Cynthia Jayne - CJ Build Thread

tbones999

tbones999

New member
Hey everyone! I know this is primarily a JK forum, but we are all part of the same way of life, so I would like to share too. Besides, it always helps to explore your roots. :) With that said, I'll save the gory-hack-and-slash details for more CJ oriented forums. :)

My family had 2 CJ5s when I was growing up: one when I was super little and one that I fondly remember. When my '93 Saturn finally died. (College car... 3 functioning doors, always on its last legs.) I needed a low cost replacement. I wanted something I could work on myself, rather than be at the mercy of a mechanic. A CJ immediately came to mind. I just needed to decide if I thought a CJ could function as a daily driver... After a few months of research the pro/con list looked like this: Pros: Cheap no monthly payments, fixable - never at the mercy of a mechanic, high on cool factor. Cons: loud, not suited for freeway driving, cold, not the safest vehicle.

Being new parents (15-months) investing in something we had close to full control over really resonated with us. :) My commute doesn't include any high freeway speeds. Not the safest vehicle for the little guy, but it's not like it is "unsafe." And, we have another vehicle that serves as our main family vehicle.

I looked at a few and pulled the trigger last month.

1980 CJ7, bright orange, T176 Trans, D300 TCase, D30 upfront, AMC20 in back, 31" M/T tires. The PO had the motor rebuilt: bored .040 over, new pistons, new rings, cams, and refaced the flywheel. The frame is in great shape. The body is very much a 30' body. (Looks great at 30'.) So, it has a fiberglass body in its future. :)

I love it, my wife loves it, and I am sure my son is going to love it too. :)

The ironic part about the Harley-Davidson window sticker is I plan on selling my Harley... I keep reminding myself the Jeep is a much more family friendly hobby. (Even though it is the 110th anniversary, and I live in Milwaukee...)

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Cool looking CJ-7 :thumb: Remember this is a JEEP forum, not just a JK forum. Sounds like you have a good plan for it too.
 
Loving CJ's can't wait to see the progress. Here's one my wife and I found for sale wish we would have bought it.

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Welcome to a Wayalife!:beer:
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I got to play around in the snow a bit last night, it was a blast. :) I even played around with my dimmer switch enough to get my dash lights to come on. :)
 
Your new CJ has lots of cool factor. Over the years I've had three CJ's, two bought new from the dealer. They never went back to the dealer for anything. Excellent choice and let's see the build as it goes along.:yup:
BTW, sold my Harley to buy my current JK. Never looked back.
 
That's a very nice CJ! Can't wait to see what you'll do to it. It doesn't look like you'll need to do much to the exterior. :thumb:
 
Linebacker said:
BTW, sold my Harley to buy my current JK. Never looked back.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the support. :) For some reason the first week I drove the CJ I felt myself staring down people making left turns like I would on the bike. Maybe it was just because I was out of my comfort zone. Once I realized I was doing it, I decided it was something I would not miss about riding the bike.
 
Heat is for noobs

The only key thing missing when I bought it was heat. Now, don't think I am a softy, more important than comfort, no heat means no defrost. Foggy windows are not safe. :)

I drove it for a week wearing a scarf over my mouth to keep the fog down.

A popular CJ mod is changing the heater blower motor to a motor from a K5 Blazer. But first I needed to figure out why the original motor wasn't running. If the motor was burned out, I could just do the Blazer motor mod and move on. If it was something else I needed to figure out what.

First, I discovered the switch in the dash was bad. A little time filling the rust off the terminals fixed that. With power running properly through the resistors and out of the switch I was confident it was the motor.

Time for the Blazer motor mod. The short version: Take out the heater box from under the dash. The new motor bolts right in. The only fabrication necessary is to enlarge the hole in the firewall. $20/one day job.

Despite a warning from my Dad that hoses are cheap and parts in the coolant loop are generally not, I broke the heater core trying to get the hose off. Now that I needed to replace the heater core, I decided to rebuild the box. $60/one week job.

The box itself is plastic, and it has a metal backing plate. There are some metal parts inside that direct the airflow. I ended up taking the metal parts into work and sandblasting them. I painted them and used weather stripping to replace the seals.



Enlarging the hole was the next hurdle. One popular method is to use a hole saw. The down side is you need to make a backing plate for the pilot bit. No problem. I bought some sheet steel to use as a back plate. Unfortunately, one holler from an angry toddler led to a bent jigsaw bit, and that lead to a tetanus shot and some bandages for me. Thankfully I still have 10 fingers. $100/two week job.

So, the hole saw didn’t work. I was using a thin backing material, and I had a grabby hole saw. Eventually I broke the pilot bit and just scuffed up the firewall. The area was too small to get a jigsaw in. (And I was a little leary about using it again.)



Plan B. I cut a template out of paper. Then used craft paint to paint the new hole onto the firewall. To actually cut, I used a rotary tool with a cutoff wheel. I plunged the cutoff wheel then went a little ways around the circle and plunged again. That actually worked really well.



Before putting the box back in, I realized I never unplugged a wire from the old motor... It took me awhile to find it, (using the service manual from the correct year helped), but the PO had unplugged it and laid it on the valve cover.

Time to put the box back in. It was difficult but not too bad.



Once it was in, I hooked everything up and flipped the switch: nothing. Next speed: nothing. Top speed: a small turn of the fan, stop, a small turn, stop, nothing. Blown fuse.

Two fuses later, I decided the fan was rubbing on the box. After referencing some pics on the internet, I realized I put the fan in backwards.

Out comes the heater box. Flipped the fan around. Zipped the box back up. This time I tested the unit before putting it under the dash. It ran like a dream.

I put the box back in. (Much easier the 2nd time.) Then set to refilling the coolant. Once that was done, I opened the door to the cab and it was toasty warm. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) It felt like victory.

Just in time to play in the snow last night. :rock:

 
A few weeks back I was driving home from work and the Jeep gave a hard pull to the right. The steering wheel never moved, but it definitely pulled right. It did it again in about half a block. I didn't think much of it at the time and tried to diagnosis it as I continued to drive it to and from work. When the brake dust turned my white rim brown, I jacked it up for a closer look. When I grabbed the wheel, it was so loose I was surprised it was even still on. (Toasted wheel bearing.)

I ended up replacing the wheel bearings, spindle bearings, new pads, new rotors, one new hub, one new spindle, and new locking hubs. The bad spindle had the bearing race welded on from the friction. The bad hub was worn to the point where the bearing cup was a drop in, not a press in. The grease, on both sides, was sticky and nasty. The good hub and spindle needed a solid day soaking in our parts washer at work before they were clean enough to put back on the Jeep. I replaced my Warn locking hubs with Mile Marker locking hubs. I read some good reviews and decided to save some money. So far so good, but that is only an eye test, a function test, a 20 min test drive, and a family trip for celebratory ice cream.

This past weekend I finished it up and got it back off the jack stands. :)




Bearing rollers:




Toasted spindle with bearing race permanently attached...




After finishing the front end, I got ambitious and decided to put the rear seat in for the first time. The body isn't in the best shape, so I didn't know what I would find when I took the rubber mat off the back floor. (Screwed down.) Thankfully I found the floor fully intact. One trip to the hardware store and 20 min of work, I had the seat in. I am thankful (shocked) it went so smoothly. :)

I am glad to have the CJ back with some warmer weather starting to show up. :)
 
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