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Throwback: A 1983 CJ7


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7 minutes ago, neohic said:

Have you looked at Affordable Fuel Injection out of Michigan? Good, easy kits that are Howell based for our 4.2s. 

I specifically needed the CARB E.O. number to get through emissions.  Not sure if they have that as part of their kit.

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1 hour ago, neohic said:

Mmm… I doubt it. I forgot about the testing up in your area. 

Yep.  Would be nice to get away from that but the jobs that pay very well are here.  And that funds my habit, er, hobby...

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2 hours ago, neohic said:

Have you looked at Affordable Fuel Injection out of Michigan? Good, easy kits that are Howell based for our 4.2s. 

I am a little familiar with their small block Chevy stuff. Seems like a good company. 

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1 hour ago, 89 MJ said:

I am a little familiar with their small block Chevy stuff. Seems like a good company. 


Guy named Kevin Witte owns it. Super knowledgeable guy and very helpful with answering questions. They run a stand up company if you’re not looking for any frills. 

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2 minutes ago, neohic said:


Guy named Kevin Witte owns it. Super knowledgeable guy and very helpful with answering questions. They run a stand up company if you’re not looking for any frills. 

And they've been around a while too. My parent's had their stuff on my mom's TBI 46 Chevy. Good stuff that never had any problems. My brother has some of their stuff on his J10 too. I'd use them in a heartbeat.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found one of the oil leaks.

 

Pulled the drain plug, which the last person had way over tightened.  Drained the oil, went to put the Fumoto valve in and it was too small.  That's when I noticed the rivnut in the pan.

 

Someone had probably stripped out the threads on the original so they drilled it out and put in the rivnut, which had a slow drip.

 

Every time I work on this Jeep I find another thing the DSPO had messed up.

 

Fortunately, I'm running out of things I haven't touched.

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Got the manually controlled dual battery setup in.  One switch for each battery to connect/disconnect it.  I can run either battery or both if I want.

 

PXL_20251108_195521972.jpg.6b00cc9b2563abba0ff14a8f39af1756.jpg

 

Still have a bunch of wiring to finish.

 

Also did the spark plugs.  It may have been running a tad rich...

 

PXL_20251108_200727959.jpg.d5e8d9110198a4f707775e7c5c75c5b0.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

It's warm in the garage this weekend so I have been making progress.

 

Still fixing the DSPO (Dip "Stick" Previous Owner) problems.

 

They apparently rewired the tail at some point.  They ran wires in a stretch of garden hose to push them through from one side to the other.

 

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Then they attached them with wire nuts.

 

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I'm running the Painless kit that is a direct bolt in for a CJ.  So I am gutting everything and running new replacement wiring.  So it will be nice again and run properly.

 

To that end, I need to drop the gas tank to run the wires properly.  I'm going to go ahead and replace the skid plate with aftermarket.  May as well while it's out.  The tank hangs low so more protection is never a bad thing.

 

 

Also, I mostly finished setting up the engine wiring.  The CJ harness is pretty universal on that end from Painless.  So I had to integrate the Duraspark ignition and tie it in with the Howell TBI kit.  And I went ahead and did the heavy power cable for all the aux wiring I'm doing.  All tied in to the dual battery switches.  Oh, and I needed two relays.  One for the TBI and one for the manifold heater circuit (needed for emissions in Denver).

 

It's a little over engineered but it's better than random butt splices all over.  And the plugs let me service it in the future.

 

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The oil pressure sending unit is sitting there waiting for me to crawl under and put it in.

 

I need to finish wiring up the radios (CB and GMRS) and a few other things.

 

Should be ready for spring.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I've been having fun with the old broken gas tank strap.  But the rear wiring has been done for a bit.  I'm running new hoses (vent, supply, and return) as long as it's all apart.

 

The Genright tank skid os quite a bit beefier than the stock.  So I feel good about installing it.

 

I've mostly been poking at a few odds and ends.  Got the front bumper and fog lights installed so it looks more like a CJ now.

 

PXL_20260313_210609973.jpg.bbe7c9443085fe2936151d4e38465762.jpg

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Got my annual bonus at work.  Got some toys for the CJ.  Proper fabric doors.  Still need to finish assembling the latches bit the initial test fit is good.

 

PXL_20260320_193631351.jpg.44c097268da89ac9383fc0dbbfa12338.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made some good progress today.  Got the fuel pump plumbed and the gas tank installed.  The threaded portion at the end of the strap had broken and the welded on all-thread gave out.  So I cut it back a bit further and put on a coupler nut with some red locktite.

 

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Got the tank installed.  The Genright tank skid is a nice addition.

 

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But I found another issue while I was under there...

 

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So I guess the brake upgrade to power brakes is going to happen sooner than I planned.

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So a previous owner went to the trouble of replacing the rear shafts.

 

But they did aftermarket 2 piece shafts...

 

PXL_20260404_223738747.jpg.49071535f2c0def3b8e52956d1293dd7.jpg

 

This Jeep is definitely an example of pervasive half-assery for sure.

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The wheel cylinder was definitely leaking.  And the brake fluid was a dark brown.  So it's a good thing I'm replacing almost everything front to back.

 

I do want to go on record that whoever designed the parking brake setup in the rear drums needs to get a swift kick in the jimmy.  It's definitely one of the more annoying setups to get back together.

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So back brakes buttoned up.  Starting in on the front.  As long as I'm there I'm going to strip it all the way down and rebuild the outers.  New ball joints, new shaft u-joints, new bearings, new calipers with pads and rotors, new brake hoses, all the seals, and I'm upgrading the hubs.

 

With all of the tools I have, you'd think I could just knock this all out quickly.  But I'm short one key tool.  A 2-1/16" spindle nut socket.  So I'm stuck for a little bit until I get one delivered.  It'll be here Sunday.

 

PXL_20260410_205451013.jpg.ff0f48ce6b0d050f3588311bf4f0b370.jpg

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16 hours ago, derf said:

So back brakes buttoned up.  Starting in on the front.  As long as I'm there I'm going to strip it all the way down and rebuild the outers.  New ball joints, new shaft u-joints, new bearings, new calipers with pads and rotors, new brake hoses, all the seals, and I'm upgrading the hubs.

 

With all of the tools I have, you'd think I could just knock this all out quickly.  But I'm short one key tool.  A 2-1/16" spindle nut socket.  So I'm stuck for a little bit until I get one delivered.  It'll be here Sunday.

 

PXL_20260410_205451013.jpg.ff0f48ce6b0d050f3588311bf4f0b370.jpg

On a nut like that, one could always use the old chisel method.  That's what I did on the giant axle nuts on my Austin Healey Sprite, as did everyone else who has ever worked on it.

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1 hour ago, pizzaman09 said:

On a nut like that, one could always use the old chisel method.  That's what I did on the giant axle nuts on my Austin Healey Sprite, as did everyone else who has ever worked on it.

It's hard to torque to spec.  Besides, the tool will be here tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, derf said:

It's hard to torque to spec.  Besides, the tool will be here tomorrow.

That's logical.  The one I've done just needed to be tightened and the anti rotation tab bent over on it to prevent it from backing off.  It was in a full floating axle.

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The upper ball joint nut was almost loose.  It took a breaker bar to loosen the lower nut.

 

Then it took some persuasion to get the lower joint to let go.  Fortunately I didn't need to break out the oxy-acetylene.

 

PXL_20260412_211631893.jpg.5e264ec4d996501a2ec3fccf26f58eea.jpg

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