spdljohn

Question on the rear shackle hanger. I got the Old Man Emu YJ conversion kit from Rocky Road in Utah. Included in the kit was a beefed up rear shackle hanger. The portion of the shackle hanger that sits against the bottom of the frame rail is flat. But there is a "hump" for lack of a better term where the rear frame crossmember goes across the bottom of the frame. It is preventing the shackle hanger from being able to be flush against the frame rail. Others have apparently noted this before as I found a company that makes new shackle hangers that have a portion notched out to account for this (see pic -- Crabtreetool.com). Am I missing something? Do I need to shave down or notch the new shackle hangar? When I got the jeep the rear shackle hangers had been modified so Im not sure what stock is supposed to look like. David

OK Moses, I think this is what you had in mind for the brake pedal stud. After grinding off the paint from around the 9/16" hole on both sides, I used a 11/16" drill bit to slightly form the side of the hole facing the stud to ensure adequate weld penetration. I went to the store and found 3 different lengths of grade 8 1/2" bolts. As Moses alluded, I needed the bolt to have enough shoulder/shank to get through the pedal and most of the way through the rod end. After I picked the correct length I measured to see how much of the extra length I could cut off. I did this with the sawzall and then ran a die over it to make sure the threads at the end of the bolt were in good shape. The Grade 8 bolts I bought were coated with yellow zinc. I very lightly removed this with an angle grinder. I understand there's some debate as to whether it's safe to breath the fumes if you weld with the zinc coating on; just watching out for my welders safety as good as he's been to me. I ended up leaving the head on the bolt and having them weld on both sides of the pedal bracket. When I took it to them they were considering whether to MIG or TIG. They ended up TIG welding it but my impression was that of the 3 different guys that looked at it they each had a different opinion. Had it done within a few minutes. After lightly sanding the welded area to clean it up, I primed and painted it. I put the pedal bracket assembly and brake booster back on hopefully for the "final" time (this is the 4th or 5th "final" time I think). I placed one of the wave spring washers on the stud first, then the spherical rod end, flat washer, lock washer, and 1/2" nut. Probably need to get a few Grade 5 top lock nuts. Could use one here I would think. By the way, my new ARB old man emu leaf springs came in today. Axles shipping from NC tomorrow, and remainder of OME suspension coming in Wednesday. David

Congratulations Jay. Good looking jeep. There's something timeless about the way CJs look. I always wanted one since my buddy got one in high school. Have fun. David

So I got back in town tonight and pulled out the fuel sending unit to make the improvements we discussed above. Fortunately, the YJ sending unit already had a bubble flare on the supply side. However, when I got the new fuel hose I did not get the submersible type which I understand there is a difference and that the submersible type will hold up better long term. So I will get the correct type hose to put back on it and change out the hose clamps. Here is a link to the submersible fuel hose. http://www.napabeltshose.com/fuel-delivery-systems/submersible-hose Moses, I looked at the EFI type clamps you referred to in your article. What are your thoughts on the type I linked to below? This is what came with the YJ sending unit that I originally had to cut off. Are they even better than the ones you recommend? http://www.amazon.com/Oetiker-16700010-Stainless-Steel-Clamp/dp/B008L59PMK/ref=sr_1_2?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1420328995&sr=1-2&keywords=3%2F8%22+stepless+ear+clamp Also, sometimes I think the enemy of good is better. I went to work on the brake pedal stud that neither one of us has been super confident in. I used the cutoff wheel to cut off the stud and base from the pedal bracket. Then I used a two jaw puller to press out the remainder from the brake pedal (so as not to have to disassemble the bracket and put it on my hydraulic press). The stud was indeed drilled all the way through as I suspected. After I got the rivet out of the pedal I thought I was going to be good to go with a 1/2" high strength bolt with a shoulder to hold the brake spherical rod end. BUT to my surprise the hole where the rivet was pressed out measure 9/16" and not 1/2". My plan is to get a 9/16" steel tube (hopefully with 1/2" inner diameter), weld a piece into the pedal bracket, drill it out slightly if I have to to accept the 1/2" bolt and secure it in place well with serrated flange bolts both sides. Should work okay. David

Moses Regarding the fuel line I've got braided stainless line to run from the tank to the engine. I know you said you like hard lines but I figured the hose would be easier to work with. Is braided stainless hose not going to work or not work well or only last for a few years? Remember this jeep won't see much off-roading. Also regarding the fuel system, do I have to have an evaporative canister for the engine to run or run well or is this something I can do without? Back to the brake pedal stud, funny thing was the center of that stud was already drilled out. In essence it was already hollow in the inside. I enlarged it slightly and tapped it out. Seems pretty stout. I'll put it through the ringer once I get it up and going. David

Moses I will pull the unit out and put bubble flares on. The hose is on the supply side. This hose was already in place I just put a longer piece in and there were no bubble flares but it makes sense to have the, I will also pick up some fuel hose clamps and get high pressure hose. David

Ill be traveling this weekend so will post again early next week. Hopefully the axles and suspension will come in next week and I can get this thing into a rolling chassis and start to make some headway. Happy New Year. David

I also worked on finishing up the pedal/clutch/brake booster assembly. The 3/8" to 1/2" thread inserts came in a couple of days ago. I used red thread locker to secure the inserts into the new 1/2" spherical rod end I purchased from Summit. I put in two inserts and have plenty of thread contact. I had to trim down the 3/8" input rod into the booster. I also had to use my angle grinder to take some of the paint off the stud on the pedal to get the rod end to go into place. The problem I faced now was that the 1/2" rod end is so wide there was no way to hold the rod end onto the stud. Originally there was a pin that held the eyelet in place. So I ended up drilling a 1/4" hole down the length of the stud, running a tap in it, and securing the rod end in place using a stainless 1/4" bolt, washer, lock washer with a little blue thread locker. I also found a spring washer to touch up the clutch eyelet per earlier conversations. Got the pedal assembly and brake booster put back in place.....hopefully for the last time. The Wilwood master cylinder required an insert to make the booster output rod contact the master cylinder actuator. David

Got a few things done today. I have been working on getting the in tank fuel sending unit set up. I did some research and for a normally aspirated engine to figure out how much fuel in Liters/Hr the engine will need you multiply 0.38-0.45 (BSFC = Brake specific fuel consumption) X projected HP. My engine is around 325-350 HP. So the math would tell me to get a fuel pump that will deliver around 140-150 LPH. The stock YJ fuel sending unit wouldn't meet that requirement. I have a pump that will deliver around 450 LPH but per our earlier conversation, that can have a downside. So I found a walbro pump that will give me around 250 LPH and since I'm running 3/8" supply and return lines, the excess fuel will just dump right back into the tank, and that flow will provide enough psi at the fuel rail. My stock cj7 tank was 15 gallons but it was roached out so I got a new 20 gallon tank from Genright. The depth on that tank is 12". The stock YJ sending unit I'm modifying is a little under 11" tall so I needed to modify it some. Dropping the pump an extra inch was just a matter of getting a slightly longer piece of 3/8" fuel hose. But the motor bracket that holds the motor in place is attached to the return line which is hard. I cut the return line with tubing cutter and simply placed a 3/8" rubber hose and used radiator clamps to cinch it down. But the problem now was that the motor was too "wobbly" for lack of a better term; there was no rigidity to hold it in one spot. So I took the unit to my welder buddy and he welded on a piece of metal tubing to lengthen the return line and make it rigid once again. To lengthen the float so the gauge would read correctly I welded on an extra inch piece so that the float would reach the bottom of the tank and not alter the full fuel reading. While I was there I also had my welder TIG weld on the 3/8" bungs so I can connect my braided stainless steel fuel lines directly to the sending unit. Next I had to make a new bracket to hold the motor in place. I made this bracket out of a piece of 2" wide aluminum. I used a drill to make numerous holes in the pattern of the bottom of the pump, knocked it out, and then used a dremel to soften up the edges. Sandblasted it and put it in place. Worked out well. David

Moses, Thanks. Ill take a look around locally and see if I can find any spring washers. That will be more appropriate for what i was trying to accomplish with the lock washer. As far as your question, the hydraulic master cylinder does not have any kind of insert. Just the eyelet straight on the 1/2" bolt shoulder. See pic. David

That would be great. I got some of the same vertically driven product speaker holders. Like the idea of using otherwise useless space for the rear speakers.

Let me know what you think about the retro sound stereo. That's the same kind I got. I'm a LONG way from being able to listen to tunes though. You're project looks like it's coming along great. You'll definitely be rolling before me.

