Build Thread 84 CJ7 coming full circle

[Saint0416]

I agree "Pockets" !!

 

[Scooter402]

I dont care for those flat ones at all. Id take the pocket style over and over and...

I agree "Pockets" !!

Thanks for the opinions, y'all.

I agree whole-heartedly with both of you. I was just looking up different styles of flares, and those look like they would be very easy to make..but the more I look at them, the less I like them. Thanks for helping me make up my mind!

Now to start gathering materials...

 

[Scooter402]

Not really a whole lot going on here... I had this week off of work, and had huge plans to basically rip this thing apart and start over with it. Well, that didn't happen, go figure. I mostly did work on my truck (which is my DD). Gotta keep the truck going. So after I finally got around to getting that done, (trans fluid and filters changed, engine oil and filter changed, rotated tires, recharged a/c, checked belts, hoses, spark plugs, filter, etc.) I started working a little on the Jeep.

I cut off some of my old suspension brackets, and some of the hack-fabbery I put it together with years ago...all the while asking myself "what was I thinking!?" I guess that happens to most all of us that weren't born knowing how to fab up cool parts. Then I ran out of cutting wheels... So I can't cut apart any steel yet to make new leaf spring hangers.

So today, I figured I'd fix the pesky leaking freeze plugs I had...I had one on each side of the block. One of them required the motor mount to be removed. Once I tore out the old plug, I was very disheartened to find this mud-like crud in the water jackets...and it wasn't just a little. It was from the bottom of the water jackets up to the bottom (and in some cases, half-way up) the freeze plugs. So I just started knocking out all the freeze plugs to see if I can dig this out of the motor.

So between needing to install all new freeze plugs, cleaning the crud out of my engine's water jackets, completely re-wiring the entire vehicle, building new front suspension (again...), and all the other odds and ends...this just might take a minute!

 

[mtnwhlr]

That seems to be the norm with a Jeep you go to fix one thing and find something else and then something else and on and on. I guess thats part of the fun

 

[Scooter402]

Ain't that the truth... These problems, compiled with the fact that I'm on a truncated work schedule, I am just very frustrated. I love my Jeep...don't get me wrong. I guess I'm just frustrated because my wife won't let me spend any money on it at the moment... Mostly due to my work schedule, but also for the fact that we're in the market for a house. We're tired of renting. I've got a decent spot right now, but I want a house. Correction -- I want a garage. One that we looked at today has an oversized 2 car garage. I WANT that place...now the wife is scared to put in an offer,
a) because she's always scared of to commit to things like this and
2) because of my friggin furloughs from work... and
d) because she's (and I, too...even though I love my job) really wanting to move out of this area. My job is really the only thing keeping us here.

Anyway...if I can ever convince the boss (er, the wife ) to let me spend a few dollars here and there, I'll get to work on this thing. The funny thing is, she says periodically that after we buy a house, I can get another Jeep to tool around in. I mention from time to time that I miss just driving my Jeep, much less racing it. So she says once we have the space, I can get another one. At first, I nearly agreed...but then I said "if I took half the money it would be to buy a running, driving Jeep that's even remotely reliable, I could put that into mine and have the same thing." Then she tells me that she doesn't really trust mine, that she wouldn't want to be in it on the road... What the ? really? So....I can spend twice to three times the money it would take to fix mine back up on one that's probably the same age...but I can't make mine just as, if not more, reliable? Sure, I'd love to have another Jeep...but I've got years worth of blood, sweat, and tears in my current one. I'd feel blasphemous just letting mine sit and rot away even longer while I put time into another one.

Anyway...whether it's months or years...I'll get mine running and driving reliably again. I'll show her...

Wow, that was quite the rant. If anyone made it all the way through that... Thanks for reading.

 

[mtnwhlr]

I feel your pain

 

[thiswontbetooexpensive]

I feel your pain

We feel your pain.

 

[Scooter402]

*sigh*

Is God trying to tell me something?

