"Therapy" Progress Report With Pics

Clint,
Well those figures sound just fine to me. I set mine to 1/8 toe-in and it seems alright now. After the Rubicon abuse last August I found the toe-in was grossly toed out, it was pretty scary driving back down to Loon Lake like that.

Don

 

The test drive went mostly pretty good. I lived to wrench on the HEEP another day. Got a grocery list of things to work on, though:

My carb is going lean at high RPM, high load, low vacuum conditions. I backed off before bad things happened, going to bump up the jets a little.

Saginaw power steering is AWESOME. I thought at the beginning of this round of mods that the V8 was going to be the highlight, but the Saginaw swap is definitely now my favorite mod to date. I might do a separate writeup with the Astro Van parts list.

Getting some torque steer. Going along about 40mph, if I mash the gas it pulls a little to the right, and if I let off it goes back left. I think I need a new transmission mount, and while I'm under there going to spend some time bracing up the t-case.

 

Trolling the junkyard today and found this vac advance HEI from a '70s Buick 350 for $25. These are getting scarce here locally.

 

I had a dilemma with the front d-shaft. I put in a D30 that uses the 1310 yoke. I bought a double cardan driveshaft out of an XJ thinking I would shorten it down for the CJ and use a 4cyl output yoke on the D18. Yeah right. There is no way that shaft would ever clear the bell housing.

My next plan was to fit a 4cyl shaft in there. Only problem was the slip yoke only offered about 2-1/2" of travel and my reverse shackle suspension needs more than that or else the shaft slams into the tcase.

Experimenting with a combination 4cyl shaft with longer travel V6 slip yoke. I cut both shafts, turned a piece of DOM down slightly until I got it to slip fit, beveled both edges of the dshaft tube, then welded it using the DOM as sort of a backer to prevent blow through and to keep both pieces aligned. I'm not sure if this is the way you're "supposed" to do it, but it seemed to come out okay. I left my booger welds on there, so kinda ugly, but didn't break when I tested it doing donuts, so apparently got good penetration. My first DIY driveshaft, a little bit proud of it!

 

Changed out the rear pinion seal today. I had been grumbling to the wife about it for a couple days on account of I once had a bad experience with one that just wouldn't budge. I built up my motivation (okay, more like procrastinated) to the point where I was ready to tackle it (another lie, couldn't procrastinate anymore, leaking like a sieve). Anyway, all that grumbling and I got the thing out in 20 minutes including time to take the driveshaft off! Decided to replace the bearing while I was in there, new seal and test driving in less than an hour. (The HEEP lets me win one every once in a while just so I keep playing her silly game.) Very glad I replace the bearing, there was a tiny bit of vibration coming from what I thought was maybe a ujoint, but it's completely smooth now.

The amazing part is, for the first time EVER since I have owned the HEEP, I have a COMPLETELY DRY GARAGE FLOOR. I did a couple test drives around the neighborhood and a trip to the store, pulled it in the garage, and let it sit for 4 hours now. Not a drop of fluid from anywhere. Nervously waiting for the next catastrophic failure...

Also messed around with timing tonight. I had been chasing down a slightly rich idle that was more annoyance than problem. It was making my plugs sooty, and I would have to blip the throttle to clear out the fuel, then it would run fine for a while until they got sooty again. Got to poking around and discovered the ballast resistor I had purchase from FLAPS was mismatched to the coil they sold me. I was only getting 6.8vdc at the coil when running. Went to FLAPS and picked up a 1.5ohm resistor for $5, took 5 minutes to put it in, measured a hair over 9vdc at the coil now and I've got a smooth idle.

Decided while I was working on ignition that I would mess with the timing curve. Got the dwell meter, multimeter, vac guage, and timing light all plugged in, realized the timing by ear I had done was all jacked up. After messing with it for a while, I found a lot of power, could probably mess with the weights a little more, but it doesn't really matter because it is already making way more power than practical for an ECJ5. It's not really the acceleration that you notice, although it does accelerate a lot faster than the V6, but its on the highway where the extra torque to overcome wind resistance really makes a difference. I'm not sure how fast it will go now, but I do know its faster than I want to go in an 81" wheel base vehicle that has had its WWII technology upgraded with junkyard parts.

 

Would like to take the wife out for a Sunday drive today. Maybe can get her to do some filming.

 

Hey Clint, I've read every page in this thread! Awesome work so far. I have a 70 Cj5 i'm restoring as well. But it will never be as nice as yours.


ps. also a Jayhawk fan

 

Can't wait to see your build progress. ROCK CHALK!

 

This is what I got. Please pay no attention to my daughter's commentary, I assure you I did not put them in a situation where we were actually going to die.

 

We all know a JEEP project is never really "done," and this one still does need some more buttoning up, but not really much else interesting to post from this point forward. Here is the semi-finished product. A pretty good running project vehicle at this point. 1967 Buick 300 V8, Holley 470 Truck Avenger, late CJ grille, aluminum radiator, electric fuel pump, Astro Van power steering:


New crossmember I built using a T14 crossmember as a starting point and a T98 crossmember as a pattern. Note the angle bracket that bolts the bottom of the T18 adapter to the crossmember. Also the new in-frame exhaust, and Holley electric fuel pump mounted up on the frame rail (tanks gravity feed so never loses prime). The fuel line has been adel clamped up to the body since the photo was taken for safety:

 

The JEEP did really well off road today. The only problem of note so far is that I don't have enough slip yoke for the reverse shackle suspension. It is just too dang flexy and popped the slip out today. Only took 10 minutes to undo the yoke and put it back in, but going to have to spring for one of those $$$ Tom Woods shafts now. Other things of note:

1) V8 CJs are fun. (I towed a CJ7 up a hill)
2) Steering with the Detroit in the front can be two handfuls at times. I got back on road and forgot to unlock the hubs and thought my steering was messed up for a minute. The Detroit off road on hills and such, though, is AWESOME.
3) Saginaw steering should be the second thing every ECJ5 owner does to their new rigs, right after brakes. Saginaw Power steering if you have the V6.

Pretty happy right now. Hope I can go a little while now without something breaking; I just need to drive this thing for a bit and get re-energized.

 

I can't resist, just one more -

 

Beautiful. Great job Clint. Give me a holler when you take wheelin. Love to see it in person.

 

Well done Clint. Nice job.

 

That sir, is a beauty! Good Job!

 

Looks Great.

Yes!

This is one of the best mods I have done to the jeep, it's like a whole new vehicle.