And then he sends this Pic.

Well, if we aren’t driving our “new” cars, I better get one of my old jeeps running. Let’s see what state everything is in.

Homer, the 71, needs a battery and I oddly have one ready to go thanks to an Amazon screwup a week ago. But it also was having compression issues the last few times I drove it. I’m thinking sticky valve on the right bank. Not exactly fixable right now.

The Deuce starts and runs fine (maybe fine-ish is a more accurate term), but the rear tires rub on the exhaust leaving the driveway. Not the best for bouncing through rocks.

Ike has something that feels near catastrophicly wrong going on in the front end. It just feels like the motor mount is loose or some attachment on the front axle isn’t right, but all my quick inspections show nothing obviously loose or moving. While driving, it seems like it should be VERY obvious. Who knows.

Even the big, “new” jeep has been acting funny at the front, like I should check every bolt.

The Deuce seems the easiest fix. When I brought Homer home, I removed a set of very poorly installed wheel spacers. Knowing they were the same bolt pattern, I just needed to find and install them on the rear. Found them right where I left them! Miracles do happen.

Jack up the beast and remove the rear tires. Throw some locktite on the spacer nuts and torque them up. Throw the wheels back on and everything seems to clear. Do I flex out the suspension to test it out? Naw, I’ll do that on the trail today! What could go wrong?

I also throw some air in the right rear tire, as it was at about 4psi. Maybe 2. Check the others? Nope, I’m already running late, and the gas tank is bone dry.

Luckily, I have a can with most of a gallon in it laying around and dump it in. Throw some recovery gear, tools, and cooler into the back and fire it up.

It starts, thank the automotive spirits!

I hit the road and immediately try to get used to the random self steering that the Deuce is known for. The rest of the crew is already at the staging area, unloading their rigs when I pass on my way to get gas.

When I said the gas tank was bone dry? I put 11.8 gallons into a 12 gallon tank. Guess there is a little overhead inside.

Get to the staging area and meet the crew. My buddy Nathan with his 96 Landcruiser, Ben and his son in an 82 Suzuki Samauri, and Steve and Christine in their 51 CJ-3A (I think).

Looking over the classic vehicle collection, we don’t rate our chances of success very high, unlike our fun-factor.

The trail we are doing is Toquerville Falls. While there is an easier way to get there, we decide to take the fun trail that drops into the creek bed and winds in and out and through the water up to the falls.

As a great start, the Deuce is a little slow to fire back up, acting like it’s a little flooded. But it starts and off we go! The hard start persisted throughout the day.

I cruise in 2 wheel drive until our first obstacle. A fairly decent hill climb with a slight bend right at the rocky step at the top. Ben makes it up easy. Steve bounces wrong the first time, but then finds a better line the second time and pops up. The Deuce goes up, the rears spin a hole, and then shuts off. Oops.

So now I’m stuck most of the way up the hill and it won’t restart. The key just doesn’t do anything. Weird. Nathan climbs the hill as we discuss options. He just starting to push me out of my hole, when the engine fires, unlike the previous 6 attempts. Ok. Reverse, clutch, slide back down with the drum brakes fully engaged and doing very little. I hope the brakes bed in a bit more.

Once down, I realize that I haven’t locked my front hubs in yet. Doah! Lock em in.

As we descend into the canyon, I realize most of my braking is being done with gearing. Low gear is great for this. Nathan notices that front and rear axles seem to want to move at different speeds going down, with the rear sliding out to the side. Interesting, but I have no idea what that means.

We all make it down the big descent; me, swearing the whole way down. Steering is vague and often dictated more by the rocks than the steering wheel. Limited brakes, yet not wanting to heat up the drums make slowing down exciting. But I bounce down as best I can. Kind of like skiing moguls.

At the bottom, we stop to check the rigs over. Everyone seems fine, yet the Deuce is marking its territory…with gas. I know I had filled the tank really full and was not surprised to see some dripping from the rear. But what we saw was a stream. I had parked with the right rear being lowest, but it wasn’t coming out the cap. Looking underneath, we could see it was coming from the breather tube; a 1″ hose running up the filler neck.

It appears the hose was torn, and the tear went under the hose clamp. Since the hose clamp was already tight and the hose was pretty taught, I figured it was a self-correcting issue. I’ll just park on a level surface next time.

We are now at the fun part of the trail that winds in and out of the creek. While straightforward, it involves a lot of steering input to correct the rock-induced steering. Lots of little boulders to try and pick your line from. The water isn’t deep and the bottom is mostly rock.

We all have points that we have to back up and try again, but at one point I slipped sideways into 2 holes, one for each back wheel. Trying the rocking technique helped to highlight the fact that I was only in 2wd. And yes, the hubs were looked this time.

I look at my transfer case shifter, and it’s back in 4 low, but my front tires don’t spin. Weird. I do know that on these transfer cases, it is usually 4H, 2H, N, 4L, but that you can mess with the interlock pin and access 2L. I try pulling the transfer case lever fully back until it hits the floorboard, but it keeps sliding back to where it was. I manage to get out of my holes, rocking back and forth and steering to a new position.

Once on level ground, I try again to access 4L and this time, it seems to stay back. Huh. And the next few boulderfields seem to prove that it is working, with the front tires throwing water up at times. Sweet.

As I bounce along, there is a very loud bang coming from the right front every time it drops. I keep waiting for the catastrophic snap where the axle separates or the body dismounts the frame. After a while, I accept the noise and whatever fate may await me.

We stop for lunch at a shady spot in the creek. We eat our lunch and let the little fish nibble our toes in the water. While crossing back to my jeep, I may have slid on the algea-covered rock and fell flat on my back. The good news is that getting soaked turned out to be great jeep air conditioning!

We bounce along to the falls without any serious drama, just a fun time splashing around and dodging the big rocks. My whole upper body is getting tired from the constant yanking of the steering wheel caused by the rocks. It didn’t help that the Deuce runs through power steering fluid faster than gas, so my power steering was intermittent.

It’s a nice quiet day at the falls with only 1 vehicle leaving as we arrived. We splashed around and cooled off in the pools, after posing our vehicles on top of the falls, of course.

