Work is cruising now! PS, 12si, drive shafts, and more

Well, Im cruising now.

Just wrapping up the new front bumper, just need to finalize fitments, tap the 3/4x2 stock to 1/2" bolts, then do a few gussets.

Picked up a late 70's cj5 power steering box and pump, then went down to the junk yard and scored some ps pump brackets AND a 12si 78 amp alternator with brackets from an 83 amc wagon, maybe hornet. I knew the steering shaft was going to be a different size, but I hadnt realized that my present shaft was a borgeson U-joint type. That should be great, but since the manual box uses a 3/4" 36 spline, and the PS uses a 13/16" 36 spline, to do it right, I need to find a borgeson joint to swap on rather than the cheap bell coupler type.

Next, I need to modify the alternator bracket to bolt on to my non-driver side mount 258 (meaning wrong wholes and wrong shaped timing cover. One nice point was the motor already had the dual belt pulleys. So, ordered belts, a new hose, and later model PS water pump, and I should be rolling soon. I also ordered a steering brace from http://extremecustomparts.com/, and picked up a new 4" drop pitman arm (ps) from www.the-jeep-guy.com.

Lastly, picked up front hub bearings and balljoints, u-bolts, new drive shafts-2" front, and 2" cv rear, and a used gas tank.

So, this guy should be back on the road within the next month or so! Since Ive owned it, it has never been street driven, so this is pretty exciting. I figured I would share with interesting parties as I go, and Ill try and post some pictures a little later, maybe tomorrow.

 

The bumper, almost ready to burn in


Steering mocked up



Alternator set in, but need to modify that alternator bracket a bit to line the pulleys up.

 

Oh, and the $100 DUI HEI, the guy said it only had about 500 miles on it. I love craigslist.

 

Thanks, I didnt realize until I got rolling on the posts it was in the wrong spot.

 

BigJohn, I see you are a O'Riellys shopping kind of guy.. GOOOOOOO I retired from real job and now work part-time at O'Riellys here in Sonora, Ca. Keep it going on your build...

 

Ya, it is Or'Riellys all the way, an I also applied for part time work there. Is it wrong to work at a parts store for the discount? haha.
Well, altered the alternator bracket so pulleys line up, power steering pump mounted and plummed to the mounted box, and removed a gang of under hood wiring. So, now to pick up a few spools of wire and some loom and wire it all in. I have a grand total of eight wires to run in to the motor (including 3 for the electric fan relay). Simple is key with this project.

Also changed the distributer to the HEI, but Im a little bit weary of the cap so close to the head and the routing of the wires. The wires are numbered, but the lengths dont match the correct numbered holes. I think the wires must be from a different 6, like a 300 maybe? Anyway, wires are to nice to replace, so Ill just misnumber them and run with it I think. Ill post tome pictures a little later.

Happy sunday wrenching to all my fellow jeepers!

 

Ok, pics here. Hacked the stock Hornet alternator bracket, and painted it. Probably could have spent a little more time on it, but it is solid as a rock, with the addition of some 1/4" plate.


The HEI is in. If anyone has installed one of these, which direction was the vacuum advance facing. The timing was pretty far off on the old distributer, and the current positioning of the distributer rotation, at tdc number one, seems to place the hei harness almost against the head.

All the old wiring-BOOM-gone

 

New drive shafts came in, took less than a week from ordering to arrival, and the final product far exceeded my expectations. Built by a vendor from ebay, very fairly priced, and the front is 2" diameter. Still need to clock the rear pinion and weld the perches in.


And the PS pump, almost finished.

This has been a great weekend for me and the jeep. I was accually late for a date on friday because I couldnt stop and time just kind of slipped away. Luckily she is still in the "understanding phase". haha

 

New drive shafts came in, took less than a week from ordering to arrival, and the final product far exceeded my expectations. Built by a vendor from ebay, very fairly priced, and the front is 2" diameter. Still need to clock the rear pinion and weld the perches in.


And the PS pump, almost finished.

