My Prarie Gold 67' CJ-5

I got a little work done today, drilled out the roll pin, pulled the cam gear and stripped the stock distributor down.



Filled it with oil and spun the pump with the 1/2" drill.



Valve covers stripped and ready for paint.



First coat drying in the sun.



New gaskets installed and bolted in place.

Passenger side.



Driver side.



Air cleaner assembly. This is the one that was on it when I brought it home. Obviously not the original piece, since it should be oil bath and not dry element.
This is actually off a chevy small block, it had an un-readable turbo jet sticker either a 283 or 327, and it has a tube welded on the bottom to raise it up
and neck it down to fit the 2g. With the new dry element sticker I think it has the stock-ish look I like.

 

Finally back to the wiring harness install, this is the hole for the right side wires.



I welded a stud to the cowl brace and bolted this clamp to the stud then ran the wires for the right side, from the fuse box thru the clamp.
Keeping them up out of the way right under the cowl.



Then they run over the hump at the top of the fire wall. Down thru the channel brace on the pass. side and out the hole under the battery tray.
Next I ran the split loom down the fire wall, thru a couple clamps on the forward edge of the floor support.



Battery tray back in place, and trim tag uncovered.



Clamped the transfer case vent/fill hose to the tray brace.



Starter wires and front of the engine wires (oil and temp senders alt. exciter).



Starter and alt. power wires come up behind the battery tray.



Started on the left side, here you can see the split loom, it will attach to the inner fender bottom when I put it back on.
I ran the coil and tach wires thru a piece of vacuum hose next to the brake switch along the motor mount and up to
the distributor.
The front brake line runs thru the motor mount, I fed a used piece of hose thru the holes in the mount then ran the brake
line thru the hose to hold it and protect it. Then the pressure switch to the tee to each front brake.
The green and brown wires are for the reverse lights, I couldn't figure a good way to run them in the cab to the switch,
it's so close to the tunnel cover. So I'll just run these back up the frame to the trans.



Left side lights and wires, then the loom runs under the grill shell to the right side lights.



Upside down shot of dist. cap the soldered and heat shrink connections and then a larger piece of heat shrink to hold them together.



Then I spent an hour in the back room of Checker/O'Reilly auto parts and found a near perfect fit upper radiator hose.

 

Finished the under hood wiring today, all the wires are terminated except the regulator and horn I'll do them when the fender is back on.
This is how I salvaged the 60 year old wires on the park lights. I carefully stripped enough to work with, then took the insulator off a butt
connector. I filled the connector with flux and crimped the wires together.



Then I ran solder in the joint.



And sealed it up with heat shrink. The longer piece of heat shrink on the signal connection is covering a bare spot about an inch from the joint.



Then I did the same thing with the headlights and wrapped the wires in split loom.



Driver side finished.



Clamps on the fire wall holding the right side wires.



Brake pressure switch again w/ wires for rev switch in loom running back up frame to trans.



Ignition and tach wires run in this small vacuum hose up to the distributor.

 

Then I moved back inside the cab, I already showed the dome light in the center of the roof, once I got it working I decided to put door jamb switches in.
This is the switch on the driver side door jamb.



The side view, switch sits about an inch below the dash.



That went so well I decided to put one on the rear hatch.



Then I decided to build a separate light and mount for the rear. This is an old light I had on the shelf and a sheet metal mount bolted to the door edge.



The switch comes in right behind the light housing.





Back hatch open, light on.








Hatch closed, light off.

 

More work done today, I am going with a flanged axle now so I need new spring plates and skids, unfortunately
I'm all out of scrap plate so I came up with a new plan.
I have a piece of 1/4" wall 4" square tube, here it is in the chop saw. I cramped up by the time I got through, but it finally cut it.



Cut to length to match the plates off the 71' that the axle came out of.



Then I tacked a spring plate to opposite sides of the tube since all my clamps are cheap Chinese junk, now I have drill templates.



Drilled the pilot holes in both sides.



Cut the welds and drilled the holes with a 1" bit to fit the socket.



Then marked each side for the final cuts to form to skids.



Left and right.



Test fitting, now a little grinding and ready to weld.



Next I ran the u-bolts thru the plate and bolted them on, and put 3/4" sockets on each nut to keep everything aligned and tacked the pieces together.
I was going to use the two pieces of scrap tube to ramp each end but. decided they were done instead.



Of course the impact socket was a little tight so I had to open the holes up a bit. Then a little shake and shoot.

 

Back to the interior wiring, I took a old 4 wire rear taillight harness cut it into 2 pieces and fed it up to the wiper motors,
American bosch single speed w/park. If I decide to upgrade to 2 speed motors I already have the extra wires run.



Wires all in split loom, and a conduit clamp in an extra hole someone drilled in the frame.



Dash panel finally going back in.



All the gauges back in and wired, switches and indicators wired, just have to do the head/tail/park switch and gauge power and ground
everything. Then start on the column.