After a nice relaxing rest stop, we loaded up and headed out. The trail out was fast an straightforward, but the road had a few areas that were all rock and all bounce. Who needs a spleen anyway?

As we got to pavement, we unlocked our hubs and went for food. Getting started again, I noticed that my clutch was starting to act weird. More specifically, the pressure plate. It was acting like the clutch pedal wasn’t fully depressed, but my foot was to the firewall. I eventually got it to go into gear, and it seemed OK after that. I was as if my clutch cable had stretched, but it does have a cable. Just a rod from pedal to throwout level. Meh, I’ll look at that later.

Overall, it was a successful day on the trail. Ben’s rig was well sorted and didn’t skip a beat. The old Willys just made it look easy (though both us old jeep drivers had tired arms from cranking the bus wheel all day). Nathan’s only issue was that his AC belt would squeal and so he had to drive with the windows down. Harsh life. The Deuce made it back to the garage. I’ll call that a win.

Cliclk the image below to load. Then, use your mouse to move the picture around. This is a test.

Now that the Deuce is mobile, I start to focus on the little things. Like how the exhaust leaks are driving me nuts.

I’m not talking about a little bit. It’s as if half of the exhaust doesn’t make it to the muffler, making it sound farty. A nice loud farty V8.

Thinking it is just leaky header gaskets, I had bought some standard “cardboard” style gaskets. Header bolts come out easy enough and the old gaskets crumble out. There is obviously a lot of blowout past the gaskets. The old gasket were really nice, metal reinforced, multilayer gaskets…with all the material blown out and just some metal mesh left in areas.

I also had a set of new header bolts that I wanted to use, because why not. They were a little shorter, but not much. Well, turns out that little bit was annoying.

The header flange was no longer straight. This made install fun. The instructions were to start the front and rear most bolts and drop the gasket between the header and the head. Well, between the valve cover hanging over and the wavy header, that wasn’t going to work.

So I place the new gasket against the header with one of the center bolts pushed through and trying to mount the header and get the bolt started without everything moving. A lot of swearing later, it works. And I had to use the original, longer bolts just to make my life easier.

Getting all five remaining bolts started, most of them the old bolts, takes more time than I care to mention. Let’s just say that an hour or two later, all six are started. I tighten one down and then can get a couple of the newer bolts to grab. Tightening those, I can remove the other old bolts and reinstall new ones, one at a time.

Go to the other side, repeat. Takes just as long. Torque it all up, reinstall spark plugs and check for random tools in random places. It’s late (as usual) so I’ll wait until morning to fire it up.

The next morning, I get it fired up and it sounds moderately better. Now this was during the transmission swaps of the last chapter, so I end up taking it for the first drive and it goes. It just still sounds like crap. Not nearly as many leaks, but it just doesn’t seal very well.

I end up driving it like that for a while until I finally decide to get some good copper gaskets ordered, both header and collector gaskets. The noise just bugs me.

When the parts arrive, decide to make it easier on myself and remove the mufflers first. These are the typical short jeep mod where the exhaust exits in front of the rear tires out both sides. In this case, the point AT the tire, but details. Next, I remove the headers and just let the hang against the frame rail.

When I pull off the paper gaskets I had run for a week, I notice that the compression on the gasket is not even around the exhaust ports. Huh. At least I know why it is leaking. Why is there a mis-match? I take the passenger side header out, the easy one, and the problem is obvious.

As you can see, the dogleg on the header does not stick out as far as the gasket. Checking the head, the gaskets match just fine. Luckily, I also have a set of headers from the donor Humpty up in the loft. I pull them down for a quick side by side comparison.

Now that I know the problem, the solution is relatively simple. I already have the passenger side out and it’s an easy swap. Luckily, I had a young helper who smashed his fingers getting the driver side out. Headers lined up well enough to the head, but the copper gaskets were a bit off. We just enlarged a couple mounting holes and it was all good.

I mean, it still took an hour to get all 12 bolts installed, but we got it done.

I wanted to try the exhaust I took off Humpty as they seemed to be newer mufflers and went to the back of the jeep. After mocking them up, however, it was clear that the tires would rub on the exhaust with axle flex. The pipes went between the tire and the rear shock. There was just no way it would work. I went out to look at Humpty to see where they had mounted them, and that’s when I realized that Humpty probably never moved with that exhaust. It’s engine had last 5 minutes after a rebuild, so no chance to test the exhaust out.

Going back to the original Deuce mufflers only caused a bit of an issue. Seems the correct headers were a bit longer and not exactly in the same exit location relative to the floor. Being lazy, I just loosened the pipe clamps on the exhaust and made it fit. Just not well. But it bolted up to the collector and the body mount. And, once again, the exhaust was pointed directly at the rear tires.

Time to fire it up! I get it going and let it idle a bit. There is a tiny bit of leak at the headers, but I was really confident that the header bolts were not properly torqued. There was no way to get a sockets on 8 of the 12 bolts, so not torque wrench. I was lucky to get an open ended wrench on most of them. And it wasn’t a long wrench.

Shut it down and let it cool a bit, before taking the spark plug wires off and tightening the header bolts again. I also tighten the collector bolts, but that is a bit of a lost cause due to a poor alignment of the muffler to collector. I’ll fix that later. I promise.

Fire it up again and realize that I have to manually provide a little throttle on warmup even though I noticed an electronic choke on the carb. Hmmm. Something to tackle a bit later.

The exhaust is sounding so much better. No leaks at the headers! Once I figure out the collector joint, I’ll be happy with it. As it is, I’ll drive it.

Jump on the internet to figure out how to adjust my carb. The first thing I learn is that I have too much carb for my engine. It’s 600 cfm, which is good for 396 to 502 cid. The Deuce has a 304. Oh well. Second is that the electronic choke is adjusted so far lean, that it never activates the choke. O.k.

I crank the adjustment back to the default neutral and … wait for it…it works. Holy shit. Who would have thought? Obviously not the previous owner.

Now that the engine has cooled down, I can see the choke working. I decide to test it out. As soon as it fires up, the engine revs high. Huh. Make sure the gas pedal isn’t caught or kinked. Nope. It’s just that the high idle screw is cranked. I guess if the choke never engaged, the high idle never mattered.

