Sometimes it's the little stuff that makes the biggest difference and has the biggest positive effect on our everyday jeepers lives. I've noticed that the really big jobs are full of stress and constant worry until they prove them selves. It can be the small put off jobs that serve the most good.
A while back I replaced the lower steering rod with a really wonderfully engineered item. The only negative was that the old fashioned steering column was a bit loose feeling and it drove me to distraction.
Then there was a binding problem with my hand throttle. What to do there?
My jeep didn't have seat belts when I got it so a set of lap belts were purchased. Flippity floppity can't find them, what a mess. Besides being less safe than todays three point belts.
The other day all the answers came to me more or less in a dream. And in a few days the everyday troubles were fixed in just a few minutes.
While in ACE I noticed a shaft collar with a nice set screw that would fit my upper steering shaft, that and a nylon washer were all it took to remove the slop in my steering. Remove the lower steering shaft, put the nylon washer (spacer) against the bottom column collar, push the wheel down to remove slack and set the shaft collar in place, push the bottom shaft in place paying attention to having a straight wheel and WHOW it's like new again. No wheel sloppiness.
It took a metal tip from a ball point pen to help take a bothersome last inch kink out of the hand throttle cable. The throttle works like butter.
The seat belts took some real money but a set of three point belts with stiffeners to hold the belt in place only took a couple days to arrive in the mail and since I already set the roll bar up for the top point it only took about an hour and the CJ has three point seat belts in place.
Sure, in the past 6 months I've done bigger jobs, brakes, front and rear axles, gearing, and now I'm working on a
Transmission , but it's these little jobs that I appreciate the most. Improved steering, nice comfortable seat belts, a hand throttle that helps on long trips. It's like a new CJ.
it.
Very nice! Congrats!
