, etc.

Once you gain the confidence to trust them, you're gonna love the peace of mind...especially with fuel and oil pressure (if you opted for that one...if not, you might consider it down the road).

 

[TnCJ]

Congrats on the install...sounds like you got her figured out

You probably saw it in the instructions, but you can calibrate your fuel sender if need be. Mine was spot on with the default setting, but it is adjustable.

Also, every once in a blue moon, you might lose GPS signal to the speedo for a few seconds. Don't panic...it'll come back. In four years mine's done it a handful of times depending on location,overhead obstruction, etc.

Once you gain the confidence to trust them, you're gonna love the peace of mind...especially with fuel and oil pressure (if you opted for that one...if not, you might consider it down the road).

Thanks!! I'm loving it so far. Fuel gauge seems to be working fine. I checked the settings this morning and they had already calibrated it for the correct ohms at the factory.
I also hooked up the hot start for the GPS so it [GPS] stays connected with the satellites all the time. It has a very small amp drain so not concerned about it draining the battery.
I didn't purchase the oil gauge, I kind of wish I had but the old Stewart Warner gauge works ok for now.
I about freaked out this morning, I took it for a little test run and none of my gauges were working, not even the speedo. Then I remembered that yesterday evening I was having an issue with my turn signals. My eyes don't see as good as they used to and I couldn't read the labels on the fuse box so I just randomly started pulling them. Evidently I didn't push the one that powers my gauge all the way in. It's all good now though!!

 

[TnCJ]

I posted awhile back about a small "clunk clunk clunk" sound coming from my engine. I thought it was "cam walk" and went through the trouble of pulling the timing cover off to see if that's what it was. Cover, timing chain and gears were perfect, so the noise left me scratching my head.
I replaced my distributor yesterday with A DUI and I noticed this morning that the phantom clunk clunk clunk is gone!!
Evidently the old dizzy was slap worn out, glad I got it out of there before it caused more damage.