Spankrjs 1985 Spring Special CJ-7

[spankrjs]

One other thing i found interesting:



I knew that the SolVac would do the "two step idle up" thing on a hot restart, it does it all the time. Basically, 45 seconds of "vacuum sourced" high idle, followed by 15 seconds of "electric sourced" high idle, then it drops to curb idle. Depending on how you adjust the SolVac, the idle on a hot restart goes: 1100 RPM for a bit, 900 RPM for a bit, then drops to 680 RPM base idle. I could be wrong on the time on each stage, but 60 seconds total.

Also, if you have AC, or ground the AC wire, the electric portion of the SolVac holds the idle up to compensate for the AC compressor drag. The electric portion won't overcome the throttle spring, BUT the vacuum portion will.

What I have noticed in the past, and never knew why: sometimes, after slowing down quickly from high speed driving, the idle would be up a bit for around 10-30 seconds. Now I know why, the SolVac will come on line during/after deceleration sometimes. Why, I don't know, but it does.

 

[John N]

Wow! I’d have swapped out the engine by now to a 360 or an LS.

 

[spankrjs]

Wow! I’d have swapped out the engine by now to a 360 or an LS.

That would be too easy LOL

I am actually really happy with this 258's performance, very peppy, fun to drive.

Just need to figure a few more things out

 

[spankrjs]

After the timing adjustments the other day, I drove the Jeep for about an hour. No problems at all, drove perfectly, very happy with it.

About 10' from the drive way, loud "bang", then rhythmic "tap tap tap tap tap". Poop.

Open the hood, serpentine belt was thrown/cut cord.



This belt was only a year old, maybe 750 miles on it. Pulley alignment looks fine. Last time I had this belt off, when I was messing with the valve cover, all the pulley spun mostly free/noise free. The last few days, though, I have heard some strange noises at start up. Anyway, both idler pulley bearings are clicking; the power steering pump does not turn freely and has excessive in/out pulley movement; and the alternator pulley has bit of play (and the voltage regulator is going out). So, power steering pump swap out and alternator swap out easy enough.

Idler pulley driver side:



Idler pulley passenger side (no AC, so idler pulley here):



Power steering pump:



And the alternator:



Luckily, all of the pulleys are fine, no damage to any of them. I imagine it would be a pain in the butt trying to find new pulley for the serpentine set up, maybe not?? Crank pulley is fine, and the water pump and its pulley are good to go, too.

Now, for the "fun part", idler pulley bearings.

These two pulley simply unbolt from their respective brakets:



Remove the thick snap rings:



Close up of the pulley/bearing part numbers:



Hard to read, but it says, and I quote: "CANADA" "FAG" " "559000"

More on this in bit.



Also note, in the picture above, the four "strike" marks, at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock. These "strikes/raised ridges" keep the bearing from potentially walking out the back of the pulley. The large snap ring keeps the bearing from walking out the front. Don't damage these "strikes".

The bearing is a tight fit to the pulley, not quite press fit, but almost. I drove out the old bearing like so, being careful not to damage the pulley.



Piece of pipe supporting the pulley, my LJ/TJ wheel bearing hub nut socket, big hammer. I drove the bearing out the FRONT of the pulley, so the four "strikes" would not be damaged.

 

[Belizeit]

Good to be close to the house when s happens !

 

[spankrjs]

And the bearing removed.



Now, the fun part. You can Google "Jeep CJ idler pulley bearing" if you are bored. Basically, this bearing is discontinued. If you can find them, they are old stock sitting some where. As of now, as far as i know, no bearing manufacturer makes a bearing with the ID of the OEM bearing. The OD/width are a common size, but the ID is unique to this bearing.

Some pictures of some notes I took, and my solution.







Basically, the 11.8mm ID is the crux of the problem. 17mm ID is more common in bearings with this OD/width. They are common alternator/power steering pump bearings, so they can handle the load.

You could get some custom reducers "machined", but i wanted a simple solution, think I found it.

