Build Thread 78 CJ5 Farm Find

[jpeck71]

I finally decided to take the plunge on the carb. I started taking a bunch of pictures and took it all apart. I found that the PO had used 2 gaskets between the manifold and the carb. I also found that the rubber parts of the accelerator pump were pretty degraded and was stuck to the bottom of the carb bowl.

I ended up using Pine Sol to soak the carb parts. It worked pretty well. I did use a toothbrush to give everything a good scrubbing and get the gunk off the parts. Ended up soaking for a full day.

Since I don't have any of the smog equipment on anymore I decided to remove the EGR and put up a plate.

Made it myself and was pretty happy with it.


Putting it on was a cluster though. Put one bolt in and in the process of trying to tighten the other one I snapped the head off with nothing exposed. Drilled a hole and tried to put an extractor in and ended up breaking that off. In the long term I'll have to fix this but to get back on the road I just used RTV and held it on with one bolt. So far it seems to be holding and I'm not getting leaks. If it does develop leaks I'll have to make a bracket or attempt to drill out the bolt/extractor combo.

Anyway, the rebuild went well and it's running much better. In the process of doing this I noticed that I had a small hole in my exhaust headers right up by the engine.



I know that in the long run I'll want to perhaps put an exhaust manifold back on or get a new set of headers but plugging that leak with thermosteel has also made a big difference. It's much quieter and I think also had an impact on the way it runs.

In hooking the manual choke back up I adjusted the angle of the bracket and I have better control of it now. After driving it for a few days after the rebuild we put a good amount of SeaFoam in the tank and I've been driving it since then. Immediately after the rebuild I was still smelling fuel when driving and since the SeaFoam I'm smelling much less. It's still there every once in a while but I think things are getting better.

Overall I'm much happier with it.

Of course I've noticed that my clutch needs adjustment, the transmission/transfer case needs rebuilt with new seals and gaskets and possibly locking rings, and I think it needs shocks, but I'm taking it slow and one thing at a time.

 

[jpeck71]

I haven't updated for a while, because I haven't done anything major. Just been driving it every once in a while and enjoying it. I have been researching things and trying to decide what I should tackle next.

Since it has the CJ trailer hitch on it I did decide to wire it for the trailer connection. I think I've done it right. Everything seems to work. Now I can pull my small utility trailer around town for things like lumber and landscaping supplies without having to steal my wife's Highlander.

I also spent some time replacing two body mount bolts in the rear of the body. A previous owner had used standard steel bolts and washers and over time they had warped somehow and were now loose. I replaced them with grade 8 bolts and washers of the correct size and tightened them down. Now the body doesn't bounce around when I drive over bumps, which is good.

I've mentioned before that the transmission bushings on the torque arm look worn and I'm guessing the transmission mount and the motor mounts are shot as well. I'm thinking that might be what I replace next. I'm looking at a Prothane set of motor mounts and transmission mount and bushings.

 

[jpeck71]

I had been driving the jeep and everything was good. I did decide that engine and transmission mounts would be replaced next. However after a week of using the jeep to pull a trailer and bouncing it around our local park during setup of a festival I found myself without brake lights or turn signals. I replaced a blown fuse and flashers but they still don't work.

Looks like the next project will be delving into the wiring. I've been reading through posts and checking wiring diagrams. I'm hoping I can figure it out as I'd like it to be drivable again.

 

[certifiablejeep]

I had been driving the jeep and everything was good. I did decide that engine and transmission mounts would be replaced next. However after a week of using the jeep to pull a trailer and bouncing it around our local park during setup of a festival I found myself without brake lights or turn signals. I replaced a blown fuse and flashers but they still don't work.

Looks like the next project will be delving into the wiring. I've been reading through posts and checking wiring diagrams. I'm hoping I can figure it out as I'd like it to be drivable again.

I did this years ago in a truck I had pulling stumps out... turned out to be a simple fix as the rear wiring harness had a ground that I had broken off... once that was fixed, all things worked again.

The issue was the 10-20 hours of trying to figure out where the issue was

cb

 

[jpeck71]

Haven't updated in a while because nothing much has happened. I had been about to start tearing wiring out and redoing it when everything started working again. I still plan on pulling the wiring for the tail lights and removing all the breaks and connections but since its working right now I haven't touched it.

