• Notice for iPhone users: DO NOT use the image size reduction option when uploading photos to the forum. This causes portrait images to post as landscape. We have added a warning to the image insert pop-up as well.

1984 SL Restoration

Last night I put 18.1 gallons in at the gas station. The gas and temp still didn’t work. Randomly while driving it today I looked down and they’re both working so who knows and I’ll leave it at that. Maybe it just had to work out some bugs🤞
9E17F95A-B3C6-4D42-94FE-608AE94E240C.jpeg
 
Hmmm....Maybe it was a weak grounding issue due to the extreme length of the exhaust pipe pulling too much ground away from the gauges?
 
Going all the way back to #431, do you recall where you found these rubber hood bumpers?

1665278962048.png
 
spankrjs said:
And then the four bolts that took 6 hours!!!

Started on the passenger side, frame on jack stands, rear axle supported by floor jack, bottle jack under leaf pack to fine tune suspension load to free the shackle, easy enough:

View attachment 91895

Popped out the bushings before I broke out the torch to prevent burning rubber!!!

View attachment 91896

Torch did not save the day, so all the tools come out!!!!

View attachment 91897

One inner frame nut on this side was already broken free from the frame. Cut the head off the bolt, fished out the broken parts, installed a flange nut in the frame and a new bolt, done. The other bolt head snapped off, so I center punched the bolt, drilled it out, re-tapped the original inner frame nut, done.

For some reason, I ordered YJ rear shackle hangers, which is fine, but they use larger bushings then CJ's. I keep spare Rubicon Express bushings, so I had some new leaf spring bushings/inner bolt sleeves that fit the shackle hangers perfectly. Lucky!!!

View attachment 91898

IIRC, CJ's equipped from the factory with 20 gallon tanks have the rear shackle bolts installed with the bolt heads to the inside, nuts on the outside. You can't do this with greaseable shackle bolts where the zerk is in the bolt head. With a thin OEM skid plate, I just space the bolts out with two washers under the heads to get a bit of clearance between the end of the bolts and the side of the skid plate:

View attachment 91899

View attachment 91900

In the above two pictures, I only put the washers on the center bolts to show the desired clearance. I space all the bolts outward. On my red Scrambler with a 20 gallon tank, thick GenRight skid plate, and the same shackles/bolts, I had to cut the bolts down some and use thinner top lock metal locking nuts to get clearance. Just something to watch out for.

This side finished:

View attachment 91901

The driver side was more fun then the passenger side. Both bolt heads snapped off. I was able to drill out and re-tap one of the inner frame nuts. On the other broken bolt, a drill bit snapped off inside the broken bolt. So, I carefully ground down the welds on the bottom of the frame nut, knocked it loose/out of the frame with a punch and hammer.

Still need to reassemble the driver side, but the hard work is over with:

View attachment 91902

If these four bolts would have simply unscrewed, I would have finished this simple job before lunch. I called it a day at 6pm, still not finished, but almost!!

These four bolts were rusted pretty bad, but the frame is in great shape, strong. I have been beating the hell out of it and drilling on it for hours, still solid.

My green Scrambler has no rust at all on it anywhere, but I had the same problem on the driver side rear shackle hanger bolts.

That's it for now!!!
Click to expand...
Hey there, how much do you torque the shackle bolts down? My manual says 24lbs, but that is for a stock shackle. I have OME YJ springs and shackles with greasable bushings / zerks and at least one of my front shackles is a tiny bit angled. I'm thinking I have my shackle bolts too lose but I'm not clear on proper torque specs. I've seen some posts about "mushroom the bushing" and others, "just so the bolt passes the end of the lock nut". Any preference or experience with what works?
 
hefavitzen said:
Hey there, how much do you torque the shackle bolts down? My manual says 24lbs, but that is for a stock shackle. I have OME YJ springs and shackles with greasable bushings / zerks and at least one of my front shackles is a tiny bit angled. I'm thinking I have my shackle bolts too lose but I'm not clear on proper torque specs. I've seen some posts about "mushroom the bushing" and others, "just so the bolt passes the end of the lock nut". Any preference or experience with what works?
Click to expand...
I just snug them up by hand. I leave them loose enough where the bolt can be turned by a wrench fairly easy. Not spin loose, just a bit of pressure on the wrench for the bolt to turn. Leave them a hair loose until the vehicle is back on its tires, then tighten.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top