Total Pageviews

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Oil simplicity

This shiny little piece goes in place of the stock
oil cooler that goes up to the radiator via hoses.
This is almost life size.
It bolts onto the block and the new filter screws onto it.

The hoses leak on the cooler after many years, and I don't need the extra junk in the
engine bay. $16 new off fleabay.

Where the orange filter is (PH5 Fram)
is where the old cooler adapter (below puking oil) was bolted up along with the oil filter.
You just remove the cooler, and bolt in the new adapter. 
The only other thing it needed was a pair of 5/16" -18 bolts
Note: The original oil cooler used a smaller filter than just a stock one.


No leaks, no drips....
next thing to do: finish rear lights, fix e -brake, &
see if it can move onto the driveway by itself.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Rear driveshaft update V2.3

I was going to sleeve the stock tube with smaller DOM, but I
 stopped by metal supermarket and got 3' of  stock diameter DOM tubing for $21. 
Since I have plans on hitting the trail before the street, I'm planning
on lengthening the rear driveshaft with 2" O.D. .125" wall  tubing.
I may have it redone later and balanced.

Here's another how to:
Stock on the left, new .125 wall stuff is on the right
It's amazing how flimsy looking the stock driveshaft is compared to this stuff.

The driveshaft will have to be lengthened  roughly 4" to reach 32 1/2"
center of yolk to center of yolk.
O==========O
I<-----32.5"----->I
Hows that for a techincal drawing?
This is with the slip shaft centered with 1.5" compression and 1.5" extension travel since
the rear springs are almost flat.

Like the front I cut a circumference around the weld
make sure you mark your yolks so they are on the same side because
they need to be in synch (same side, same plane) when it is complete.

1 hit with a bfh and it came right off. 
When cutting, make the cuts as straight as possible.  That way
when you slide the yolk into the new tube its already close
to being straight.

The slip shaft side.  Because the tube wall is thicker than stock I had to reduce
the diameter of the yolk sleeve where it inserts into the tube.
Note how a bfh dented the stock tubing with mild blows.
On the trail with an unforgiving boulder this would have twisted it.

Did you mark your yolks? I put the driveshaft on some steel to make sure the
yolk ears were flat.  Initially they were several degrees off.

I measured from the squarely cut  tubing (used a chop saw for that)
to the end of the machining on the short yolk for a measurement every 90*
After it was where I wanted it,  I tack welded every 90* and re-measured.
The slip shaft was measured to the dust collar (1 5/16" collapsed if I remember right)
every 90*. 

For welding, the ground went onto a large piece of right angle and the driveshaft lay cradled in that.
Then as the weld was layed down with the BIG welder the shaft was rotated.  One side was done in 2 turns
the other in 3 cause the ground stuck.  It'll work for now.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Brakes

Brakes are my nemisis.  I am going to have to do something drastic to the rear brake line (like replacing it) to match it to the brake hose and line on the rear axle. 
  Also the master cylinder (i think) is a 15/16" or 1" bore (cj jeep size) and the wheel cylinders up front are 1 1/8"
What this means is that the master cylinder has to move a * whole lot * (more than physically possible)  to expand the wheel cylinders a little.

It's like sticking $1.00 in a vending machine for a $1.12 item ... you're not going to get much out of it.

Plans are to replace the master cylinder and front wheel cylinders with 1 1/8" bore parts from bigger vehicles.
 (popluar master cylinder doners are the 79 scout II or 79 cherokee)



*Update 12-16-11,  ordered a booster and master cylinder off a 84 waggy that should be in soon, and some new front wheel cylinders.  all 1 1/8" bore.  I realize that there isn't a residual valve on the mc for the fronts since the waggy had disks, but I'll do a test run to see if it is too much or too little braking - somewhere between not stopping and locking up would be good.
.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Dash lights and more wiring

Everything works better when its grounded.  Really.
 If crap on your vehicle doesn't work look for a bad ground. 
Example: The jeep wouldn't start the other day, and after digging through my problem checklist
I saw a spark from the ground wire on the engine block. A little wd40 and tightening the wire in a little
different position and presto!

I used the remaining guage lights to get the dash lit.  The ALT (alternator) light will be used
as a key "on" indicator. 
I think the gas, oil, and temp guages will be moved to a underdash pod.
They are originally ran off of a resistor on the back of the dash so- maybe something more reliable.

