'65 Rubicon Rig

Alright, it's in the jeep for the last time. It was a lot of work, about 3 days, and I'm glad I didn't pay to have it done (I was quoted $4500). I probably have $700 in it, but have 20' of 1-3/4" DOM left over that I could sell. I'm happy with it, we will probably make a sun shade for it so we can have the windshield down with shade.

 

[QUOTE="timsresort, post: 1712327, member: 79322] we will probably make a sun shade for it so we can have the windshield down with shade.
[/QUOTE]

Rubicon Rig = windshield down with shade.

 

Tim, are you leaving the body alone?

 

That's a good question. The body is pretty solid after the floor replacement, and we're not doing a full paint at this time, we don't have time before the first run which is on the calendar now. But I will open up the rear wheel wells once I can get the club RTI ramp out of the ice and see how much I need to cut. Actually, I may not wait for the ramp, and rig something else up. I will paint the grill to match. Also, some pretty beefy rocker guards are here and ready to install, and then the front of the cage will tie into those. Other than that, not right now. We want to get out and enjoy this jeep, and summer is coming fast.

 

I vote to leave it…it looks good. You are doing a great job with it and a great tribute to your Dad.

 

I think the body looks great!

I might be interested in that DOM - is it enough to make another cage like yours?

 

Thank you

 

Grant, no, I used 2 of the 3 sticks I bought, plus some scrap I had. So you would need another stick. But I know where to get it now at a not obnoxious price. Let me know if you need that info. This would look good in your jeep, somehow I assumed you would just do a single bar.

 

I have a single bar that came with it…My plan was to fab something like yours that ties into the floor along the dash and actually provides safety, but make it removeable (bolt to frame somehow) so if I want to drive up 89 to sierra buttes or down your way I actually have some realistic protection.

 

Yeah, I understand, especially with the family onboard. Would you just add on to the existing bar? Is it 1-3/4"?

 

There is still a nagging problem I need to confront-the left side valve train noise. After much thought, it has to be a bad (new) lifter. I can't find any other cause, there is oil, there is pressure, the rockers are tight on the shaft, no broken valve spring. It turns out a set of lifters isn't available at this time, so I pieced together enough to do the left side from 3 different sources. I found Sealed Power brand to be the easiest (only) ones to find. So I let them marinade while I go camping.

I need a little time off, see some green grass. I took my M37 on this really cool weekend of all vintage rigs, trail riding, good friends, and a few beers by the campfire. This is me and Ken with the 2 1951's there, his, an M38.

Really nice to get out of the snow and see some new country.

Back home and into reality.

 

Lifter day, let's get this behind us. Drained coolant, pulled distributor, rocker shaft, intake manifold, pushrods, lifters.

Cleaned gasket surfaces, new gaskets, installed the 6 new Sealed Power lifters, re-installed the intake.

Torqued the manifold down according to the book. Reconnected everything, dropped the distributor back in to the mark I left, wetted it down. While I had the rocker shaft out, I measured it in several places, it is within spec for clearance, and actually in better shape than the one I have to compare to. So, I fire it up. Good oil pressure, but really noisy up top still. I can see increasing amounts of oil, so I rev it a little and I can see the rockers moving more, which means they are pumping up, but after 2 minutes, still noisy. While I was looking around for something to hit myself in the head with, it suddenly quieted down. Whew.

In hindsight, I think the oil I soaked them in was colder than the oil in the motor (because like a dummy I left them in my 30 degree garage overnight), and it just took a while for the oil to be able to do something. So, definitely at least one bad lifter, and now I remember getting lifters from Comp was a problem last year, so it makes me wonder what happened to a brand new lifter, but at least it's over and fixed. Sounds good, what a relief.

 

Hey Tim! Really enjoying this thread.

I was wondering, if you don’t mind sharing, how you learned how to do all of this. Pretty impressive work.

 

Thanks for following. As far as how, I don't know, just a long time of- if I have a jeep, I have to work on it myself. My dad had jeeps since I was little in the 60's, and he was always working on it. Then I got my own, and I started doing it myself, (dad was always there for moral support). First thing that ever happened to me, when I got my '67 at age 23, driving it home I seized the transfer case. Well, I guess I'm figuring this out. Then we started rock crawling and breaking stuff, more learning how to not do that again. A lot of things I have learned in the Rubicon, where trail fixes are like the old Macgyver show. I learned there that you need a plan B. Now I don't have dad to show this, we don't know if he would approve of the big tires, but one thing we know, he would want it being used, not sitting.

 

Tim,
Reading your post about your left/divers side lifter noise brought back an old memory, Years back I installed a rebuilt GM crate motor, 231 and it had noisy lifters on the left bank. The engine had good oil pressure and oil was getting to the rocker arms, after chasing my tail for a bit I looked at the oiling diagram for the engine. The oil leaves the oil pump and travels to the right side lifter gallery passage, this is the main oil gallery for the Buick V6. The right side oil gallery feeds the main and cam bearings oil as well as the six right side lifters, the left side oil galley is fed through the number one cam bearing and the grove in the cam bearing journal. On the engine I had I found that the #1 cam bearing was not installed correctly the oil passage hole in the cam bearing was not lined up with the oil passage hole in the block, the oil passage from the right side gallery was almost completely blocked by the cam bearing. A new cam bearing with the oil holes lined up fix the noise.

The oil passage feeding the left side oil gallery is small and it does not take much to block the oil flow any debris, a worn cam bearing or in the case I saw the cam bearing installed wrong/misaligned can cause the left side lifters to make noise.

I found this online that describes this problem better, scroll down to post #7 https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/62-buick-v6-oil-problem.1181568/
Just a thought hope it helps good luck.

 

Yes, earlier in this build, (the first time I started it), I had poor oil pressure and had to change all the bearings, (long story). I was aware of the oiling schematic, and the importance of the front cam bearing, so when I reinstalled it, I made sure about orientation. This time, I have plenty of oil up top, and good pressure. That's why it was so confusing, and I finally had to change the lifters to eliminate them as the cause, and they were. Sometimes, I swear these things only happen to me, so I do like to hear others stories.

 

This was his '66, in about '69. Gee, I don't know why he was always breaking something...

 

Your definitely not alone, especially these days with the poor quality of some parts out there.
Glad you got it

 

Love the Terra Tires!

 

I still have a set, don't use them enough. But they are a blast.