spdljohn

Congratulations. Beautiful baby. That's wonderful.

When I bought my new Lincoln 216 welder, I also bought an 11 pound roll of ER-70S-6 wire. I bought a metal gauge and estimated that the project at hand was about 1/4" metal thickness. The chart on the machine called for a "D" setting which is about 4 out of 6 possible settings. (Can't remember the wire feed speed off the top of my head. Seemed to work out okay.) Didn't get much splatter. If there are concerns over the integrity of a weld, how could one strengthen the weld? Would you choose to build up a higher crown with a hotter setting, broaden the base of the weld, etc.? David

Moses....thanks as always for your comments. When I bought my welder I bought an 11 pound roll of ER-70S-6 wire. That's what this weld was made with. I bought a metal gauge and estimated that the rod was about 1/4" in thickness which the chart on the machine called for a "D" setting which is about 4 out of 6 possible settings. Can't remember the wire feed speed off the top of my head. Seemed to work out okay. Didn't get much splatter. It's probably a little gutsy to make my first weld on such an important structure as the drag link but it's done now. If for example there were concerns over the integrity of this weld, how would one strengthen it at this point. In other words would you choose to build up a higher crown with a hotter setting, broaden the base of the weld, etc. Just asking out of curiosity. David

Today I had to cut the hole for the fuel filler. I used the old body to measure and make a cardboard template which I then cut out and transferred to the new body. I used my dremel tool with a cutting wheel (or three) to cut the hole out. I mounted the battery box, which required loosening and moving out the way the heater. I also started running the fuel lines up along the firewall and inching them closer to the EFI rail. Moses, I've got 3 inches from the exhaust header to the fuel line...is that enough? David

I knew progress would slow down some now that the body is on....most of the "big work" like suspension power train etc is done. Now the work gets somewhat tedious. Been working on a few odds and ends. Got the emergency brake pedal and lines installed. The rear axle came with two new "rear" e brake lines. I ordered the new parking brake cable to go from the pedal to the equalizer. I broke down and bought a new welding machine....a Lincoln 216 220 volt with argon/co2 tank. I cut the drag link to length, tapered the end with the grinder and welded the insert in myself. I think it looks pretty good. I'm pretty good at making flat straight welds look pretty but this was tricky because of the round shape requiring constant hand position changes to stay perpendicular. Moses....dont laugh at my "welding table." Once the jeep is finished I've got a list of welding projects...first on the list is a proper welding table. Absolutely no comparison from flux core mig welding with the 110 volt machine and the new one....should have done this earlier. Another time consuming task was running the new front brake lines. Trying to get around all of the lines that are already in place required some planning. I bought some new flexible brake lines from napa warehouse....they are just GM calipers so they looked these up under a 99GM 3/4 ton pickup. The flexible lines came with the brackets which I mounted to the outside of the frame. I built a couple of brackets to hold the junction between my hard line and the flexible lines....I'll paint these later. Moses...you mentioned stainless steel tubing didn't flare very easily....you weren't kidding. My flaring tool isn't holding up very well. After all the connections were made I "bench bled" the master cylinder and then used my vacuum bleeder to bleed the system. I have a good solid pedal. Had a couple of minor leaks at a couple of junctions. Seems that loosening those up and then torquing them back down took care of the leaks.

Moses, without measuring Im guessing it's about 4 inches away. Do you think that's good enough?

Today I worked on the brakes. I bought a wilwood manual proportioning valve just in case the rear brakes tended to lock up. It came with a slick mounting bracket and the lines to go from the master cylinder to the valve. The valve has two inputs and three outputs.....one of the outputs directly below the valve knob is for the rear brakes. There are two outputs for the front brakes....if you choose you can split the left and right front brakes at the valve or just have one output and split them downstream. I twisted the rear brake line around a tube of caulk before bringing it up to the valve. This coil will allow for me to lift the body down the road if I choose to. Ill run the front brake lines later this week. I ran the braided stainless lines for the Bosch hydroboost system. I attached a pic of the plumbing diagram. Basically it goes power steering pump to the brake booster to the steering box input. From the steering box there is a tee....one return line goes back to the power steering pump and one line goes back to the brake booster. The only rubber line I have in this system is a short 2-3" run from the tee to the power steering pump return line. Secured lines with some clamps to the frame. I mounted the new steering column and steering shaft so that I could see how all the lines would tie in together. I had to cut out a notch of the frame crossmember above the steering box to allow for the 90 degree angle an fitting to hook into the steering box supply port.....this is because the steering box had been moved forward with the MORE steering box bracket. David

