Illegal for AutoX: A 1976 CJ5 Build

With summer coming to an end I realized I needed to get off my butt and stick the transmission back up in. Our racing season is over, the Chumpcar is winterized and put away, the van and Mustang II are both perfectly driveable, so this was the perfect weekend.  

Installing the transmission and transfer case took way longer than it should have because it had been apart so long bolts got moved and stuff was stored all around the Jeep.  Last night it made several trips up and down the driveway and we even went around the perimeter of the yard.  This is further than we have ever driven it so small victory!

Currently its only 2wd since I didn't address the transfer case linkage.  I need to replace the valve cover gasket because its absolutely puking oil.  But it drove!

The plan is to drive it around some next weekend following with the truck so we can find out what will break next causing me to park it in anger!

Excellent!  I try not to take things apart until I know I will put them back together relatively soon...but so often I'm fooling myself.  The only thing I'm better at than "not putting things back together relatively soon" is "Taking things apart."

In reply to ClemSparks :

Plus this had the bonus of being full of all those "Where do you want me to put this widget?....ahh stick it in the Jeep and I will deal with it later" parts.  It became the junk drawer of the garage!

I've also found that a jeep (with no doors or top) is a handy "My hands are full and I need to set this down to deal with later" stashin' spot in the shop.  I guess that's a good reason to hop in and drive it sporadically.

Welp.... We flat towed it to a friends place where there is less traffic on their back roads.  Good news, nothing broke.  Bad news, the transmission or transfer case is making a pretty good knocking noise.  Also the steering is a little wonky and intermittently stiff so I need to look at that (Really hoping that stupid Cardone reman isn't bad)

Anyway, it was a successful test flight for a vehicle that has been off the road for a long time.  Put about 25 miles on it.

Also, the Yokohama mud tires are much smoother riding than I was expecting!

The steering was a pretty easy diagnosis and something dumb that I just didn't observe when driving.  The upper bearing in the column is loose and there is some wobble.  when you are turning the wheel if there is a little upward pressure the steering wheel adapter catches the trim causing the stiff spot.  I knew it was loose and ordered a rebuild kit awhile ago.  It was on backorder at the time and took forever to come in which is why the project got back burnered.  Now its front burnered!

So the steering column is all fixered up now.  I replaced the bearings, loctited the inverted torx while I was in there, and cut the adapter cover a bit for clearance.  That was easy.

After further diagnosis of the knocking noise, the problem is the rear driveshaft.  I knew I would probably need a new one since the one that came with the Jeep was a hair short.  Some how I missed how much play was in the slip joint when I installed it.  I took my measurements and called up Woodys.  After going over the numbers I really need to go with a double cardan shaft which means either rear axle shims of 10 degrees or cut and weld spring perches.  I didn't want that much shim so I pulled the axle last night so I could cut and grind without laying on my back and ordered some new perches this morning. 

The problem with old Jeeps is they are so simple that anyone an work on them. Or at least they think they can. My last one was my last one unless I build one from scratch.

solfly said:

The problem with old Jeeps is they are so simple that anyone an work on them. Or at least they think they can. My last one was my last one unless I build one from scratch.

Preach!  Almost all of my headaches are previous owner induced and Im in so deep I keep telling myself "Just fix one more thing and you're good!"

Perches are welded, axle is in. 

Last Monday I ordered the driveshaft.  It was in my hands by Friday.  Woody and his gang in Utah don't mess around!

However, the Jeep that never disappoints to disappoint, disappointed.  The rear brake line is leaking.  I took it apart a couple times and don't see any issues with the threads, but it is leaking under pressure.  I think the previous owner bought a premade kit for a wide track axle.  The hard lines are a little long and kinda bind up which is likely part of the problem.  So today I ordered a new rear line and will replace the axle hard lines too.  The brake lines on the whole jeep are poorly installed, but as long as they were not leaking I was kicking the can down the road until I had it driving.  Oh well....

Over the weekend I replaced the rear brake hose and hard lines.  I even remembered to install the fittings, in the right direction, on both lines before flaring them!  Doesn't get my better than that!

In celebration it was time for a test drive.  We did a 16 mile trip to a state park and back with the truck following to drag it home if it broke.  Clearly it needs a carb kit and some tuning, but it drove ok-ish (as ok as a CJ5 drives on the road anyway).

Then the little Jeep that never fails to fail, failed.

If I was making a list of things I expected to break, the alternator belt pulley on the crankshaft was not one of them.  I mean, who expects that?  It appears to have happened in the last mile or so.  The only gauge that is working reliably is the volt meter and I know it was charging the couple times I glanced down.  By the time I pulled in the driveway it was not.

