New replacement pieces

Christmas in May:

All in 24 hours a Ballistic Fab chevy 1 ton Y steering link system

and a new replacement wheel showed up.

The steering tie rods are 1.5" dom , 1@50" and 1@58" about 32 lbs

The rod ends are the big 7/8"suckers. 

 Instead of reaming the steering knuckles I bought some pre tapered

 weld in inserts @ $8 each.  All that is needed is a

3/4" drill bit to re drill the steering knuckles.

New Cragar:

Why the 7" wheel do you ask for a 36" tire?

Well, it didn't pop off while wheeling at 6-10 psi, so why switch.

Plus at $67 with shipping they're cheap replacements.

And tough.. this is the dented front rim, a little hammering back into shape and

it now holds the spare tire just fine.

 

This thing has no arm rests or easy ways to get ahold of the door,   They were options- really.

 So I put on some arm rests from a geo tracker (Suzuki sidekick)

They aren't any deeper than the window crank so it doesn't hit you in the ribs

when the door closes.  The original mounting holes for door handles

is about 3" below (at the black rectangles) where I put them.  A little kid could

use them down there, but it isn't practical.

Lets face it - on this vehicle originality has gone out the window.

The hole is where the dspo tried to mount a speaker in the door before realizing
that the window would interfere.

 

Going topless

After scouring the internet for Jeep top hoists, I realized that Commando owners
are on their own pretty much.
The top is 125+ lbs ?? I'm guessing, but the darn thing is like trying to pick up a
bowl of jello.  CJ tops are pretty rigid, the sides on this flex and sway.

I was going to build one of these:

But the size of the top and the single lift point would let it sway if a breeze hit the garage.

So I built this:

 

 

After fabbing this up with the top off, I had some "help"( not much of it) getting the top 

back on the Jeep. 

The pulley system is a 3:1 system,  that means the end of the rope is tied to the tops frame,

goes through the ceiling pulley, back through the frame pulley, and back through a second ceiling pulley.

With this system, if the top weighs 150# pulling on the working end of the rope only takes
50# of effort to lift it.  This also means you have to pull 3x the rope to move the top up.

The lag eye bolts for the pulley are #0 and are long enough to screw into the 2x4 and the floor joists
There are also 4 other lag bolts holding each one. I tested these before hoisting the top by pulling
myself up from them.  No broken bones to report.

The rope is 230# safe working load, the pulleys are 440# safe working load,

I have a carbiner with a knotted pull rope going

through the knot where the front and rear ropes come together.

While on the interweb I saw these frames made of angle iron, rectangular tubing, to just plain

straps and rope thrown around the top. Mines made from 1" emt tubing.  It can be as simple or complicated as you want it.

AS LONG AS ITS SAFE.

The clamps are a 6" long piece of angle with a hole in it that

goes over the frame spacers bolt.

The frame sits in the rain gutter, and the angle clamps under the rain gutter.

So there's 12" of surface area per side lifting it.  So far- so good.

Best I can tell the CG of the behemoth is right around the very back rib on

the top due to the glass.