So, I crank it down until it barely touched the throttle plate arm. Fire it back up and it idles well. Turn it up enough for a nice high idle. And as the engine warms up, the choke automatically opens up and drops to regular idle. I think it’s working correctly now. What a concept. I even dial in the idle speed and fuel/air mixture.

Now the Deuce starts easier and sounds quieter. Once I get the collector gaskets figured out, I’ll be happy.

In the meantime, I’ll just drive it.

After a week, it is finally warm enough to drive to work. Well, home from work, as that’s when it’s the coldest. The exhaust is so much better. Now I can really hear the super swampers pounding the payment, the suspension creak and pop, and other various rattles. What was that noise?

Being fed up with the transmission rebuild, or lack there of, I decided to put the 76 transmission and transfer case into the Deuce. Thanks Humpty! Not that it’s a great transmission, but it should allow me to drive it around so I can find more shit to fix.

First thing was to check that the clutch and input shaft would mate. I used to clutch alignment tool and it slid into both just fine. I would have to swap over the bell housing and drive shafts since the input shaft on the 76 is about 1.5 inches longer, moving everything with it. I know the bellhousing will fit, as it is the same engine block on the two engines. Drive shafts will easily fit as they use the same u-joints. There are a ton of holes on the frame, so the crossmember is bound to fit somewhere.

I bolt the transmission and transfer case back together. This all goes smoothly except the one nut decided to play hide and seek. After 10 mins of looking, I just took the one off the 75 t-case. As long as the nut didn’t fall into the case, it’s all good.

Pull off the transmission shifter, and take off one bolt on t-case shifter so it folds down and place it on the transmission jack. And it juuust slides in under the muffler. Nice.

Jack it up and slide it forward. It goes together nice and easy. Slide it forward with a bit of side to side jiggling and it gets close enough to throw the 4 big bolts in. I get my situp exercises in for the month going back and forth, slowly drawing the transmission onto the bellhousing. It was smooth sailing, although not quick, until the last quarter of an inch when it got started taking a bit more effort. Eventually, I pulled it in evenly.

Go up top to put the shifter on and… Shit. So, this trans/t-case combo sits back 1.5 inches from the set I took out; however, it puts the driveline back to the stock location. So, no problem, right? Wrong. Looking in from the top, the small transmission shifter plate isn’t quite big enough to install the shifter through, but that’s fine because there is a bigger floor plate that can be removed for this purpose. Except that on the Deuce, someone glued and welded it on. No bolts. Those asshats.

I try dropping the jack to gain clearance, but there is just not enough room to get the trans shifter in through the top while dropping the forks into the trans. Shit shit shit. OK, fine. Fuck it. I break out the cutting wheel and cut the larger plate straight back on either side and bend the plate vertical. I also have to bend two corners out of the way.

Now, doing this and angling the transmission JUST RIGHT and pulling the reverse switch off, it fits if I hit it with a hammer and pry with a screw driver. Then I have to take it back off as I didn’t put RTV on it yet. Back together, RTV all over my hands, I declare success!

One thing I had to modify was the hydraulic slave cylinder for the clutch. I needed a rod that was 1.5 inches longer. I make one up, install it and test it out.

Oh, what’s that on the ground? My missing transfer case nut. So I put it back with the 75 t-case. At least I don’t have to check inside the t-case.

The clutch feels weird. Like it isn’t fully disengaging. Testing the rear driveshaft, it won’t turn when the transmission is in gear. In neutral, everything spins nice, but the input shaft won’t disengage at the clutch when you select a gear.

The throwout bearing and the clutch look like they have decent contact through the bellhouse window. Huh. I know it is the 75 clutch and pressure plate, but it all seemed similar. Then I remember that I didn’t measure the 75 pressure plate and clutch as I left them installed. Oops. Could that be the problem? I decide it’s dinner time and quit for the night.

That evening I decide I might as well take it back apart and make sure everything is correct. Sigh.

The next morning, I pull off the reverse switch, pop the transmission shifter off (getting good at that struggle) and lay down the t-case shifter. Four more bolts and I pull the drive train back. It’s a bit hard initially, mimicking the struggle to tighten it up. After 1/4″, it slides right out. Hmmm. Clue.

Knowing I’m going to put it back it, I leave it jacked up on the trans jack. Throw the calipers on the pilot tip of the input shaft and then check it against the 75 trans. Oh, that’s not the same. The worst part was that I thought that was the first thing I checked. Guess not.

And that would definitely cause the input shaft not to spin… Hard contact into an undersized bushing.

Luckily, the pilot bearing comes out of the donor engine really easily with a couple of pulls of the sliding hammer. To get to the Deuce’s pilot bearing, it would be best if I removed the pressure plate and clutch. This is an easy decision as I want to check those components as well. So, off them come.

The clutch has a slightly different construction and is 1/4″ different in axlial length. I doubt that is any problem. The pressure plate in about 1/2″ taller at the fingers. Not too different, but maybe just enough.

So, I start again. Install the clutch and pressure plate. Now, because the clutch alignment tool I used was designed for the smaller pilot bushings, I had to wrap the end with electrical tape to get the required diameter. But it worked. Or I’ll know soon enough when I install the trans.

Bolt up the bellhousing, starter and clutch slave cylinder. Line up the transmission and transfer case combo and slide it in. It goes together MUCH easier the last 1/4 inch. Torque up the four big bolts, and before I put the shifter on, I test the transmission again. With the clutch pedal wedged to the floor, I can barely turn the trans. It isn’t the easiest as small as the output flange is. But movement means it’s good, right?

Slide, hammer and pry the shifter cover back on, install the reverse switch and bolt the t-case shifter back together. I bend the floor panels back to shape with a little hammering just to work out some stress. Good enough. The shift boot for the transmission isn’t great. It’s an aftermarket boot placed too far forward. So I unbolt it and dig out the donor shift boot. It lines up to the rear stock location. Score. The front doesn’t line up because they had cut that section out. So I have a 4×4 hole in the floor in front of the shifter that I’ll need to figure out. The t-case shifter is much easier. It just fits.

