My $120 CJ7 build

Got the springs painted, and on, hopefully for the last time. I'm pretty sure they won't be coming off any more so I went ahead, and did a final red Locktite, and proper torque on them. PLEASE GOD... don't make me have to take them off again. The hope is to move on from here. I'll give her a few days for the paint to cure up, then I'll flip her over and test fit the axles to see if I should have waited on the Locktite or not... lol. They'll come off later for a full rebuild, all new seals, and bearings, and what not. Air lockers if I can swing it.
Motor mounts are ordered, and on the way for the Mopar 360. I'll need to get some brake and fuel line stuff. This should be interesting. Never bent hard line before. There's shock mounts, steering box, and a few other things to get taken care of before I start in on the tub. Fun winter ahead...

 

Today I started out with one goal, but completely changed gears. My Eastwood Internal Frame Coating came in the other day. I didn’t want my frame to rust from the inside out, so I set to getting as much of the debris out of it as I could to ready it for the coating. Not fun holding the shop vac up to one hole, while blowing the air compressor into another… all the while having to quickly shut down the shop vac every time the air compressor kicked in to keep from blowing the garage circuit breaker. Yeah, everything is on one breaker. 120 year old house, 50 year old garage…


Realizing the coating would settle as it dries, and that water and mud also settle… I figured the frame should be right side up for this process. This is where everything changed. Once I got the frame flipped, I remembered how much I was looking forward to setting her on her axles… So I figured I could coat the inside of the frame later… with her sitting on her axles.


I used the cherrypicker to lift the frame high enough to wheel the rear axle under it.







I had remembered that I needed to put anti-seize on all the shackle bolts, so I needed to take them off anyway, even though I had got a bit ahead of myself torqueing them down. Thankfully, I thought of this before I went to bolt the axle in, and loosened them. I was so damn pleased with myself. My short term memory is totally shot with my TBI, (Lots of long term stuff missing too) and this really saved me a lot of frustration today. The amount of cussing I would have done had I tried to line up the leaf pins with them torqued would have been great. Also, someone else had pointed out (rightly so) you torque them with the weight of the vehicle on them…


I forgot to get a photo of the front going in, but she’s a roller.

 

Here is the rear Dodge truck Chrisler 9.25 axle.





Here you can see both the good, and the bad. It’s been converted to 4 wheel discs, and they worked very well on the CJ5. I kept the Wilwood propotion valve to use on this, but I will add power brakes. Cool thing is whoever did the conversion used the same calipers as the front. You can hardly see them inthis shot, but the builder mounted new spring pads, without cutting off the old truck pads. They are behind the leafs. The towers were for home made traction bars, but they didn’t allow for spring movement, and kinds put the suspension in a bind. They were just single arms with heim joints at the ends. You can also see how long Napa U-bolts are…

 

After making the bottom and sides of the frame look nice, the top of it needs the same treatment now. I still have to do the internal coating as well.






My Advance Adaptors motor mounts came in too. (the CJ5 had a homemade set welded in with no rubber to absorb the vibrations) Now I’ll be able to place the Mopar 360 in it’s new home sometime over the winter.

 

Left = March 24th.
Right = Today.
Slow going, but it's going... and it's gonna be worth it.

 

Awesome....it's really startin to take shape. Nice work dude.

 

How did you do this side by side comparison?

 

I put both photos in a slide on powerpoint, then saved them as one photo.

 

Finally able to get out to do some stuff on the Jeep again today. Shoulder giving me fits pretty bad. VA may be doing surgery again. VFW busy as hell with fish fry season, and losing one bartender after another... Family vacation in a rental house in Florida with 17 people was overwhelming...
ANYWAY... I cut the stock shock mounts off today. I'm doing the Ford truck shock tower thing I read about. Seems like a good inexpensive way to get longer shocks on there.


Here is one of the new shock towers held in front of the stock shock location.

I noticed that the factory shock locations are off center. They are slightly towards the pivot side of the spring. (both front and rear) Is there any significant reason I need to mount the new ones in the same place? I was wanting to mount the new towers straight over the axles. For some reason, that seams to make more sense to me, though I know the axles will move slightly towards the shackle end as the springs compress.