Two steps forward and 1 3/4 back!. Had to take the body back off. Once the body was mounted I could see that the rear bumper was too close to the body and wouldn't allow for the spare tire carrier to swing out of the way. To take the rear bumper off I had to lower the gas tank to get to the bolts. To lower the gas tank I had to take the body off....one of the carriage bolts had stripped out in the hole in the rear frame cross member....that's why the body had to come off to allow access to the bolts. Probably best in the long run as I wanted to swap out the one inch body lift mounts with the no lift mounts. Looks like I'll still have plenty of room for the 33X12.50s. Still looks pretty tough and high without the body lift. So then the dilemma was how to move the bumper back a little bit and get it away from the body. It is attached to the rear frame crosmember with 8 3/8" bolts in 4 locations. I used 1/4"X3 inch wide stock. The rear frame crossmember is about 3" tall so I cut 8 pieces 2 3/4" long and doubled them up....welded two pieces together to provide 1/2"X2.75"X3" pieces. I then used my drill press to drill out the holes matching the back of the bumper bolt holes. I painted them with a can of truck bed coating I had laying around. Take a look....turned out good....solid.....and the spare tire carrier swings open with no problem. Not sure what the genesis of this issue was but possible when the weldor cut off the old rear frame crossmember and welded on the new one it was positioned a little far forward. Also, the new drive shafts from Tom Wood came in last week.....I got those put on the jeep on Friday. David

That's good information Moses. I just got through repainting the end of the pitman arm today after I messed up the paint during reaming. Because of your post I'm going to remedy that tomorrow before putting it back on the jeep. I got the body mounted today. Was not that difficult. Currently it's only sitting on 4 body mounts; two front and two rear. I'm not sure I like the additional one inch body lift. I think it's too high for practical daily road driving. I also have a prothane body mount kit without any lift. I think I'm going to put that one on. The old man emu suspension looks like it will allow for the 33X12.50 tires to fit okay. There's not much room between the firewall and the back of the engine though.....tight fit. David

The big thing I was fretting over this week was how the pitman arm/drag link/tie rod would work. As I mentioned earlier the dana 44 in the front and the 1.25" thick drag link and tie rod mean that the steering box had to be moved forward 1" per east coast gearing to prevent binding of the elements. On top of that I installed a shackle reversal kit which also repositions the axle one inch forward. I installed a MORE heavy duty steering box bracket which moves it forward 1.25". You can see my dilemma. As it turns out when I bought the jeep it had a dropped pitman arm with 4" of drop (the old man emu suspension has about 3.5" lift). This dropped pitman arm has a center to center distance of 5" as opposed to stock flat cj7 pitman arm which is an inch longer. The dropped pitman arm consequently increases my turning radius by not allowing the front wheels to turn as far but in my case it's a necessary trade off. But it couldn't have worked out better. My drag link is just about parallel to tie rod with no binding. Should prevent bump steer nicely. Gonna mark the drag link and take it to the weldor to weld in the new tie rod end. The new tie rod end for the drag link is larger than the stock CJ7 one. East coast gearing let me "borrow" a reamer to ream out the pitman arm. Worked great; tie rod end fits like a glove. The MORE steering box bracket is pretty easy to install. Requires removing a portion of the front frame cross member to allow the box to move forward. Also requires drilling an extra hole in the top of the same cross member to allow for a third bolt. In anticipation of reinstalling the body this weekend I turned the body on its side, removed some of the lineX overspray and freed up and tapped out the body mount bolts. David

Got my transmission crossmember mounted back up. The old man emu suspension came with drops for the crossmember. The new power train and ax15 tranny came with a mount . I wasn't real happy with where that new mount fell on the stock crossmember but a quick email and pic to novak confirmed it was in the right position; one of the rubber bushings falls right on the beginning of a slope. Guess it will be okay. Can say now the power train is fully installed in the jeep; no longer supported by floor jack. I reinstalled the crossmember bar that goes between engine frame horns. I'm a little worried about how tight the fit is; not much room to the bottom of the oil pan. Will watch in time and modify or build something else if it looks like it's rubbing. I ran the rear brake line. Got a rubber brake hose with Tee fitting already installed to go down to rear axle. Built a bracket to hold this in place. The new brake line is 3/16" stainless steel. Bought a flaring kit and tubing bender and I think I did pretty good for my first time. I ran the fuel lines on the inside of the frame but I ran the brake line on top of the frame. The only disadvantage I could think to this is to remove it I would have to remove the body; gonna "overdo" the number of clamps I use on the top of the rail to prevent rattling. Got the sway bar and links put back in place; a new bushing kit really tightens things up.