Grab the 76 front driveshaft and clean up the caps and grease fittings. Then install and grease. Install the crossmember and skid plate. I get 3 of 4 bolts installed. The fourth? I’ll have to drill a new hole for that one. Three quarters of the bolts are good enough to remove the jack and behold the magnificence of an installed drive train.

Except the 76 rear drive shaft has gone walkabout. I spend way too much time looking for it. Double check the rear axle still attached to the Deuce and it’s definitely 1.5 inches too long. Huh. Give up and go in for dinner.

The next day after work, I head into the garage and start digging around my jeep parts. There are a lot of them, but I’ve been attempting to be smart and boxing parts by vehicle. Sure enough, there in the Humpty Dumpty box is the rear driveshaft. How does a driveshaft fit into a box? It’s only 15″ long. Amazing how short that is.

Throw on the rear axle and finish the crossmember install. Just drilling a new hole in the frame. No big deal. Time to fill up the cases with gear oil. Except that with the skid plate on, there is no way to tighten (or later loosen) the drain plug. Rather than drop the skip plate, I figure it would work better if I drilled an access hole in the skid plate for future gear oil changes. So, make a big hole with metal bits everywhere!

Then it is time to pump gear oil into the trans and t-case. And on the floor. And all over myself. I really need to get a better oil pump.

Since it is now late at night, I decide it’s more diplomatic not to start and test drive the Deuce. My neighbor’s dog already alerts everyone when I go outside.

The next time in the garage, I’m busy with another vehicle but the Deuce keeps calling. Eventually, I break down and start him up. I do this with the transfer case in neutral, just in case the clutch won’t release. And guess what? It doesn’t.

WTF? At this point everything except the flywheel and engine is from Humpty. Even though it feels like the pressure plate is being released, the clutch won’t spin. I’m not using the clutch lever from Humpty, but rather the hydraulic cylinder that was on the Deuce, except I substituted a longer rod to make up the extra distance. While laying under the Deuce with the back tires off the ground, I can actuate the lever as far as it will go, and the wheels still won’t turn the clutch.

At this point, I start researching throw out bearings. It seems there are 8 different sizes. While I had assumed that the one taken from Humpty was correct, I had no proof it was. To move Humpty around, you just threw it in neutral and all was happy. Never had a need to push in the clutch. This was from the same “mechanic” who had blown his freshly rebuilt 304 V8 in 5 minutes. No telling what other horrors lurked on that beast.

I had seen several of these horrors already during the teardown. Bailing wire holding the choke cable together. A pice of a street sign as a firewall plate. Electrical wires twisted around a bare connector. Heck, the frame had been cracked, welded and cracked in another place. Not to mention it was bent. So why did I assume his work was legit. Call me an optimist.

Playing around under the Deuce, it is plain to see that the throwout bearing could be longer. Plenty of room on the relaxed side and it felt like it stopped hard just before the pressure plate completely disengaged.

There is a lot of heavy sighing.

Rather than dive into fixing it immediately, I work on getting my wife’s old Z28 for sale. There isn’t much wrong with it except for a bad window motor, a cracked dash and a dead battery. Need to remove the nest by the air intake. Oh, and throw out a bad O2 sensor once I start driving it.

I also start organizing the garage. Can you tell I’m avoiding the Deuce? Now that I just put up two large 4′ x 12′ storage platforms, I have plenty of storage. Right? I fill them with plastic bins filled with Vixen parts, boxes of jeep parts, lots of spares, and tools that I don’t use that often. They are packed and there is still stuff on the floor. Oh well.

Some of the parts I was moving around were the power steering parts off of Humpty and the original bumper and winch from the Deuce. Why not throw those on? At least least it isn’t pulling the transmission again. Don’t worry, I’ll get to it. When I’m damned ready.

The winch wasn’t too hard to install, yet the control box didn’t want to go back on where I had removed it a few years ago. The biggest issue was figuring out that there was one wiring missing from the setup; the big ground wire from the winch to the battery. I measure it out and add it to my shopping list.

The power steering was interesting. Figuring out where the pump bracket mounted to the engine was easy, just needed a tap run into the threaded holes to remove decades of road crud. Also, one of the water pump bolts needed to be replaced with a double ended stud. Luckily, I had one I had taken off Humpty. And I knew exactly where it was. Up on top of the parts pile on the new shelves. Luckily, I had placed the water pump and all parts in one small box. Easy peasy.

As I removed the Deuce’s original water pump bolt, I notice that it is rusted. Looking as if it sat it water for a while. Hmmm. Maybe they didn’t seal around the pump well. I notice that the pump is already seeping a little. I throw the double ended stud in, hoping it will tighten up.

Getting the whole two piece pump bracket installed is fun, especially since there in an air pump installed on the left inside fender. But miracles of miracles, it all fits. If you consider 1/8″ clearance good. After I get it all snugged up, I assess the fitment. The distributor might need to be rotated and wires swapped as the vacuum advance hose looks like it would go under then over the power steering belt. A couple of plug wires graze the pump bracket leaving the distributor. The fuel supply line and return lines, both hoses, need rerouting. The supply is pushed back way too close to the exhaust manifold, and the return line goes right across where the belt will be.

I also notice that the coolant is still seeping from the left side of the water pump. Great. Do I have to remove it all to reseal the pump? I’ll wait until tomorrow to see if it self heals.

Denial: the most effective human mental coping mechanism.

Looking at fuel lines from various internet pictures, it appears that originally there were hard lines between the pump and the carb. Mine is almost exclusively hose. Hmm. If it needs fixing anyway, maybe I can do it correctly. Maybe.

A week later, I get a couple of days to work in the garage. It’s time to quit ignoring the issue and tackle this transmission. Again.

This is becoming old hat. I can probably do it in my sleep. Disconnect the drive shafts and drop the skidplate/crossmember combo. Pull of reverse switch. Bend the floor sheet metal just right and pull the shifter. I even have a cover to prevent dirt and tools from falling into the trans to throw on. Four more bolts and pull the transmission and transfer case back.

After pulling out the throwout bearing and measuring it, it is already longer than the longest one on the possible throwout bearing list I ran across. Humph.

