What Did You Do To Your Jeep Today?

I changed the front diff fluid and found out I have 4.27 gears, not 3.73 like I thought. I haven't driven it enough to know if that's good or bad.

Someday I'll get it figured out to have a ~50:1 crawl ratio, decent highway rpm, and close enough gears to stay in the powerband hauling a bunch of people and camp gear up the canyons.

 

Cleaned, scuffed, primed, painted my oil pan.

 

More yard work today. Prepping the yard to start dirt/concrete work this week. Pulled about a dozen fence posts and a dead tree. Even got the wife working the winch!






Nice clean canvas to work with.

 

Looks like my kind of yard work.

 

Totally! This little Jeep sure saved my back today... mostly.

 

I'm in the middle of wiring up my '68 project. To make things simpler, I ordered what I thought was a one-wire alternator from RockAuto. Before sending back my old alternator to get back the core-charge fee, I needed to test the new one. In order to test it, I needed to start the engine. A generous forum member sent me a filler neck gasket.


I poured a couple of gallons of gas in the tank. I was skeptical my new alternator was a one-wire because it had the standard plug for the field.


I wired up the ignition switch and tried to start the engine. The engine turned over, but there wasn't even a cough. I removed a spark plug and turned over the engine. No spark. I checked both sides of the coil. 12v on both. For some reason the distributor side of the coil wasn't getting grounded. There must be a problem with the points.


Using a multimeter, I unscientifically adjusted the points until they opened and closed well enough. Then the engine started right up. I measured the voltage from the alternator and it wasn't charging. Either the alternator is not a one-wire model or it's defective out of the box. I wired up the plug.


Now the alternator put out 14+ volts, but the engine wouldn't turn off when I switched off the ignition key. The Painless wiring manual warned of this condition and suggested adding a diode in the white wire to prevent the alternator from back-feeding the ignition circuit. I added a 3a 50v diode (inside the shrink wrap).


Now the engine starts up, the alternator charges, and the engine turns off with the key.

The voltmeter and mechanical oil gauge work, too. In the picture above, the mechanical water temperature pickup is hanging loose. The screw-in collar of the temperature pickup doesn't fit my engine's water gauge hole. I've got to get some sort of adapter.

 

G'Morning , I had a similar problem recently , that I had to do twice! From your pics, it seems that you could remove the electric gauge fitting, all the way down to your block / thermostat housing. You should be able to thread in there, with what you have pictured, which is pretty much standard. Now your sending unit tip will be immersed in coolant, and that gives you the most accurate readings on your gauge. By the time I had adapted , into a 'T ' no less, the probe was outside of my coolant stream and was not registering the proper engine temp. Good luck , i think you'll be good to go .

 

Noticed that your distributor weights are well worn. Won't hurt anything except performance. My Delco from my 304 was worn the same way. My distributor had something like 0.050" end play. That allowed the shaft and center cam to raise up, causing the cam to not be aligned to the weights. It probably also causes timing shift on initial start up, though it will naturally ride upward when running.

Solution was to shim between the gear and shaft. Ended up around 0.015"-0.020" end play. Now the cam and weights remain aligned. And replace the weights. I used an obsolete Mr Gasket NOS kit from eBay.

 

Here's a closeup:


The sensor-side fitting is too loose to fit my engine's fitting. Using calipers, the sensor-side fitting is .606" in diameter. A fitting that does fit in my engine is .66" in diameter. If I remove the brass fitting from the engine, it is .816" in diameter. I need some sort of adapter. What adapter do I need? Is it something standard?

 

I had one thousand things to fix. Now I have a thousand and one things to fix. Thank you for your keen observation!

 

Can backburner, not a crisis. I have some weights, springs, shims that I doubt I'll need. Weights werent right for my delco, not yours either. The "beaks" were too long but I could have reshaped. There was plenty of material to convert. If you are interested in the parts message me your address and I'll send them out.

 

I fired up the "56's unknown motor and to my chagrin... It runs. It doesn't run good but it runs!

 

It's a start anyways. No pun intended.

 

So with making my own floor for mine out of 1/4" Alum Diamond plate. I needed to make a Tunnel pc to connect the original Tranny cover to cover the hub on the TC. And my original Tranny Cover was basically shot. So in an attempt to salvage it I used Fiberglass Mats and resin to coat both sides. First I soaked it down with Rust cutter, then took a wire wheel to it, wiped it down with Acetone. Then mixed up some Resin, brushed it on one side applied the mat and let it cure, flipped and repeat. I cleaned it up around all the edges and hit it with a palm sander and 80grit paper. then I painted the top with Rustoleum Hammered Paint, the brush on type. I will paint the bottom when I get more paint today. I also did the under side of the tunnel pc I made with the Fiberglass, I have to get another mat and can of resin to do the top to finish it and paint of course. I will post more pics when I have both pcs finished and installed. I think it was a pretty nice save.

 

And here is the part that covers the cane plate where the boot mounts. I need to order a new boot. Painted to match.

 

Keep going! Build a whole jeep!

 

You should be able to get a close " thread inside of a thread" type brass adapter at a hardware store or plumbing store. Check out this website for your distributor. You could do away your points, forever: Pertronix Performance Products I Think your doing great work, BTW. Richie----------------Lockman

 

So I got the rest of the supplies to finish the tunnel. I am not much of a fabricator but I think this turned out alright. I will let the paint dry overnight and drill the holes and install tomorrow. Kind of reminds me of a Shaker style hood scoop. A very Bubba Shaker hood scoop.

Set in place this morning. Should I buy/make some type of gasket to go between bottom of each pc and diamond plate?

 

The mechanical gauge probe requires a special fitting. The inner threads match the nut and there is a seat machined for the probe to seal against. Doubt your local hardware store has this but most FLAPS should.

 

The weather here today wasn't great so I took another stab at restoring the oem Spartan turn signal switch. Like many others, mine would not cancel by itself. This time I found success. I had always assumed the problem was th he rubber wheel not getting a friction connection to the steering wheel. It wasn't. My issue is ubiquitous with all Jeeps - rust. The pivot point for the lever has spacers and shims. Each of mine, and the detent plate and lever had surface rust. That created too much friction for the rubber wheel to overcome. Took some 3000 grit wet/dry and got them all smooth and shiny. A little white lube then a pencil eraser to freshen up the wheel and I found success. Would love to show pics. Totally restored including paint and chrome. I think it is nice.