First rebuild of a jeep.

Hay all, I'll start by saying this cite has helped me very much. Not just with tech stuff. But when your under the jeep and the parts you just got don't fit and the bolt you were working on just broke off. Your hand slips off the wrench and the jeep draws blood.

I go take a break get on this cite look at all of the cj8 that are on here being worked on and driven. I get motavited and go back out to the garage and get back to work. I do have fun working on the cj8. I think mainly because it's not my DD right now so there is no presure to get it back to gether to get to work on monday.

Well here is where the rebuild story starts. I was looking for a cj5 or cj7 from 1976 to 1986.
I looked on the web and the car truck trader papers. I wanted something to rebuild and put my own tweek to. So when I would go look at what some ad said was a project truck most of the cjs were a basket case. This went on for more than a year.

I was looking on the web and in Sioux City IA there was a cj8. Now I never saw a cj8 before and never knew that a cj8 was even made.
I went down just to look at this cj8. It looked neat and most of the body was ok. It ran and I was buying the jeep from the second owner. So I gave him the cash and drove the cj8 home to Sioux Falls SD that is about 80 miles away. With no problems I got the 8 home.
I drove the 8 around town for a week and never saw another cj8 in town.

I put the jeep in the garage and started to take apart the jeep. This is where things get weard.
I knew the jeep was almost 30 years old but I was sure parts could be around here right?
How WRONG I was. When I went to the parts store and told them it was a cj8 the firts time.
All that was said to me was you have a cj7 or 5? So i would have to describe the jeep or say look out the window.

That is when I might have made a huge mastake in buying a cj8 since no one around here even knew what it was.
I was even thinking saleing the jeep. I went on the wed and started to look for some help. That is when I stumbled across this cite. I got great info and found some other cite where I could at least order parts.

So right now I'm in the middle of the first rebuild I have ever done. Sears tool deparment in town loves when I walk in. There is one parts store in town that is a big help also.
Some of the after market 1800 lines area big help also.

Pictures are coming and I have not decided yet if I should rebuild or replace my AMC 20.

So far I put a 2 1/2 lift with shocks from skyjacker and 1 1/2 warror shackles. I hope to run 31x10.5x15 on stock rims. Keeping the 258 and the 4 speed.
Put a new LUK cluch in. New drive shafts with new yoks on the transfer case and diffs.
Rebulding all the breaks. Hope to having all the new parts in by Aug 2010.
Doing the body work in the winter and finshing that by next summer.
Thats the plan for now I hope so.

Thanks for the advice and I'll be up dating this post.

Welcome! I love stories like that, Scramblers are definitely an oddball and lots of folks have no idea what one is. I find that some part stores have them in the computers as "Scrambler" rather than CJ-8, so you might try that sometime. Can't wait to see what you got and follow along.

BTW, I moved this thread to the complete build/restoration forum, that's where folks are keeping threads on the complete effort on their Jeeps like it sounds like you want to do.

Welcome!

Welcome! The rarity of the Scrambler is a big part of their coolness, IMHO.

Yep, we gotta see some pics!

before photo

Here is what I started with, of course it's on jack stands now. If the pic comes through ok I'll post more soon.

more photos

Here is some of the damage that i'm fixing.

Where would i find the patch panel for the hole in the back under the tail gate?

oops forgot the pics

That's a nice starting point, good find! When I go to the parts store, I just tell them it's a CJ7 (the shame!). If it's listed, it's usually under "Scrambler" and in any case, 99% of the parts were the same so I try to keep it simple.

cchambers said:

Here is some of the damage that i'm fixing.

Where would i find the patch panel for the hole in the back under the tail gate?

Click to expand...

You can get the replacement here........
http://www.classicent.com/jeep.php#7695

Great 8! It looks like a great project- good shape. Doesn't like too much to fix on the body really. Have fun and keep posting the pics!

4 miles thanks for the web cite. I NEED alot of body parts.

This was drivers side shock mount. It was two chuncks of flat straps welded to the frame.
with a hole punch in the top. It took 6 hours and 4 cut off wheels from my grinder to get the old straps off. I'm going to mock up the shock and weld in a new mount. Also cut out the side of the frame where it's cracked and put in 3/16 inch plate steel.

This is what happens when you take the axle apart to find out why one of the hubs dont work.

First off you have a very sold scrambler, congrats!

cchambers said:

This is what happens when you take the axle apart to find out why one of the hubs dont work.

Click to expand...

Thats the bearing retaining washer and bolt which is totally different than the hubs. These hold the bearings snug in the hub assembly but don't factor in the engaging or disengaging of the hub. They don't look too bad but all the plastic hubs, gears and springs outside of this is the culprit of the messed up hub. You can replace them for "show" or for better offroad strength go with hubs from an earlier CJ or get the kit from Warn.

Yep I got some new hubs. What happened to the hubs is chunks of the nut and washers got into the bearings and the outside nut was lose and backed into the back of the locking hub.
I walked into a real mess in the dana 30. But it's all fixed and ready to be put back in the jeep.

Here's a little weekend welding. What I think happend is some one moved the bolts for the motor mount. On the drivers side. If you look at the left side of one of the pictures one of the old crush sleves is still in the frame. Someone took a 1/2 inch plate and just welded to the outside of the frame. This was to cover up the old holes and fix some rust.

Well I started to cut the welds from around the plate. I than had to cut the plate into 1/4.
This was to get the plate off the frame. I found rust behind the plate and the old motor mount holes.

I took some cardbord made a pattern and cut out a replacement frame side from 3/16 steel plate. I than went after the old frame with my 4 1/2 grinder with serveral more cut off wheels.
I had to drive to two diffrent hardware stores cause I ran out of cut off wheels twice.

I think the repair looks ok and I think it is just as strong as before. I made sure the new plate fit inside the old frame. Than I welded it up. What do you guys think?

new pic of frame

Weekend welding

Here are the pic of the patch I welded into the frame.

I got some co workers over the other moring after work and thay helped me lift the tub off the frame. Ill try to get some pictures on the post to night.

I still have to fix the frame where the old shock mount was and weld the replacement mount in. I went out and got some degreaser that I can spray on the frame with my power washer.

Where dose anyone know of to track down the VIN# on your CJ.
I would like to know what trim level my is and when it was made?

Driver's side firewall, just under the fuse box. The vin is the lowest set of digits; just above those are three groups of letters/numbers. Mine are 02 1E 5EB

1E is the paint code, 5EB is the "trim level." As far as when it was made, you'll have to take your last 6 digits and guesstimate. Mine is in the 6000's, so I expect it was made later in the year's run. (8355 total in '81)