Build Thread The '80 FrankenJeep frame off reassembly

[shum8]

You have a fridge full of Beer in your garage I'm surprised you get as much done as you do

LOL - Well, as I said - it takes a contortionist to get to it, and I'm not one..... So I usually crawl back there and bring a couple out at a time. I try to keep it to a minimum while I'm wrenching since I will be the one driving it

do you have anymore pics?

Not at the moment, but I did get off my lazy butt and fix broken links to a bunch of the tranny work pics - they all work now!!

 

[shum8]

Made a little more progress this weekend - finished the front axle teardown...... Pulled the spindles off, and they have a little more wear on em than I'd like - funny how a digital camera will make stuff look worse than it really is..... The spindles are more discolored than anything but it appears in the pic they are nearly rusted in two.







I'll throw the new hubs on em and see if they need to be replaced. I'll be using anti-seize on the hubs when they go back on. That will most likely ensure I never have to tale em off ever again. The front axle shafts had a little surface rust on em so i may knock all the loose stuff off, degrease, and throw a coat of Rustoleum on em. Axles splines were in fantastic shape as well. Once I got the hubs off, I spent a good bit of time scraping old grease out and clean em up - then remembered I had already cleaned up and painted a set of 6 bolt hubs - oh well.

The hub innards weren't dry, but there wasn't much grease in there. One of them had rust mixed in with the grease, unless they make grease that's dark brown....



Oh, yeah - one of the PO's must not have had a spindle nut socket:



Ready to pull the ring and pinion



And we have success



Nice wear pattern - to bad it's a 2.73 set.....





Here's the spider gears ready to go in the new carrier...



Now I'm waiting on the new seals, bearings, and such to get here so I can get these da#m axles back together. Decided to work on tow hook mounting...... Have a pair of fire truck tow hooks that will live on either side of the brush guard and will weld an "extension plate" off the back side of the bumper. The plan is to tie in the frame, bumper, and tow hook. Got the plates cut out, drilled, and tomorrow will media blast and try to get em welded to the top flange of the bumper this week.







That's it for now.... Hittin the sack.

 

[shum8]

After removing the ring and pinion the other day, the only thing left to prep for the regear was remove old bearings and oil seals....



The old inner seal was pretty funky, but the seat area was in great shape:



Popped the old pinion seal out, and started drifting the bearing races out







After getting the housing cleaned up and ready, I got the new brake discs ready to go on the hubs previously cleaned up and painted. Can you tell I'm waitin on my neighbor to work me into his schedule for the new gear setup? Since I am worthless and weak, I am definitely taking him up on his offer to set em up for me. And yes, I will be watching and taking notes and pics so I will be able to do it myself the next time the need arises. (And if I'm prepared, that need will NEVER arise again!!)







Next - SPINDLE CLEANUP!!

 

[shum8]

I went back and looked at my last post............ I think I have an illness.

 

[Peanut Butter]

Nice job. I just recently went through my front axle rebuild too. You can see my progress on my build page (link below). :rb: I'm really glad I did, when I get done I'll have a NEW 79 Jeep CJ7. :laugh:

 

[Hedgehog]

Shum8 - One thing I would advise against would be using anti freeze on your hubs. It wouldn't be a bad move to use it on the inner spindle, the one you have to pound and wiggle off. Life would be much easier without all that pounding. But, don't use it on the hub bolts and nuts. Many years ago I had a Trooper II. I did a bearing service on her and had the bright idea to use anti seize on the cap bolts. Imagine my surprise when a stranger flagged me down on the road to tell me that my hub had fallen off. Yep, sure enough after a long morning two track 4 wheeling for jack rabbits one of my hubs fell off on the pavement and the other was less than finger tight. Conclusion, anti seize had no business on front hub bolts.

I always wished that I'd started a build thread on my CJ5. Just recently I swapped out a stock '75 drum front axle for a '77 disk brake axle and went through the same things you did, clean, paint, new bearings, new gears, tru-trak carrier, learned a lot. Putting in new gears now is a fairly simple doable proposition, that is if you have access to a Clam Shell Bearing Remover. I am enjoying your thread.

Are you going to put your disk shields on? Some don't, I did.

Advice - It's easier to clean your rusty parts sheet metal before cutting it into small parts.

 

[shum8]

Shum8 - One thing I would advise against would be using anti freeze on your hubs. It wouldn't be a bad move to use it on the inner spindle, the one you have to pound and wiggle off. Life would be much easier without all that pounding. But, don't use it on the hub bolts and nuts. Many years ago I had a Trooper II. I did a bearing service on her and had the bright idea to use anti seize on the cap bolts. Imagine my surprise when a stranger flagged me down on the road to tell me that my hub had fallen off. Yep, sure enough after a long morning two track 4 wheeling for jack rabbits one of my hubs fell off on the pavement and the other was less than finger tight. Conclusion, anti seize had no business on front hub bolts.

I absolutely agree - anti seize on the back of the hub itself, but the hub studs will be clean with only locking nuts

I always wished that I'd started a build thread on my CJ5. Just recently I swapped out a stock '75 drum front axle for a '77 disk brake axle and went through the same things you did, clean, paint, new bearings, new gears, tru-trak carrier, learned a lot. Putting in new gears now is a fairly simple doable proposition, that is if you have access to a Clam Shell Bearing Remover.

I talked to the neighbor that's gonna help with the gearing.... Shootin' for Saturday the 19th. I would like to do it myself, but he has all the necessary tooling and if my watching gets it done in a couple hours, so be it. I'm getting impatient now.......

I am enjoying your thread.

Thank you! I am having fun with it as well..... But dang I wanna drive this thing

Are you going to put your disk shields on? Some don't, I did.

