Grandpa's truck

[jodawill]

I plan to change the ignition lock cylinder soon. Unfortunately, that means my grandpa's keys won't work anymore. I was, however, with some difficulty, able to track down the same key blanks he used. There were several eBay listings of similar blanks, but the others weren't made in the USA.

 

They're not 100% identical, but that really just seems to come down to poor quality control or the lack of precision and attention to detail when they originally manufactured these. They're close enough that I couldn't really describe the difference in words.

 

The original Jeep logo keys are much easier to find. He never used his, but I'll recreate those too when I get the new lock.

[OSCDumpTruck]

2 hours ago, jodawill said:

I plan to change the ignition lock cylinder soon. Unfortunately, that means my grandpa's keys won't work anymore. I was, however, with some difficulty, able to track down the same key blanks he used. There were several eBay listings of similar blanks, but the others weren't made in the USA.

 

They're not 100% identical, but that really just seems to come down to poor quality control or the lack of precision and attention to detail when they originally manufactured these. They're close enough that I couldn't really describe the difference in words.

 

The original Jeep logo keys are much easier to find. He never used his, but I'll recreate those too when I get the new lock.

I could be wrong, but pretty sure you can have a locksmith key your new cylinder to the original keys.

[jodawill]

7 hours ago, OSCDumpTruck said:

I could be wrong, but pretty sure you can have a locksmith key your new cylinder to the original keys.

 

I'm going to check into it when I get the new cylinder, but as far as I can tell so far, that isn't possible with these. They're not meant to be serviceable.

 

Either way though, that original key isn't going to work in a working cylinder.

[jodawill]

I found the rest of my key. It was in the ignition all along! 

 

Got the ignition cylinder lock replaced. It has a weird idiosyncrasy where I have to have it at the right angle to pull the key out. Turning it all the way down just relocks it. I probably need to redo it. Maybe it was in the wrong position when I installed it. It does work though.

 

I bought some key blanks that are totally identical to the one my grandpa used. It wasn't easy to track down, and I bought the only ones I could find anywhere on the internet. Now I need to find a locksmith who's willing to use my own blanks.

 

I pulled out the power steering gearbox again because I suspected one of the seals was installed wrong last time. It turns out that it wasn't leaking at all, but when I put it back together this time, it didn't work properly anymore. So I just pulled it out a third time to check the bearings.  I'm getting really fast at doing it though!

 

I bought new splash guards from http://www.detroitmuscletechnologies.com/. I'm looking forward to installing them once I get all the leaks taken care of. It looks like the transmission coolant lines are leaking, and possibly even the radiator. So that's on my soon to do list.

 

What's most concerning at this point though is that the coolant hoses are thin and bulging. It looks like no one sells them anymore, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that.

[jdog]

All the way forward, / towards you is accessories and the key shouldn't come out, one click from that is off position 

[jodawill]

On 6/16/2026 at 5:25 PM, jdog said:

All the way forward, / towards you is accessories and the key shouldn't come out, one click from that is off position 

 

Thanks! I never knew because apparently my switch isn't calibrated correctly. It doesn't do anything when I turn it all the way down. I'm going to be replacing the switch soon, so hopefully I can get that figured out.

 

I just finished replacing the transmission mount. The old one was liquifying and melting all over the cross support.

 

My truck has almost no rust at all underneath, so it was surprising to see how stuck on those bolts were. With a little penetrating oil, my electric impact wrench made pretty quick work of them. They came out hot! I had to work them in and out quite a bit to get them to go back in.

 

I'm going to try to get the motor mounts done tomorrow. I'm really curious to see if it runs quieter when I'm done with this.

 

I figured out the problem with my door. According to a video where a guy had the exact same symptoms, I just have to replace the arm. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be any welding involved. I'm trying to pace this project financially, so I'll order the new arm as soon as July comes around.

 

None of the work I've been doing is particularly flashy, but there's a lot satisfaction in making all the small things work properly. Whenever I finally get to the stage where I get it painted and restore the rims, I'll feel like the truck deserves it. I want my truck to work like new before it looks like new. Otherwise, it's all hat and no cattle.