neohic

Cheers, fellas.

Truck looks great! I kinda like the orange though. Maybe try another bright color before drag green?

It has been a very long day. Apparently if you want to turn a seven hour drive into twelve, then you need to own a clackity, old Jeep. This morning was bliss. Cold… but bliss. Everything was just as it should be. My biggest worry was getting over Monarch pass and sure enough it over heated just shy of the summit. I found a very loose temperature sensor that I’m a bit worried about for how many times I would’ve checked every fastener over the past couple weeks. At the first available stop I picked up another jug of coolant and some teflon tape to readdress things in the morning. Then the air temperature started climbing and the CJ let me down. … and again… … and again… and then a total of nine times I was on the side of the road. Something was getting hot. I tried turning my air cleaner towards the cool(er) side of the engine bay… … I drifted my way to a parts store and tried swapping the ignition coil, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. At its worst I was stopping as little as a few miles. In the past it has vapor locked and I was hoping to be done with that with deleting the coolant passage in the intake manifold. Then I was still 92 miles from Moab that it finally hit me that I should investigate the fuel pump… and it was hot. That is my roadside custom heat shield fashioned from my front license plate and zip ties. It worked!… mostly. I was able to click off 40 miles before it started acting up again but that was just in time to stop for gas. The last 50 or so miles got a little stupid that I looked down a few times to find that I was doing over 70. Not smart in an 83” wheelbase rig that wasn’t engineered for anything over 55. I rolled into Moab right at 6:45. Plan for the morning is to hit up the dollar store for some turkey baking trays to make a new exhaust heat shield. Not sure what else for trails. Probably taking it easy.

Agreed! Being mine is a ‘75, it had just a straight coupler between the water pump and the fan. Damn thing was just howling away line an airplane propeller! Maybe it’s on my head, but it feels mildly spunkier without the old fan too.

Wheels up by 7 tomorrow morning. My fan showed up!! Everything got installed within an hour so I could take it for a rip. The maiden voyage was to fill up at the gas station. Maybe I should’ve gone for a further drive? Realistically, it is what it is at this point. Probably fine… probably fine. The fan install went fine but I didn’t consider the overall depth of the fan. It had to get mounted off center to clear the water pump pulley and I’m a little bummed that my fancy fan shroud won’t work anymore. On the plus side, it works awesome. It’s a 16” fan that pulls 3000 cfm (advertised as such, anyhow) however the radiator core is only 15.25” between the caps. To get it to sit flush I had to do some trimming but it doesn’t affect fan movement. The wiring is very much “don’t get it right, just get it running” that I’d like to revisit in the future. For this trip I wanted everything exposed to I can easily do any potential troubleshooting. The switch activates the system while the relay obviously powers it. We’ll see how everything goes but the plan is to wire it on a switched ignition source later. Otherwise it’s functional and, more importantly, it works great. The fan comes on at 185° and shuts off at 175°. It cools well enough that the fan actually does cycle on and off. I’m still going to bring the mechanical fan as a backup. It passed the “hold the Harbor Freight receipt” test while it was running, so I’m calling it good. Adventure starts tomorrow.

Another day closer to Moab. I’ve got a 16” electric fan that the tracking says I might see it tomorrow. Fingers crossed tight enough to squeak on that one. I took the mechanical fan off along with my fancy fan shroud. If the electric fan comes, great. If it doesn’t, then the mechanical fan will go back on but I’ll skip the fan shroud being it’s over achieving in the cooling department already. It runs noticeably smoother without the fan hanging off the water pump! The wiring harness for the electric fan got run along with deleting the coolant passage through the intake manifold. I plugged all of the ports but left the front fitting open to vent out the rest of the coolant. I’ll get a somewhat loose fitting vacuum plug also. There was another fitting in the block that I could use being I still need three spots for temperature readings, and it was a real buggar to get out. I made a tool being it was smaller than a 3/8” socket extension but bigger than a 1/4”. The block and plug also needed some persuasion with a torch to twist free. After than, the coolant fittings got rearranged, wiring extended, and a heat sock went over the new wire closest to the exhaust exit. The front sensor has tons of room between it and the manifold. Then all of the lights got checked, gear got loaded, and I even planned ahead for wear my duffel bag will go. Under the driver’s seat, I managed to not even put anything there!… feels wrong to leave open space in a CJ5. In the meantime, the old mechanical fan is waiting on standby, but will also make the trip as a redundancy. One more day for packing and planning.

And it is!! Here’s a before and after my drive home today. Sweet! Unfortunately, it’s back to a very old habit. Also on my way home… almost home, actually… I think the fuel line got hot. It was loosing power and I got it off the highway. I let it sit for a bit, cycled the key to get some fuel moving, and it fired right up after a few minutes. Had all the power back after that! The intake manifold still has the goofy coolant passage plumbed through it because the carburetor needed heat(?). I think that needs to go.

Custom. Can’t get anymore vented than that.

I’ve got my “lose the shop” moment. After driving the CJ the last couple days, it’s really over cooling and I think it’s keeping the fuel injection in open loop and chugging gas. I ordered parts and I’m hoping to see them before Saturday. Also… it’s leaking fuel at the tank. When the thing is running it’s got a steady dribble coming from a vent line. I’m wondering if it’s building pressure somehow? Might take my fuel cap and see what options I’ve got for different vented caps that fit.