There is one other thing to try; lengthening the pivot point. This is a small tower that screws into bell housing and has a cup at the top for the throwout arm to pivot around. And the nice part about moving this is that it requires only half the distance that I needed to cover with the bearing. I screw it out, find an appropriate fat washer and reinstall.

I reinstall the clutch slave cylinder and try the clutch. The friction point feels like it is halfway down the pedal. Better than on the floor or way up at the top of pedal movement. The arm looks much better positioned inside the bellhousing. And I can even rotate the clutch disk by hand when the clutch is pressed. This is looking good.

Or at least better.

I check the alignment of the clutch disk with the centering tool. Then I push the trans back in and bolt it up. Again, I check the operation. Clutch out, I can’t spin rear drive flange. Clutch in, and I can! Much more promising than last time.

Time to put it all back together. But, as always, there is something to fix first. When I initially installed the shifter cover, I used my trusty old tube of ultra copper as the color goes well with the jeep. Or whatever, it was the first rtv tube I grabbed. Well, it never cured. When I first applied it, it was a bit cool, but after 4 days, it was seemly more liquid than when I applied it. Did some research and it turns out that can happen to unused rtv that sits around for a while.

You know how rtv loves to stick to everything and not come off? Yup. My whole hands were orange (gloved, thankfully) and I went through a ton of paper towels getting all the old crap off. At some point, I just gave up with some areas having a slightly orange hue to them. At least the gasket surfaces were cleaned.

And then reapply new rtv. This time black. Worked great.

I finish up the re-re-reinstall of the trans and all its components. Should I try it out? Looking at the clock makes me think I should wait just to keep the neighbors for rioting. The Deuce is less than quiet, even at idle. Instead, I’ll look at where I left the power steering install.

The pump is installed, but that is all. Oh, and that coolant leak didn’t magically fix itself. Sigh. Oh well, I’ll tackle all that tomorrow.

First thing I do is locate the power steering box from Humpty. It is filthy, so I scrub it down. This is way more effort than it sounds. I pull the manual box off the mount and put try to bolt up the power box. This is when I realize that the steering shafts aren’t the exact same diameter. Of course not. Leaving the box hanging by one bolt, quickly compare lengths of the existing steering rod and the one off Humpty. I discover that they are the same length, giving a thankful shout.

Unbolt the old, throw on the new and finish installing the power box. One added bonus, the power box and shalf are just about a half inch longer to the u-joint. This helps push the joint off the exhaust! I had been looking at ways to pull the steering wheel up, but this works just as good.

Then I go to install the fittings. Of course, they are so close to the bottom of the radiator, that I can’t install them without removing 2 of the 3 pump bolts. Again. Lines attached, I bolt the pump up a third time and torque it up. Final torque on pressure lines, I hope, and I call it good.

Staring at the front of the motor, I just can’t ignore the water pump seeping. So, time to yank that. Fan, off. Alternator, yoink. Alternator bracket, sigh then pull. Power steering pump brackets, swear, then remove. Hoses? Better drain the radiator first. Doesn’t matter, they all still drool coolant anyways. Oh, and they don’t like coming off. The hose for the heater gets destroyed during removal. The upper hose, the thermostat bypass, looks to have been leaking already. The lower hose eventually gives up.

The water pump is held on by 4 large bolts, 1 of which got pulled when I removed the alternator bracket, and 7 small bolts. The first small bolt snaps off as soon as I put any torque on it. Oh, this is going to be a shitshow. I work the other bolts out slowly. Most come out easily, but one of the bottom bolts starts to become difficult and I just wait for it to snap as I slooowly back it out. After 20 minutes, it is free, but I trash it, just in case it stretched. Inspecting the other bolts, they are all grade 5, expect the one that snapped. Go figure. Luckily, extracting the remainder of the bolt was relatively easy. The previous installer must have just over-torqued and stretched the bolt. Much less of a shitshow than I expected.

Off come the big bolts and the water pump basically falls off. Not a lot of grip there. Whatever gasket they used is now rock hard. It is well stuck to the pump, but definitely not the housing. Now I understand why some of the bolt holes are full of coolant.

The pump itself spins freely and smooth, so I spend the 45 mins scrapping and cleaning up the old hard gasket surface. A big flat file points out a few high spots that get knocked down. Brake clean and wipe both surfaces and ready for RTV. I make sure I have the correct hardware and clean up the threads. Tap all of the holes and blow them out. Reinstall the pump and torque it up.

Digging through my old spares box, I find a prebent heater hose, that if I cut it correctly, can replace both old ones. I thought I had a new lower radiator hose, but nope. And the one from Humpty looks rough. Meh, I can reuse the old one. Throw on the hoses.

Reinstall everything that I yanked off, finishing with the fan. Realize that I have no regular coolant. I’ve got the GM dexcool that gels up. And the Asian stuff for the wife’s Honda. Since my system isn’t 100% drained, I don’t want to mix. So, it’s off to the store.

Get home and fill the radiator. Hey, my feet aren’t wet yet. That’s a good sign. I also fill the power steering reservoir and spin it to bleed the bubbles out. At this point, I realize I have no power steering belt. There should have been one off Humpty, but all I can find is an old fan belt. It would have been smart to get that while I was buying the coolant. Would have.

And once again, it’s late at night so I have to wait until shops open and neighbors are awake. Sigh.

The next morning, I just poke my head into the garage to make sure there isn’t a puddle of coolant on the floor. There isn’t. Mainly because I left a drip pan in a very strategic location. It appears there is coolant leaking from the lower radiator hose at the pump, which drips down onto the new power steering pressure hose and drips into the pan once every 10 seconds.

This was fortuitous as when I attempted to tighten the hose clamp, I saw that the screw head was touching the fan belt. Loosen clamp, rotate away from belt and retighten. The dripping stops. Miracles!

I also notice a couple of power steering drops floating amongst the coolant in the drip pan. Huh. Looking up, I see a drop forming on the low pressure return line to the pump. It does not appear to be coming from the fitting, but seeping from the hose weaving itself. I assume the hose behind the protective weave has a small pin hole. Every time I soak it up, it slowly seeps out again. I’ll just keep an eye on it.