Looks great. Your paint job looks so good

Got it. By the way, I typed my previous post on my iPad....many errors....sorry. Got my fuel lines secured most of the way tonight. Installed the Holley fuel filter as well. Used Permatex high temp fuel resistant thread sealant to secure the 3/8 to 6N adapter into the fuel filter. I am using aeroquip PTFE fuel line. Here is a link to a good article on the different flexible fuel lines available. http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/hrdp-1101-performance-fuel-hoses/#__federated=1 Gonna work on running the brake line this weekend. Put the second coat of red POR 15 on various parts. Also ordered my new drive shafts from Tom Wood out in Utah. Got a double cardan at the transfer case for the rear. Got increased travel in the slip yoke for the front since I have the shackle reversal. Front shaft is going to have 8-9 inches of travel. If everything goes as planned, brake lines run this weekend, steering box mounted up and could possibly get the body mounted back on by the end of the weekend. David

I thought about running the lines on top of the tram. O am putting a one inch body lift on which would allow the room. My may proceed that direction. The axle did not come with the brake lines wire wrapped (see photo). Unfortunately they already have the flare nuts on them. By the way is inverted flare the same thing as double flare? David

When I set out to design my brake line/system I bought a couple of rolls of stainless 1/4" brake line and a flaring kit. When they sent the axles the rear axle was already plumbed with 3/16" hard line ready to accept a T fitting and the brake extension lines they included. When I started doing some more research I found out that 3/16" hard line is the most common size for new brake systems. So I decided instead of having to buy multiple adapters to reduce from 1/4" to 3/16" I purchased a couple of rolls of 3/16" stainless line and fittings; it is supposed to come in tomorrow. Today I took off the original sway bar from the original front axle assembly as well as some additional front fender support bars, cleaned, sandblasted and primed them. The red POR15 paint came in yesterday. Not sure how it's going to look to have a few select items painted in red but I'm gonna try it. I painted the transmission cross member and drop brackets as well as the steering box support and engine cross frame support in red. This POR 15 is good stuff. Good coverage and even though I brushed it on it smooths out nicely. Moses, take a look at my photos. Regarding the fuel lines I was going to run them up the inside of the right side of the frame, between the rear shock and the frame securing with rubberized stainless clamps. For the brake lines I was going to run them up the left inside frame again between the shocks and the frame. My new brake system will not have a proportioning valve because it's disc brakes all around. What are your thoughts on the proposed routes for the lines? David

Moses, I have an 85 gallon compressor with two stage pump so I have plenty of air pressure. I have my blasting cabinet that I really enjoy. I bought this about a month ago for this project. I keep it filled with glass beads. I need to change out the glass beads as they have been in there almost since the beginning. I made the mistake of first filling the cabinet with aluminum oxide which was MESSY. Black powder everywhere. I didn't leave that in long. The worn out glass beads weren't getting through on the transmission crossmember. There was a fair amt of pitting on the metal so I needed more bite. I used my canister blaster to do the job. I had a bag of 20grit black diamond which clogged up the tip. I emptied that and used the 40/60 grit which worked much better. It is very aggressive but did this job well; in fact more aggressive than any other media I've used before. I understand black diamond is used in heavy duty sandblasting jobs (ships, tanks, trains, etc). I wasn't too worried about a pretty finish because it's under the car but also because my experience with POR 15 is it does a very nice job of flowing and smoothing itself out. I fully agree with your sentiment though that if you're going for a smooth finish, glass beads do a great job. I have not used walnut shell -- where does it rank in terms of aggressive vs smooth finish? David