I did purchase new shocks and got the replacement motor mounts but haven't had the time to put them on.

I had been watching craigslist in my area and found someone with lots of parts wanting to get rid of them. He had several things I could probably use but immediately he had some driveline components that I was interested in.



This is my haul before I left the Chicago area. A complete 258, a Jeep T-18a and Dana 20 pulled from a low mileage J10, a 2bbl intake and exhaust manifold set, and a Holley 2bbl Carb and rebuild kit. All of it was bundled together for a price I couldn't pass up.

The 258 I plan on selling to a friend who was looking for one to rebuild while he still drives his 78. I plan on using the intake and exhaust and the carb on mine and as soon as winter hits I will be tearing mine apart to do this. The T-18 I'll rebuild and make it ready to go in mine. The gears look pretty good so far. I've yet to clean it up but upon initial inspection it doesn't look too bad. I've been reading everyone's threads on their T-18 builds/swaps and have been getting some really good help/information.





I also wired up an additional set of lights on my bumper. Don't have any pictures of it yet but I did manage to make it work using a relay. I'm going to use my Jeep and lights as a distraction in a Haunted Hayrack ride this weekend so I needed the extra light since my headlights aren't much. Makes me want to get the headlight kit on this site even more but I've got other things I need to do before that.

I'll get some pics of the Jeep with the lights this weekend.

 

[jpeck71]

Got a chance today to work on it. Had a few hours while the plumber installed a dishwasher. Took that time to install the Skyjacker shocks I'd purchased. Not too bad of an install one I had the right impact sockets.

Holy cow did it make for a smoother ride! Wish I'd done that sooner. Old ones were dirty but not bad otherwise. Must have been bad seals though.

Jeep performed well over the weekend. Didn't get the pics of the lights but they are pretty standard.

Next is front 2 motor mounts, then winter might be here.

 

[jpeck71]

Winter has been coming and going here in the midwest. I've had some good weather and had a chance to open up the T-18 and drain the oil out of it. I haven't started rebuilding it yet because I've got other things to deal with first.

Some of the things I got from Chicago were a 2bbl intake and a matching exhaust manifold. My plan is to put them on my 258. Currently I have an old set of headers on it with an old glasspack muffler and no Cat converter. I had also purchased a set of engine mounts and a transmission mount that I plan to put on. I got the passenger side motor mount replaced but the other was blocked by the headers. That made tearing apart the engine more important.

I started on that this past weekend. The carb came off easy, as expected. I was completely surprised when the intake/exhaust bolts started coming off easy. I was prepared for a fight. I suspect I had plenty of leaking directly from the manifolds.

Here's the intake off.


The exhaust was a bit harder. The header had been welded to the exhaust pipes so I had to cut it apart to get the header off the engine. That took about 30 minutes of cutting. I guess I should have got the exhaust tool from the shop. In any case it came off.

Here's the whole thing off.


After cutting through the exhaust I found why this tin can patch was on there.


This was rusted to the point that it might have come off by itself pretty soon. No wonder I had quite a noisy exhaust. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a replacement exhaust. I don't think I'm going to try and salvage much. Maybe the glasspack muffler.

Now its time to start cleaning things up. I need to clean off the replacement manifolds still and perhaps paint them. I also need to rebuild the 2bbl Holley carb I have to go on it. At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to take the head off and check the valves. I can't decide if I want to tackle that or not. I know I might as well since everything is off. I'm just unsure if that's something I can do.

 

[jpeck71]

Got a chance to work on the engine this weekend. I pulled it out into the driveway and hit it with the pressure washer and a steel brush. Got it pretty clean for still being in the engine bay. Spent many minutes scrubbing the driver's side. There was sooooo much soot on it. The gaskets must have been destroyed and leaking tremendously.

I also got a chance to clean up the intake and exhaust manifolds that are going back on. Spent some time with a brush on the intake manifold and got it as clean as I could. Then hit them both with some Hi-Temp paint.

This won't probably be the last coat but it's a start.



After the engine was cleaned up I went back to look at it and noticed a bit of a problem. I now know why it was moist on the driver's side of the block. I had assumed it was oil when I got it but now I know what it was.