Unfortunately, it’s off the work before I can fire it up. This work thing is really digging into my free time!

Eventually, my weekend rolls around. It just happens to be on a Tuesday. The power steering line is still slowly dripping, but not fast enough to watch. No new coolant! Time to open the garage door and see if all this work comes together.

The Deuce fires up with only a couple taps of the gas pedal. He’s raw and loud. Especially with the header exhaust gaskets leaks. Yes, multiple. I’ll fix those later. He need a bit of gas to idle as the cam it slightly more aggressive than stock, but soon it is popping and banging on its own.

Now, I’d left the rear axle jacked up and the transfer case in neutral to I could try out the clutch without having the jeep move around. The gearbox feels cold and stiff, and doesn’t shift easily, but the clutch feels like it works this time. Score!

Time for the real test. Trying to shift the transfer case into gear and I get some grinding. Push the clutch in and it goes into 2 low easily. Interesting. Let’s let the clutch out. The rear tires spin… But the trans is still in neutral. What?

I double check that, yes, I am still in neutral. And I can push the clutch in and the tires stop moving. Trying to select first gear results in lots of grinding. Second gear complains a little bit but goes in and the tires spin faster. Clutch in, they slow to a stop and clutch out in neutral, they spin again, albeit slowly. It’s as if the manual trans is acting like an automatic, with the output shaft being spun by the input shaft. Maybe I put in the wrong gear oil?

Leaving the Deuce running up in jacks, I jump down and check the gear oil I used. It is the correct weight. Whew! I go back and grab one of the slowly spinning tires and it stops easily. OK.

Slowly, I realize that it has probably been a long, long time since this transmission has spun. Who knows how long it sat with the two previous owners. I had let it sit for over a year.

So I just let it spin around at idle in various gears.

And sure enough, as the fluid warmed up and flowed into all the little needle bearings, the shifting became easier, the grinding stopped (mostly), and the rear tires stopped spinning. Once new fluid was through the entire transmission, it was fine.

The worst thought crossed my mind: what if the clutch was working correctly the first time and it was just this fluid issue. Naw. That would be depressing.

So, finally, I drop the jack and the Deuce is on all four tires again. It goes forward. It goes back. It stops and steers! No coolant spraying everywhere. Only the power steering drips. I’ll call it 95% good and give myself an A.

After a bit, I take it out to a close local dirt trail. The power steering is so nice to have, that I don’t pay any attention to turning at slow speeds. Although, as the engine rocks on the motor mounts, the brackets does hit the air compressor with a light little tap, tap, tap.

The transmission is definitely different with the wider gearing and higher low range, but it works. Yet, as expected, first and reverse are a bit crunchy on shifting due to the condition of the gears. It’s fine.

I do see a little coolant sprayed around the left front wheel well, but it’s due to the previous owners electrical taped lid on the overflow bottle.

Although I’m really happy with the way its running and driving, I do need to address the header exhaust leaks. I hope it’s just a simple gasket replacement. But you know what? I’m not doing that today.

And while it was a cool day for a drive in a vehicle with no real top or sides, it is the warmest it will be for over a week. My next “weekend” it actually snows several inches, rather odd for March in this area.

Oh well, I’ll drive it when it warms up. At least it can go places now!

So, I stand over two sets of transmissions and transfer cases, one each from the Deuce and Humpty Dumpty, the donor jeep. From the 10 foot view, they look identical. Both T18 4 speed transmissions mated to a Dana 20 transfer case. Yeah, as if I am that lucky.

Checking the gears, the Deuce has the much more favorable low first gear, 6.32 vs 4.02. It also has the shorter input shaft, which is better for the short jeeps, but it also doesn’t match up with Humpty’s longer shaft. And the transfer case on the Deuce is also a 2.46 to 1 as opposed to Humpty’s 2 to 1. Rotating both by hand, the Deuce definitely has something wrong with the bearings. Lots of grit and lumps. Whereas the donor parts rotate smoothly.

I am considering throwing the whole Humpty Dumpty setup from the bell housing to the driveshafts into the Deuce just to get it rolling. Then I open the cases up.

The Deuce had a couple of bits of teeth at the bottom, but only a couple of spots where is gears are crunched. Humpty’s however, only has metal shavings in the oil…but the first/second gear sleeve is badly worn. Badly is a serious understatement. It appears that someone just didn’t like waiting to come to a complete stop before attempting to shift into reverse. The entire way around the gear is severely mangled. The reverse gear way down in the case does not look any better. That could not have been a good sound. At all.

So, the Deuce has bad bearings and Humpty has bad gears.

Well shit. My thoughts of Frankensteining one good transmission out of two gear sets are over. I decide to just tear into the Deuce’s parts are rebuild what I need. Later, I can rebuild the Humpty parts for a spare trans. It’ll be much easy that way. I think.

The first obstacle was getting the front bearing off. My gear puller is just not quite long enough to be used with the supplied threaded rods. Like 1/2 inch too short. I can use it if I double up the rods, but then it is almost twice as long as intended. And sure enough, it just leans over just as it starts to tighten up.

I still try it like 12 times.

I even leave them tentioned overnight after drowning the bearing in penetrating oil.

That was using the flat clamshell design puller with two puller rods. I look through my 3 jaw pullers, but they are all too short. I tried to extend the pivot arms on the pullers, but i didn’t have enough scrap metal to make the length I needed. And the two piece arms I attempted to make just failed hilariously.

Off to my favorite cheap tool store and they have a set that is long enough. Of course, the jaws are too deep to fit under the snap ring on the bearing. Take them over to the grinder and after three tries, I get them to fit.

I pull tension on the bearing, but it still just sits there flipping me off. I blast it with more penetrating oil. I torch it with heat. Nothing. So, again, I leave it tensioned all night.

The next morning, I again hit it with the torch and then hit it with the hammer. After 20 minutes, I’m about to give up, but then I notice that there is some minor movement to the bearing. Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking. More heat, more hammering. Oh YES! Definite movement. Crank, hammer, crank hammer. It starts out with sub-millimeter movements, but gains more and more slowly. The last little bit comes out with only cranking the puller.

Three days. There damn days. But I got it off. Sweet. It brings me back from the edge of insanity.