Still WAY TOO BUSY for me but I wanted to keep it close to the way it was when I bought it, so I can live with it.



How it looked when I brought it home.

 

Just read the whole thread. Awesome job! Keep it up.

Regarding removing those outer bushing sleeves at the spring mounts - I think I just used a hack saw to cut a slot in them to relieve the pressure and they slid right out with very little pounding.

 

Thanks Alaska CJ, I'm glad you enjoyed it, words of encouragement are always appreciated.

I'm about a month behind where I planned to be now, but still plugging along. It never seems to go as fast as I think it should.
Sadly, I made a half hearted attempt to saw the sleeves as you suggested, but my last hack saw blade was dull and I convinced
myself I could just drive them out. So instead a trip to the hardware store for blades I hammered.

Stubbornness might be the reason I'm a month behind.

Not much today just some more wiring behind the dash.

 

Little more done today, but first I had to have some entertainment. This is in the neighbors yard 15 feet from where I'm standing.
The cat in the fore ground is mine and the darker one belongs to another neighbor. They fight several times a day and make an
unbelievable racket. Today a doe stopped by to watch.
Seconds after the photo the cats went at it and the deer headed for the hills.



Back to work, I pulled the tunnel cover and ran the reverse lights.



Then a switch to control the rear spot light. The switch only has power when the trans is in reverse, flip switch and see little better to back up. (hopefully)



A month or so ago during a couple days bad weather I built a back seat, the original is long gone I'm afraid. I cut a plywood pattern and
ordered a little 3" foam then sewed up some covers and fender pads. About the same time someone on here was looking for dimensions
of the stock legs, I waited for the answer so I could make something similar to original and never saw the answer. I can't wait anymore
so I built these today.

1" x 1/8" angle and some scraps of strap welded up and fit under the stock mounts.
Passenger side.




From the rear.



Driver side.



1" angle for the back w/ some 1/4" gussets to strengthen it, and a little shake and shoot.

 

The front foot goes under the front mount and the leg fits tight to the edge of the mount.
I was going to build a spring pin similar to stock but, I just drilled everything for a 3/8" bolt.
Passenger side.



Driver side.

 

Then I installed the seat pads.



Rear view, I still have to finish the back side of the seat back but, it will do for now.



Then with the hatch closed, I tried to get the back high enough for some (comfort)? but didn't want to block any of the rear view.



Then for fun I cleared the fender well off and threw one of the pads in to see how It will look. The pads are not done, just sewn and some foam
crammed in them but I thought I'd share.





This is on my patio before I installed them, seat pads just sitting and both pads.



From above.

 

Finally got the rear end back under and took it off the stands.
The new u-bolts and 71' springs installed, w/ new spring plates.



New shackles, bushings and flanged 44.




Another photo essay on why you should give the other guys junk at least a cursory glance before you test drive
or take your new purchase home on a tow bar.
Original front, pass. side spring,this is the knuckle that's held on by two loose bolts.




Here's the driver side spring. Notice anything?



How about now?



Then one from above, see the hole in the bottom leaf that should have a pin aligning it with the center hole on the spring plate?



This thing had 1" steel lift blocks on the front you can just see them in the photos. They're notched to fit around the u-bolts.

This shows the entire centering pin that remained, the tiny notch on the bottom is where it was in the main leaf, the rest up to
the head was in the lift block. I even lined the leaves back up with my heel less bar to see if any pin was left.



Again I agreed to buy this beauty over the phone from a cl photo, if it had a tow bar I probably would have just hooked up and gone the 160 or so miles home.
AND HE WAS STILL DRIVING IT WHEN THE MOOD HIT HIM!!

I'm using the 71' springs all the way around, but for some reason 1 main eye looked like this, so I took the 66' main leaf
the bottom one in the photo and used the military wrap and all the other 71' leaves to make one complete spring.



Then I took both short loose leaves off the 66' spring packs and cut them down for the bottom of the 71' springs.
Now the lock-nut for the centering pin is against a flat and not in the groove where it's so hard to tighten.



Both new(?) fronts. I'll know if they're alright once I have all the weight back on them, but they looked okay on the 6 when I brought it home.

 

That's why I trailer my purchases home.

I heard about it from a friend the whole hour home. When I got a chance to look it over with wrenches it turned out all the ubolts were falling off...

 

Yeah, that might have been a handful if you had been driving.
I trailer also, but he said he was driving it and if it had a tow bar I might have made another choice and
flat towed it home, then thrown the tow bar in the scrap heap cause I don't believe in them any more either.

Got some other miscellaneous stuff done. I started on the dash pieces sometime ago on a bad weather day, got them
all finished this week so I thought I'd show the result.
The dash pieces had some kind of orange metallic paint that was cracking and faded. I couldn't duplicate it so I stripped them and
rattled them with some metallic bronze, then glued on new "wood".

Before.







I pulled this heater, the white one under the glove box. Dis-assembled it, cleaned it, got it working then painted it.