Looks like my block has a crack and now I know where the small drips of antifreeze have been coming from. I'm going to try and seal it up with JB Weld and see if that holds. If not I'll take the next step, which may be to clean up the spare 258 I've got. I'll tackle that if it comes to it. I've done some research on this and plan to drain the antifreeze and put a small V in the crack. Then fill it up with JB Weld and hope for the best. Hopefully the drain plug in the block will budge.

If all goes well with that I'll be able to finish up the motor mounts. Here's a pic of new vs old mounts. Guess which is which! These mounts are what started be down this path.



Not what I was hoping to see from this weekend but I guess its not the end of the world. Just another experience to get through.

 

[jpeck71]

A lot has happened! I got the motor mount replaced finally. Good thing, it was shot.



Attempted to fix the crack and fill it in with JB Weld. I haven't had it running enough to determine if its repaired enough to hold.





Got the new intake and exhaust manifolds mounted. I know the color is very bright. I didn't have a great selection of paint colors and I thought it was going to be a better match to the valve cover. Oh well. I'm not building a show jeep.



Mounted the replacement 2bbl carb and found it was running like . Decided to go ahead and do the rebuild since I already had the kit.



After rebuilding the carb I was able to put in the new radiator. I found during the last test of the carb that the radiator had crapped the bed in the process of removing it and carting it around to shops. It leaked the complete gallon of fluid out on the floor. Time to get a new one. I decided rather than trying to find a used original I'd go with a new aluminum one. The only downside is the fit is not quite the same. I made it work but not without some cutting and drilling.



Since I used a newer intake and a different carb, I had to change the geometry of my accelerator cable. I ended up getting a universal one and cutting it to fit.



Then the only thing left was to hook up the exhaust. Originally I was going to put on a new exhaust from the manifold back, but I decided to do a phased approach so I could get it on the road and spend less money during tax season. I took my original exhaust off and cut off the remnants of the old headers. I decided I would start out with patches and see how long that keeps me on the road. I still want to put a catalytic converter and a more recent muffler on eventually, but that can wait. Luckily I had the down pipe from my spare 258 that I can use for this.



I'm super happy with what I got done this winter and that I actually got it to run again. Makes me hopeful for the project eventually. I should have it back together and running tonight. Then I can tune the carb and get the timing set right. All I've done so far is to test that it does actually run but with exhaust coming right out of the manifold there wasn't much I could do.

Next step is to drive it for a while. During that time I'll be planning and researching what I need to replace all the suspension bushings and possibly install new shackles, front and back. I also have the transmission mount to replace. It's already purchased but I wanted to get things running again before I try dropping the skid plate.

 

[jpeck71]

HOLY COW!!! What a difference from last fall. Completely different Jeep. No more backfiring, much smoother. Having a more complete exhaust made the tone super deep and booming, since it has an old cherry bomb on it. My patch jobs are on and I spent less than $15 getting it all reconnected.

It needs tuning and I'll do that later this week. For now I was happy with just driving it around to a few friends houses and filling up the tank.

 

[mopar440cu]

Looking good.

Did you wind up changing the main shaft on the t18 and ditching the adapter in the front?

 

[jpeck71]

Haven't used the t18 yet but thats the plan.

 

[jpeck71]

So I've been driving it a bit. I've verified that there are no more engine or radiator leaks. Looks like my JB Weld fix as held.

I've had to revisit the exhaust connection between my new down pipe and the back half. My initial fix didn't hold and came loose and was super leaky. I've since tried a different solution, still going the cheap route since I can't weld yet and I don't want to spend for a whole new exhaust. It seems to be holding better so I'm hopeful.

I was right that it was rich. My plugs are all carbon covered. I've adjusted the float and set the idle mixture and tried a smaller set of main jets in the carb. It had 61s and I've tried 55s, but I think those are too lean. I've ordered a set of 58s and we'll see how that goes. If I can get it to where I think its about right I'll put a new set of plugs in and check them after driving a bit.

In the mean time I've put a timing tape on my balancer and this weekend will be attempting to put together a timing chart to figure out if my distributor is set correctly or if I need different springs. I've been trying to tune this mostly by trial and error and it would be nice if I had some data to go with it.

I've also ordered the parts to do part of the Team Rush upgrade. I know that will likely affect how much fuel I burn and I'll likely have to go through this again with the carb mixture but I figured I'd read a lot about it and how much of a difference it made and why not try it. I can always go back to the 61 jet if I need to. The jets are only $10 a set at O'Reillys. I can get them cheaper on ebay but I don't mind a little more going to a local shop.

