Post by petee on Jan 20, 2011 19:54:06 GMT -8
Hello everyone,
My name is Paul and I am a new member to pistons wild. Just got voted in last week at the Jan meeting if you were not there to vote it is too late I am in ha.
I thought I would put something together about my current rig as no one has seen it out on the trails yet because it hasn’t been out on the trail yet. Image that. Although I look forward to wheeling this rig soon. My main focus have been to have a all around well running rig for trail building season come up in the burn, when ever the rain stops. Prior to this CJ I have been a Unibody roller for years had a nice little ’91 XJ on 32’s and a ’93 Grand after that. I came to a point where I wanted to get a rig that was going to be a good build platform for the long term. I have nothing against XJ/ZJ's I loved both of mine. Bla anyway.
I sold the ZJ and bought the CJ.
The day it came home on the trailer and my wife said “you paid how much?? And it doesn’t run” honestly I got a good deal on a factory original 304 v8, T18 4spd CJ it’s a ’79 so it was the first year of Power steering, Power brakes and disc up front.
I started with the simple stuff that needed to be done. Cleaning, pressure washing and figuring out what needed to be replaced. The quick answer to that question I came to find out was EVERTHING. We have all heard the saying JEEP stands for Just Empty Every Pocket. Well I heard a new one that fits my CJ Just Exchange Every Part….. thats life.
So the plan was to slowly rebuild this thing over time. Then
I wrecked my daily driver. I figered I could get the Jeep running easier that the Range….well you know what they say about Assumptions…ya. So I dove into the Jeep.
It feels like I worked on just about everything it owns. Replacing anything that wasn’t right or was rotted out or just looked funny. So far I have not had to touch the tranny or t-case and other then an Assusie and fresh fluid in the rear the axles have not been touch.
I finally got it running “poorly” and driving in a few weeks. Everything seemed fine. But I could not get the 304 to run quite right. I work at Woody’s 4x4 so I talked them into throwing it on the scanner and checking her out. After an hour or so and swapping gout the carb we figured out that I had the worlds largest 4 cyl. No wonder it ran like crap. We figured it would be more work to rebuild the 304 then it would be to replace it. So I thought why put a 304 back in when a 5.9l AMC 360 will go in just the same. So I found well maintain 360 and it was in and running over the next weekend.
As you can see I have a huge garage. Runs like a champ. I have been battling a brake problem for a while now and had some other car issues that have taken my time away from the CJ but I think I figured them out this week end. Time will tell. Now we can move on the fun stuff.
Other then the run ability of the Jeep I have been trying not to forget the main purpose of my CJ. To go off road plus the fact that I love making things. I have been doing some of the fun stuff too. I build a poor mans cage utilizing the factory roll bar, a recycled front cage piece that was laying around Woody’s and some YJ rear “family bars” and a spreader I got this.
I also built a rear bumper with receiver out of 2x4 3/16 wall tube
The front bumper is made of the same stuff and the winch plate was cut from an old full sized truck bumper and filled with a Belleview upright.(similar to a 8274 but no line out, they were made by Belleview Winch company then branded by Warn when Warn bought Belleview winch Co.
I have been thinking for a while now as to what I will be doing for suspension on the rig. I have had control arms and coil springs on the last two rigs other then the rear of the XJ but that was simple. Lift springs and shackles….done.
This is a new world for me. But happily a simpler one, The previous owner of the rig conjured up the lift on it from the “cheapest way to fit bigger tires” magazine in the ‘80’s.
Add a leafs front and rear and long ars shackles too. With no consideration to chamber or driveline angle. Its time to change.
I want this rig to drive around town nice, up to the mountains, wheel, crawl, camp and be safe and sturdy. I have most of my parts ready to go. I’m doing a shackle reversal with M.O.R.E’s stubby brackets and YJ based frame bushings sleeves. (trying to keep it low) I am going to run full size Jeep Wagoner front springs spun around which should give me about 3.5” of front stretch and around 3” of lift. I plan on running the M.O.R.E HD steering box bracket that will move the box forward 1.5’ in hopes that I will not have to go high steer to make the stretch work... For the back I picked up a set of used YJ 3” lift springs I’m going to use with a set of boomerang shackles. My plan for the future is to run 35’s. I am in the process of narrowing a D44 out of a SJ to run up front with 760 joints. Before I move up to 35’s I’ll get a front set of tube fenders and TJ flares for the rear.
