1982 "Vintage Red" CJ-7 Renegade

[spankrjs]

Back to the CJ-7

I ordered a new exhaust manifold/fuel lines, if they come in by Friday I will get this one running again

I have to get it running by next weeks so I can move it out, move the LJ in here to drop the gas tank. What a tangled up CJ/LJ mess

 

[Belizeit]

Well since you need to do it again, and maybe in the future, maybe cut a hole in the floor with a door. Don't blame you for not wanting to do that.

 

[spankrjs]

Worked on this one this weekend, got it running, again, after fighting me a bit!!!

New exhaust manifold showed up Friday, painted it in my garage, which is not a good idea!!!!!



Painting inside the garage results in a stinky house when you go back and forth between garage/house, lesson learned!!!

It was getting down around 30 outside, but the garage stays warmer, even with no heat.



Magic of the internet, got it tore down.





Tried to save the EGR crossover tube. Wasted about an hour, lots of torch and PB Blaster, got it out.





But, the threaded insert on the exhaust end would not spin independent of the tube. If it won't move you can't get the two ends installed. I put my impact on it, level one for 5 minutes, no go. Put it on 2, no bueno. At 1 and 2 levels, I held the tube in my hands, with gloves. When I went to 3, threaded the other end in the manifold to hold it. Level 3 twisted the tube, destroying this part.



I hated breaking this part, but with the one end frozen solid, it was worthless. CollinsBrothers sells/used to sell repo's, maybe they still do?? I had a spare, so no hold up.



While intake was down, I went ahead and changed the two intake heater seals:



If that rubber O-ring seal leaked, that would be a tough vacuum leak to track down!!!!

This intake heater is probably a good thing to keep working, with a carburetor or even throttle body fuel injection. Definitely helps out on cold starts.

 

[spankrjs]

Magic of the internet, all back together, and added a used coolant overflow bottle while I was at it!!!



Pushed it outside, fired up relatively easy, and much quieter with a new exhaust manifold, and less stinky without raw fuel leaking out!!!



It ran perfect for 5 minutes, then like hitting a switch, it died.

After some RedneckRay diagnosis, bad fuel pump!!! Hard to see, but no fuel in the pre pump filter.



Hard to see, but after swapping fuel pumps, the pre pump filter is full of fuel.



I will say that it is much easier to swap fuel pumps on a 1982 CJ-7 versus a 2005 LJ!!!!!

Proof that it moves, posing in the yard:



Starts right up, and runs pretty good. I am still going to check/adjust timing and carburetor, but I really do not think it will take much time to dial it in. All forward/reverse gears work, 4wd works, stops and steers pretty good, BUT I have not drove it faster then about 30mph.

Next few days will be fine tuning, then I need to check those rear axle bearings.

That's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

When I went out this morning to the garage to ready my green Scrambler for work, I saw this:



The heater core minor leak "I am not concerned about at all" had other plans

Oh well, "RedneckRay Heater core bypass" in the works so I can tune the engine, AND until I feel like swapping in a new heater core!!!!!!!!

 

[don87401]

The good ol'e NOW WHAT!

 

[spankrjs]

It rained tonight, so no engine tuning.

Piddled around with some other tasks.

Heater core bypass: 5/8 to 5/8 hose joiner thing, two 5/8 caps to keep crap from leaking out of the heater core all over the place.



And installed/bypassed. I actually keep one of these plastic pieces in the console of my red Scrambler, just in case!!!



Repaired the hood prop rod holder. One of the screws was missing it's head. But, enough of the shaft was sticking out to easily twist it out with vice grips. You get lucky some times!!



Installed a new headlight switch, one new headlight, both front fender side marker bulbs were burnt out, and one bad bulb in the front driver side grill mounted turn signal. Now, all running lights/blinkers/flashers/brake/high and low beam/reverse/dash and courtesy lights work:





The 4wd light and brake light also both work, and all gauges. Have not messed with the radio, probably won't.

Need to repair the passenger side long wiper pivot/linkage before messing with the wipers. Heater fan does not work, I believe blower motor is bad, will find out when I swap heater cores.

This Jeep has less then 78,000 miles on it, and luckily, previous owners have not hacked it up too bad with piss poor repairs or wiring. All these repairs only took a few minutes each, minimal tools, so pretty enjoyable work/progress.

That's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

Almost no rain tonight, so pushed it outside and fired it up. It starts and runs OK, BUT the timing at idle, with the vacuum advance hooked up, was only 8 degrees advanced, so severely retarded.

But, I could not advance it any further due to the distributor's vacuum advance nipple hitting the block:



So, I pulled the spark plugs, turned the engine over by hand to TDC everything:



And reset the distributor like so, rotor pointing at #1 on the cap:



Now, I can advance the timing to my hearts content!!!!