Next up is to remove the reverse lever from the side of the case so you can actually lift the gears out. Knock out the drift pin that hold the pivot in the case and you’re done. Simple, right?

I start knocking the pin through. It gets halfway through and gets stubborn. Slowly starts needing more and more effort to move it. About 3/4 of the way though, it stops. Wtf?

I take a break. I come back the next day and start again. No movement. Frustration. Then the hardened steel punch I’m using snaps off in the hole. Aw, come on!

Maybe I can grab the end of the pin and pull it out. Nope, it just snaps off. Grr. Maybe I can tap the tip of punch out by knocking the pin the opposite way through the hole. This time, just as I’m thinking I’m making progress, the tip of the punch snaps off again.

So now I have two hardened bit of punches stuck in either end of a case with no way to get a purchase on either one. How the hell am I going to get this out?

Drilling it seems to be my only option, but I don’t have the correct bits for the hardened steel of the punch tips. Not to mention the case is much softer, so if the drill bit slips off the punch, it’ll just eat the case.

After another day or two trying to make any progress, I just flip the transmission off and leave the garage.

Fuck it, I’m just going to throw Humpty’s transmission in so I can drive it around. Bad gear and all.

Where’s the Deuce?

So, it’s been a while since the Deuce has seen the outside of my garage. This was due to the rear axle tube being seriously damaged due to sloppy u-bolts. The damage was 4 deep grooves in the axle tubes, the front spring mounts being wallowed out, and the rear shackles being bent. That project had just started with me wanting to replace the shocks and springs.

Initially, I was having trouble finding someone to weld up the axle tube, so I turned to my favorite marketplace, Craigslist. After a few days, I found an axle assembly that would work. Of course, it wasn’t the same gear ratio or a detroit locker, so I figured I would just swap the guts over to the never axle.

And this is where it got complicated and drawn out. I took them both apart, and made a set of setup bearings. I wrote down all the original shims but failed to check the contact pattern of the pinion and ring gears. Using the guides, I adjusted the shims as needed, dailed in the backlash and checked the pattern. It was near the toe on both drive and coast sides, drive was a little high from center and the coast was closer to the root. The pattern was not like anything in the manuals.

Another mistake, I started changing the shims around. I wrote everything down, but the pattern never got better, only worse. Of course, work kept getting in the way. I’d think I’d be making progress, but the stop and start kept messing with my mental organization. The frustration made me avoid the project, as I rarely had enough time to work on it uninterrupted for any length of time.

Time dragged on and I ended up working and driving Homer more and more. So, the Deuce just sat in the garage in pieces, up on jackstands, with no rear axle.

For about a year.

Maybe more.

I’d go back to it every few months. Interpret my notes, make a change, and get frustrated over the results. Repeat.

Then, the year of the pandemic hit. We had a few jeep trips planned, but the weather cut the first one short, and the second was scrubbed due to me finding both rear axle spring mounts cracked. So…time to get at it.

I decided to go back to the original axle housing, all welded up now, and revert back to my original shims and checked the pattern. It wasn’t ideal, but after seeing how the pattern changes with either pinion shim or backlash changes, it wasn’t going to get better. It also matched the pattern I had originally seen on my first setup on the new axle. So, I dialled in the backlash one last time and re-checked the pattern. Then it was time to pull off the setup bearings, press the new ones on and then one…last…final…assembly and torque of everything. It felt good to bolt that rear cover back on.

While I had been struggling with the setup, I had noticed that the end of the axle looked funny. The splines on both of the axles were twisted were they load into the differential. Luckily, I had just bought another axle. Two good axles to use. Might as well replace the rear brake cylinders and they both looked like hell.

Then it is a simple matter of figuring out the drum brake setup with an e-brake cable. There is nothing simple about drum brakes. But I finally figured it out without losing an eye.

And this means I finally get to install the new springs and shocks! Oh wait, there was one minor issue left. The forward spring perches on the frame were both wallowed out due to excessive axle movement. I had to grind down the mushroomed metal, and then weld plates onto the outside of the perches. Then the springs and shocks went on. Hook up the brake lines, bleed the brakes (oh joy) and mount the tires. Once it was down on all 4 tires (yeah!), I torqued the suspension back up.

Throw 5 gallons of gas in the empty tank. Time to start it up.

Attempt one: a lot of cranking until I finally realize that the carb is dry.

Attempt two: prime the mechanical fuel pump and start cranking. This time I smell gas. A lot of it. Just a nice puddle of fuel on the intake manifold. Turned out all of the fuel hose clamps needed to be tightened. Oops.

Attempt three, after waiting for the fuel vapors to disperse: Fired on 3^rd crank and stayed lit. Success!! Drove it out of the garage!

That night I decide to take it into town to grab some dinner. The tires are a bit lumpy from sitting, and also being knobby Super Swampers, but the engine runs fine. There is a little pop now and then in the exhaust, but I know there is an exhaust leak by the headers. I hope that’s all it is.

Seems fine until I head down the big hill. Off-throttle, there is definitely something not right. There is a sound. Not when in neutral and coasting, not when accelerating. It definitely sounds like a bearing that has gone bad. Not sure if it is the transmission or transfer case, but since they come out together, I might as well check them both. Great.

Well, that was fun. After over a year of sitting, the Deuce got to drive 20 minutes and gets taken apart again. Sigh.

Maybe I can swap the trans and t-case from Humpty Dumpty into the Deuce and get it running quickly.

Wanna bet?

With colder temps preventing daily commuting in either Jeep, my boredom leads me to contemplate the suspension. Both CJs ride like a 2×4. I find a company close by that carries the kits I’m contemplating.

This is where I decide to philosophically separate the two Jeeps. Homer will have a small 2.5 inch lift and shocks that work offroad, but nothing extreme. The Deuce will get a 4 inch lift to be more of a rock crawler.

Homer gets the BDS springs with Fox 2.0 Shocks. The shackles I end up with have about half an inch of lift, but I didn’t see any no lift shackles that I liked. Plus with the 33 inch tires, the extra half inch would be appreciated. 