Yeah, the originals were rotten around the bolt holes, so I ordered a set of Rugged Ridge black powder coated shields.

Advice - It's easier to clean your rusty parts sheet metal before cutting it into small parts.

If you are referring to the tabs cut out for the tow hooks - I went ahead and cut em out, drilled the holes, then stuck em in the media blast cabinet. They're ready to be welded onto the bumper. Besides, being chronicle lazy, they were easier to deal with in the cabinet than the whole sheet would have been.

 

[Hedgehog]

Ahhh having a bead blaster is a different story. Many years ago cut parts out of a big rusty sheet of metal like you did and had a "d i c k e n s" of a time cleaning them up. It occurred to me that hitting the metal with a lap wheel before cutting would be much easier on the fingers. So, my comment was just a thought.

My shields were rotten in the same place as yours. Funny, it took far longer to figure out how to put the shields back on than it should have. Ended up back at Willys Works looking at their front ends to see how the shields nested back on. The shields sure do look good on there. Be careful, with all the heavy metal all around them they bend fairly easily.

Hey the word police won't allow "d i c k e n s", it changes it to dickens

 

[kkzs77]

Hello can anyone help ??? new member and currently restoring a 1979 cj 5. I am to the point of wiring. have a wire harness thats in good shape and can not figure out the temp and fuel gage. New sending unit for temp and gas. Gas sending unit is grounded to frame. After reading figured gauges were fried. after testing and pulling them found out they were. Now when i put the hot red wire to the I terminal i pop the 3 amp fuse immediately. I ran a dedicated ground from the speedometer case to the neg side of battery. This dash is driving me crazy. Anyone with any input would be a great help. I have spent days reading on here and everywhere else with no

 

[kkzs77]

Hello can anyone help ??? new member and currently restoring a 1979 cj 5. I am to the point of wiring. have a wire harness thats in good shape and can not figure out the temp and fuel gage. New sending unit for temp and gas. Gas sending unit is grounded to frame. After reading figured gauges were fried. after testing and pulling them found out they were. Now when i put the hot red wire to the I terminal i pop the 3 amp fuse immediately. I ran a dedicated ground from the speedometer case to the neg side of battery. This dash is driving me crazy. Anyone with any input would be a great help. I have spent days reading on here and everywhere else with no

 

[shum8]

You are posting in a build thread. If you post your question in the "Chassis and body" forum you'll have a better chance of an answer. This is for documenting builds, not necessarily for general Q & A. Here's the link: CJ Forums - Chassis and Body at Jeep-CJ.com

Good luck

 

[shum8]

Here's what was left of the dust shields..... The other is just like it:





Went ahead and installed a grease fitting in the hubs to allow greasing in place...... I actually haven't installed them for good - need to throw a bit of paint on the counterbore surface, then snug em down.







I'm also going to add the fittings to the rear axle tubes between the seals and bearings.

 

[shum8]

Got the grease fittings stuck in the rear axle tube last night





All nice and clean - almost hate to dirty it up again.....



Gotta watch my time - foreman says I'm takin too many breaks.....

 

[Hedgehog]

Careful not to blow your seals with those grease fittings. Equipment like bull dozers and excavators don't run with seals so new grease can push out all the dirt and mud. Do tht with your CJ and you'll blow the seals. Here's a thought, why not put a bleed or drain hole opposite the grease fitting. It seems logical to remove the bleeder cap and pump in some new grease pushing out at least some of the old. That would keep the pressure on your seals to a reasonable level and allow new grease to do it's job. ..... I like the idea.

 

[shum8]

Here's a thought, why not put a bleed or drain hole opposite the grease fitting. It seems logical to remove the bleeder cap and pump in some new grease pushing out at least some of the old ..... I like the idea.

That sounds like a great idea. I like it as well. I'll just stick a short #12 machine screw in there opposite the fitting. Most excellent idea

 

[shum8]

Thought I'd change gears and mess with the tow hook tabs - Regear is in holding till Saturday. Now, before anyone nails me, I would like to remind you that I am not a welder...... I weld, and they are functional, but damn they don't look very good. At least these won't be visible LOL.

Here are the tabs welded in place





In this pic, I have three mods to make..... A - I need to weld a plug in the upper factory bumper mounting hole and drill a new forward hook mounting hole, B - need a spacing tab welded to the frame to even up the surface the tab rests on, and drill a rear mounting hole, and C - weld in a plug in this hole, add 1/8" doubler plate to the side of the frame where the bumper mounting plates attach, and then drill thru for two 3/4" grade 8 bolts to mount the bumper.



Haven't cut the doubler yet - try to get them cut out tomorrow. Now, if I'm going down the stupid trail, someone yell - but in my head the doubler plate would strengthen the frame to guard against tearing the front of the frame if I apply a good amount of pull to the bumper. The mounting brackets are quite sufficiently welded to the rear of the bumper, so to me the weak link is the two bolts thru the side of the frame. Anyone think they are necessary or am I just making more work for myself for nuthin???

 

[tarry99]

Looks like your rear hole #B needs to go right through a weld in your chassis , good luck drilling that............and the front hole #A seems to be at the very front edge of the frame rail?..........at least from what I can see.

Is the two brackets you made that are welded to the front bumper the only points of attachment for the bumper?

Tow hooks when used as they are designed to be used can put an incredible amount of Strain on the mounting points and the complete front end of a vehicle.........although you may very well have that covered , I can't see it from here.

 

[mtnwhlr]

So when you say tow hooks do you mean for a tow bar or these.

 

[shum8]

Just tow hooks - not a tow bar. Had a pic of em earlier in the thread.

 

[mtnwhlr]

Those are mine and have worked great for years and I didn't go to near the trouble you are.