Build Thread The $120 Jeep CJ7 build thread

[Masscj7]

Nice progress and work. It’s amazing what a little ingenuity and an engine hoist can accomplish. Keep up the progress, love being able to look at another build as I do mine for reference pics.


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[daddyusmaximus]

Well, the trend of nothing going right is still active. I couldn't get the front axle apart, so I ended up taking them to a friend's house. I neglected to get photos, but same ole stuff. Used the cherry picker to lift them, backed the trailer into the garage, (that took a dozen tries) and took both the "good" one and the original to his place. He works as a mechanic by trade, so he can use the shop at work after hrs. Hopefully he can heat them up, and knock them out from behind with an air hammer.


Today, I decided to give the rear axle a try. It laughed at me... Broke a bolt off in the caliper bracket for the left side. Then I discovered what was inside...





Holy , I was driving this in the green CJ5 up till I tore it down to build this CJ7 .

Now, I do remember the green Jeep having a vibration in the rear when I was driving it. I figured it was the pinion bearing not getting enough oil due to how far the housing was rotated. I think I was right about that. It won't allow the carrier to rotate so I can get to the cross pin, or "c" clips... If you grab a rotor, you can twist the axles,and see the carrier try to move, but the pinion is frozen.

Can't even budge it with my tanker bar.



Any ideas here? Or will I end up letting Ryan take this one apart too...

By the way... notice the nice repair job on the yoke... 3 bolts one size, 1 another. I'll change that out anyway as I'd rather have the u-bolt type than the strap type.



How the hell do you get an axle apart when you can't rotate the carrier?

 

[shum8]

Can you take the pinion nut and yoke off, and whack the end of the pinion just enough to beak the bond?


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[daddyusmaximus]

Can you take the pinion nut and yoke off, and whack the end of the pinion just enough to beak the bond?


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I was thinking of that, but it didn't cross my mind til after I was in the house and cleaned up... I may try it Monday.

 

[shum8]

Just don’t get carried away and drive it out the other side LOL


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[CJ]

Beat the out of it, remove all. Mark the bearing caps left and right so you put them back correctly (the bearing surfaces are honed). Also orientation, up or down.

To rebuild always have new bearings and races. Setting ring gear and pinion depth is kinda hard the first time. it gets easier

Detroit gear is great as is Eaton. No links because of the site being free.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

The good news is the pinion now turns. The bad news is, it doesn't matter...

I took off the yoke, put back on the nut, and gave the pinion couple good raps. After that I could turn the diff no problem. I got the crosspin bolt out, and started to remove the pin. Bang, all progress once again came to a screeching halt. The ring gear is so fat, it's in front of the crosspin. The pin only came out a bit,and smacked into the teeth of the ring gear, leaving me to wonder hoe the hell they put it together...



I looked inside, and sure enough, without getting the pin out, I don't see how I can get the "c" clips out to remove the axles...



Really starting to hate these axles...

 

[daddyusmaximus]

After another long break of nothing getting done, Jeep money going to other things, (OK one was a project gun) and a bunch of going wrong (including all this virus ) I'm back at it. I'm halfway through another round of physical therapy on the shoulder, and it's going much better. Should be after almost a year...

Problem I had getting the front axle apart was I couldn't get the spindles off the knuckles. Took the old housing, and the replacement junkyard one to a friend from my off road club, who is a mechanic by trade. He was able to use a torch to heat it, then knock them out from behind with an air hammer in the shop after hrs. Of course, it took me forever to get back up there to pick them up once he did...



So, I get all the parts home, and now I have the remains of almost two complete units to go through.



I won't be using the 4.88 gears, of the originals, but the 3.55s of the junkyards unit are in fine shape. This will also get me a comfy 1,925 RPM @55mph and 2,450 @ 70mph when cruising down the road on my 35s... Before, it had 33s, and 4.88s, and would turn over 3K doing around 55 or 60mph. I started looking up all the seals, bearings and goodies I'll need to rebuild it, but with typical off-roader enthusiasm... first thing I ordered was an Eaton Trutrac... lol.

Here you can see the splines on the outter that blew when the axles was still in the old CJ5 , next to the nicer axle from the replacement junkyard unit. It looks to be not boogered up too awful bad, and could still serve as a spare, so It will be cleaned up and taken along with...

 

[Masscj7]

Good deal getting back to the garage.

Prrrojecctt gun?? Go on...

 

[shum8]

I was wondering the same thing........ Is this where we invoke the “pics or it never happened”rule?


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[daddyusmaximus]

Good deal getting back to the garage.

Prrrojecctt gun?? Go on...

Well, actually a few...

I found a pretty nice M44 carbine version of the Mosin Nagant. Then I gutted some 550 cord, and laced some of the Russian ammo pouches onto the stock in the same fashion like the M1 carbine guys did with their ammo pouches... Now I've always hated the flat blade style of rear sight that a lot of the old military bolt guns have on them, and getting old just made things worse, so I needed something better. I took the rear sight off, then had my gunsmith mill the sight base flat, and cut grooves in the sides, with one little slot in the top for the cross bolt, so I could mount a Sig Romeo 5 on it. Bingo, truck gun. Or, in this case "Jeep gun".



However, I didn't get to keep it, as my son fell in love with it.

What to do? Well, I took my old 1916 Spanish Mauser in to the gunsmith for the same treatment... Too bad I don't have any pouches for it. I like the 7mm Mauser round better anyhow.