This has been a great weekend for me and the jeep. I was accually late for a date on friday because I couldnt stop and time just kind of slipped away. Luckily she is still in the "understanding phase". haha

 

Your going to love that alternator, getting rid of that piece of junk Motorola is one of the best mods in my opinion. You can run the wipers, heater fan, and headlights all at once!!!

 

Haha, I cant wait. I knew something had to change when I ran the lights, heater, and the electric fan, and juice was leaving the battery at a rapid rate-not good when the electric fan is the primary means of cooling...

 

Alright, brown Santa dropped off the new steering brace. I didnt realize how beefy this thing would be. Check out the comparison between brace and the stock sized front drive shaft. I ordered it through extreme custom fab, hoping to order a family cage through them also at some point.

 

Alright, wrapped up the bumper tonight. Broke two tap handles from Kragens, ended up doing the rest with two 1/4" wrenches. Hairy, but worked out. Guess a good tap and die set is now on my shopping list.

 

Also tapped some 7/16" holes for the steering box brace. So, remove one more time for paint and thats a wrap. Tapping the holes took a little extra time, but was worth the clean look of the bolt ends flush to the 3/4" stock.

 

I got some time in yesterday to get the balljoints and bearings done on the drivers side front axle, so thinking I wanted to redo the spring perches, I pulled the whole axle out, again... Anyway, took about four hours to to the ball joints, as Ive never had the hubs off a full floater before. Went pretty smooth once I got the press figured out, got everything back together and realized I had an extra washer. Haha, so there I was taking apart, putting together, didnt make sense anywhere, so I abandoned ship for the night.
So this morning, I went out and pulled the passenger side apart, and in the process figured out where the mystery bearing went. So banged the second side out in pretty quick fashion, figuring out its much easier to put the press in the vice than the knuckle.
Next, I took the drivers side apart again, and put it back together with no spare parts this time. I wanted to put a little extra grease in there anyway.
The cutting, resetting and re-welding of the spring perch went great, setting the caster dead on 6 degrees. The bad news came in clocking the pinion down, I lost enough length in the new drive shaft that jacking the drivers side up with a highlift lets the spines slip out on the drive shaft. Thats a huge bummer, considering I havent had it on the trail yet and already I have to lengthen it. Oh well, you live and learn. All in all, Ill chalk it up as a good weekend with the Heep!

 

Oh, another update. After monkeying around with the firing order thurseday night and friday morning, I got her fired up for the first time with the hei and new fuel pump. I have some carb tuning and timing to do yet, but fired and idled like it should, and the power steering works! Doesnt even leak! haha, its the little things in life. I need to pick up some heater hose and coolant, and I think Ill be ready for a test run down the street and back. Also have one last frame crack to weld and plate, and a few odds and ends, but its closer than its ever been at this point.

 

Well, got going today, welded and plated the last frame crack, and roughed in the wiring. Have not decided where to route in yet, but Im sure Ill come up with something.

So, the only issue was the alternator was not keeping up with my electric fan. I ran the main charge 10g wire to the positive battery clamp, the exciter/dummy light wire to the ignition post on the solenoid just to test it out, and the feeler wire to the battery side of the solenoid.

So the question is, this wireing configuration should work, right? The alternator weak with nothing on, and with the electric fan only on, battery voltage slowly bleeds off-per my multi-meter reading off the battery post.
Any ideas?

 

Got the wiring roughed in, bled the brakes, and everything works great! Took her on the first test run with the new parts and PS-mission success. Still have many little loose ends to tie up, and yet more $, which is tough to come by as a student, but a few more months of starvation mode, and she may just be trail and road worthy!



Had a pretty nasty oil leak that I thought was a rear main, but replaced the oil pressure line fittings and teflon taped it up, and no more oil leak. Bad news is I think the brake line from to the rear brakes has a leak. Typical-its the only one I didnt replace.

The alternator charges at 14.5 volts with everything on, which is great, the ps works great, and with the caster set dead on 6 degrees and the steering brace in, she runs straight down the road, at least at 35 mph.