I start get going again with cutting off old brackets from my frame...Getting rid of more of the "what was I thinking" stuff from years ago. I've also learned a valuable lesson for others to take heed to -- When you're building your suspension for the first time, AND you're learning how to weld...don't do these two at the same time. I THOUGHT I was doing "ok" at the time...Now that I'm a certified welder, I'm looking at these welds, and shaking my head in shame. I'd cut into them with my grinder, not cutting too much into them...Definitely not getting into either the frame, or much into the brackets...and smack them a few times with a hammer, and they'd bust right off.

Anyway, all my old brackets are removed from the frame. I ground what weld was left smooth. I didn't take any pictures, well, because I figured we all know what a smooth, stock CJ7 frame looks like. As soon as I started cutting steel to make some new suspension brackets, my grinder gave up on me... Took it apart, and the pinion gear in the head had stripped all the teeth off. I guess that would explain the slight "rattle" noise I'd heard from it as of late. Oh well, it was a Harbor Freight special, and it's lasted for over 4 years. I guess I got my $20 worth out of it. So no more work for the Jeep right now, until I get another grinder.

So I go to run some errands...A/C in my truck is blowing not-so-cold, almost warm air. Hmmm.... when I get home, upon further investigation, I find it odd that the compressor is cycling on and off every 8-10 seconds. Then I see that the condenser fan is not on at all while the compressor is running. Hmmm....I just got frustrated, closed the hood, and came inside to enjoy a cold one over yet another day of next to no progress. There will always be tomorrow.

 

[Petescj]

Your just gonna have these days. Happens to everyone. Hang in there , take a step back and enjoy your nite.

*sigh*

Is God trying to tell me something?

I start get going again with cutting off old brackets from my frame...Getting rid of more of the "what was I thinking" stuff from years ago. I've also learned a valuable lesson for others to take heed to -- When you're building your suspension for the first time, AND you're learning how to weld...don't do these two at the same time. I THOUGHT I was doing "ok" at the time...Now that I'm a certified welder, I'm looking at these welds, and shaking my head in shame. I'd cut into them with my grinder, not cutting too much into them...Definitely not getting into either the frame, or much into the brackets...and smack them a few times with a hammer, and they'd bust right off.

Anyway, all my old brackets are removed from the frame. I ground what weld was left smooth. I didn't take any pictures, well, because I figured we all know what a smooth, stock CJ7 frame looks like. As soon as I started cutting steel to make some new suspension brackets, my grinder gave up on me... Took it apart, and the pinion gear in the head had stripped all the teeth off. I guess that would explain the slight "rattle" noise I'd heard from it as of late. Oh well, it was a Harbor Freight special, and it's lasted for over 4 years. I guess I got my $20 worth out of it. So no more work for the Jeep right now, until I get another grinder.

So I go to run some errands...A/C in my truck is blowing not-so-cold, almost warm air. Hmmm.... when I get home, upon further investigation, I find it odd that the compressor is cycling on and off every 8-10 seconds. Then I see that the condenser fan is not on at all while the compressor is running. Hmmm....I just got frustrated, closed the hood, and came inside to enjoy a cold one over yet another day of next to no progress. There will always be tomorrow.

 

[Scooter402]

Your just gonna have these days. Happens to everyone. Hang in there , take a step back and enjoy your nite.

Thanks, Pete. But apparently I started griping a little too soon last night...

So yesterday afternoon, the woman calls me and asks how my day is going...Well, it was right when I had my grinder apart, looking to see what was wrong with it. She started to get aggravated, saying it was just one thing after another with me and my Jeep... And? What's your point? Of course, I didn't say that... But I was telling her not to worry about it, it's not like I'm going to run out and buy another one right now, and that I had miles and miles of other work I could do before I needed to use a grinder again, anyway.

Well, she was late coming home from work. I figured she had to work late, maybe went out with the girls after work, or something. She ends up coming home with this:



A new grinder! and not just a Harbor Freight cheapie I had. It's a Craftsman Professional series heavy duty unit. And it sure is nice! So I proceeded to put it to work today, cutting out some new plates to make leaf spring and shackle hangers. That's what the little pieces of box tube are for -- spacers for my spring hangers. On a side note...Not really sure why this pic is upside down...



