What Did You Do To Your Jeep Today?

Pssst. Mix atf/mineral spirits; it's cheaper and works well.

 

When I built my motor mounts, I used the stock rubber mount and made the frame mounts removable to make removing the engine easier. Using the stock rubber mounts means replacements are easily sourced

 

Over a year ago I bought a $50 NOS Jeep glovebox lock from eBay, from a guy in Israel. I battled with myself for a while if I wanted to spend that much on such a small part. In the end I caved, I couldn't stand having an empty hole in my glovebox door and paid the price. The latch doesn't match other CJ latches I've seen. I made a latch catch this morning and now have a working and locking glovebox on my '68 cj5.

 

I broke it! Something in the rear end went boom about a half mile from work. Thought it was a wheel bearing giving me trouble all this time but apparently a brake shoe had been dragging and finally wore all the way down. Not sure how because I had the adjusters dialed in and the Ebrake isn’t hooked up so I’ll be investigating further tonight

 

Thought these D44 gears got tossed but I found them. That'll save me a few bucks when I go changing things up.

 

I built a drag to use behind Snowshoe to groom the trails. Works awesome! Still have to add a brace to the tailgate chains and a small winch to raise and lower it.

 

Started moving in the right direction.
Less than excited about this Greyworks timing cover, a few little things…
Almost all the enclosed threaded holes are short or sloppy. Had to tap them all to get original or ATP bolts to fit.
One of the h2o pump bolt holes was off by about.02-.03”. H2o pump had to be relieved to fit as well as the timing indicator they sold to fit this cover.
One of the oil pan bolt holes is slightly off, I thought I could fudge it but I’m certain i cross threaded it

 

Spun all the new rings onto the old 231 pistons…EXCEPT…




#1 piston is damaged somehow!
The rings were very sticky in the slots. Jammed up the oil ring and #2 ring in a couple places. All the other rings on five pistons spun just fine.

Posting a WTB for a standard 231 piston as I can’t seem to find a single piston anywhere. (I’ll bet Fireball finds me one)

 

Looks a little better that the last piston you pulled from an engine.

 

The are tools to clean out the ring lands: https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-24000-Ring-Groove-Cleaner/dp/B000COC84U

The top of the piston isn't showing any damage, so It seems unlikely the lands are bent. There are probably some stubborn carbon deposits that need to be cleaned out.

 

Easier to break an old ring and clean it that way.

 

That’s exactly what I did. Everything is pretty clean. Took a bit of work but I’m sure the rings aren’t getting hung up on carbon deposits any more. If I can’t find the one match I’ll buy a set for $100 that Noah found me.Buick part #1255672 is on the inside of the piston skirt

 

Today I ordered the ford fusion rear e-brake kit that Brennan's garage offers. I'm super excited to go through my offset flanged dana 44 and get it straight. The jeep should stop nicely with geo tracker fronts and fusion rears!

 

Those fusion ebrakes work great. I only ever need to just set just one of them.

 

You have them set individually??? Is that for cutting brakes, or for what reason? Usually they're tied to just one switch, right?

 

Yea, I wired them independently and removed the shift pills from my D20 for front dig/2 low.

 

I finally replaced the intake/exhaust manifold gaskets on my 75 258. The exhaust leaked for a long time but last year I developed a vacuum leak. This was absolutely not a hard job. I have no idea why I put it off for so long. The worst was drilling and tapping two broken bolts mating the two together. Then using some exhaust sealer to fix a large hole in there. She’s never run out sounded better.

 

Borrowed this ball honing tool from member here. Thanks EDDY ARNOLD.



Now you can see the scratches in the bore. It looked perfect before.





Put new freeze plugs in the sides and cleaned the block again with oven cleaner. I think tonight I’ll put the cam and main crank back in.

The new pistons shipped but not scheduled to arrive until Monday.

 

After work I had some time to work on this engine. Did a lot of wiping with a lint free rag to get all the fibers from the towels and paper towels out of the engine.

installed shiny new bearings.



More new bearings on the caps.



I wasn’t able to tighten it all down though. The gasket kit said it had a new rear main seal but it was the rope style so - No Bueno.



The FLAPS will have one tomorrow morning so I’ll take the crank out in the next couple days.

 

Did you plastigage the mains? Also the crank surface at the rear main, is it smooth or does it have diagonal grooves?