1975 Brutally Simple Daily Driver

[neohic]

9 hours ago, cord367 said:

looks great!

[neohic]

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. 

 

[Pete M]

I always wanted to own a tow dolly with electric brakes. 

[neohic]

11 hours ago, Pete M said:

I always wanted to own a tow dolly with electric brakes. 

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. 

[neohic]

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.