Once again I will take a bit of a breather from it.  I will put it back on the wheel dollies and stick it in the corner for a bit.  At a minimum I need the pulley and a carb kit before I take it out to see what breaks next.

I should also add that the CJ5 lost the privilege of having the cool turbine wheels since it wants to be a jerk.  Those will be going on the van with some white letter tires soon.  That it why its wearing the stock freshly painted wagon wheels.

Found the pulley carcass!  

I don't think I've ever seen a pulley sheer in half like that

That is definitely a weird failure.  The turbines are going to look bitchin on the van and the wagon wheels look pretty good on this (but so did the turbines).  I hope it doesn't have to have time-out for too long...I'm always happy to see this one getting some love.

In reply to Jeff351 :

Definitely a weird one!  Digging around the internet I see some complaints about the Omix ones doing this so maybe this is one of those? I know this was originally a 304 Jeep.

In reply to ClemSparks :

I went back and forth on pulling the wheels off for the van.  I figured I would make the decision before the next round of van tires and that will be coming by spring.

First update of 2022!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have had the little Jeep that never fails to fail for over 5 years now.  I got MAYBE 60 miles of driving out of it and lots of headache.  Last November I replaced the crank pulley for the alternator with a used OEM one.  The OEM one was thicker and heavier than the OmixAda one that failed.  Everything is good, right?  Unfortunately not.  During the last few miles of the drive when the pulley failed, the engine started popping through the carb with a little bit of engine speed.  At that point I was beginning talks with my job about a possible promotion that would move me back to Michigan.  I got the job, left the Jeep sitting because it ran good enough to drive on the trailer if needed, and started packing and getting the house ready to sell.

Fast forward to May 2022.  We start moving all the garage stuff to a storage unit.  While loading the Jeep on the trailer it starts puking coolant from the overflow after running for only a minute or so..... Great..... I kept saying to myself "Don't worry about it, just get it moved.  Deal with it later".  Drove it on the trailer, off the trailer, into the storage unit where it sat for 2 months, out of the storage unit, on the trailer, off the trailer, and into the new shop with it puking and popping all over the place as if to taunt me.  I am going to do an ancestry background one of the days to see if my family built a house on an AMC executive's graveyard or something and I'm being haunted.

The whole time my life is going through major changes, the stupid little Jeep is always in the back of my mind.  "Why did I ever buy this thing?" "Why didn't you take the low ball offers you got from people that wanted to buy it (but seriously, I would like to know where all these running/driving/super clean CJs are that people claim they are buying for 500 bucks.  Maybe in 1989?).

A few weeks ago one of my friends came over to check out the new house and start getting the racecar ready for the Lemons race at Gingerman in October.  Fully expecting to find a blown head gasket we decided to do a leak down.  Surprisingly, all cylinders held pressure.  I put my pressure tester on it and it held.  It even held overnight.  Weird.  I decided to start it with the pressure tester on it and it never puked all the way to fully warmed up.  I saw nothing abnormal with the radiator cap and it held pressure with no issues on the tester.  Extra weird.  Swapped the radiator cap off the Award Winning Disco'Stang and no puking.  For the life of me I do not understand why that radiator cap is causing it to puke out the overflow after running a very short time, but a new one fixed that problem.  Part of me wanted to experiment with the cap more by swapping it on other vehicles but I just accepted it was obviously aliens or the FBI messing with me and moved on.  Now no puking, only popping.

I checked timing first but deep in my gut I knew it was something internal.  After pulling the valve cover and cranking the engine we discovered the number one exhaust valve was our culprit.  It was barely opening.  At this point I knew I was dealing with a wiped lifter/cam.  You have to pull the head to get to the lifters and originally I was going to kick the can down the road and deal with it over the winter.  However last night I got a burr up my keister and decided to pop the head off. Yep... She is done for.

I still have to pull it the rest of the way apart to get the cam out.  It would be far more efficient to light 100 dollars bills on fire, but as I have proven over the last 5 years, I am too stupid to stop working on this thing!

Something about Jeeps makes even the most level headed of us go deeper than we ever would on any other vehicle.

solfly said:

Something about Jeeps makes even the most level headed of us go deeper than we ever would on any other vehicle.

Mrs Logdog and I were talking today and decided the Jeep should be named "Lucy".

Perfect

Glad this is still around. Mine was finally running after replacing the cam distributor gear and all the related parts, so it then decided to shred the column internals.

solfly said:

Something about Jeeps makes even the most level headed of us go deeper than we ever would on any other vehicle.

My Jeep is like my golf game: even when it's going horribly and I'm mad at it, I'm still having a good time and I'm not quitting.

Call up Nick Cage because its time for a Face/Off!