40 Years Later - The Re-build

Installed the shallow depth, 3D printed glove box. Can’t use the stop arm since it would hit the heater, so I made a short cable for it.

has anyone rebuilt this heat valve? Should I just get a new one and not bother tearing it apart?

 

I’m not a big fan of white for a paint color…. But wow! You have won me over! Looks great!

 

thank you. The body & fenders are fiberglass and came painted white from Sears back in the 80s, when we had it refreshed we had it gelcoated white again. Hood, grill & dash are single stage white auto paint. the original 4 cylinder was a dark green. The grille for the 4 cyl is still kicking around somewhere.

 

Wired up the windshield wipers this weekend. Tried to daisy chain them for a cleaner wiring job but it kept blowing the fuse. Hooked up the tach & oil pressure gauges, and everything seems to be functioning great. Ive got an AGM battery on order that we're going to try and squeeze into the engine bay. Picking up a new heater control valve today to stop that leak but we also have some heater core leaks, so we need to figure that situation out. Rolled it out of the garage to run it. Looks much better in the sunlight! Dont mind the remote tank, we havent put the new one in yet since we still have to polish out the floor.

 

Ordered a powersports sized battery last week and it showed up today. 600cca, 30ah, AGM. Small and dense. Had no trouble starting the v6 today at 50*F ambient temp. This won’t be a year round car, but I’m hoping it can still start the engine if the temps drop to around freezing. Not running any extra lights, or a winch or even a big sound system so this battery should be fine. Just need to build a mount for it. Due to its size we will be able to keep it in the engine bay thankfully.

WPX30L-LS Power Sports Battery https://a.co/d/cc90dCo

 

Did you do anything special for your overflow tank? Mine looked like a tupperware container held onto the cowl with a heavy coat hanger, so I plan to replace it.

 

I used this for an overflow. The top hole to the radiator mount hole and drilled one for the bottom. Cobbled together a U bend with a piece of
brake line and a 90 degree barbed brass fitting brazed the the tank to get the correct size without kinking the hose.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0816D7QWT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

I used this one, it’s mounted to the passenger fender. Seems to be ok.

https://a.co/d/3nYHD8T

 

I made my own, it's a 4" PVC pipe, end cap on one end and a large hose clamp to hold it in place

 

Cushions came in for the rear seat. They used to be white with horizontal stitching but we asked for them to have vertical stitching on the insert to better match the front seats we are using (photo on page 1).

 

I drove the CJ about 25 feet last night! Took me a while to figure out the 4 shifters, but I backed it out of the garage and pulled it back in. Shortly after that the heater core puked up all over the drivers side floor board so I pulled the heater out and will drop it off at a radiator shop. Hopefully it's repairable. If not, has anyone had luck using something like this? (https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...transfer-heater-core/fht0/94478?q=94478&pos=0).

After the big leak I took a little mini-bike cruise over to my buddy's house to weld up the battery box for the AGM battery we're using. Chicken Rick on his recently acquired KV75 that had been sitting outside for who knows long. Just smokes a little bit! (https://youtube.com/shorts/ZaCsVWwVb8I?feature=share)

 

Thankfully the heater core was able to be repaired. Got that reinstalled this week. Also changed the location of our heat valve since we realized it was shutting off the feed BACK to the engine not the supply FROM the engine to the heater.

Checked a few small things off the list:

Tied in the Spartan turn signal switch.
Adjusted doors for a better fit at the top edge.
Ran a hard line from the fuel tank bulkhead fitting to the engine compartment.
Mounted the new cushions on the rear seat frame.
Continued working on the bracket for the battery.

Progress! The wind in my hair is getting close, I can feel it.

 

It’s been 40yrs. Hopefully you have some hair left.

 

Ha! Dad parked this in the early 80’s and I wasn’t born until ‘92. We both still have hair thankfully!

 

Decided to relocate the battery back to the passenger side. This means we now have to move the coolant reservoir, but this is a much better spot for the battery.

 

Looks like an oversized motorcycle battery.

 

Thats exactly what it is! 600cca, 30amp Powersports battery.

 

It's the small victories that we celebrate... https://youtube.com/shorts/NESjnOmh3xA?feature=share

Our southwest performance fuse panel came with an integrated flasher set up, upon inspection it was two terminal, missing the terminal for the indicator light. Made some changes and was able to get in the indicator working on our Spartan!

 

Also here's a short startup and idle video for anyone interested in seeing something other than photos...

https://youtube.com/shorts/UKb0RLV5M48?feature=share

 

I’ve got a fuel gauge question for y’all. Outside of the Jeep the sender is showing proper resistance. On my fuel level gauge it shows barely over E. The 11gal MTS under seat tank has 5gal in it, shouldnt it show almost half? Or does the gauge take into account a “reserve” amount of a few gallons?

I have also read something about the sending unit needing a certain wire thickness to translate proper resistance to the fuel gauge. Does anyone know what size it needs to be? Maybe mine isn’t thick enough. Sender is grounded directly to the ground bar under the dash, which is to the frame, to the battery.