The Slow Evolution Of Givemethewillys' Jeep

Today I installed my new HEI distributor and a new Delphi fuel pump. It really feels like I'm close to starting thos thing!

I followed the directions on another thread about installing the hei, and really hope that I did it right. The crank is at TDC on the compression stroke, and I "dropped the dizzy" (yeah I hate that term too ) so that the rotor is pointing to the small post just to the left of the coil hump, which I'll connect the #1 plug to. There was some conflicting info, so correct me if that's wrong!



Next up, in need to buy new over-engine fuel lines, and a carb rebuild kit. My carb appears to be an oddball Pontiac one though, so I'm not sure how I'm going to set up the choke.

In other news, I have a clutch alignment tool in the mail, and the drivetrain is just about ready to slide into place!

 

I've been slowly making progress, but have been pretty lousy at posting in my thread here. I finally got the transmission to slide in place, and everything seems fine. I haven't been able to confirm that the release bearing is the right size as of yet. I'm sure I'm going to have to take the transmission back out to replace it. I also mocked up the wiring harness. My old tub came in really handy in the fact that I could prop the cowl up on the desktop and loom everything from the comfort of a standing position.



In other news, I was in a meeting today listening in, and planned on fiddling with my new stainless fuel lines from summit racing (free shipping equaled the cost + shipping straight from the manufacturer). In a bout of madness, I decided to try mounting the hanging pedal assembly that I've been tripping over for the last 8 or 9 years. You can actually see them in the above wiring picture. Success!!!


The pedal assembly is from a late 90's Jeep XJ, and it fits perfectly. The top passenger bolt for the heater box is reused, and I made a quick CAD pattern to locate the other bolt holes. I'll weld in the existing heater box holes to help with rigidity, and then add an 1/8" reinforcement piece to the inside of the tub to help with flex.



As you can see, the pedals shifted to the left quite a bit. I actually like it, as I felt like I was sitting sideways to hit the gas pedal. I think in addition to shifting the pedals to the left, I'm going to relocate the column to come up where the through-the-floor clutch pedal comes through. I never noticed it when I was young and dumb, but the wheel now seems excessively to the right for me. Does anyone else have this problem?



I think I can move the column over 4ish" and it'll sit centered, and will also still be comfortable to drive. If I shift the seat over toward center, my knee hits the shifter and I'm basically sitting where the center console should be. I'm already going to need to bend a new T18 stalk, as it is too short and aims too far to the drivers side.

I also received my carb rebuild kit from Mikes carb parts..... well, I should say I received "A" rebuild kit. There must be a dyslexic person at Mikes, because I recieved a xx48 kit, rather than an xx84. Whomp whomp..... They immediately made it right, and are shipping out a new kit today. Once the carb is rebuilt, and the fuel lines attached, I should be able to start this thing!!! To say I'm excited is an understatement. Once that's all done, I'll pull the tub off and finish all the paint and bodywork. I'm starting to feel like it's getting close.

 

nice progress. i'm jealous of all the people with dauntless jeeps, i'm still stuck with an F head.

 

yep, dauntless engines Rock!!

 

i'd personally stay with a twin stick transfer case though, i like it a lot more and it's simpler.

 

Mine started as an f-head jeep. I got a wild hair in 2012 and bought a dauntless with the intention of doing a tv-style "quick and dirty" weekend install. Then project creep crept in.

And my transfer case is a twin stick

 

Nice work, looking good!

 

that garage looks bigger than what I remember . nice work

 

Yep, it made for an entirely different vehicle. What still surprises me is that they continued to sell the F Head at all. There is just no comparison between the 225 and the F Head either on or off the road and I still believe it was the best factory engine ever, up to and including a certain 3.6 L. All that said, a sbc still puts a bigger smile on your face.

 

absolutely, but it's a little worse on space

 

A little more of an engineering challenge, but they do fit. It has been accomplished many thousands of times. The actual number would be interesting to know but probably impossible to obtain. The only way one could perhaps get an idea would be if you knew the total number D18/D20 to GM adapters sold but some percentage of that would obviously be for other GM engines, including 225's and 4.3's.

Back to the OP, nice project givemethewillys!

 

Thanks! It helps that the Jeep parts are being whittled down to a manageable level. The garage is roughly 24x24, but half that is taken up by woodworking equipment and lawn equipment. That'll be gone when we eventually get a shed, but that's looking like it might be a year or two away. I'm hoping to have this thing up and running before then.

 

As a quick update, I haven't made much progress on the jeep in the past 6 months or so. I think I got burnt out for a bit, and then the jeep sort of got buried. I'm using the excuse that my wife ordered extremely expensive porch furniture, but with our builder's 6 month lead time, and another 3 months of "supply chain delays" we don't have a screened porch to put them on. It's tough to weld on a jeep when there's cardboard boxes 6" away!

I did order and install a new drag link to mount between the Ross bell crank and my dana 30. So now the jeep steers. I'm planning a saginaw swap at some point, but I'm going to do it down the road.

I recently got my motivation back and decided I'm going to work towards a MVP, minimum viable product. No more project creep (or at least save it for later).

I downloaded a kanban board app, and plugged in a "to do" list of 23 things that need to be done to drive the jeep. My renewed motivation has resulted in 6 easy win tasks in the "in progress" section, with a goal to complete them this month. In total, I have less than 30 things I need to complete to drive this jeep!

I'm hoping that next month the cardboard will be away from the jeep, and I'll be able to finish the minor bodywork, replace the rubber bits (fuel fill and radiator hoses), run brake lines, and fire it up!

 

What kanban app did you download? I use that process at work

 

It's called "my kanban". It's pretty basic, with a to-do, doing, and done column, but for my used it sure beats the sticky note method.

Work was actually where I got the idea. We're doing transition in our IT development to scrum agile (similar to kanban) from waterfall development, and it totally seemed to fit for Jeep projects as well.

 

Get that stuff out of the way!!!

Our Kanban at work is a little different, pull a card for X many parts when onhand inventory gets below y... I'm in engineering. We use a project card system "leankit" with project cards and tasks so...
I have a sheet of tasks: asap things before the spring starts (motor mounts,fuel issue, dual res brakes), this year (rear axle) and a few 5 year items like 4 speed swap.

I hate snowballs and creeps.

 

Every time I make a sheet it snowballs and gets unreasonable. Cj6 stretch, air conditioning, custom bumpers and tire carrier. One ton axles, pto winch, fancy gauges. I just need to get it to stop start and steer!

 

That's me. I have the bigger long term list of things but I started with running reasonable decent condition Jeeps so I can tackle single projects at a time. Ideally the projects are small enough I can have the Jeep running again in a few days to a few weeks.

 

That sounds like a great plan! Give me a shout out if/when you need a hand on that MVP.