Moses, Where did the power for the ready welder come from? David

I had another good very productive day. Seeing 60Bubbas jeep get finished lit a fire! First thing I did today was scrape the grease and grime off the transmission cross member with a putty knife. Then I used gasoline (don't tell the safety police....just used a rag dipped in gasoline) to clean the remaining grease off along with then giving it a bath in the parts washer. I tried sandblasting it in my cabinet which is filled with glass beads but I needed something with more bite so I took it outside and used my sandblaster on wheels from tractor supply filled with 30/60 black diamond blasting media to take the paint and rust off. There were a few dents but they banged out easily with the hammer. The new old man emu suspension lift came with drops for the transmission cross member so I blasted these in the cabinet and put a coat of primer on them. While I was at it I blasted the crossmember bar that goes under the engine (not sure what to call this). It still fits even with the new engine. I also bought a MORE steering box bracket and new steering box (went with fixed ratio...supposed to be better for on road driving). The MORE steering box is supposed to shift the steering box forward 1". Good thing because the shackle reversal moves the axle forward about an inch to allow room for it to move back when encountering obstacle. East coast gearing also said its good to move the steering box forward with front dana 44 axle to prevent the pitman arm and steering rod from binding. Hope this steering bracket will move it forward enough between those two concerns. I've got a can of red POR 15 coming this week for these types of items....just to paint them a different color and set them off a little. The big thing that happened today was I got the engine mostly set in place. By mostly I mean I got the two front engine mounts bolted in place. Right now the floor jack is supporting the rear of the engine/transfer case. I used my john deere engine hoist to lift it into place. Not the heaviest load its ever lifted but probably the most precious! If anyone's interested, here's a link to the installation instructions for the motor from Novak. http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/cj5_cj7_80-86_swap.htm Didn't have any problems at all. Talk about pucker factor......didn't like having the new engine hanging in the air. Now that the engine is set in place the shackles on the front have assumed a more normal looking angle. This week I plan on running the brake and fuel lines and mounting up the new steering box. David

That looks top notch. Very inspiring. Envious you're rolling in yours. Can't wait to get to that point. Hanks for your help in posting pics of the rear shackle hager too and your input on my project. David

Big day today. She's a rolling chassis standing on her own 4 feet! Talk about a good feeling. I finished up first thing this am working on getting the rear axle put in place. When I ordered the rear axle I told them I would have a 3-4 " suspension lift so they set the leaf spring perches so that the rear axle points up towards the back of the transfer case to minimize the angle the drive shaft will have to assume. No major fitment issues with the rear axle. After I had already hung the rear shackle hanger and hung the leaf spring from the front hanger I realized that the fuel tank skid plate was impeding my ability to put the nuts on the bolts as they went through the leaf spring eyes and shackle. I had to take off the rear shackle hanger and run the hardware so that the bolt head is towards the fuel tank....no big deal just a hassle. The front axle was a little more complex mainly because of the shackle reversal kit from M.O.R.E. that I incorporated. I bought the kit that requires drilling a 1.5" hole through the frame. Made me a bit nervous but it went great. To install, the front brackets are fairly easy. They pretty much just bolt onto existing holes in place of the stock equipment. The shackle reversal kit does require flipping the front springs around so that the front of the spring is towards the back of the jeep and vice versa. To determine where to drill through the frame for the shackles, you attach the leaf spring to the front hanger then elevate the lift spring until the rear eye is 1" away from the bottom of the frame (turns out 3 shackles are equal to one inch...provided a nice spacer to keep the distance constant). Then you place one of the shackles on the leaf spring and measure 60 degrees (make sure jeep frame is as level as possible) and make a mark on the frame. Next drill through with 1.5" hole saw. Had to be careful to be sure to go straight through the other side and not drill off center from the original hole on the outside of the frame. Used plenty of oil while drilling. I placed the large tube inserts through the frame and welded it in place myself. To weld this I used my "buzz box." My mig welder being only 110 volt doesn't have the power to penetrate deep enough for a job this important. While I was at it I also went ahead and welded the engine frame horns at the top like Novak recommends. This was cleaned up with the grinder and painted with POR15. I also went ahead and bought a kit of stainless steel single horn clamps with the clamp pliers mainly for the fuel line. Never know when these will come in handy again. I finished up with the fuel sending unit and got it dropped back in the tank. It was sitting around just waiting to get knocked off the workbench and get broken. Tomorrow I should be able to get the new power train dropped into place. I have 35 years of grime gunk and grease to clean off my transmission crossmember; once its clean I'll probably sandblast it and paint it. Also tomorrow I'm gonna go back over all the hardware on the suspension and torque it to spec. Lots of progress = lots of pics today. David

