AZ.Jay

Hi Moses, I crawled around under it some more today. I have the new muffler and tailpipe more or less hanging where they'll be. What I have is a Magnaflow generic cat, and Heartthrob cat-back exhaust, including a tailpipe that exits to the rear. I looked at my 1980 shop manual and it looks like the original cat was connected to the muffler inlet, which is where I intend to put it with this install. Keep in mind there was never a cat installed on my 1976 drivetrain/exhaust so I have to cut the pipe to fit the cat and the appropriate adapter in. Unfortunately that cut (and the clamp for the adapter) need to be above the transmission mount/skid plate. So I will have to remove it. I assume a jack placed under the front of the trans raised until it takes the strain is sufficient support? I think the frame bolts will be OK, as the PO put in a trans drop kit along with the suspension lift he installed. There are approx 2 inch spacer pucks and new bolts all around. As for the cat, it has a heat shield on one side, I am thinking I should point it down to prevent brush fires. The cat should be 5 or 6 inches below the floor pan. Thanks, Jay

Well I'm pretty much back to square one. Now the excuse the collector companies give me is that it's not nice enough for them to bother with. So with some overtime I might be able to get the kit next month, or February. I started putting on the exhaust I bought a few months ago. I need to go get some more adapters and clamps. I can tell that in order to get it all on I'll need to remove teh transmission shield.mount. Any pitfalls to look for there? The transmission won't fall out, right? I'm going to have to cut the pipe far enough forward do that the adapter that will come out of the cat will fit in there. The cat itself should be farther back than the transmission shield so I don't think I'll have any interference problems. Jay

I got quite a bit done today. First I dropped the tank and put in a new sending unit. I was dreading this job, since I had never dealt with a fuel tank before, but it wasn't bad at all. I like the design they used on the CJ. Only rough spot was detaching and reattaching the filler vent hose. I put 5 gallons of clean fuel in after, but my gauge still shows E. Not sure if it's just way out of cal, or the circuit still has a problem. Hopefully I can legally drive it to the gas station next week and find out :). I also reinstalled the spare tire carrier, with a reinforcing plate for the top hinge, and I put on new tailgate cables. The next big job will be the still leaking rear main seal. Here's the old fuel sender, with that rotten piece of fuel hose on the pickup I'm surprised I was getting any fuel to the carb!

Howdy, Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this, but there really hasn't been anything to add. I'm not any closer to having the scratch needed to buy the Howell TBI kit. I've decided for the interim I will get collector's insurance and not take it off road. If I just use it for hunting everywhere I go there is at least a dirt road. A road is a road, right? I have got a few things done to it lately. I finished installing the Tigertop which I set aside back when I was trying to do it in cold weather. Much easier when it's warm out. Also put in the lockable center console I bought back when I got the jeep, so I can lock stuff up and I have cup holders too! I put in 2 new VDO gauges for voltage and oil pressure, and I have a matching vacuum gauge to add later. I'll install it on the stainless instrument panel cover which I put on to cover up the empty radio hole. I do still intend to eventually do the TBI conversion, possible along with an engine replacement at the same time. I'd also like to swap in a Ford T-18 to get some crawling capability. Here are a few updated pictures: And here is how I had to jury rig the door strikers, since my door wells (if that's the right word) don't seem to be the dimension that Bestop expects. These are upside down and on the opposite side (I think) of where they should be, just so the latch will actually contact them.

It's looking great David. I'll look forward to the pictures after you get it back from the paint shop!

Congrats Case! In the second picture it looks like he's already giving the OK to the Jeep

I played around with it a bit this morning after my new hand vacuum pump arrived. I used to have one but it disappeared in one move or another over the years. The distributor is hooked to ported vacuum, 0 at idle and it begins climbing as soon as I open the throttle. At around 2400 rpm it's at 22" Hg. The timing at that point with the vacuum advance disconnected is a total of 22 degrees. Here is what he distributor instructions say about the mechanical advance curve: Most engines with the HEI distributor typically run the best when the base or initial timing is set at 6 to 10 degrees before TDC. The HEI distributor has a mechanical advance curve that begins at 1200 RPM and is all in by 3600 RPM with 20 degrees of advance, And here is the paragraph on the vacuum advance adjustment: The new HEI distributor is also equipped with an adjustable vacuum advance canister. You can adjust how much additional vacuum timing advance can be delivered under light engine load during high intake vacuum conditions such as during highway cruise, to improve the economy of the engine. The unit is adjusted by removing the vacuum line to the canister nipple and inserting a 2.5mm Allen wrench into the end of the canister nipple and turning the internal hex set screw. Turning it counter clock wise reduces the amount of advance, while turning it clock wise increases the amount of advance. The vacuum advance canister is set at the factory approximately in the middle of the adjustment range. With five full turns of adjustment in either direction. Turning the adjustment all the way counter clockwise until it stops reduces the amount of vacuum advance to about 2 degree at a vacuum reading of 10 inches of Hg. Turning the adjustment all the way clockwise until it stops increases the amount of vacuum advance to about 18 degrees at a vacuum reading of 10 inches of Hg. So I'll need to find my metric Allen wrenches or get another 2.5mm and back that off until my total advance is 32-34 instead of 38. Of course it will probably all change with the TBI installed . BTW, how hard is it to change out the speedometer driven gear on these things. I'm sure the TBI computer will be happier if it's speed sensor is telling it the truth.