Common bearings, Part Number 6203 - 2RSJ
Off the shelf Reducers, Part Number NBH 91051-16 (my local NAPA had these on the shelf, but the number doesn't bring up anything on the online store)
12mm bolts/lock washers



Reducer bushing goes in the bearing, closes the ID from 17mm to 12mm:



12mm bolt passes through reducer bushing:



The OEM pulley spacers slide over the 12mm bolts with no modification:



More notes:



Basically, the 12mm replacement bolts are only slightly larger OD then the OEM 7/16 bolts. The 12mm bolt fits through my driver side pulley bracket hole no problem. On the idler pulley bracket over the alternator, I will have to spend 30 seconds with a file to slightly enlarge the hole.

The OEM bolt/bearing have roughly 30 thousandths play.
The total play between my 12mm bolt, reducer, bearing is 19 thousandths, so better fit.
The reducer bushing is 2mm short of full bearing ID depth, not enough to worry about.

Off the shelf parts. Done. I hope.

Bearing bore before clean up:

 

[spankrjs]

Clean bore, need to get some lighter grit emery cloth!!



I used a hammer, socket, seal installer to install the bearings. A press would be safer, less chance of slipping off the outer bearing race and damaging the bearings rubber seal. Ask me how I know.



Snap ring in on the front side:



Four little "steps" secure the bearing on the back side:



It is a tight, tight fit. If you are concerned, you could put some bearing retainer stuff between the bearing and the pulley, but that would be overkill, and a huge PIA to take apart in the future.

The OEM front washer will NOT slide over the "shoulder" of the 12mm bolt:





You could modify them, or use a 12mm lock washer like I did:



You do NOT want the head of the bolt against the bearing. It could, maybe, rub the seal. The OD of the 12mm lock washer matches the OD of the inner bearing race perfectly, keeping the bolt head off the rubber seal.

I put the reducer bushing flange to the rear because the OEM spacer OD is smaller then the ID of the inner bearing race.

 

[spankrjs]

And installed:











Technically, by placing the reducer flange to the rear, I am spacing out the pulley 2mm.

But, it lines up perfect:



I am thinking this is an easy, off the shelf solution. The bearing spins free, pulley lines up.

Is there something I am missing?

 

[barrys]

Is there something I am missing?

The belt?
When I was in kindergarden, my best friends dad worked for FAG bearing company 40 years later I still have a keychain and a very large(for a little kid anyway) bearing (4" id) his father gave me.

 

[spankrjs]

The belt?
When I was in kindergarden, my best friends dad worked for FAG bearing company 40 years later I still have a keychain and a very large(for a little kid anyway) bearing (4" id) his father gave me.

LOL

It says "FAG" on the seal, but I think it is supposed to be "F.A.G."?

 

[spankrjs]

Picture of the bag the bushings come in, with part numbers:

 

[xatu40]

Your timing on this is impeccable. I threw my serpentine belt yesterday going down the highway. Now I get to reread this post again and go take a closer look at mine.

Thank you again for all the great info and pictures!

 

[John N]

That would be too easy LOL

EXACTLY!

 

[spankrjs]

Rebuilt my other idler pulley, removed the alternator and associated brackets, which is a lot of stuff.

A few random pictures.

It is easiest to remove this front bracket, then the alternator:



My wiring harness has a grey plug that plugs into this short alternator harness, haven't seen this before on any of my previous Jeeps?

This alternator is physically larger then the alternators on my V-belt Jeeps, with this black round fan, and of course, the serpentine pulley:





The above alternator will not physically fit into the V-belt alternator brackets.

The other brackets that support the alternator:



I rebuilt this idler pulley, same as the one near the power steering pump:





My OCD got the better of me, so I pulled all of the alternator/idler pulley brackets off the engine, so i could clean this last dirty spot:



Complicated alternator/idler pulley bracket contraption:



All of the parts/bolt/nuts that make up the above unit:



Plan on cleaning all of this stuff up, install a new alternator, bolting it all back to the block, BEFORE I pull the power steering pump stuff off.

That's it for now.

