Guages that work

Instead of messsing with the old ones, I messed with new ones.

Gosh its dark. I have a lighted rear view mirror coming to remedy this.

You can't see it too well but the fuel guage is a pod unit next to the release

handle of the parking brake

The guages are sunpro, but came with a ammeter instead of voltmeter.

The ammeter needs ALL of the power between the battery and altenator

running under your dash hooked through it to work (almost enough power to weld with)

The replacement voltmeter on the left jumps 12V power off the starter switch above it.

The temp guage signal comes from the unit between cylinder 1 & 3,

The oil pressure comes from the tan wire off the oil pressure unit on the back of the engine.

When started, the guage reads 70 lbs cold. :)

Check out the cool 1980's knight rider guages

Michael, you are coming up on a turn too fast, autodrive on.

Just getting warmed up

After 15 minutes idling :)

"short" todo list:

brakes and lines, axles- either regear or replace and regear,

seats and belts & test drive

Rear lights

The following colored wires run to the rear lights-

White: gas sender gauge
Green: reverse ( power comes off of NSS on lower steering column, goes to both rear )
Blue: left turn and brake
Orange: right turn and brake
Yellow: running lights (goes to both rear lights, side marker lights, and liscense plate light)

The cluster of wires from near the parking brake, back to the left light housing was in great shape so new soldered connections to the light were installed since the originals were toast.
Jeeps original wiring harness to the right turn signal and liscense was probably good for the first 25,000 miles or 3 years
then it started decaying and shorting since it ran thru the tailgate hinges and the gate itself. (BTW the tailgate hinges are a pain to remove) 

The driver blue wire was working, but the contact snapped off, I'm just going to replace

the socket with an aftermarket one

so it works like the passenger side (below)

The rear housings are cast pot metal and need a goooood electrical ground to work. I guess jeep thought that
the 3 mounting bolts were adequate. Remember the more grounds the better? If not go back to the dash lights page and re read.
There is a ground wire under the lights that was replaced and ran to the new liscence plate
light and for the side marker lights and will also be ran to the housing studs.

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.

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:

http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/shaft/diydriveshaft/

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.

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.
.

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.  

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.