An auxillary power wire was ran coming from the fusebox to a 20A thermal
fuse that feeds the cigarette lighter (a power port to the younger generation)
and now the brake lights.

The horns have been installed, but the chevy horn relay in the fusebox is shot so they are silent for now.

The hi and lo beams, running lights, and hazards are working. (on the front side at least)
  Working on the turn signals now.

After the turn signals are worked out,  on to the rear lights.  The wiring in the body to the rear lights is intact luckily.
The wiring through the tailgate is shot - why they ran wires through a moving metal tube in the tailgate is beyond me.
Seems like its a recipie for disaster.  

Monday, October 31, 2011

The how to guide for shortening a driveshaft

This is for the front shaft which is part time and I don't care about balancing it.

First off-  I measured the fully collapsed length then measured the fully extended
length, subtracted and divided by 3.  Why 3?  Why not.  I figured that with 1/3 of the
slip shaft hanging out at regular running setting that it would be strong enough.


The 1/3 is 1.5" from the weld nipple.  Thank goodness for nipples.


Stock length with the 1.5" extension was 39" center to center on u joints.


Which means after measuring the centerline ujoint cap at the differential to the 39" shaft length,
 I needed to take off 2 3/8" to make it the right length.
I thought these were solid due to the weight, but I was mistaken.


The yolk is press fitted and welded on.  The end of the stock tube was originally
 chamfered to make assembly a little easier.


The yolk got cut into some with the angle grinder, so it was filled in and
ground down to a roundish configuration.


I measured like in the pictures down below before seating it to weld.
Do this on a flat surface and check your  measurements twice.
Then weld away......


Quick after weld check...


It's actually even!

 

Paint it and insert ujoints. Then grease the heck out of it.  If you forget to grease it, you'll be replacing the joints again
within a week- trust me.

Friday, October 28, 2011

driveshaft clearances

Rear one has 2.5" of travel and needs to be extended (unless I can get some DOM tubing a professional shop will do this)from full extension 2.5" to reach the transfer case.
The front one will be cut down and rewelded.   I almost stroked out on the front one trying to measure  it.  With the transfer case in and clocked the way I had the shifters mounted, the driveshaft yolk would contact the transmission pan. 
So before I started trying to rotate the transfer case, I put a spare u joint on the shaft and held it in place.  Almost straight out the shaft would rotate without any binding, as soon as the axle end was dropped down it came in contact with the tranny pan lip just outside the bolts. 
  I'll have to pull the tranny pan and shave off the 1/4" lip of the pan (hatched area)  to clear the yolk.

Since it is so close to the pan and aluminum part of the tranny,  it will receive a racing hoop coming off the crossmember that it will pass through to keep it from going thru the pan incase of a ujoint failure. (orange scribbly looking thing)


Update:  The pan is now silver.  And I removed the extra flange. 
The driveshaft is a scant millimeter from hitting when turning.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

parking brake

Nothing too exciting here.  The original parking brake bracket which used to bolt to the crossmember was
too short to reach now since the crossmember moved forward.  I welded an extension bracket that moved
 it about 6" back.

 The cables coming out of the backing plates were stretched tight in their original positions just sitting still.
I moved the cable mounts back about 4" so when the rear axle moves they won't bind it up. I tested the brake and it stayed on so I need to get into the rear drums to see whats up with that.  At least they work.




And after doing this, the parking cable was froze in its housing.  :(

Here the exposed cable ( in the above picture) was coated with anti seize
and pulled through with line pliers.  Then the pulled out portion was
anti seized and pulled back thru. 
They loosened up after a couple times

After this, make sure that NO anti seize is left in the brake drum
it will render the brakes nearly useless. (not that they are great right now)
Spray down EVERYTHING with brake cleaner to get off dirt, and grease that may have
gotten in there. If the shoes are greasy or oily, replace them.




TODO LIST: (seems big, just smaller stuff now)
Oil filter housing replacement, transfer shifter handles, rear driveshaft lengthened 3" +/-, front driveshaft shortened 3"+/-,rear brake line, adjust rear parking brake, check front master cylinder and slaves after rear brake line, alternator, plug back in dash / hvac controls and clean up wiring, rear light wiring.