New jeeper w/1985 CJ7
okobojo
Jeeper
Hello all. Thank you for the wonderful resource. I just bought my first, proper, Jeep and I'm here to learn more about it. Last Thursday I bought an 85 CJ7 with, what was portrayed to me as very low miles. I believe it's the base model and It's showing 43,400 on the odo. Yes, I know odds are pretty good that's it's actually 143K, but, I bought it with that knowledge. In the spring I will pull the heads and evaluate the cylinder wear to determine the truth. Perhaps you guys could suggest a quicker way to tell?
It's clearly a street queen and appears to be an all stock 4.2L. The closest things I can find to modifications are a toggle switch on the dash, a 4 square wiring plug in the engine compartment near the grill and the fact that they hooked up the high altitude wire to the battery ground (I'm at 1000' so I'll be taking that off). The toggle turns off the headlights to I'm guessing it turned on some other lights that may have been hooked to that 4 square plug. The story I got from the PO is that he bought it 5 years ago from an apple farm where it had been used, since new, by the supervisor to oversee the operations on the farm. It does have rust. The PO explained that by saying they kept it in a barn which must have had a wet floor.
I did a rust inspection and yes, the frame is rusty. I don't feel like I am qualified to evaluate the strength of the frame but I can't push any holes into it with my fingers. I'm a pretty good welder and I plan to weld gussets and braces on it in the spring. I haven't seen any threads on where and how to do that but I'm sure you guys have them if I look hard enough. The body does have bubbles over the rear wheels and I could probably push my fingers through, there, if I tried hard enough. The rockers and rear corners are covered by diamond plate.
The PO had receipts for the service work he did when he bought it five years previous, which included radiator, alternator, all fluids as well as new rotors and calipers. After that it sat in his garage most of the time until I bought it. He said he used for an occasional trip to work and to pull his little trailer to the dump a few times a year. Mileage on the receipts confirms this. He had the oil changed every spring with the exception of 2015 so it had 1.5 year old oil in it when I bought it. I'm a bit concerned about this, especially since it had a faint smell of gas. I ran a magnet through the old oil and it came up clean. It doesn't seem to be thinned out noticeably, either. I thought maybe the carb was rich but the plugs are a little on the white side so that seems unlikely. I will check compression in the next few weeks.
I plan to keep it at my cabin up north where there are miles of muddy trails and roads that don't get plowed all winter. I bought an old hardtop and some hard doors for it and tried to put them on Friday. I was unable to get the doors to fit and couldn't get the screws loose on the hinges (stripped a couple out trying) so I temporarily put the soft doors on it with the hardtop. There must be a benchmark measurement to set the windshield angle before attempting to mount top and doors?
Friday after work I changed the oil with 5w30 and drove it 200 miles to the cabin. The trip was uneventful. I held 70 without issue and got 16.7 mpg. It tracks straight. When I arrived, there was a slight smell of gas in the oil and I think the level might have been a bit higher than when I left but I wouldn't swear by it. This could have a lot to do with how hot it was or how long I waited for it to drip down before I checked.
The gas in the oil and the rust are, or course, my main concerns at this point. I'm hoping there's a stuck ring or valve and it might fix itself with use. I might change the oil again soon and use some Motor Medic before I dump it. Any other ideas would be welcome. I will be dropping the pan and putting in a new (high volume?) oil pump since pressure drops to 0 at warm idle and I'm only showing 30lbs at speed. I know a lot of people would say to check the gauge first but I want to drop the pan to do an inspection, anyway. In the meantime, there is no discernible lifter noise, or any other noises that I am worried about.
I took the wife out mudding in the rain Saturday morning and we had a blast! One issue, though minor to me
, was that water kept pouring in on her shins from the dash/glovebox area. I assume this is the seal at the base of the windshield and I'll be looking at that next weekend when we return to the cabin. There was a thread that some people said use a new rubber seal, some said use black Permatex and some said clear silicone. I'm not sure what to use but I can get a caulk tube of black Permatex for $14 so I'm thinking about using that. Silicone would be even cheaper, of course.
One other issue we had was a bit of coughing and snorting while torquing it at low RPMs. I am guessing this is due to the much hated Carter carb. A few years ago I rebuilt an Autolite 4100 in an old Tbird and I've read that some guys are running Motorcraft 2100's. That's the same carb (less two barrels) and since I already know and like the 4100 I would like to learn more about doing that swap. The old threads about it say you need an adapter and linkage but the links are always outdated so I haven't been able to find the parts yet.
I'm also wondering about the vacuum lines and how the carb swap would affect them. I would like to dump them all if I could. I hate these antiquated vacuum systems. 25 years ago I had an 86 XJ (2.8L V6) that wouldn't run in the rain due to leaky vacuum system. I tinkered with that damn thing for 6 months before I gave up and dumped it. I haven't owned a Jeep since. How much of this vacuum system do I need to keep? I bought a round plastic vacuum canister on Amazon to replace the coffee can (mine has no bottom half) under the battery. Hopefully that'll help a bit when it arrives.
I plan to pull the lock cylinders on the hard doors tomorrow night to have them rekeyed. I searched around a bit and found a few references to a thread that was supposed to be a sticky in the Chassis and Body area but I can seem to find it. I read that it had pictures and more details on how to do this? I can probably figure it out but have had a few surprises when working with locks in the past so I thought I'd read up on it first. I'd like the liftgate key to match the door key but I doubt that's possible.
So, there are a handful of questions in my little introduction above, but, here's my main question….I'm planning to have fun in this sucker all winter and possibly even into the summer next year before I start working on the frame. Is there an easy way to tell if that's a bad idea? If it fails, I assume it will be on a washboard road at 10mph and not on a smooth highway. If that's the case, and nobody gets hurt, it wouldn't be the worst thing since I will very likely be within 20 miles of the cabin where I'll have a truck and trailer waiting to bring the carcass home. Does anybody have a guess how things will go down if the frame does fail?