So that’s a little about me and my rig, glad to be part of the club and plan on updating this as time go’s on and I continue building my CJ
My name is Paul and I am a new member to pistons wild. Just got voted in last week at the Jan meeting if you were not there to vote it is too late I am in ha.
I thought I would put something together about my current rig as no one has seen it out on the trails yet because it hasn’t been out on the trail yet. Image that. Although I look forward to wheeling this rig soon. My main focus have been to have a all around well running rig for trail building season come up in the burn, when ever the rain stops. Prior to this CJ I have been a Unibody roller for years had a nice little ’91 XJ on 32’s and a ’93 Grand after that. I came to a point where I wanted to get a rig that was going to be a good build platform for the long term. I have nothing against XJ/ZJ's I loved both of mine. Bla anyway.
I sold the ZJ and bought the CJ.
The day it came home on the trailer and my wife said “you paid how much?? And it doesn’t run” honestly I got a good deal on a factory original 304 v8, T18 4spd CJ it’s a ’79 so it was the first year of Power steering, Power brakes and disc up front.
I started with the simple stuff that needed to be done. Cleaning, pressure washing and figuring out what needed to be replaced. The quick answer to that question I came to find out was EVERTHING. We have all heard the saying JEEP stands for Just Empty Every Pocket. Well I heard a new one that fits my CJ Just Exchange Every Part….. thats life.
So the plan was to slowly rebuild this thing over time. Then
I wrecked my daily driver. I figered I could get the Jeep running easier that the Range….well you know what they say about Assumptions…ya. So I dove into the Jeep.
It feels like I worked on just about everything it owns. Replacing anything that wasn’t right or was rotted out or just looked funny. So far I have not had to touch the tranny or t-case and other then an Assusie and fresh fluid in the rear the axles have not been touch.
I finally got it running “poorly” and driving in a few weeks. Everything seemed fine. But I could not get the 304 to run quite right. I work at Woody’s 4x4 so I talked them into throwing it on the scanner and checking her out. After an hour or so and swapping gout the carb we figured out that I had the worlds largest 4 cyl. No wonder it ran like crap. We figured it would be more work to rebuild the 304 then it would be to replace it. So I thought why put a 304 back in when a 5.9l AMC 360 will go in just the same. So I found well maintain 360 and it was in and running over the next weekend.
As you can see I have a huge garage. Runs like a champ. I have been battling a brake problem for a while now and had some other car issues that have taken my time away from the CJ but I think I figured them out this week end. Time will tell. Now we can move on the fun stuff.
Other then the run ability of the Jeep I have been trying not to forget the main purpose of my CJ. To go off road plus the fact that I love making things. I have been doing some of the fun stuff too. I build a poor mans cage utilizing the factory roll bar, a recycled front cage piece that was laying around Woody’s and some YJ rear “family bars” and a spreader I got this.
I also built a rear bumper with receiver out of 2x4 3/16 wall tube
The front bumper is made of the same stuff and the winch plate was cut from an old full sized truck bumper and filled with a Belleview upright.(similar to a 8274 but no line out, they were made by Belleview Winch company then branded by Warn when Warn bought Belleview winch Co.
I have been thinking for a while now as to what I will be doing for suspension on the rig. I have had control arms and coil springs on the last two rigs other then the rear of the XJ but that was simple. Lift springs and shackles….done.
This is a new world for me. But happily a simpler one, The previous owner of the rig conjured up the lift on it from the “cheapest way to fit bigger tires” magazine in the ‘80’s.
Add a leafs front and rear and long ars shackles too. With no consideration to chamber or driveline angle. Its time to change.
I want this rig to drive around town nice, up to the mountains, wheel, crawl, camp and be safe and sturdy. I have most of my parts ready to go. I’m doing a shackle reversal with M.O.R.E’s stubby brackets and YJ based frame bushings sleeves. (trying to keep it low) I am going to run full size Jeep Wagoner front springs spun around which should give me about 3.5” of front stretch and around 3” of lift. I plan on running the M.O.R.E HD steering box bracket that will move the box forward 1.5’ in hopes that I will not have to go high steer to make the stretch work... For the back I picked up a set of used YJ 3” lift springs I’m going to use with a set of boomerang shackles. My plan for the future is to run 35’s. I am in the process of narrowing a D44 out of a SJ to run up front with 760 joints. Before I move up to 35’s I’ll get a front set of tube fenders and TJ flares for the rear.
So that’s a little about me and my rig, glad to be part of the club and plan on updating this as time go’s on and I continue building my CJ