Here was the first of four of the hangers. For once, I'm taking my time, measuring out parts, drawing them up, then cutting, grinding, and drilling...rather than the eyeball method I used before. My eyeball method "worked," but I'd like this to look a little better this time.

My shackle hangers were simple -- Just pieces of tube for the bushing, welded into a piece of angle that I'm welding under the front bumper. I may gusset them, I'll just have to see how they sit after I weld them in. I didn't get a picture of those.

Here's one half of the rear spring hangers.



These will sandwich the frame, giving the leaf spring eye as little clearance as I am comfortable with to the frame. I'm trying to keep the front as low as I can. I'm going to leave the shackles forward this time, mainly for my own reasons of keeping the suspension as low as possible while still being SOA.

Here's the frame getting cleaned up, with the weight sitting on jack stands. The coilovers have been removed.



Tomorrow will be positioning and welding these hangers, then bringing the axle over 2" to meet up with the passenger side cast-in perch. Then I'll position and weld the driver's side perch, then begin cutting off the radius arm brackets. If I get that far, I'll disassemble the driver's side steering knuckle, pull the axle shaft, and see how hard it will be to try to cut off the inner C while the axle is still under the Jeep.

Also, you can see my "adjusted" leaf springs drying with a fresh coat of paint hanging off the end of the front. I pulled them apart to sand off all the rust and re-paint them. I also got the wild hair to go ahead and remove the last leaf, and cut the other two down (total of 3 leaves when back together) so they'll be softer, and lower the ride height. I hope they end up sitting about where I want them...Nothing like flying by the seat of my pants!

 

[Bowbender]

Nothing says "I Love You" like a new power tool! Your wife hit it out of the park with that one! :jeeplove:

 

[rr41mag]

Hey I'm working on my welding cert too. I work for a contractor we do work for the navy.

 

[Scooter402]

Hey I'm working on my welding cert too. I work for a contractor we do work for the navy.

It's something that definitely pays off in the long run. I know that if my current job ever really went south, I'd have (hopfully, fingers crossed) a dozen other options out there where I could at least be a welder.











I do have some other progress pics of it sitting half on jack stands, half back on the leaves since my coilovers are now gone. I just gotta remember to actually upload them so I can post up. I think it's looking pretty good with the springs all cleaned up and painted black and back under the frame rails instead of outboarded. Just looks a little goofy with it's offset stance now that the axle is kicked over 2" toward the driver's side rather than centered. That'll be the next project -- break out the sawzall and cut my axle up!

 

[Scooter402]

I've got it off the jack stands and sitting on the leaf springs again. Happy days! I stuck the passenger side fender back on to check tire clearance, now that I have it sitting about as level front to rear as it's probably going to get, unless the front springs settle in any more. Man, it looks good to see this thing moving along again. Now I REALLY have to get my pics uploaded so I can broadcast it to the interweb.

Still haven't cut the long side down though...Hopefully I won't have too many honey-do's to do next week, and I can get cracking on that.

 

[Petescj]

Now I REALLY have to get my pics uploaded so I can broadcast it to the interweb.

All I see is this.

 

[Scooter402]

All I see is this.

Good point! I'll see if I can get my lazy bum up early tomorrow and post up some pics. I'm one of those night crawlers that does the 3-11 thing and doesn't get to sleep until near sunrise.

 

[Scooter402]

Well, here's a few pictures. I had more on my other phone which my wife has with her because hers broke.


Here's the front end with the long side hanging waaaay out there now. My project next week (fingers crossed) will be to shorten that up, after I weld in the spring perch on the long side.


These are the spring hangers I made. No laughing allowed! I'm on a way-beyond-tight budget, i.e. my wife tells me I can't spend any money because I don't have any to spend. Hm. If she wasn't telling me that, I would have been done with this years ago. Anyway, I'm working with scrap that I get from work, at least when we were able to get some scrap. Then some jack wagon had to screw that up for all of us...Wow, back on track here. These are cut from 1/4" plate and some 3x3 tube. I had originally intended them to be turned to face the opposite direction, and I was going to plate in the back side (what's now facing toward the spring). But when I was making my original measurements, I overlooked the front body mounts. Whoops. I guess they don't look too bad facing this direction.


