'55 CJ5 Build

Well, I've been trying to get her started the past couple days with no luck.
Coil was getting 12v & showed good resistance. Wires were good, etc.
Never did get a spark at the spark plugs though. So I pulled the distributor & watched the oil pump as I cranked the engine.
No turn. Pulled the oil pump to find missing teeth.


I few years ago I had the tooth on the distributor snap and break off in the oil pump.
At that time I pulled the oil pump to retrieve the broken off tooth of the distributor.
When I reinstalled the oil pump, I forgot the gasket for the cover. This seized up the pump due to no clearance, and that why I'm now looking at a broken oil pump.

So tonight I dropped the oil pan to go fishing for some metal.


There was a THICK layer of sludge in the bottom. I used a really strong magnet & ran it over the top of the sludge and heard, "clink, clink!"



Well, I got almost all of them. Couldn't find one... and that worries me.

I inspected the CAM as I turned the engine. How does it look? I noticed a few very small shards on the gears. I'm guessing that last tooth got ground up.


Off to get a new pump tomorrow. Is there anything else I should be doing? Besides letting that remaining metal haunt me?

 

Question: Is it easy to inspect that CAM gear while the oil pan is off?
When I look up into the engine compartment, I can't see it.

 

Got the new fuel pump primed & installed. Re-installed the oil pan (could never see the cam gear).
I ended up using a small magnet to get any metal shavings off the cam gear that I could, and then flushing with oil.
Everything looks pretty clean. The good news is that after I installed the oil pump & distributor, I got a spark to the spark plugs.
The bad news is no fuel to the carb. I'm guessing I installed the fuel pump incorrectly years ago.
The REAL good news is the speedo came back from the shop.

 

That is one pretty speedometer!

 

A breakthrough.
I was never able to get the engine to start up, and had some very loud gunshot backfires.
The timing was definitely off.
I was finally able to find the timing marks on the engine.


I lined the notch on the rear pully to 5 degrees BTDC.
After that I pulled the distributor out, and noticed that the oil pump was WAY off.
So I reinstalled the oil pump with the notch at 9:30. After install it went to 11:00.
Reinstalled the distributor. Re-ran the wires to the sparkplugs, and voila!
I sprayed a little starting fluid in the carb (new fuel pump isn't in yet)
and she fired right up. First time since 2010! Sounded great too.

 

Good job!

 

Very perfect work. I would probably have bought a new steel body because lot of work to repair this one.
Do you keep the PTO? it can be useful.

 

Thanks! I did keep the PTO. Trying to figure out how it goes back on at the moment... But I agree, it should be fun when it's back on. This weekend a lot of work got done.
Lots of miscellaneous parts painted, and did some wiring under the dash.

 

Still on track? Love the monstaliner.

 

I went for about a 60 Mile round trip ride. I think we're just about done here.
Still finishing the upholstery for the second seat. Fine tuning the brakes.
Considering a rebuild for an original Ross Steering box, but now that I'm back on the road after 6 years I might just enjoy for a while.
Thanks for following along.

 

Bravo!