I just went out and checked where the vacuum advance hose goes. It connects to a port at the base of the carb, right above the manifold, so am I correct in assuming this is manifold vacuum? If so that's probably where my extra advance is coming from. I could tee it into the EGR which comes from a port at the top of the carb. Then I could use the free port to plumb in the dash mounted vacuum gauge I ordered. I'm not going to get too worried about it, since this will all get straightened out with the TBI kit and the new 5 port CTO.

Yes, it was 32 + 6 if I'm following you correctly. The display read 32 and the timing mark was at 6. So it sounds like I should back it off a little, although I'll recheck it with the vacuum still disconnected and verify it is ported vacuum. I'm pretty sure the vacuum line goes to the carburetor. The timing light is an Innova 3658, I assume it's calculating RPM from the ignition pulses.

Water pump is in and everything now lines up correctly. My new timing light arrived yesterday so I got the timing set to 6 deg BTDC, After I hooked the vacuum back up I revved it to 2150 (per the timing light) and it showed 32 degrees of advance, with the mark back on 6 BTDC. Does that sound about right? I took it for a short unlicensed road test and although it's only seat of the pants, it does feel a bit peppier with the new distributor. Couldn't hear or feel any pinging. I have a tach installed now too, so I saw approx 2400 rpm at 65 mph (per GPS, I have the wrong speedo gear). So I believe I have 3.55 gears, which was a pretty common ratio, right? Looking at Quadratec's tire/gear ratio chart I'd line up closer to 3.42, but I don't know if they ever sold any like that. My timing light also was reading about 75 rpm higher at idle than the tach in the cab. Since the timing light cost more I'm assuming it's more accurate . If the tach is off even more at higher rpm I could even have 3.73. I also put in my new temp sender and the gauge moves now, just barely into the normal range.

Thanks Moses. I'll eventually need to troubleshoot my fuel and temp gauges, so if it's going to take a while I'll play it safe and disconnect the batt lead to the distributor. Rockauto came through for me again, not only cheap but fast. Ordered a box of parts on Tuesday and got it this morning just about 48 hours later. The 76 water pump sticks out at least 1/2" farther to the face of the flange so it should solve the pulley issue. I also got a new EGR valve for later, a new PCV valve, a new temp sender (probably nothing wrong with the old one but what the heck?) and a new exhaust flange gasket for when I get to messing with the exhaust. As fas as the distributor goes, I have no idea how they are doing it for $99. I haven't handled many, the last one I changed was about 15 years ago, but it looks well made to me. Machined from a billet of aluminum. The vacuum advance parts are stamped steel. The hall sensor/module is encased in plastic so I can't see in it. I wish I'd taken some pictures of it before I put it in. I won't be able to get to the water pump until Saturday. I'll post a follow up then.

Hi Moses, I remember seeing something on the web about burning up ignition coils by having the key on, engine off for a long period of time (how long I don't know) like when probing for key on hot circuits or other testing. Maybe that problem was for the later 1981 and on CJs. I should be able to tell with a tape measure if the 76 water pump will fix the issue, if not I'll have to find a shallower pulley. Thanks for the nut info, yes I was planning on PB blaster and double nuts. Sounds like a sundae

Yeah Case it sounds like you're going to be pretty busy for a while, and not getting much sleep either Congrats on the new arrival!

Hi Moses, As far as I can tell by looking at photos on the internet, the 76 pump's shaft does appear to stick out more. I'll be ordering a new Gates brand pump from Rockauto this week, less than $20. The current pulley is quite deep. I'll also get a real timing light this week, too. I believe I do have a timing curve chart, I do remember at least seeing instructions on how to adjust the vacuum advance if necessary. On Friday I also received the 2 bbl intake. I haven't had a chance to start cleaning it up yet, but I did notice the build date on it is 12/10/76, so I think it ought to go right on. Do you happen to know off hand what size nuts I need to get the old carburetor studs out? One other thing that I've been worrying over, with the new HEI setup, do I still have to be careful of having the key on, engine off like with the old setup? I'm assuming so. Is disconnecting the Batt lead enough?

The "spacers" are behind the pulley. There is a real spacer between the pulley and fan. Here is the fan and pulley: I can come up with a theory about anything and here is what I think went on. They guy I bought it from put on a new water pump, and I bet he bought one for a 1980. Both Rockauto and Autozone show different parts for 1976 and 1980. They look a lot alike, but my guess is the pump flange sits farther out on the 1976 pump. So he put the washers in there to get the belt grooves to line up, as well as keep the pulley from grinding against the block. So since I didn't get them all equally tight (even in the hand tightening phase) it went on crooked. I was able by backing them all out and gradually tightening them to get it about like it was before. Good enough that I could run it a bit. I think my Chinese timing light has a bad inductive pickup, I got it to flash a few times but that was it. I moved the distributor enough to smooth out the idle a bit and called it a day. Here are a couple of the snazzy new distributor: So in addition to a timing light that works I guess I need to get another water pump.