I was able to finish up the rear shackle hangers today. I had a piece of steel sheet that matched the thickness of the rear frame cross member. I measured out an appropriate piece, cut it, and welded it to my rear shackle hangers. I didn't weld it on all four sides, just the front and back. It's going to be bolted in place anyhow. I grinded it down to clean it up and painted it. Looks pretty good I think. I have a stick welder but for this project I just used my 110 volt Lincoln mig welder. It can be set up for gas shielding which I have never done. I just use flux core wire and it splatters everywhere necessitating cleanup. I took a pic of my oem stock shackle hangers and you can see there is a mild relief or curve to compensate for the rear frame crossmember. The new shackle hangers are much beefier. I also got my old tires/wheels mounted onto the new axles. I would like to get new tires/wheels towards the end of the project. The nice thing about keeping the old wheels for now is they are 33X12.50 which is the same size I would like to have on the jeep so this will give me the chance to see if I need to go down a tire size with the new suspension and 1" body lift. My dad helped me today some in the shop. He would buy wrecked cars, rework them and sell them to put himself through school when he was younger but he never tore anything down to bare frame. I think he had a good time. We got the rear leaf springs partially hung and got the rear axle rolled into position. I wasn't able to finish up the rear axle as my new suspension didn't come with 7/16" bolts which are necessary for the rear shackle hangers. I'm going to go tomorrow and get Grade 8 bolts for this. Also the new shackle hangers require 3 bolts as opposed to the OEM which requires two. I did drill these additional holes today. The third bolt goes through the front most hole in the hangers. Fortunately the frame has a hole to allow access to place a bolt on that new bolt. More to come tomorrow. David

That is a great question. I have wondered about that but I haven't gotten to that point yet. I am going to contact my insurance agent and see what he recommends. Ill let you know what he says. David

My old man emu suspension from rocky road outfitters in Utah (items laid to on the table in the pics) and my new Dana 44 front and rear axles both came in today. I ordered my axles about 6 weeks ago from East Coast Gearing in Raleigh NC. They have a pretty neat looking website and shop and have lots of stuff to drool over. With the holidays they were running about 2-3 weeks behind their initial timeline. I think the wait was worth it. I bought new axles for a couple of reasons. The main thing that prompted me to get new axles was the fact that up until 1982 (I believe; Moses correct me if I'm wrong) the CJ7 had a narrow track axle with a WMS (wheel mounting surface) to WMS width that is about 3-4" narrower than the wide track axles. My main goal was to add stability and make it safer to drive, especially for when my kids get to driving it (a long long long time from now). I also believe that with the wide track axles the front axle is slightly wider than the rear. Another reason was obviously I had a new power plant and needed to axles to handle the power. I was initially planning on trying to make do with the stock axles but after I figured in the amount of time and money I would spend to change to one piece rear axles, replace bearings, seals, change gear ratios etc it just didn't make sense. Plus I like the idea of 4 wheel disc brakes. I understand dana 44 axles are not necessarily heavy duty but will certainly handle the road driving that I will be doing. Both the axles as well as the ax15 tranny I bought have heavier than stock components though. The axles came with Ubolts and ubolt plates as well as a few other items (laid out on floor in pics), such as the brake cables. The ubolts and plates that came with the ome suspension seems heavier duty and so I will likely go with those. Ill try to get the suspension and axles set up this weekend. Im going with the front shackle reversal so will have pics of that process too. The only thing that broke on the axles during shipping was the vent tube; no big deal. David

Thanks. That is very helpful. It looks like the hangers you have have a slight curve or relief to them (if Im seeing correctly) that allow the hangers to be bolted on, with the rear frame cross member between the hanger and the frame, and yet the hanger still sits flush against the frame elsewhere. I really appreciate you taking those pictures and sending them over. It confirms that I do in fact need to modify my hangers. I think I've got a plan to get my hangers on and get them secured. I should have that completed by tomorrow evening. Got halfway done with the project tonight. David

Brand new cross member, same gap on both sides. My pics are a little difficult to tell. See pic...this is not my jeep but illustrates what I'm contending with. The rear frame crossmember is about 1/4" thick and prevents the shackle hanger from being flush against the frame. Could insert 1/4 inch thick metal spacer between shackle hanger and frame same thickness as crossmember.