This one makes me happy, as it's nice to see this actually getting somewhere! I only sat the fender on there, if anyone notices it hanging about a half inch low in the back. But it's nice to see the tire not being ALL the way out from under the fender. I think I'm still going to narrow this side down too, just so I don't have to get some retardedly wide flares.


One last shot, so we can see that it's sitting pretty darn level. It's still about a 1/2" high in the front, but it might be all the that I've got stacked up in the back, too. I wouldn't mind if it were about an inch lower, but now I guess I'm splitting hairs.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have more progress to show next week!

 

[Scooter402]

So, I'm at a bit of a crossroads...maybe a dilemma, if you will. I was looking again at the photos that I took earlier, and I had measured how much tire is sticking out from under the fender. I can cover probably about 95% of the tread if I got a 7" wide flare. I was thinking I wanted to narrow both front and rear axles enough to fit under 5" wide flares. My problem comes in at the expense of each. I want to get this thing going somewhere. Not saying I'm getting impatient, as it's been sitting for 4 1/2 years already. I just want to try to keep my costs down to a minimum. If I just do the standard chop 4" off the long side of the front axle, both front and rear would be covered just fine by the 7" flares. I also don't want it to look like an airplane about to take off going down the road, hence my previous comment about "ridiculously wide flares."

My other point here is PA's tire coverage laws. Knowing what I know what they "say" about tire coverage and flare width, I don't know if I would get in trouble for 7" wide flares. On the flip side of the coin, the JK's come factory with flares that are probably in the range of 8+ inches on the front.

What say the people of Jeep CJ?

Here's a pic of a Why-J with 7" flares for reference...

 

[Petescj]

My other point here is PA's tire coverage laws. Knowing what I know what they "say" about tire coverage and flare width, I don't know if I would get in trouble for 7" wide flares. On the flip side of the coin, the JK's come factory with flares that are probably in the range of 8+ inches on the front.

What say the people of Jeep CJ?

First lets chop out the hideous Why-J and replace it with that side shot of your Cj. Cut that tree branch and take another. That just looks sweet right there:



Now that I know your from Pa. I feel your code violation dillema. Ive been on the end of this flare ticket 3 times with 3 different Jeeps. I fought 1 and lost it. That was on my old Xj with 33s. I had Tj flares that covered the front but my rear tires stuck out a 1/2 in past the stockers. Pa. leaves way too much leadway in the codes for interputation. Different parts of the state seem to like to pick on different violations.

Flare laws are touchy in my area. If you want to head to Rausch Creek Off Road Park they look for tire coverage alot right outside the Park. Other places in Pa are big on popping you for no doors. They dont even blink here for that. The last one they have a hard on for is bumper hieght. Alot of places consider the Cj a passenger car and hold it to a ridiculous bumper hieght.

I havent gotten a ticket like that in about 7 years and it was just over $110 then. I can only imagine what it is now. Some will give you a warning but you only have like 5 days to fix it and bring it back for inspection to elude the fine. Thats not gonna work if your cutting down axles or even ordering new wider flares.

All that said I think you answered your own question when you said " I dont want ridiculous wide flares". That brings me back to the above pic. I like the steel wheel , big tire classic look you have going on. That Cj says "Tough" right now. Most things I do on my Cj are under a strict budget , but I havent gotten to the point your at with your axles. I think its something you only want to do once. If your already saying you dont like wide flares you wont be happy. Im not a wide flare guy either. I did stock Tj flares on my last Cj and Im not even sure I can handle the squareness of them this time around. Heres a comparison on my old CJ7. It opens the wheel wells nice but...

 

[Petescj]

Damn you Scooter402 , I got a little mist eyed searching out pics of the old Salvage CJ7.