Lastly I went ahead and drilled out and mounted the master cylinder for the new hydraulic clutch that Novak sent with the new power train. The input rod for the cylinder has a 1/2 inch hole to connect to the clutch pedal. Unlike the brake pedal, the clutch pedal does not have a 1/2 inch stud to connect the input rod. I very carefully marked and drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the clutch pedal and attached the pedal rod. I have somewhere between 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" of throw/movement of the rod. Hope that's enough to fully disengage the clutch. To connect the rod to the pedal I used a stainless 1/2" X 2 1/4" high tensile strength bolt. I used that length to get a sufficient shoulder on the bolt to accommodate the eyelet on the rod. I used a combination of a flat washer and split ring washer Not tightened down to align the rod on the stud and keep it in alignment with the master cylinder. I wanted to "sandwich" the clutch pedal between two serrated flange nuts but if I would have put a nut on the outside of the pedal it would have caused too much misalignment. So I cut down to about a 1/4 inch a nut, retapped and put it on the bolt. Works great. David

At the recommendation of Moses, I went ahead and purchased grade 8 3" long wheel stud type serrated shoulder bolts, belleville washers, and top lock nuts. Took the bolts Novak included with the motor brackets out and replaced them. Though the serrated bolts are 3/8" and were somewhat tight and had to be coerced in the holes with a hammer, some of them began to spin a little as I began putting the top lock washers on. Was able to hold the head of the bolts with a locking plier. Once they tightened down they quit spinning. There are six bolt holes for each motor bracket. When I was disassembling the jeep I found that two of the spacers inside the frame that prevent the frame from being squeezed down when the bolts are tightened had come loose. Forgot to get the welder to fix this when I was at it. You can see in the pics where those two bolts indented the outer frame slightly as I torqued the bolts down to 35 ft/lbs. May want to make me reconsider going ahead and welding the entire motor bracket in place. David

Bought some aftermarket bumper support brackets as the bumper I bought has a swinging spare tire carrier and a hitch receiver so wanted to make sure we have plenty of strength. When I took the frame to the welder I took him a new rear frame crossmember I purchased. He replaced the rusted one with the new one and so I feel good about the welds connecting the crossmember to the frame but want to be double sure. When I went to dry fit the brackets the one on the driver side fit well. The one on the passenger side didn't fit quite right. I had to take the air grinder and enlarge the bumper holes towards the center of the jeep. What I figured out was that the new rear frame crossmember was not put on exactly in the center. When I measured I found it was off by about 1/2 of a centimeter. No big deal. The other thing that I had to do to get it to fit was to grind off the back corner of the bracket as the new weld the welder ran was a little proud. Shouldn't affect the bracket too much in terms of strength. The other issue was the bolts they sent to go through the frame go through predrilled holes. The ones on the outside of the frame were nice and tight. The holes on the inside of the frame were larger than the diameter of the bolt. So I purchased some 1.5 inch tall 1/4" thick metal from Lowes and fashioned a gusset for the inside of the frame, sandblasted, primed and painted to match the brackets. Now I've got to get new bolts that a little longer than the ones they sent. I'll take care of that tomorrow. They sent 8 washers for the four bolts. One on the inside and one on the outside of the frame. The ones that go on the rear bolt outside frame had to be bent/modified to fit inside the bracket. David

Many things happened today. Will post a couple of different times to cover it all. Moses and I continue to work through the details of this build and his input is very much appreciated. Got the heater box finished up. The JB weld looks like it will hold the crack in the fan well. I ran a bead of silicone around the lip of the box and put the heater box cover back in place. All the new neoprene seals work great. Made sure to strip the paint off of the studs that hole the box to the firewall as this is how the blower motor gets its ground. The holes for the four studs were not predrilled in the firewall on the new body tub but lining it up and drilling in the right spot was not particularly difficult. There were 4 rubber spacers to hole the heater box slightly off the firewall. Bought some new ones that were too tall (left ones in the pic). Sandblasted the old ones to get the crud off (right one) and reused them. The ones in the middle were without sandblasting. The new blower motor has a diameter of 3.5 inches, larger than the stock so I had to enlarge the firewall hole. Did this with a hole saw. The tub had the hole already cut out for the stock motor. So to center and hold the hole saw in the right place I fashioned a 2X4 held in place from the opposite side through other predrilled holes as you can see in the pics. Worked out well. Had to fine tune the hole with a air grinder. The upper air box had a crack in it. Bought some epoxy putty which sets up in 25 minutes. Ground down the area of concern, cleaned it with acetone, worked the putty, let it set, sanded it down primed and painted it. Looks great. The matte black paint hides the slight surface irregularities. (Sorry, forgot to get a pic of the final product)

