neohic

Ha! Not sure how the forum decides what picture to throw on for a thread preview. Had I been the one to decide, it definitely would’ve been a more flattering picture from her youth.

Bo did this a while back in his truck, Onyx. Page 10 he goes into detail on mounting a TJ tank:

I like a big bench for toodling around slowly with my arm up and over the back rest. Your truck isn’t what I think of when I think “slowly”. My vote goes to the buckets.

Beautiful truck. Well done!

… let’s try this again. Yesterday must’ve been an off day since I went out to the shop this morning and just dropped the distributor right in. I swear that distributor just wouldn’t go in regardless of the number attempts or by rotating the oil pump. Who knows…

… and we’ve stopped again. I got so caught up in the pilot bushing that I completely overlooked the throwout bearing. In hindsight, I should’ve just returned the clutch kit and got one for a ‘76. Now I’m waiting on that before I can toss the engine in. Why not do small things like drop in the distributor? … nope. The camshaft gear has the same amount of teeth as a stock 4.0 distributor but the gear on the aftermarket distributor is different enough that it won’t drop in. The distributor shaft is slightly smaller in diameter too so I can’t just swap them. Motor mounts? … close but also a negative. Anybody know the thread size for my empty hole on the driver side of the engine? It’s the same in a 4.0 as in a 4.2. That hole had a 7/16-20 bolt in the 4.2 but it wasn’t tight. That same bolt in the 4.2 barely engages the threads in the same hole in the 4.0. Must be metric?

I’ll take a chocolate malt. Staying up late or getting up early?

Okay… moving forward.

Got home, rearranged the shop so I could play “musical engines”, swapped the oil pan, got the new engine off the stand, and measured the outside diameter for the pilot bushing. I need 1.055” outside and .673” inside. That’s a bone stock bushing for a 1976 CJ from the parts store. $4 instead of Novak’s $18.

Nice touch.

The trucks had a longer input shaft than the CJs. People mix and match parts to dial them in to have a chance at keeping tube in the rear driveshaft though. I’ll keep you in mind in the future.

Changing of the guards in the shop today. The truck got kicked out so the CJ heart surgery could start. Things started at the car wash to get as much grime out of the way… … and then into the shop it went. Last picture of the old engine still in there. Then the whole front clip came off and out the door. The new engine got pulled over and all of the external parts being reused got moved over. And then? Up, up, and out! Not to surprise anyone, there were some surprises. The engine mounts aren’t a huge mess but someone has torched the mounting holes elongated for some reason. They’ll get cleaned up some. Then I grabbed my fancy Novak pilot bushing and the input shaft was too small to fit properly! What the hell?! I measure it, call Novak, and they confirmed the size to the part number. Maybe it’s an older T14 that had the smaller input shaft? Nope. Novak’s page says the older T14s weren’t this size either. The answer was staring me in the face the whole time. Surprise T150! Not awesome because my crawl ration was already thought to be only 27:1 and the T150 drops me to 26:1, but kind of awesome should I find a T18/19 four speed to swap in here in the future that I have the right bellhousing. I need to move the oil pan over to the new engine yet. When I do that I’ll pull the new engine off the stand so I can get a for sure measurement for the pilot bushing now that everything can have a caliper put on it.

I’ve had good luck in the past brazing cracked water jackets. It won’t be near of a shock on the casting that welding would, and the brass rod will be way more ductile. You’ll still need to warm up the area you’re working in, but again not near what you would trying to weld. The stress from welding can also crack something further into the block too.

Harrumph. I’m walking away from things because it makes too much sense to. It feels disappointing in my head. Almost like the end of an era.

It actually feels like longer to me. In retrospect, I’ve had the opportunity to get so many things accomplished for myself. When comparing back to how long projects typically take when I'm only moving forward in my spare time, the past six months have been leaps and bounds on so many things.

We’ll see. It’s stepping away completely from the manufacturing/fabrication world that I’m used to.

I sanded the raised ribs on the valve cover and threw new hardware at everything I could. My plan was to get started on swapping engines when I has decent weather for a full week came around so the Comanche could sit outside. Starting a new job tomorrow after giving up the last one six months ago. G-dang new job is already getting in the way of my shop time.

I love these types of projects that get passed around and have more hands on them than a yearbook! Suppose you won’t be needing those rear bumper brackets then, eh?

Some engines just don’t look good. This morning I started on resealing the engine. No idea how long this engine has been sitting so I pulled apart the rotating assembly and gave everything a little assembly lube for its first start up. There’s new hardware for the valve cover that needs to go on, but everything that isn’t in it now will get swapped over from the old engine when it comes out.

Got everything pulled off, welded, and painted. Really nice when it all goes back where it belongs without any fuss. While I was crawling around under it I looked over at the rear driveshaft and… … noticed a completely wasted u-joint. This has obviously been bad for a while. Who’s to know with all the squeaks and bangs and rattles that go hand in hand with driving a CJ?! Anyhow, guess it’s time for u-joints. I swapped them out and also gave everything a wiggle while I was in there. The rear output bearing in the transfer case is wasted along with the rear pinion bearing. I just put them on the list for now. I’ll dig into it deeper when I pull the engine. Fun little project but I’m a bigger fan when there’s a bigger physical outcome. On to the engine next.

Why do I keep breaking my rule? This week is cold but I’ve got a small window between snowfall and more snowfall starting late on Friday. I was still waiting on engine seals (which showed up later this afternoon) so I decided to put a pile of material to use. A while back I started cutting parts for tying my cage into the frame along with rock sliders. Let’s talk about tube work and tight notches. I don’t have a proper tube notcher but I cheat by using an angle finder and a long drill bit. There are so many simple angles on these CJs that it takes a lot of the proper measuring out of things. Is it 90°?… Is it 45°?… probably. I started with connecting the dots between the underside of the main hoop and an additional support I added. There’s a 45° notch at the bottom and a 90° at the top. I did both sides at the same time. … then the top… … and then finish the notch with a grinder. Easy, right? Yes. I’ve got a magnetic bolt holder thingy that I used for holding the tube while I tacked them. I noticed a major spot of rust at the seams under the seats that I kinda sorta “fixed” before moving forward. P.S. it’s still rusty, but it made me feel better to stick the rusty top back to the rusty bottom. Base plates were added to the frame… … and then I plowed through the sliders and frame tie-ins because I wanted to get both sides at least tacked together today. The other side went faster since I cut all my parts at the same time. Overall, I’m happy with the look of them. I’m more of a fan of the heavy angle iron style sliders that so many CJs have but I’m not sure how much I trust bondo over rust to absorb an impact. Finish welding and paint tomorrow.

Felt cute. Might delete later.

Welding things are happening today! Still waiting on engine seals.

This. Her car can go outside when it’s time to work on things. I like having folding work stations because it forces me to clean up when I’m done.