 

[xatu40]

Were you able to identify the alternator amperage that you have? I read where you mentioned it was larger than the others, so I was thinking maybe it was 70 or 78 amps. Went to get my replacement belt and parts this morning, and it appears that the belt (25-060882) for the 70/78 alternator is 3/4" longer than the one you picked up. I'm still searching online to try and decipher. On the NAPA site, I am only finding a 78 amp replacement. From another location I found the following:

The one one the left is 63, the right is 78, so I'm leaning towards 78 for what I have on there now. I'm hoping to not pull mine all the way out at this time, so curious if you were able to confirm?

 

[spankrjs]

Were you able to identify the alternator amperage that you have? I read where you mentioned it was larger than the others, so I was thinking maybe it was 70 or 78 amps. Went to get my replacement belt and parts this morning, and it appears that the belt (25-060882) for the 70/78 alternator is 3/4" longer than the one you picked up. I'm still searching online to try and decipher. On the NAPA site, I am only finding a 78 amp replacement. From another location I found the following:
View attachment 81197
The one one the left is 63, the right is 78, so I'm leaning towards 78 for what I have on there now. I'm hoping to not pull mine all the way out at this time, so curious if you were able to confirm?

See the below post

 

[spankrjs]

I got all my accessories/belt back on, and working. The next few posts will be boring, unless you have the serpentine set up.

This is the alternator I bought from NAPA:



I will have to "clock" it to get it to fit:



This alternator DOES NOT have the correct pulley, so we swapped pulleys on the counter. But, the height matches perfectly:



To "clock" the alternator, put a paper clip through the brush hole, remove the four bolts, lift the back up gently, turn it, done:



It is now "clocked" correctly for this application:



Cleaned the block:



Cleaned all the brackets/bolts/nuts/washers:



Bolted the idler pulley bracket to the big aluminum bracket first:



Using these four holes (pretty sure the only way it fits, other holes are for AC compressor):



Bolted the black bracket to the big aluminum bracket like so:

 

[spankrjs]

Bolted the big aluminum bracket to the block/timing chain housing/cover:



Bolted this bracket to the front of the alternator:



Bolted the alternator/front bracket into place:







And the finished, for now, alternator and idler pulley assembly:



Pulley alignment between the crank/WP/alternator/idler looks OK.

Moving on the driver side, time to swap out the power steering pump.

You have to carefully remove your original power steering pulley and reuse it. To do so, a special puller has to be used. I bought one from NAPA, it did not come in yet, so I borrowed this one from the mechanic at work. I have used it before, works fine. I finally bought one because I have borrowed his 4 times, time to just own my own!!!







Disconnect the two hoses, drain the power steering pump:

 

[spankrjs]

The serpentine belt makes removing the power steering pump fun. Some of the bolts/brackets removed:



I could not remove the assembly at this point, it will hit the fan shroud:



I needed to unbolt the front half of the aluminum "clam shell" to remove the power steering pump assembly. To do so, I have to remove the grungy bolt at the bottom of the picture, plus the one above that is already missing:





More bolts/pieces out:



This bracket can stay in place:



And the liberated power steering pump:



The pulley removal tool installed. I used my electric impact, worked great. Make sure you thoroughly oil all moving parts/threads on the puller:



Pulley safely removed:



No damage to the front of the old pump shaft:

 

[spankrjs]

No damage to the "snout":



Bore has some fine lines, but still smooth, can't "feel" the lines, good to go:



I bought this PS pump, because for $10 more, it came with a new reservoir:



The return port looks a bit tweaked downward, but is OK:



You do have to remove/reinstall the studs on the back from your old pump/reservoir:



I forgot to take a picture, but I used the same tool to reinstall the pulley. Pulley installed flush to the pumps snout:



Studs installed on the back. NOTE - there is a difference between the two, the lower has a built in spacer:



The new PS pump was supposed to come with a new pressure line O-ring, it did not. I picked up a few O-Rings from NAPA. The black ones are supposed to be "PS O-Rings", the green ones are "AC O-Rings". My PS line had a green one installed from NAPA:



The PS pump assembly, with the aluminum "clam shell" brackets/bolts:



Rear bracket installed: