spdljohn

Moses, I went ahead and ordered Grade 8 serrated shoulder bolts, 3" long, along with the belleville washers and top lock nuts for the motor brackets you talked about. Makes good sense. Novak provided what looks like Grade 5 2.5" long 3/8-24 bolts with split ring lock washers, flat washers, and non locking nuts. Would probably be fine but I'm gonna be taking your lead on a lot of this. After talking with Dave at Novak and Genright I have decided to keep the stock YJ sending unit but modify it (Ill post pics as I do this). Novak put me onto a fuel pump that has a flow of around 250L/hr. Here is a link for that pump. http://walbrofuelpumps.com/walbro-f90000267-fuel-pump-e85 As far as the ECM, Novak provided that with the power train. They reprogrammed it. Ill be able to tell you more about that as I dig deeper into the project. David

I bought a 20 gallon fuel tank from GenRight that I put in without difficulty. My CJ originally had a 15 gallon tank. My stock fuel filler hose was 1", my vent hose was 3/4". The new GenRight tank (like CJ7s with 20 gallon tanks I think) accepts a 1 1/4" filler hose and a 1" vent hose. The problem is the fuel filler neck I have is for the 1" and 3/4" hoses. I was able to find the bigger hoses for the CJ7 that will work on my new tank but I can't find a filler neck that accepts the larger hoses. Do you know if a YJ fuel filler neck that would work for what I need? I ordered a new stock YJ sending unit from GenRight when I bought the tank. But I don't think it will do what I need it to do in terms of psi. Supposedly it's around 50-60 psi and Novak said to give the engine 90-100 psi. The new engine has a fuel regulator on the fuel rail. Also the stock YJ sending unit they sent is for a tank with an eleven inch depth; my new tank is 12 inches deep. I figured if I need to modify the pump motor and lengthen the tubes and rods on the unit I might as well just find a new sending unit that fits the bill. The search begins. David

Moses The instructions for the brackets said to run a bead across the top portion where it meets the frame. It didn't mention welding elsewhere. Do you think that's overkill or could even be detrimental?

Its been a busy couple of days. Frame came back from welder/sandblasting wednesday. Very pleased with their work. They replaced the rear frame crossmember with one I ordered online, rebuilt a couple of rusted out body mount brackets, and even were able to reweld in place a couple of nuts inside the frame that had stripped loose. I blew all the sand out from inside the frame, painted the inside of the frame with Eastwood paint, and put on two coats of POR15 topcoat. Some runs but serves the purpose of protecting the frame. I am rebuilding the heater box. Sandblasted the metal, replaced the foam seals on the flaps with some 1/4" neoprene I bought, sealed the gaps with silicone, primed and painted after wiping down with acetone. I was able to find a blower motor resistor to replace the one that was in there that I wasn't sure worked. Bought a new heater core but you can see from the pics the new one is thinner than the old one which makes me wonder if it will transfer heat as well. I removed the old seat brackets from the seats, sandblasted, primed and painted them. The most exciting thing that happened this week is the Novak power train arrived in town Wednesday. Dave Ostermiller has been my point of contact at Novak. He is following this thread. He says this motor is spitting out about 325 horsepower and 360 ft/lbs of torque. Should be enough! Nerve racking having that new power train hanging so high above the ground as I pulled my truck out from under it; that's a long way to fall! Got the new ac compressor mounted with Novak's relocation bracket tonight. Went ahead and placed the new engine mount horns onto the frame. Used the grinder to strip the POR15 from the frame where the mounts touch the frame for two reasons; so I could run a weld and to help ensure good grounding contact. Last thing I did was to go ahead and mount the rear bumper I bought to the rear frame crossmember; didn't see any reason to not go ahead and knock that out especially since the fuel tank is not in yet and some say the tank has to be lowered to be able to get the bolts from the backside of the crossmember into the bumper. Gonna take it easy tomorrow. Will probably get back to it on Sunday. Happy weekending David

Looks great. Envious of your progress. Just got my frame back from the welder yesterday. Already got its first coat of POR 15 on.

I was asking the line x guys some of the crazy things they have been asked to spray. He said last week they sprayed the department of juvenile justices old showers that had some broken old tiles, a few weeks ago they sprayed a fountain in a neighborhood to prevent leaks. He also said that when they rebuilt a portion of the pentagon after 9/11 they (not my particular line x guys) sprayed line x to "bomb proof" it; haven't verified this yet but the stuff is pretty tough. Moses, they didn't say anything about the priming job from the phillipines. It looks pretty good. Once the jeep is assembled and I get it to the body shop they are going to have to use some bondo and seam filler and sand it down; they may end up taking the rest of the parts down to bare metal. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the quality of the body kit. David

Got the jeep body back from line x. Actually dropped it off at noon, they called at 4 and said it was ready. They already had it loaded back on my trailer I left with them when I picked it up. They sprayed heavy in wheel fenders. Said based on the number of gallons it took to spray they added about 80 lbs in weight just to the tub alone. They covered all holes and threaded studs.

Case, That is good thinking. I did mention the holes that are in the floor board for the seats, etc. He said they roll up a small piece of masking tape, stick it in the holes, spray, and then before the line x dries they pull the tape out. I didn't think about the studs on the firewall though. Ill mention that. I was under the assumption they were going to take care of it today but they said they couldn't get to it till next week. When he saw my disappointment he said, "how bout saturday." He said they open on occasion on saturdays. I said that would be great. Dropping it off at noon, picking it up at 5. he said leave the trailer and they will take it off, do the job, and then load it back on for me. David

Took delivery of the new omix Ada body kit today. They are running free shipping special by the way. Pretty impressed with what you get for the money. Tub is made in the Philippines. Every other part says made in Taiwan. Holes are already drilled in the firewall. Dash already has holes cut including speaker grills. I have a clock and a tach to put in place. Those were the only holes not drilled. Glove box is metal as opposed to the plastic one I had already purchased to put in. Couple of things I dont Iike. There are no nuts welded on for dash screws or fender bolts. The painters/body shop will have some work to do with finishing the body. No big deal for them I'm sure. Unpackaged it last night. Got it loaded on the trailer. Gonna take it over to line x today to have the under side of the body, inside of the tub, bottom side of fenders, and engine side of firewall sprayed with bed liner. Was gonna do por 15 but Bedliner seems like the way to go. One little dent under drivers side floor board. No big deal. Can knock it out pretty easily. You can see in picture.

By the way I found this guys rebuild blog too. He is a few steps ahead of me but has great photos and is doing a great job. http://1983cj7.blogspot.com

Thanks Kevin. The jeep had 33x12.50 15" rims. Not sure what gearing WAS. I'm going to have 3.73 gears as it will be mostly driven on the road. Going to wait and see if I can stuff the 33s back under with my new suspension setup (old man emu lift). If I can't then I'm going to go down to 32s or 31s possibly. Alternatively if I really want to stay with 33s it would be easy to lift the body an inch. Still trying to figure that all out. It will be interesting to see how the gearing works out with the new power plant. As far as the speedometer is concerned with the gearing/tires, I bought a new gauge set from speed hut. The speedometer is gps driven so at least it won't care what gears and tires I have. David

60Bubba, I may have to take you up on asking some questions once I get started putting it back together. Moses, I'm embarrassed to say that to repaint the pedal bracket assembly, I didn't bother getting out my HVLP gun. It's straight out of a spray can!! Rustoleum. I figured it would be good enough to go under the dash. I do some welding but I am looking to upgrade my equipment. I do some hobby farming and so most of my welding has been on gravely tired old tractors and equipment where it doesn't matter how pretty or ugly the beads are. I have a 220 volt stick welder and a110 MIG welder that can use argon shielding but I typically use flux core which splatters everywhere. I would like to invest in a nice 220 volt mig welder setup with gas. TIG welding would be fun to learn too. As far as sandblasting is concerned, I don't know if it makes me strange but there is something very satisfying about sandblasting. I enjoy it very much. Right now I use a sandblaster I bought from tractor supply. It is not a cabinet (which is also on the "honey, I really need this" list). I have had my eye on a 48 inch blasting cabinet from northern tool. Moses, what are your thoughts on painting the bottom of the tub and the engine side of the firewall with POR 15 top coat vs having the body shop paint the whole thing/clear coat underneath/etc? David

I have a very understanding wife. She doesn't get my need to turn wrenches and get greasy. The shop is nice to have. I built it about 3 years ago on some property we bought and eventually moved onto. She likes me having it because it keeps my mess away from the house. I hear what you're saying about the need to put money into certain aspects and not others. I have wanted a cj7 since high school. Back then my father wouldn't let me have one, then my wife said it was impractical. Then kids came along....you get the idea. Now the kids are old enough to get in the shop with me so rebuilding an old car is a good excuse to get the kids to hang around their old man. I figured I would do this one time (rebuild a jeep). Wanted to do it right so that the kids could still be driving it down the road so to speak. My 4.0 still ran, most of the time. I bought the jeep for $3000 and put about 500 miles on it. I bought it with the intention of breaking it down and building it back up. I put the power train on craigslist but so far nobody has called about it. Maybe should drop the price. Has an sr4 transmission which I understand is not the greatest tranny jeep ever put in their vehicles. The guy Im working with at Novak conversions said they would take the dana 300 transfer case and give me about $300 credit for it. So far I haven't bothered taking it off the rest of the power train. David

Here are some pics of the rebuilding of the jeep pedal frame assembly. Pretty rusty. Sandblasted it after disassembly. The brake has two bushings, the cloth has two bearings. I pressed these out and ordered new ones. I ordered clutch pedal return spring online. The brake pedal return spring I got from advance auto parts. They didn't have one specifically for the cj7 but they have some "universal" springs that you cut to fit your particular applications. Seems to work good enough. David

I wanted to start a "catch all" thread for my cj7 rebuild I started a few weeks ago. Please feel free to jump in with advice and/or tell me what Im doing wrong or could be doing better. Some of these pics are the same ones I posted on a couple of other threads but new photos will keep coming. Right now Ive got a Omix ADA steel body coming (didn't go with fiberglass per my conversation with Moses). Frame is at welder getting sandblasted and touched up. Had a couple of rusted out body mounts and some nuts that had wrung off on the inside of the frame he is fixing. Just got through today rebuilding my pedal bracket assembly. Also got heater assembly taken apart, cleaned out, and getting ready to sand it paint it and put it back together. The list of to do items keeps growing. Rebuilding a CJ7 gets very expensive with my obsessive compulsive tendencies! I have new dana 44 axles coming from east coast gearing in Raleigh NC with disc brakes all around, old man emu suspension from Rocky Road, shackle reversal kit from MORE, and 6.0 LS GM engine with AX15 tranny, dana 300 coming from Novak conversions. David

Tim, I will definitely do that. The body is actually being shipped over from omix ada in suwannee ga. I live in south carolina and was going to go over with my trailer and pick it up directly from the warehouse but they are running a special right now with free shipping so I said forget going over. It should be here this week or next. My plan is to go ahead and paint the engine compartment and underside of the body myself in my shop (not sure with what yet, possibly POR 15) and then go ahead and mount it on the frame and take it to the body shop for the rest of the painting. That way I can go ahead and drill all holes, and mount whatever needs to be mounted under the body and in the engine compartment. Alternatively I have to drill holes, assemble and then essentially disassemble the jeep, take the body back off the frame to get it to the painter's for them to paint the underside and engine compartment. Ill be posting pics. David

Does anyone know where to find a new/used in good shape steering column lower bracket. Im referring to the one that attaches the column to the firewall. I have also seen it referred to as a steering column toe support I believe. Moses, are later model jeeps bracket compatible with cj7? David

So I decided to go with a shackle reversal system from MORE. Kit #7686-2 (fits the YJ springs). This is not the bolt on application. The bolt on application adds another 1.5 inches of lift. The OME YJ lift already supplies 2.5-3 inches of lift and that is plenty for me. The kit Im getting requires a hole be drilled through the frame and a spacer welded into place. Ill let you know how it goes. Should be getting the frame back from the sandblaster/welder late this week or next. David

Looks good. Turns out my body was rusted too bad. Im making a trip this weekend from my home in south carolina to suwanee georgia to pick up a new body kit from east coast jeeps. Haven't settled on a color yet but leaning towards dark gun metal grey. David

Question is why didn't jeep design it with shackle reversal to begin with?

I am going with an old man emu 3-3.5 inch suspension. Looks like with that kit the front shackle support has to be moved forward about an inch. Otherwise looks like that kit is plug and play. I've heard conflicting reviews of the shackle reversal kit. I bought the old man emu suspension from rocky road suspension (rocky-road.com). They advised against shackle reversal with the idea being that jeep designed it the way they did for a reason. They claim that under hard braking conditions with the shackle reversal there was instability that could lead to loss of control.

Thanks Moses, I've heard conflicting reviews of the shackle reversal kit. I bought the old man emu suspension from rocky road suspension (rocky-road.com). They advised against shackle reversal with the idea being that jeep designed it the way they did for a reason. They claim that under hard braking conditions with the shackle reversal there was instability that could lead to loss of control. Shackle reversal sounds great and makes sense intuitively. Question is why didn't jeep design it with shackle reversal to begin with? If I did decide to go with a shackle reversal kit it looks like the factory rear spring anchors are riveted into the frame. Is this true and if so that must mean there are no nuts welded onto the inside of the frame to bolt into. Am I mistaken? Considering this jeep will be used for on road driving only it sounds like shackle reversal may be the way to go. David

The hydroboost kit is by Bosch. I am purchasing it from http://powerbrakeservice.net. To answer your question Moses, yes I will be using a tandem master cylinder 1 1/8" bore paired to the booster. The power steering pump that is coming with the rebuilt LS engine is a new power steering pump, GM style that comes on the 2500HD pickups and Bob at power brake service says it is plenty good enough. I am not using a hydraulic ram with the steering so the pump will be running just the hydroboost and the agr steering box I have on order. I got the frame stripped down today, got the axles removed and power washed it. Painted areas of concern with fluorescent orange paint. My welder is going to sandblast it and take care of a few little things. He has to rebuild a couple of the frame to body brackets for me. I am then going to paint the frame with POR15. This week should be a big week. Santa claus (UPS) should be bringing some supplies to start getting her put back together. I am going with an old man emu 3-3.5 inch suspension. Looks like with that kit the front shackle support has to be moved forward about an inch. Otherwise looks like that kit is plug and play. Ill be posting pics along the way. Please feel free to add any advice. It would be much appreciated. The body is in somewhat bad shape. Thinking of going with new fiberglass body. Any thoughts on this? David

Thanks Moses. So it's called a combination valve because it does two things; provides pressure to rear brakes before front brakes, and secondly limits ultimate pressure to the rear brakes to prevent lockup? I think I've got my plans underway for my brakes. I have spoken with Matt sweeting in California and have decided to go with a hydro boost system. I hope I'm not just buying into the hype. It it sounds really good. They said they would not recommend putting in any proportioning valve initially as chances are the rear wheels will not likely lock up with 33 inch tires. They really seem to know what they're talking about with their systems. They also said brake line size doesn't really make any difference and that 3/16" all around would be fine. I'll soon post pics. David

Moses Thank you for your very informative and insightful reply. That is very good information to have. My axles will be ready for pick up in another couple of weeks. Once I get then and can look at exactly what they have installed in terms of the brakes then I am planning on really diving into the brake issue. I will definitely be documenting with photos and posting here as I go and will let you know how the system works. Moses, can you explain the difference between a proportional valve and a combination valve? Very excited about this project. David