 

Side note: I took Brandy to a dog park in Destin, FL while we were down there over Thanksgiving. It was the first time she had ever been to one. She didn't even know how to act with the other dogs. Being a service dog, she was trained to ignore other animals. She can get along, but it took 3 trips for her to relax enough to just play with them all, and just act like a dog. They had a sign that reminded people to pick up dog poop, but the wording just seemed funny to me. A long time ago, I remember seeing a funny photo on David Letterman, or Jay Leno, of a shopping cart upside down on a sign that reads "return carts here". It gave me an idea, so I had my son snap a funny photo of Brandy and I by the poop sign. I posted it on a German Shepherd facebook page. Someone made a meme out of it, and now it on several other pages and been shared like 30,000 times... Brandy has gone viral... lol.
The original my son took.

The meme somebody made of us.

 

Pretty funny! I bet your gonna be sore after picking up a 100lb. pooch. She sure looks happy though.

 

My favorite thing about that photo is her smile. It's one of the best smiles of her I have... Not too bad on the soreness. My arm was tucked in. I only have problems when I have to move my arm (left) out away from my body to reach for something. So like 80% of the time...

 

Seeing as how I'm getting ready to get the shock towers welded on the frame, and the tabs on the axles, I figured I'd go ahead, and get the motor mounts, and trans mount on as well.

Finances continue to be a stumbling block, and I have decided to forego the idea of swapping to the Dana 300. The Dana 20 was working when I pulled it, I'll just keep using it, and save the expense of having to buy new output shafts, and adapters... Either way, I want to get both the trans and T-case gone through to make sure everything is 100%. Just because I was driving the CJ5 before I tore it down, doesn't mean I won't put these same components in the CJ7, only to have them go south in 6 months...

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there are signs of abuse... Somebody has been beating on the shift rails.

Then I remember even though it did work, it was difficult to shift at times. It had a twin stick cable shifter (supposedly newly installed) but I never could get it to work independently. Just regular 4 high, or 4 low. Something for the trans guy to check on. I'll be dropping it off Tuesday, along with a spare Dana 20 that came with the CJ5 back when I first got it. The "spare" has a broken rear output shaft, but most of the other parts should be good, including the shift rails.


I'm going to try to have a transmission mount fabbed up using the stock skidplate as the base, but if need be I can have a new crossmember built. The one it was mounted with in the CJ5 had to be cut out. I was a huge piece, welded in, hung real low, and the engine & trans were both mounted solid, with no rubber mounts. Not how I want it done.

Once I get these back I can get the welder over here. That should be all the welding I'll need til it's time for the cage.


But of course something will come up...

 

Transmission, and 2 Dana 20s off to the trans guy. Hopefully he won't take too long to freshen them up, and they can get put in their new home... He said he was busy as hell, but I'm not too worried. Wife already reminded me that Christmas is coming, so I probably won't get much (if any) money this month for Jeep parts... or gun parts... or ammo... or anything cool.

 

I forgot to take in the converter when I dropped off the trans, and t-cases, but I can drop it off next time I'm down in Lafayette. I may just spring for a new converter anyhow since that's what you normally do when you get a rebuild...


Anyway, I went out to see if I could get the mount off the old trans. I had a thought that with the 999, and 727 being from the same family, I just might be able to use the same mount that came on the Jeep originally. I'll take it with me next time I go, and see if the holes line up. The gunk on it was in places a good 1/4 inch thick. I had to scrape it off with a putty knife before taking a brush, and rag to it.

 

Then I decided to test fit the tub. I don't have any new parts that bolt on easily (nor money to buy any) at the moment. I have to wait to get the trans back, so I can have the motor mounts, and shock towers welded in place. I discovered two things.


1. Just setting it on the frame is a great motivator.





2. I won't be placing the rear towers forward leaning, like from the factory.





There isn't enough room without getting into the fenderwell. If I go straight up, I've plenty of room. The wide full size axles give me the room I need outside the frame rails.

 

Wow...tub test fit looks awesome @daddyusmaximus . Coming along really nice dude. It's been a fun read and watchin your progress.

 

Usually a tranny shop will just rebuild the original torque converter. No need to spend the money on a new one. I'm really liking your build thread.

 

I could have it rebuilt, but that depends on what he charges for rebuilding the converter...

 

I have done a TH350 and a 700r4 in the recent past. My guy charges me $100 to rebuild them. Cheaper than the almost $300 for a new one.