71 CJ5 Questions

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and new to CJ5 ownership. I have a 1971 CJ5 Dauntless Standard that is needing all kinds of repair to get working and one day inspected for road-worthiness. In the mean-time, it's used solely for snow-plowing a very long driveway. I've tried finding answers through other threads, but no luck and the two "repair" manuals I have are vague at best. Thanks for any help you can provide.

1. Horn. Horn wire disconnected and about 5 inches of wire left dangling inside steering column tube from button in center of steering wheel. Where does this wire exit the steering tube for routing to the horn itself? I can find no hole to get wire up the column. If it's on the steering box, where exactly is it and can I just feed a wire up through the hole and expect it to exit through the top?

2. Steering Column Tube. Is the steering column tube supposed to be loose? Mine is really only held in place by the bracket mounted with 2 screws at the bottom of the dash panel. I can see a clamp at the entry to the steering box and wonder if this clamp should be loosened and slid up half an inch so that it is actually clamping the bottom of the column tube. Not sure what else it's actually clamping???

3. Heater. Have two wires coming out of the heater blower motor housing (yellow and red) just dangling and this motor connection doesn't even show up on the wiring diagrams I have. Where do they go? Heater not working at all.

4. Various Penetrations Through Floorpan. Floorpan sort of resembles swiss cheese. Holes through the deck for the clutch, brake, 4-Wheel Drive shifter and Warn Overdrive shifter are all un-booted and rough cut. Found a boot to install for the accelerator and transmission shifter. Are there supposed to be metal rings for boots or hole-grommets on anything else? Any pictures showing what they should look like would be awesome. Any sources for these things or should I just fabricate my own?

Again, thanks for any help you can give. I really enjoy the forum and have already learned a bunch from some very helpful folks out there.

 

1) (assuming still have stock steering) the horn wire exits the bottom of the ross box. To rewire, you need to take off the horn button rubber cover, feed the wire up through the box. Almost impossible to fed it down.
2) the clamp on the bottom end should be at the bottom and should be tight. It clamps around the bearing cover on the "top" of the ross box.
3) DON'T KNOW
4) old jeeps get modified a lot. Lots of holes normal in a jeep that has been working. The boot for the tranny shifter has a ring that will clamp it down. If you have the single stick transfer case shifter (normal for a 71) it will have a plate that clamps dowm with 2 bolts.

Search for "ross steering" on this site for pics etc. Lots of pics of inside of old jeeps on here as well, you should see many examples of the shifter boots in the builders forum. FOr service manual, search for "jeep SM-1046" on amazon. thats the factory service manual and its still in print.

 

Thanks Homersdog for quick answers. 1. Will look for "ross box" threads and pics and try feeding wire up column when I get home. 2. So the clamp is not supoosed to "hold" the bottom of the steering column tube. So wiggly/loose at the bottom is ok? 4. I have a transfer case shifter and a Warn overdrive shifter, physically separated from each other. One looks like it used to have a ring around it and maybe a boot. The other shows no signs of ever having any "dressing" around the shifter. Again, I'll keep searching for some pics to see what other CJ5's have. Thanks again.

 

The clamp should be TIGHT, not loose. It squeezes the outer tube of the column onto the ross box.

 

The clamp is very tight now but doesn't touch the column tube, it's sitting just below the tube, unless maybe the tube is broken off right at the clamp. Will loosen clamp and see if I can slide it up half an inch to catch the steering tube.

 

here is a pic of mine when I was rebuilding the ross box recently. I have already removed the tube and clamp from the box, but you can see how it functions. The steering "column" is actually a solid piece that runs from the steering wheel all the way into the steering box (ross) and it is what is in contact with the sector shaft that does the turning. Anyway, the outer tube that you see from your wheel down to the box is a sheet metal piece. It clamps to your dashboard and the bottom clamps the the round bearing cap sticking up from the box. If yours is clamped properly and the tube isn't broken then it should not be loose. If it is it may have been installed wrong or broken.

If it is not broken it will be easy to fix. You might need to pulle the upper floor pan out to get to it, but just loosen the clamp, put it on the tube and shove it down on the box. If it the tube is broken you'll have to remove it and either weld it or replace it.

[/IMG]

 

Grant, your picture is perfect. My tube is broken, right at the top of the clamp. How hard is it to remove the steering wheel so I can slide the tube off and re-weld it? Looks like a 1-1/4" nut surrounding the horn button. Once removed, any tricks for getting the wheel off?

Also, I found the hole/pass-thru tube in the steering box for routing the horn wire. Was just covered up with 20 years of grundge. Thanks for steering me to the right spot (no pun intended).

 

there are a couple of methods that I know of. the stock wheels don't have holes for the standard steering wheel pullers, but you can get an adapter like this..
http://www.kaiserwillys.com/product/3020/willys-jeep-steering-wheels-parts-accessories

and use a regular steering wheel puller, or you can use the " bottle jack" method which is basically putting some wood on to of the exposed steering column end to protect it, put a jack of some type on top of that, strap the other end of the jack to the wheel spokes with good nylon web strap, the applying pressure slowly.

Both methods require patience and soaking the joint for hours, even over night, with something to loosen the joint. I used liquid wrench recently, but there are better products available these days. The wheels are sometimes extremely tight after being together for 40+ years, so it takes time. Search this site for steering wheel and you should see pics of this in action. It is not the best method, it can bend the spokes of the wheel permanently.

By the way, do you still have the mfr's label on the drivers side of the dash board? what month was your 71 built in? Mine was April '71.