Overall I've enjoyed this and I don't mind taking things apart again. The way I see it I'm learning a bit every time I dig into it. I'm hoping I can get it running well so I can drive it this summer and get ready to tear the T-18 apart.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Keep a close eye on those JB Weld patches.
The stuff goes soft with antifreeze contact and heat.
LG

 

[jpeck71]

Keep a close eye on those JB Weld patches.
The stuff goes soft with antifreeze contact and heat.
LG

Will do. I knew about the heat. I put it on my old headers once and found out pretty quickly what heat does to it.

 

[jpeck71]

It turns out that I ended up going too lean and was having issues with it backfiring on acceleration. All of my exhaust patches were cheap and weren't holding. There was too much vibration and heat and it would burn through and soon I would end up with a huge leak. I finally decided to bite the bullet and pay to have an exhaust put on.

All new pipes and a similar glasspack muffler. Everthing is secure and it sounds just like it did, and more importantly no leaks. This has allowed me to finally get the carb set right and now I've got a new set of plugs in and will check them for color after a bit.

Unfortunately I've also been dealing with an issue with it quitting as if I'd turned off the key. This was new behavior within the last month. After fighting with it and not understanding what was going on I thought I had it figured it out after moving a heater hose away from my ignition coil wire. It was leaning up against the ignition wire and making it bend and breaking the circuit. I tested this myself and it died as soon as I bent the coil wire. Once I moved the hose out of the way and secured it everything was golden for the rest of the night.

Today I decided to drive it to work and it was back to quitting at random times. After some thought and more research I think my ignition module is failing. I had replaced it last year and it makes me wonder if my resistor wire has been removed by the PO. All the things I'm seeing have been described in posts and attributed to a failing control module.

After work I'm going to O'Reilly's to see about replacements and testing to see if I have the necessary wire. I'm guessing I don't and that is why I burned up an ignition module in less than a 1000 miles.

Crossing my fingers.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

"I tested this myself and it died as soon as I bent the coil wire."
Are you talk'n about the 2 wires that 'feed' the coil or the larger dia wire that goes to the dizzy from the coil?
If it's the 'feed' wires-Not uncommon for a small gauge wire like that to have a internal break at the connector.
LG

 

[jpeck71]

Are you talk'n about the 2 wires that 'feed' the coil or the larger dia wire that goes to the dizzy from the coil?
If it's the 'feed' wires-Not uncommon for a small gauge wire like that to have a internal break at the connector.
LG

It was the large single wire from the coil to the dizzy.

I know I've got a wiring nightmare that I'm going to have to go through one at a time. I have a feeling that it might have to be sooner than I expected, but I'd like to be able to enjoy it this summer at least.

As I'm typing this answer something doesn't make sense to me that I think I need to go back and test again. I need to go back to this coil wire and make sure that it was making good contact. If the wire contact was far enough into the coil I wouldn't think it would make a difference if a small amount of sideways pressure was applied. I'll check that wire again this evening. These wires came from a crimp yourself set and while that coil wire end was pre-crimped and had the hood attached, I wonder if I need to pull the contact through the hood some more.

How long till the end of the day?

 

[jpeck71]

Here's a pic of my roadside attempts at making sure the coil wire didn't move.

And the new exhaust.

 

[jpeck71]

Just a bit of an update. Ok, the day after I posted this about the distributor wire I drove it to work. Major meltdown. Died repeatedly on the way in and similar on the way back. I tried swapping out coil and ignition module but no difference. I was so frustrated with it I didn't touch it for a few weeks.

I went back and checked for vacuum leaks but I was pulling decent manifold vacuum at idle so I didn't think it was that. I had also previously swapped out the fuel filter. I just didn't think it was fuel related.

I even pulled the dash off a bit to check for loose connections or frayed wires. I didn't find anything and my moving and pulling on wires as it ran didn't produce any results. As a last resort I picked up a solenoid and swapped it out.

I had also dumped 2 bottles of fuel system treatment into the tank and topped it off with premium gas the week before this.

2 days later it didn't die at all. I've been driving it since then and it hasn't died again. At this point I'm guessing it was either bad gas or the solenoid since those were the last 2 things I did before it improved.

Now I can enjoy it and get back to tuning the carb and getting it running correctly.