Mr. Green's Surgery

[aw12345]

Nice progress Mike

[6spdYJ]

Looks great Mike. What thread pitch is on the tie rod ends? You can do one full turn increments for adjustment. If the pitch is fine enough you would probably be able to dial it in pretty close.

[4xfiend]

Looking good Mike!

[Mike]

Looks great Mike. What thread pitch is on the tie rod ends? You can do one full turn increments for adjustment. If the pitch is fine enough you would probably be able to dial it in pretty close.

The TPI is 16. After working with Chuck (Dirtman13) today, I'm willing to see how the current arrangement works out. If I am unhappy or have problems I can adjust a single side of the tie rod to make the needed fixes. Long term, I may to change, but until I can test the design that I have, I am going to lean on what Kurt and Chuck are telling me. In other words, they say to just leave it until I can test it on the trails...

[Mike]

So realized that if I am ever going to crank this thing again, I am going to need to install some pieces that will be new: A radiator and a gas tank.

My friend from AeroTanks stopped by and looked at the tank idea that I have and he said that once I worked out the details, I should build a corrugate copy to test fitting. Good thing that I did! The design that I thought was perfect has needed to be altered multiple times since I created the first cardboard copy. I think that the final version is going to be something close to this:



If it works out, it will give me 20 gallons of fuel and still let me install the rear seat into its original fittings. I will also have easy access to the fuel pump.

I still need to design the filler points of the tank, but to do this, I will need to redesign the filler neck. The stock angle of the plastic filler neck is about 33 degrees. I am going to need one that is about 20 degrees.

If anyone has a short piece of 4" to 4.5" thin walled pipe or conduit, I could use a short piece to make the new neck.


I rebuilt and installed the front calipers. The design that the 1-ton Fords used from the 80's to 1994 is by far the easiest caliper that I know of to install. These babies go on in less than 30 seconds each:




While I am looking for the bits that I need to finish the filler design for the new tank, I am continuing the work on the front fenders. I think that I can rework my custom tube fenders that I already own into a new design. I want to make sure that I have plenty of clearance at full articulation, but I still am targeting my original theme of keeping the look as Jeep-like as possible.

Rather than high-lining the full hood, I think that I am going to only high-line the area that needs it. I am hoping to find a way to slope the fenders out in front of the grill like the stock TJ's and YJ's do. I need to design that next, but this is the point that I am at so far:



I'm thinking that it might give the look of the Willys truck fenders if I get a little creative.


Lastly, the radiator that I mentioned before has turned into a little bit of a mess. I ordered a 24" by 19" all aluminum radiator back in June. Now that I am truly ready to install it, I found that I am actually going to need a 22" wide radiator instead. Unfortunately, the company's return policy has expired. I have tried to negotiate with them, but I think that I have lost the battle.

I'll order the right size, but does anyone need my 24" wide one? It's new and still in the original packaging.

[Mike]

The past few days have been good for progress.

The stock gas filler neck has the vent tube on the left side (looking down at it) and I don't have room on that side to install the neck. So I could install the neck upside down, but that changes the geometry at the gas pump. So instead, I cut off the lower part of the tube and welded it back on on the other side:



What a PITA! First, the valve on the inside is mostly plastic, so welding was a chore of short welds and then water quenching to keep the plastic intact. And on top of that, the metal is so thin that even my 110V welder on its lowest setting would blow holes in the metal. I eventually used 18 gauge strips to weld lap welds over the joint.

Even so, the damn thing leaked from tiny pores that I missed. It took quite a while to finally get a leak-free filler neck again.

I've been playing with several designs for a new filler neck mount, but I'm not happy with them so far. Instead of wasting effort, I have been focusing back on the front fenders.




I want to have the inner fenders extend in front of the grill like the stock Jeeps do. This is just to try to keep the vaguely "Jeep" look. I'm fairly happy with the results:





Obviously, the hood still needs to be cut. Even at full bump, I think that I will have clearance for full fender flares:



These pics are from earlier this weekend. Tonight, I have most of the driver's side fender laid out like the passenger side. The inner fender wells are going to take some work to fill in all the gaps. I'll work that out after I get the frame of the fenders worked out for both sides.

The nice thing about using the old tube fenders and inner wells is that the fuse box looks like it will bolt back into the original mounting holes with a small amount of effort. Hopefully, there may be other equipment that re-mounts to the original fittings.

[dr.dirty]

Looking good man!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dirtman13]

Nice. Now hurry the hell up.

[aw12345]

Nice Mike, make sure to flex the front for your fender clearance, tire will come up quite a bit when flexed. Very nice work so far

[Mike]

Thanks guys. I'm pushing to get this thing cranked ASAP.

To which, I seem to not have enough room for most of the higher CFM electric fans for the radiator. What have you guys used? What should I avoid?

[aw12345]

Volvo fan, lincoln mark 7 or the one of a lincoln town car works too. On the 4.0 I just stuffed in my Jeep I use a temp switch mounted in the thermostat housing to control the fan, don't care much for the aftermarket controllers and probes you stick in the radiator fins. Volvo one is favorite, since it will bolt clean to a fan shroud.

[Mike]

Volvo fan, lincoln mark 7 or the one of a lincoln town car works too. On the 4.0 I just stuffed in my Jeep I use a temp switch mounted in the thermostat housing to control the fan, don't care much for the aftermarket controllers and probes you stick in the radiator fins. Volvo one is favorite, since it will bolt clean to a fan shroud.

Feddie used the Volvo fan too. I think that I may be headed to Pick-A-Part this weekend. I found this write up on another forum, so I may use this as a guide:
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f12/v...-swap-1373350/

[Mike]

Well, I've been at this thing for a year now. If you had told me that I would still be working on this thing for a year when I started, I would have bet you money that you were wrong. Glad I didn't make that bet!


I'm beginning to hate tube fenders. Art was right to tell me to double check clearance. It turned out that the tire stuffed into the fender when it was turned outward at full turn. I had to cut and reshape the fender to get clearance:




Everything seemed to clear (barely), so I finished up the fenders and painted them to match the Jeep:


I was happy with the result until I found that the new radiator was going to be too tall with the grill in the position that I had chosen. I had to raise the grill to get the clearance that I needed below for the suspension and above for the hood.

Sooooo, the damn fenders have to be adjusted again! Hopefully, the third time is the charm.

With Fred's help, the radiator was adjusted to match to the hose upper hose. He also TIG welded some strength into my new aluminium fan shroud:


While I had everything apart still, I started cleaning up parts and pieces of the engine compartment. I remounted some items that were easier to access while everything is off and I cleaned up the years of wiring additions that were just dragged along the firewall. I put everything that I could into wire looms and made a cleaner look:


So tonight I put the fenders back on and marked them up to start cutting them to fit right tomorrow:

[aw12345]

so when are we gonna do a shakedown run? The Buttes would be a good place for that

[aw12345]

What's this week's progress Mike?