 

Thanks Grant for the wheel tips. I'll look at the mfr's label when I get home and let you know. Going to see if I can fab something in the shop similar to the kaiser willys wheel puller. Seems like the key is having a good solid "cuff" for below the wheel and then using a gear puller slowly.

 

I tried all day to remove the steering wheel on my 71, rigging up numerous pullers described in this forum. None would work. Finally I found a post that advised to push up on the bottom of the steering wheel with your knees while wiggling the top of the steering wheel back and forth with your hands. The steering wheel popped right off using this method!

I could not find a hole in my steering box for my horn wire either. I was advised that the PO must have replaced the civilian steering box with a box off a military model. I don't know that this info is gospel, but I surely do not have a hole in the box for a wire, so I rigged up a horn button on the side of the steering column. I've since purchased a box with the required hole for the wire, but haven't got arround to swapping them out.

 

I have the same issue with my early CJ5. Apparently a PO swapped in a 225 and I have the 4 cylinder steering box with no hole at the bottom for the horn wire. Can anyone give some insight as ti what military vehicle this box came from, or if a hole can just be drilled?

 

The hole is actually a horn wire tube, specifically made to guide the wire up through the cam and keeping the gear oil from draining out. You can't just drill one if it doesn't have the tube.

 

jungle jim has a pretty thorough parts list on line, but I have not done business with them, just used it for a reference

http://www.willysjeepparts.com/Steering_23.htm

 

Got some more work done over the weekend. For the steering wheel, I fabricated a "cuff" by welding two 1-1/2" ID washers together then cutting them in half to make sort of a clam-shell to fit beneath the steering wheel. Soaked the shaft top with Liquid Wrench over night and then applied the cuff using a 2-prong gear-puller. Cranked down a few times, tapped the bolt with a hammer, cranked down a few more times and POP, off came the wheel! Moved on to remove 40 years of grime from the bottom of the Ross box and found the Hole (end of the tube) directly opposite from the shaft entry point. Fished a wire through, reconnected the horn button and, honk-honk, I now have a working horn! Removed the bottom clamp and steering shaft tube. Found that the bottom of the tube actually wasn't broken off as suspected. Must be that the clamp needs to stay a 1/4" or so proud of the Ross Box collar so that it can seize the very bottom of the steering tube. Cleaned and painted the steering tube and it's ready to re-install tonight. Trying to figure out how to make or improvise a rubber grommet like Grant shows on his picture of the steering tube for where tube goes through floor...can't find one on-line to buy anywhere, so trying to think of what kind of plumbing or electrical fitting would do the job. Any ideas let me know. Next on the agenda is filling in the cracks on the steering wheel spokes. Going to see if any threads for doing this, otherwise, leaning towards using epoxy putty.

Just looked at Grant's Jungle Jim reference link and found the steering column grommet part number I needed. Walck's has it. Thanks.

 

For the horn, unless you are trying to restore it, stick with the button mounted to the side of the tube. It is what I use on mine.
Not worth the hassle otherwise. If it is just to have an operating horn because of state laws, then any kind of push button will work. just has to be easy to reach, is all.

 

I have read threads where people fix the steering wheel cracks with JB weld but I've never tried it. I think Piffey did it on his if you look through his build thread.

 

Filled these cracks with JB Weld 2 years ago and still looks great.



This is after painting it with Home Depot appliance epoxy enamel. Some guys said the paint would come off on my hands but after two years, that hasn't happened yet! Wheel still looks new.

 

Thanks for the pics. I'm going to try the JB Weld route and see how it goes but will probably not do the epoxy re-painting step...I kinda like the dull bakelite finish. Going to add 2 drops of my daughter's black fingernail polish into the JB Weld when mixing to make it a little darker. Checked a few of the antique radio/telephone forums on tips for rehab'ing bakelite. Solutions very from the very simple (use Scott's Liquid Gold or Kiwi shoe polish) to the very painful (5-step sanding to 800 grit and then buffing with white rouge). Given all the other things needing my attention, the Liquid Gold solution sounds right up my alley!

Here's my next question. The heater had been totally disconnected (by the looks of things, 20+ years ago). I've gotten the electrical stuff reconnected and working but its the heater hose routing I can't figure out. The two heater hoses are gone and I'm not sure where to connect them. Are you supposed to replace the "by-pass" hose by routing through the heater? I have a short hose running from a port on the water pump to a port right next to the thermostat (the book refers to this as the by-pass hose). These are the only "ports" I can find anywhere for possibly using to re-connect the heater. I'll shoot a pic tonight if it would help.

Also, is opening the heater box and getting the heater core replaced/serviced a difficult thing? It looks quite rusted and I'm thinking it got disco'd because it quit working (plugged up of leaking).

 

I have cracks in my 69 wheel.

Been slowly filling them with jb weld and using 400grit to smooth out when done, I will use 600 them 1000 to try and get it to the same slick it is now.

Used the jb quick epoxy to put the end of my e brake back on when it popped off too.

Thinkg of using it to fab up a button for my vacuum heater control using one of the others as a mold model. I was thing that rifle bedding with stainless powder and black tint might have a cool effect... Release and lots of it to make it work...

 

Kevin,

The bypass hose is not disturbed. One heater hose goes to the threaded port on the top right (Pass) side of the water pump and the other to the right side of the head aft near the temp sender. The head connection usually had a shutoff valve in it. If the core has been dry for years pull it and take it to a radiator shop.