Trim plate around the lighter/ashtray.



Heated the glove box door with a hair dryer and peeled this old veneer off.



Ready to sand and paint.



Driver side ash tray/lighter done re-installed.



Passenger side ash tray and glove box door done.



Heater re-installed.



The 2 upper studs w/ large body washers are for the heater, there's a third stud under the battery tray.The hoses run under the tray also,
one runs along the valve cover to the pump and the other 1 I'll run along the bell housing to the other heater when I get it back in.



One of the heater.

 

Wow that interior looks cool with the new "wood". 8)

 

Yeah, it really turned out alright. The vinyl still needs some deep cleaning but it's a little brittle and sun baked in spots since the PO
left the top off and the interior exposed to the elements, but I do a little more when the mood hits.

I'm having a little trouble finishing the wiring harness, all I lack is the column, but I can't seem to find a factory diagram so I'm doing
other stuff while I try to sort it out.
I finally got the front end in, but the drag link and tie rod on the passenger side were hitting the spring and clamp.
So I hack sawed the clamp and bolt out of the way.



Still not quite enough room right at the tie rod/drag link joint. Since I already have 2 extra leaves on the bottom of each spring pack I pulled
the u-bolts and centering pins and the alternating extra leaves to put on the top. I cut the longer of the two down to length just behind
the tie rod, replaced the pin and bolted it all back up.



While I was finishing the passenger side I remembered the pinion snubber/limiter was still on the old housing.



Couple minutes with grinder and ball peen.



For those of you that don't know they moved the steering stops on these axles between 66' (old) and 71' (new) I don't know why.

66' on the front.



71' on the rear, so of course it's in the way of the snubber, you can see the steering stop and the axle stop on frame here.



So I cut about 1 1/2" out of the side to fit it around the steering stop and welded it on.



Just like factory, sort of.

I'm pretty excited the front end has a cover on it for the first time since I've owned the Jeep.



And the same goes for locking hubs.



While I was in the area I soldered in some fusible link on the alt. power wire. I also put one on the main power under the dash after the ammeter.

 

Rebuilt the steering shaft today, I took it apart when I was re-mounting the steering box and repairing the frame. When I
cleaned the old grease out of the cup the inside was battered I suspect one of the square bearings had been rattling around
in there for a while, the joint just flopped around. Of course I lost the internal clip and had to get another but the boot looks
good and the joints tight now.



The tire rack sits really close to the body and whoever mounted it cut the latches off the gate and the rack fits on here like a ledge.



It works fine, the hatch and tire rack hold the gate closed but when you open both the tailgate drops open and slams into the bumper.
Now I only had to have this happen once and I knew to catch the gate and ease it open, but the PO's must have been a little slow on
the uptake and kept letting it slam open causing this.



So I took a seat belt from my pile and cut the belt off the latch and the back half off the hasp.



Then I cut a slot in the gate with my 4.5" grinder, outside.



Inside.



Then I pushed the hasp thru the slot and welded it in place.



On the outside the bend in the buckle came right out on the side lip of the gate and I welded it to the edge also.



Then I notched a scrap of 1 1/4 square tube slipped the buckle in and drilled thru the mount and the body, and ran a 5/16" bolt thru.



Now the gate will stay shut until I open it.



The gate stays nice and tight and with just a bolt thru the buckle it can move slightly up and down to allow alignment and release of the hasp.



Welded a cap on the tube and painted it up, you can see how the buckle drops down to follow the arc of the gate as it swings open.



And one more closed.

 

atriot: Happy Independence Day America! atriot:

and up yours King George III !


Welded all the holes and the seams in the front fenders and inner fenders. Then coated everything on the top and
underside with the rust-oleum bed liner my neighbor picked up.
Driver side inner top.



Driver side under.



Passenger side underneath



Both fenders are ready for final body work and paint.

Then while it dried I pulled the hood and made the last real sheet metal repair before I start on the body work.

Where the plow installer cleared room for the hydraulic reservoir. UN-BELIEVEABLE chainsawguy



I pried the remaining steel back into shape and ground it clean.



Then started building it back up where it was to bent to straighten, by cladding and grinding with the 60 grit flapper wheel.



More cladding and grinding.



Then I cut two pieces of the 82' chevy hood to fit, one long skinny strip that followed the contour of the hood along the side of the
re-enforcement panel and a flat square for the top. Then welded them in.



Then a little more weld/grind and done. I would have done more cladding if I was just going to paint,
but since I'm coating the underside with bed liner it will do.



All done and hidden.



Other side just for comparison.



Under side of hood ready for paint.

 

Finally installed a heim joint and completed the steering re-install. The P.O.s didn't have any support on the shaft
and with the u-joint and in-line coupler there was a lot of lateral movement, it just wasn't as noticeable with the
with the steering box flopping around on the mounts.



Much better.



Welded a small 1/4" tab to the motor mount for the heim.



Then the coupler at the box.

 

Very nice!