I have not adjusted the carburetor idle mixture yet, but judging by the new plugs/exhaust smell, I'd say it is running a hair rich!!!!



The carburetor that is currently installed is a made in China eBay "new" Carter BBD. It runs decent, so I won't outright condemn it until I try to tune it. I have the original carburetor in a box, I can always try to rebuild it and install it IF I run into issues with the current carburetor.

Not the best pictures, but went on a 20 minute test drive. Not too cold, around 50 degrees, so not terrible!!!





Some stop and go, worked up and down through all the gears, got it up to around 55mph. Drives and runs really well. Brakes, clutch, steering, everything is pretty good and tight. I would put money on it having 3.31 axle gears, seeing how it behaves like my green Scrambler with 3.31 gears and 31" tires. Engine is nice and smooth, no odd noises, pulls hard. It will brake the ass end loose in 2nd on a wet road, but I wouldn't know anything about that!!!!

So, a few more issues to address, then to Baton Rouge:

1) install new heater core/blower motor non-op
2) check rear axle bearings, replace if needed
3) drain and refill T5, reinstall floor plate/boots
4) fix windshield wipers
5) a bit more carburetor tuning

That's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

Removed the heater box this afternoon, no real drama:



Mouse nest between the heater box and firewall, plus a mud dobber nest, just for good measure:



No wonder this control cable would not pull out, mouse nest had the flap jammed in place!!!



I hooked the fan motor straight to the battery, no bueno. With nothing to lose, sprayed the motor out with some throttle body cleaner. No big chunks or rust fell out, but after spraying cleaner directly into the motor can, it started working again!!! Happy about that, my replacement/spare won't be here until Monday!!



Since I removed the squirrel cage to clean out the motor can, picture of what was under the cage on the shaft, in order: thin washer, push lock washer, square metal thingy.



The next time I have an old /non-op fan, I am going to drill out the rivets that hold it to the mounting plate. Then, should be able to remove the actual motor. It might be possible to just replace the motor, it is probably a standard Mabuchi or similar electric motor??? If you could find the specifications it might be possible to find a similar motor, or even a motor that puts out more RPM at the existing voltage. Maybe, you could upgrade this motor without having to cut out the firewall???????

Put a new heater core in the box, resealed the box, installed the now functional blower motor assembly:



And reinstalled:



I lubed the inner box cable, and the three dash mounted cables. All control cables are functional, including the PIA upper cowl vent doors!!! The fan motor also works on all three speeds.

Still need to hook up/bleed the heater core, but I will do that out in the yard, tends to make a mess.

For now, finished with this little project.

 

[spankrjs]

Started to work on the windshield wipers, they are non-operational. The face of the WS frame is bent around the passenger side pivot. The WS frame has some rust on the outer face, below the cowl seal, but it is still super solid everywhere else.

Folding the WS frame down, super nice rust free cowl, and the wiper sticker is still present and in great shape!!



The passenger side pivot must have broke at some point in time, and someone thought it would be a good idea to weld it back together!!!





When the welding work was performed , they welded the arm to the pivot. So, the pivot could no longer pivot, jamming up the linkage/bending the sheet metal around the PS pivot. I can straighten the sheet metal around the pivot, and easily replace the welded/damaged linkage, no problem.

But, when I pulled the PS pivot off the DS pivot, it took some work. The motor/linkage was jammed up tight.

I pulled the circuit breaker out of the fuse panel, inserted a regular fuse, but the wipers would not come on.



I am worried that the "return to park" feature of the wiper system may have burnt out either the motor or switch when the linkage jammed up. Everytime the key is turned on, the wipers would try to return to the "park" position. Since the linkage was jammed up, it would pull some amps trying to force the issue. You would think that the circuit breaker/fuse would blow first, but you never know.

Need to check out a few more easy things first before condemning the wiper motor or switch.

One last picture for now!!!



It will be cold this weekend, so I probably won't do too much test driving/carb adjustments in this topless/door less Jeep!!!!

 

[spankrjs]

Reinstalled the Warn 8274:



Mainly did this due to the fact that I lent the engine hoist out to a guy at work who is swapping a LS into an El Camino. This damn winch/mount is stupid heavy, probably squatted the front down 2".

It is a home made mount, should work, but if this Jeep was mine I would buy a new Warn mount.

There are no sleeves inside the frame, so I used nylock nuts to prevent crushing the frame.



This mount only uses a single 3/4" bolt on each side, unlike the Warn mount that uses two bolts on each frame rail.



