- City
- Joshua
- State
- Tx
Howdy everybody. After drooling over Scramblers for the past couple years I finally pulled the trigger. Meet Pappy. 1981 base model. 258/SR4. Very good condition frame and a only a few rust holes in the floor board area. The previous owners wife wasn't a fan of the Copper Brown and painted (just the exterior lol) yellow. It's growing on me a bit. It was in decent running condition when I purchased it.
It soon developed a coolant leak. It was spitting out of the overflow vent tube up by the cap. We initially replaced the thermostat at gasket thinking the thermostat wasn't opening. Didn't solve the issue. Ended up pulling the radiator. We flushed it and then let it sit in a CLR soak for a few hours before bolting everything back together. Replaced the cap and upper/lower hoses as well. No leaks out of the overflow vent tube but pretty sure the CLR soak made things worse as it developed a lot of pin hole leaks across the top lol. Live and learn. It sat idle until we towed it home. We just put in a new Champion Radiator in it. No issues with the main cooling lines but the bypass hose that goes to the intake manifold split where it was clamped. Old hose so waiting to get a replacement for that one.
My initial goal is education and clean up. This is my first CJ. My father in law had a CJ5 in college and is as excited as I am to be working on one again. There is an inch of grease and gunk on the chassis near the back of the transfer case. Plan to scrape everything off and purple power the $#!+ so we can see where any future leaks are coming from. All the ujoints are shot. The front drive shaft slip yoke is shot, lots of play. Also need to take the wheels off and inspect the brakes. Came with power brakes from the factory and stops decently fine just need to get a baseline.
Other issues that are on the to do diagnostic list are
Blower motor doesn't work. Haven't dug into that at all whether it's a fuse or power issue or the motor itself
A light rough idle on cold start up. Bought the jeep in CO and has been CO it's whole life. Running a bit rich as well and will tackle both of those soon.
Compression check just to get a baseline. All the plugs looked good when pulled.
There is a squeaking noise in the clutch. Clutch pushed in and in gear you can hear it as well as anytime accelerating under medium load.
Now the vision. Nothing extreme but definitely more capable. We wheel primarily in Colorado but have ventured out to Moab, Hot Springs, Hidden Falls ect. Want to build it to be a capable trail rig not a rock crawler. The narrow trac axles will have to be replaced one day. It currently has 33s with stock 3.31 gears which leaves a lot to be desired acceleration wise. Full cage to protect my little man who's already a great helper on the repairs so far. It came with a full acme hard top and the original half cab and bulkhead. I'm partial to a soft top and would like one eventually.
Life is crazy and will no doubt get crazier so it'll be a slow process but the journey is half the fun. Looking forward to learning more about these vehicles and having a good time.
And for those curious why Pappy... he's old and cantankerous at times. And I really like bourbon.
It soon developed a coolant leak. It was spitting out of the overflow vent tube up by the cap. We initially replaced the thermostat at gasket thinking the thermostat wasn't opening. Didn't solve the issue. Ended up pulling the radiator. We flushed it and then let it sit in a CLR soak for a few hours before bolting everything back together. Replaced the cap and upper/lower hoses as well. No leaks out of the overflow vent tube but pretty sure the CLR soak made things worse as it developed a lot of pin hole leaks across the top lol. Live and learn. It sat idle until we towed it home. We just put in a new Champion Radiator in it. No issues with the main cooling lines but the bypass hose that goes to the intake manifold split where it was clamped. Old hose so waiting to get a replacement for that one.
My initial goal is education and clean up. This is my first CJ. My father in law had a CJ5 in college and is as excited as I am to be working on one again. There is an inch of grease and gunk on the chassis near the back of the transfer case. Plan to scrape everything off and purple power the $#!+ so we can see where any future leaks are coming from. All the ujoints are shot. The front drive shaft slip yoke is shot, lots of play. Also need to take the wheels off and inspect the brakes. Came with power brakes from the factory and stops decently fine just need to get a baseline.
Other issues that are on the to do diagnostic list are
Blower motor doesn't work. Haven't dug into that at all whether it's a fuse or power issue or the motor itself
A light rough idle on cold start up. Bought the jeep in CO and has been CO it's whole life. Running a bit rich as well and will tackle both of those soon.
Compression check just to get a baseline. All the plugs looked good when pulled.
There is a squeaking noise in the clutch. Clutch pushed in and in gear you can hear it as well as anytime accelerating under medium load.
Now the vision. Nothing extreme but definitely more capable. We wheel primarily in Colorado but have ventured out to Moab, Hot Springs, Hidden Falls ect. Want to build it to be a capable trail rig not a rock crawler. The narrow trac axles will have to be replaced one day. It currently has 33s with stock 3.31 gears which leaves a lot to be desired acceleration wise. Full cage to protect my little man who's already a great helper on the repairs so far. It came with a full acme hard top and the original half cab and bulkhead. I'm partial to a soft top and would like one eventually.
Life is crazy and will no doubt get crazier so it'll be a slow process but the journey is half the fun. Looking forward to learning more about these vehicles and having a good time.
And for those curious why Pappy... he's old and cantankerous at times. And I really like bourbon.
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