Like… front and rear?

Good thought here. Right now I’m in a stage two fire ban and the smoke in the air is very much there already. It’s only March…

You could take the wagon! Call it an AMC trail ride showcase presented by Comanche Club.

YES!! YES!! Rimrocker has been on my list for years! I had the change to do it a long while back but it just didn’t work out. I’m down for this, but unfortunately my truck would’ve been perfect for this before its latest reincarnation.

Another day closer. I changed the spark plugs today. They would’ve gone in three years ago when the engine got swapped and I just wanted to see how they were doing. Turns out they looked pretty good! Cylinders 1 and 6 did look a little worse than the rest, but that comes with the territory with that long intake manifold. Tire pressure also got set 28# after being at 35# for flat towing. Haven’t driven it yet but I’m hoping to take it out everyday this week so it can gain some trust. Pics for clicks.

Okay… one week to go before I take off for Moab. Let’s start with getting a different temperature reading. I lucked out and O’Reilly’s and found the same temperature gauge that was already in the dash. That’s great after running the Jeep around today and comparing both the new and old gauge. The old one is definitely going to get the boot. There’s a 180° thermostat in there so that’s very comforting to see after a 30 mile drive. I had to do something about the blinding fuel tank also. Fingers crossed that’ll do something for the better. It was what I had on the shelf that wasn’t black. After a bit more toodling around I stopped at my buddy’s shop to watch them do some Moab prep of their own.

Absolutely! This is the first time in a very long while that I wished I had bigger truck. Looks like I’ll be meeting up with Austin (xjrev10… remember him?!… good dude) in Moab. He suggested I build a J truck with a Cummins.

I went for a little drive today. 70 miles or so around hills and inclines and plenty of curves. Now I’m wondering what a sway bar would do for on road driving. Might be worth trying? Anyhow… this morning I spent some time in the shop doing little things to get ready for EJS. I know that my license plates were low hanging fruit so I made some temporary mounts to get them up and out of harms way. This was all very much scraps I had around the shop. Kind of a “not even measure anything” type project. Couldn’t even bring myself to throw some any paint on the rear mount. It’s crooked too… doesn’t matter. I also have a functioning parking brake! Also another junk around the shop type project. The adjuster was bottomed out so I added some spacers (lug nuts) to make up some additional adjustability. After that I noticed the new auxiliary tank looked a little puffed up just sitting in the sun. There’s no fuel in it yet, but it definitely needed to breathe. Some spare hose later and I’ve got a vent that comes out of the rollover valve. Since I’m trying to talk myself into just driving to Moab, I passed the end cap at the parts store that has all the phone junk on it. I didn’t like any of the phone mounts so I just got the cheapest one to modify. A p-clamp and a bolt later and we’re good to go. Then came the drive. It was mostly awesome!… but the temp gauge had me nervous after I turned around for home. This was after a long(ish) grade but it stayed up when the road leveled out. I pulled over to let the city breathe for a minute and it went back down. For reference, the sensor is right on the side of the block and the gauge usually reads here… … but an inferred temperature gun tells me that it runs right around 210 like a normal 4.0. I don’t think the gauge is right on the money. Thinking about finding a different spot for the sensor? Most 4.0s read from either the thermostat housing or the back of the cylinder head. Also, that fancy new fuel tank caught the sun the whole way on the return leg. Felt like a laser beam at the back of my head. Otherwise, I’d say the practice run went pretty well. I haven’t really driven the Jeep that far in a very long time. On the way back into town I picked up a new radiator cap. Maybe the current cap has a bad seal?… stay tuned. Considering adding a second temp gauge with the sender in the thermostat housing.

More work today. The three point seat belts got installed. These are “Jeep Wrangler” aftermarket but they could really go in just about anything. I had to weld a bung into the main hoop, but otherwise they just bolted in place of where the lap belts were. Then I moved onto the fuel system. There’s really nothing wrong with it, but the pump has been loud since it went in there. I went back to the parts list from when I pieced together a Howell setup for a friend’s YJ a while back and just used that part number. The old pump is now the new transfer pump should I need it. It runs off of a remote starter trigger switch. What I didn’t want to do is plumb in a permanent auxiliary tank. This way I can remove it when I want. Otherwise the punch list is down to trying to get the parking brake working, nut and bolt it, recentering the steering wheel, and check the toe again. This is a huge annoyance. Unfortunately, my potential trailer spot isn’t going to work out. I reserved a U Haul going there and the return trip, but now I’m about 60% leaning towards keeping the return reservation as a plan c… d?… and just driving it out there. Decisions… decisions…

Yup. There’s essentially a tow dolly type surge brake setup that would tie into the front brakes of the CJ. Or the other option is an actuator that pushes the brake pedal. Those are a bit pricey. I briefly looked into them but you said it… time.

Same. But… I’m still going. Stay tuned for more beautiful sights from Moab. RIGHT?! Unfortunately the final straw was the mass of the CJ. Everything was stripped off and out of it but it still wasn’t enough. Failure is always an option.