This mount uses the top front bumper mounting holes, but there is a gap between the bottom of the mount and the top of the bumper. I did not have any 5/8 diameter tubing to make spacers, so I used nuts/washers.



The power cable looks good, the ground cable is damaged.



I cut the end of the this cable off and crimped on a new end.



Drove to NAPA to crimp on the new end.



Will hook up the winch later on and see if it works.

Did a few other odds and ends today, will post up some more pictures later on.

 

[spankrjs]

Adjusted the idle mixture on the carburetor.



The two mixture screws were out 3 full turns. I turned them both in around 2.5 turns before the idle dropped, then fine tuned from there. The idle/smell is much better, which is to be expected, considering how rich it was running.

Drained the T5, glad i did:



It had about 3/4 of a quart of something that used to bw lube inside, definitely moisture contaminated. Surprisingly, transmission worked fine with this crap in it, I am sure is is happier with fresh lube. Might not be a bad idea to change it out one more time after a couple hundred miles.

Washed the Jeep off, should have done this before I started working on it 6 weeks ago!!!!



Flushed out the frame, a few old mouse nests were inside.



Pretty sure there are some dead mice in the muffler/tail pipe. That odor is going away the more I drive it LOL.

Drove it around for around an hour today, temps in mid 40's, so a bit airish in a topless Jeep. Did some trails in my yard, check out the articulation LOL!!!!







Might work on the heater core/wipers/odds and ends before football tomorrow, that's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

Not too much work on this one today, did yard work instead.

I did hook up and bleed the heater core:



The heater is working as it should, which is nice, since I took it on about a 30 minute drive today. Temps are in the 50's/60's so not terrible.

Letting the Jeep air out in the sun after yesterdays washing, trying to see if I can maybe get a top to straighten out/relax in the sun so I can install it:



That's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

Got the nutmeg Bestop snap top on, no real drama.



No rips or tears, all the snaps and zippers good. It should clean up really nice, even the windows. Considering it has been thrown in a heap on a shelf the last few years, very surprised at its condition. I'll let JeepAddict detail it, for now, I'm happy just to have a top on this thing!!!!!

 

[mhinchliffe]

You got Jeeps in the yard like cats! Keep them fed and happy and the benefit is no more mice!
Nice work amigo - Rock on vaquero!

 

[spankrjs]

Did some more piddling, not really picture worthy.

Fixed the electrical portion of the wipers. Dropped the "crotch vent" off the bottom of the dash so I could look at the wiper switch. The motor was unplugged. Plugged it in, wiper works.

Still need to straighten windshield frame and install passenger side pivot/long arm, but at least halfway home.

Reinstalled the transmission cover and Dana 300 shifter boot and knob. Broke the threaded rod off the top of the T5 shifter trying to remove the knobs chrome stopper nut. Will either drill/tap/install a new threaded rod, or see if I have a spare shifter in my T5 grave yard.

Win some, lose some.

That's it for now

 

[Jeep Addict]

Looking great Raymond!

 

[spankrjs]

Decided to take a look at hopefully the last big chore on this project, the rear axle shaft bearings.

When I had this one up on jack stands a few weeks back, the rear hubs/drums felt like they had a hair bit too much play. You really need to pull the drums off to get an accurate measurement, so had to start there.

Three screws hold each drum to the OEM rear axle hub. One came out, one missing, and had to drill four heads off:



And the dial indicator does not lie. 4-8 OK, 6 preferred:



Just a hair out of spec LOL. Realistically, once I pulled the drums off, before I broke the caliper out, I knew there was excessive play. Also, I could hear a dull roar from the rear when driving, more then just the mud grips.

Oh well, I guess this one isn't ready to go home yet!!!!!

If I am able to remove the hubs from the shafts, and there is no damage, I am just going to install new bearings/seals on the OEM axles. If there is damage to any of the shafts/hubs, I will swap in a pair of Moser axle shafts.

That's it for now

 

[spankrjs]

Like all of my "projects", this little rear axle bearing install has spiraled out of control

Need to change rear axle bearings, so:

Might as well install new wheel cylinders/shoes/hardware, AND if-
Might as well change front calipers because you know the bleeders will either strip or leak, AND if-
Might as well install new pads in the front calipers, AND if-
Might as well change the three rubber brake hoses due to age, AND if-
Might as well flush out brakes, AND if-
Might as well install a new master cylinder, AND if-
New lube/LSD additive and diff cover gasket for the rear end.

Story of my life......................

Oh well, at least this thing will be in great shape when it finally leaves here

 

[sdsupilot]

LOL, that's the slippery slope that led me to where I am today with my Jeep...

Like my grandpa used to say "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right". I've however seen conflicting reports of this statements application based on whether he needed to purchase parts vs someone else.