Thanks!
okobojo
It's clearly a street queen and appears to be an all stock 4.2L. The closest things I can find to modifications are a toggle switch on the dash, a 4 square wiring plug in the engine compartment near the grill and the fact that they hooked up the high altitude wire to the battery ground (I'm at 1000' so I'll be taking that off). The toggle turns off the headlights to I'm guessing it turned on some other lights that may have been hooked to that 4 square plug. The story I got from the PO is that he bought it 5 years ago from an apple farm where it had been used, since new, by the supervisor to oversee the operations on the farm. It does have rust. The PO explained that by saying they kept it in a barn which must have had a wet floor.
I did a rust inspection and yes, the frame is rusty. I don't feel like I am qualified to evaluate the strength of the frame but I can't push any holes into it with my fingers. I'm a pretty good welder and I plan to weld gussets and braces on it in the spring. I haven't seen any threads on where and how to do that but I'm sure you guys have them if I look hard enough. The body does have bubbles over the rear wheels and I could probably push my fingers through, there, if I tried hard enough. The rockers and rear corners are covered by diamond plate.
The PO had receipts for the service work he did when he bought it five years previous, which included radiator, alternator, all fluids as well as new rotors and calipers. After that it sat in his garage most of the time until I bought it. He said he used for an occasional trip to work and to pull his little trailer to the dump a few times a year. Mileage on the receipts confirms this. He had the oil changed every spring with the exception of 2015 so it had 1.5 year old oil in it when I bought it. I'm a bit concerned about this, especially since it had a faint smell of gas. I ran a magnet through the old oil and it came up clean. It doesn't seem to be thinned out noticeably, either. I thought maybe the carb was rich but the plugs are a little on the white side so that seems unlikely. I will check compression in the next few weeks.
I plan to keep it at my cabin up north where there are miles of muddy trails and roads that don't get plowed all winter. I bought an old hardtop and some hard doors for it and tried to put them on Friday. I was unable to get the doors to fit and couldn't get the screws loose on the hinges (stripped a couple out trying) so I temporarily put the soft doors on it with the hardtop. There must be a benchmark measurement to set the windshield angle before attempting to mount top and doors?
Friday after work I changed the oil with 5w30 and drove it 200 miles to the cabin. The trip was uneventful. I held 70 without issue and got 16.7 mpg. It tracks straight. When I arrived, there was a slight smell of gas in the oil and I think the level might have been a bit higher than when I left but I wouldn't swear by it. This could have a lot to do with how hot it was or how long I waited for it to drip down before I checked.
The gas in the oil and the rust are, or course, my main concerns at this point. I'm hoping there's a stuck ring or valve and it might fix itself with use. I might change the oil again soon and use some Motor Medic before I dump it. Any other ideas would be welcome. I will be dropping the pan and putting in a new (high volume?) oil pump since pressure drops to 0 at warm idle and I'm only showing 30lbs at speed. I know a lot of people would say to check the gauge first but I want to drop the pan to do an inspection, anyway. In the meantime, there is no discernible lifter noise, or any other noises that I am worried about.
I took the wife out mudding in the rain Saturday morning and we had a blast! One issue, though minor to me
, was that water kept pouring in on her shins from the dash/glovebox area. I assume this is the seal at the base of the windshield and I'll be looking at that next weekend when we return to the cabin. There was a thread that some people said use a new rubber seal, some said use black Permatex and some said clear silicone. I'm not sure what to use but I can get a caulk tube of black Permatex for $14 so I'm thinking about using that. Silicone would be even cheaper, of course.One other issue we had was a bit of coughing and snorting while torquing it at low RPMs. I am guessing this is due to the much hated Carter carb. A few years ago I rebuilt an Autolite 4100 in an old Tbird and I've read that some guys are running Motorcraft 2100's. That's the same carb (less two barrels) and since I already know and like the 4100 I would like to learn more about doing that swap. The old threads about it say you need an adapter and linkage but the links are always outdated so I haven't been able to find the parts yet.
I'm also wondering about the vacuum lines and how the carb swap would affect them. I would like to dump them all if I could. I hate these antiquated vacuum systems. 25 years ago I had an 86 XJ (2.8L V6) that wouldn't run in the rain due to leaky vacuum system. I tinkered with that damn thing for 6 months before I gave up and dumped it. I haven't owned a Jeep since. How much of this vacuum system do I need to keep? I bought a round plastic vacuum canister on Amazon to replace the coffee can (mine has no bottom half) under the battery. Hopefully that'll help a bit when it arrives.
I plan to pull the lock cylinders on the hard doors tomorrow night to have them rekeyed. I searched around a bit and found a few references to a thread that was supposed to be a sticky in the Chassis and Body area but I can seem to find it. I read that it had pictures and more details on how to do this? I can probably figure it out but have had a few surprises when working with locks in the past so I thought I'd read up on it first. I'd like the liftgate key to match the door key but I doubt that's possible.
So, there are a handful of questions in my little introduction above, but, here's my main question….I'm planning to have fun in this sucker all winter and possibly even into the summer next year before I start working on the frame. Is there an easy way to tell if that's a bad idea? If it fails, I assume it will be on a washboard road at 10mph and not on a smooth highway. If that's the case, and nobody gets hurt, it wouldn't be the worst thing since I will very likely be within 20 miles of the cabin where I'll have a truck and trailer waiting to bring the carcass home. Does anybody have a guess how things will go down if the frame does fail?
Thanks!
okobojo