The one I really wanted to do... the one I spent the most time... the most money on, was one I've been dreaming of for years. Turning a No4 Mk1 Lee Enfield into a Scout Rifle. I wanted to maintain the original flavor, but with the shorter Scout Rifle feel, look, and handling. The 25" barrel is now 18". The scope is a Leopold 2.5x. I changed the butt stock to one from Boyd's to get a more turned down grip. This caused other mods like having to narrow the brass butt plate, and shorten, reshape the fore wood, as well as cut the hole for the custom scope mount my gunsmith made on the barrel. The wood then had to be restained to match. A local lady who does antique restorations did this. The leather ammo cuff is a leftover from an old 30-30- lever gun, but the .303 British rounds fit so...

 

[Belizean]

All 3 look nice !

 

[shum8]

I agree - all three are very nice, but the Enfield is hands down the coolest! Very creative. Going forward, Brownells carries a dye kit for Garlands........ a dark brown stain and a reddish stain. I’ve used that to match several old Milsurp stocks...... in case you ever wanna do it yourself. How does the Enfield shoot? I bet it shoots very well......


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[daddyusmaximus]

Didn't do too bad for an 80 year old cut down surplus bolt gun shooting cheep PPU ammo. I was using old M16 zero targets. (that are meant to be used at 25M) My best group was 2.75" measuring from the outside of the holes. It may be able to do a bit better, (with someone else shooting it) but the scope is only 2.5 power, and the target just kinda looked like a sheet of white paper at 100 yds to me... but I'm old. (not as old as the gun)

 

[mdeluca]

Didn't do too bad for an 80 year old cut down surplus bolt gun shooting cheep PPU ammo. I was using old M16 zero targets. (that are meant to be used at 25M) My best group was 2.75" measuring from the outside of the holes. It may be able to do a bit better, (with someone else shooting it) but the scope is only 2.5 power, and the target just kinda looked like a sheet of white paper at 100 yds to me... but I'm old. (not as old as the gun)

Pretty darned good for shooting at a blurred image. That is what all of my targets look like; blurry, not 2.75" groupings...

 

[Masscj7]

The grain in all a three of those stocks are awesome! So warm and unique. The Enfield feels historic with a touch of modern. It’s like a resto mod car. Thanks for sharing!


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[daddyusmaximus]

Having the front axles apart is nice, but what's even nicer is payday. My Eaton Trutrac came in from Summit Racing, and I started hitting up Auto Zone for the small parts, like bearings, seals... Being a cheep guy, I'm getting just enough at a time to get my point each time I go into town. Today I got one set of wheel bearings, races, and an inner seal for one of the front rotors to get my 5th point, and when the new rotor comes in tomorrow, I can get $20 off on it. I had to drop off the knuckles at a local shop to have the old ball joints pressed out, and new ones installed, as I have no press.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

 

[daddyusmaximus]

So I'm looking, and looking, and I can't for the life of me find bearing, and seals that are made in the USA. Damn NOTHING is made in the USA anymore. Really starting to tick me off. Took my front rotors in to NAPA to get them turned today, and checked there too. Made in Spain, Denmark, everywhere but the USA. At least it's not china or mexico... and their does have a 3 year warranty, so I ordered a bunch from there, and I'll take the mexican back to Auto Zone tomorrow.

Also picking up a CJ7 hard top tomorrow. I put out feelers for a swap as my CJ7 came with a YJ top. Real PITA seeing as it doesn't have the proper YJ tailgate to go with. The guy wasn't using it, it was just sitting in his barn. He wanted to sell, but agreed to swap just to be nice. His way of saying thank you for me being a veteran. Cool. So I get home and go to get mine ready to take up tomorrow... Problem. I had taken the hatch off mine, and stashed it in the shed so it wouldn't get broken. Guess what? I can't find the bolts to put it back on. Every single nut and bolt in the hole build is up in the garage in marked baggies... except these. Well, I message the guy (facebook) and tell him of the problem. I'm hoping like hell he won't mind seeing as how he's not gonna use it anyhow. The dude says "just come get this one, and sell yours to help with your Jeep." Holy cow. He's GIVING me a CJ7 top. Now it's not perfect. It's been repaired where the hatch hinges are, and there's a hole from a bubble light because it came off a plow Jeep, but, I ain't gonna turn down free parts... So glad I sat and talked with them for a while today.

Next thing. I go home and start in on the housing. Gotta clean it up to get ready for the new parts coming in. I notice something... the junkyard housing I got to replace my slightly bent original... isn't the same. The spring mounting surfaces are the same. The width is the same. they both use the same brakes, spindles, knuckles... but the old one has thicker wall tubing. It's only got the slightest little bend, from jumping real hard, so now I'm thinking maybe I should just get that one straightened, and use it. I won't be jumping, so the thicker wall tubing would be good insurance for me. Probably need different seals and bearings... Carrier fits either, so I guess a Dana 44 , is a Dana 44 ... Gotta think on it, and see.

Old axle housing I blew the hub on.


Junkyard replacement I had to get because I couldn't find a spindle anywhere.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

Picked up my knuckles today with the new ball joint pressed in. Couldn't resist a test fit...



Also picked up my free CJ7 top. Turns out the 2 little holes where the woopie light was won't be much of a problem. I can either just silicone them, or put one of my leftover Army woopie lights there... The back hatch... well, that may be a different story. That falls squarely in the "What did you expect for free" category. It works... but it's not long for this world. It's been repaired on the top by the hinges, saw that yesterday. What I didn't see was the inside... It's gone... It will need replaced. I can still sell or trade my YJ top. Maybe take the hatch, and glass out of this to make a hard top bikini top for the summer...