I ended up finding a used one in good shape on ebay. They claim it was off of a YJ but the holes lined up perfectly with the CJ firewall. One of two possibilities; either it was mislabeled as YJ and is a CJ bracket or YJ and CJ brackets are one and the same. David

Moses, This is the rod end I've got coming http://www.summitracing.com/parts/fkb-jfx8 Thread length is 1.062". The insert length is 15/32 so putting two together would work great. Ill post when they come in and I get it fixed up. David

Moses, I like your last suggestion. I called Time-Sert. They are closed for end of year inventory until January 5th. I found this other company online that has what I need. Looks like model # 240-0610 would fit the bill. Ill let you know. The only adapter I could find with fine threads external and internal was stainless steel. Regular steel has course external and fine internal threads. http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=240-0610

Just though of something else I think Ill try first asking my welder if I bring him a new 1/2 inch spherical rod end, if he could essentially "fill up" the hole with new material, drill it and tap it for 3/8-24. Ill let you know.

Moses, I really appreciate your help with this. I am hoping to be able to fix this without taking the brake pedal assembly apart. In other words, I don't think cutting and pressing the stud out would be my first choice. I thought about that but on the other side of the brake pedal rod it looks like this is pressed in place. See the pic. The brake pedal is the second from the top. Sorry, it's the best pic I had of the other side. The other problem with pressing it out, as far as I can see, is if I press the 1/2" stud out, it leaves me with a 1/2 inch hole and as you alluded to, I would end up trying to weld a 3/8" bolt into a 1/2" hole. I even thought about trying to use a grinder to grind the stud down from 1/2" to 3/8" and hoping to get it as perfectly smooth and round as I could, but obviously that was just a thought that came from desperation. The thing that argues in favor of trying that approach is if you look close enough at the pic, where the stud and the previous brake input rod eyelet were in contact, the stud has been worn down pretty good. Using a spherical rod end is definitely an upgrade from stock in that regard; should prevent wear down the road (no pun intended). I think what I am going to do is order a 1/2" spherical rod end and have that new end TIG welded to the end of the 3/8-24 rod. The downside.....I lose the ability to fine tune or adjust the input rod effective length. Will probably err on the side of having it just a little short as opposed to running the risk of having it too long. David

'81 cj7. Bought a hydroboost kit from matt sweeting's speed shop in CA. Few kinks (like this one) to work out. David

Gonna pull my hair out over this one. Trying to connect the 3/8-24 threaded brake booster input rod to the 1/2" stud (seen above aforementioned coupler in the photo) on my brake pedal rod. The connector they sent is 3/8-24 threaded with 3/8" opening. Can't find a connector with 3/8-24 threads with 1/2 inch opening anywhere. Could go with 1/2-20 threaded connector with 1/2 inch opening but can't find anyone who makes reducing nut coupler for fine threads to get it connected to the 3/8 inch booster input rod. Suggestions? David

Moses, thank you for your comments about the fuel pump. The return line back to the tank is going to be 3/8", same as the supply side. Novak recommended the pump but I do see where such a high flow rate could be a problem. I'll check with Walbro to get their thoughts. As far as fuel lines, I have braided stainless from the tank to the rail and back. I was going to fasten them to the inside frame rail, same as stock location. Made some progress tonight. Still waiting on the suspension to come in so I figured I'd work on a few odds and ends. Got some work done on the heater box. My original blower fan was cracked in one spot. A little JB weld and overnight pressure with a clamp should take care of that. I also went ahead and placed some new 1/4" neoprene on some of the baffles and around the heater core and got it put back in place. Planning on finishing up with the heater tomorrow. As I mentioned a few posts ago I bought a hydroboost kit with Wilwood master cylinder from Matt Sweeting in CA. Told him specifically what vehicle and he said he would take it from there and would send a bracket kit that matched up with the firewall. The short of it is....it didn't match. Had my welder make a bracket that was fashioned after a cardboard template I took him yesterday. Picked it up today, sandblasted it and painted it. The kids said I needed a different color than black, so we went with red. Got to go to Fastenal here in town tomorrow and pick up a different rod end to connect brake pedal to booster. Will keep you posted on progress. David

Thats looking great. I too like your color choice. David