The Deuce got the Skyjacker kit. While not my favorite, it seems one of the few kits that gave 4 inches. Then I got some beefy M.O.R.E. shackles that gave another inch of lift. It all goes with the theme that the Deuce is not and will not be subtle. 

The parts show up very quick, so I tear apart Homer’s suspension and it goes much better than I expected. Several of the bolts look polished from use and wear, but nothing too worn. I can even take the U-bolt nuts off with the impact.

Installing Homer’s new springs and shocks go just as easy. Everything bolts right up with minimal prying. Almost no swearing.

I drop Homer to the ground, torque it all up and take him for a spin. It’s no Cadillac, but man… What a difference. 

I spent two days on the project, one for each end. Just taking my time and making sure everything was right. It was always too easy. 

The Deuce made up for that.

First issue I ran into was the nuts on the shocks. The top nuts on both front shocks were…. wrong. On one side, it was a lug nut. No seriously… a tapered lug nut. At least it was the correct thread pitch. 

Unlike the other side. The PO had forced a standard thread nut on the fine threaded stud. I discovered this when attempting to remove the nut. About halfway off, it just stopped unthreading and spun in place. Luckily, prying behind the shock while lossening the nut forced it off. I was equally luckily that the nut was relatively soft as the threaded stud is welded onto the frame. Running a die down the threads cleaned the remainder of the nut off.

Every U-bolt end had been smashed at one point or another. There was no way the nuts were going to spin, much less off. So, time for the cutoff wheel. So satisfying to utterly butcher something apart. Something metal, I mean. I swear I’m not a sociopath.

After removing the front springs, I assess the old bolts. Amazing. They are heavily worn and several are grooved on both ends. So, good time to replace them. The front goes back together without too much drama. 

Once on the ground I torque the front and grease everything. This is when I realize that my new heavy duty shackles have pressed in, not threaded, grease fittings. I put in a heavy dose of grease…and the fitting stays in the grease gun when I pull it away from the shackle. WTF? Once I realized that there were no threads (while trying to find the correct tap), I just hammered it back on. Like the manufacturer did. My inner engineer screamed the entire time. I’m sure I’ll deal with this issue later, but buts fine now. Just fine.

But the front is down and done and definitely looks like it sits nice and high. Sweet. Onto the rear.

Cue the shit storm.

At least the shocks came off relatively easy and just needed some thread cleanup. I cut the U-bolts off, just like the fronts. Or at least started to. I stopped because it appeared I was cutting into the axle tube… On both sides of the U-bolts. Since I was keeping the deepest part of the cutoff wheel centered in the bolt, I assumed it was just homemade undercoating: a thick layer of grease and dirt. And to a small extent, it was. Once all the dirt was scrapped off, it became painfully obvious that the U-bolt was sunk INTO the axle tube.

OK. What. The. Fuck? 

I decide I can’t stop now but how to remove the bolts without cutting the axle tube. More out of frustration than anything, I smack the bottom (bent) end of the U-bolts with a BFG…. And they actually pop up. Tap them over to the side a bit so they won’t fall back into the groove and finish the cut.

Just baffled, I go to the other side and same thing. There are four DEEP grooves in the top of the axle tubes. Arg. The actual words I spoke typically had a fourth letter. 

Well, the axle needs to come out now. Off come the brake hose, brake backing plate with shoes and all, and then yank out the axles. All relatively straight forward. 

I remove the rear shackles and lay them on the floor. That when I realize how badly bent they are. The side are no longer flat from top to bottom. One side is notably worst, but I didn’t keep track of which side. Moving on. 

As I was loosening the forward leaf spring mounts, I noticed a bit of slop and the bolts themselves had deep, heavy notches in them. No wonder it felt like the back end randomly changed directions. Upon further inspection, the forward mounting holes are no longer round either. So, the bolts exacted some payback for their loss of metal. Great. The holes are bigger on the right half of the mounts, but the left side isn’t the original size either. 

Obviously, the CJ has too much motor. The rear axle was twisting the leaf springs to the right and the axle housing was rocking axlially inside the U-bolts. I should feel lucky the rear didn’t go on its separate way yet. 

With the axle out, I measure the worst groove to be more than halfway through the tube. The other three aren’t that far behind.

I start looking for a Dana 44 rear end housing. 

Did you know that in 1976 AMC decided to use its own rear end in the CJ5? The AMC 20 is known as the axle that everyone yanks out and replaces with a Dana 44 from earlier year CJs. Do you know how hard that makes finding one of the narrow track Dana 44 rear axles?

Let’s just say that there aren’t a lot available, and those that are I would not categorize as inexpensive. Several people mention that it could be welded up. I was worried about putting a lot of heat on just one side of the tube causing it to bend. However, after three weeks of searching for a housing, I fold and call around for a welder. I find a company that repairs big trucks and trailers, and they are comfortable with the job. I take it down and drop it off.

Now, as luck would have it, I found a housing a few days later. It is a few hours away, but I need to head that way for work anyway. Sweet. I check some of the other classifieds and find a transmission, transfer case and overdrive combo from a 1971. Man, what a deal. And work will pay for the trip. Score!

Two day later and I’m picking it up. It’s got an open diff with 3.73 gears. Actually, it has “the stock gears” in it. The old guy didn’t remember which ones, but I figure I’ll swap my detroit locker over with the correct gears anyway. Grab the transmission and t-case assembly that looks like it was dug out of a barn, but it turns over and shifts smoothly. Honestly, at the price I paid, it could have been empty cases and still worth it. Head back home with my new booty. 

Tearing into the “new” axle confirms it is a 3.73 and there is just a tiny bit of surface rust that wipes off easily. Overall, pretty decent shape. I have to wait another week for my old axle to get welded due to some silly family holiday. 

In the meantime, I tear into the transfer case and unbolt the overdrive. So excited… Until I pull it off the back. There are a lot of different configurations of overdrives, but I thought if it fit a 1971, it would be what I needed. Nope. Turns out I bought a T90 trans instead of the T14 that is in my 1971. What that means is that the output spline for the overdrive to mount to is a 6 spline instead of the 10 spline I need. Great. At least it still works great. Maybe someone will trade it for me. So, that project is stalled. 

When I get my old axle back, it doesn’t look too bad, but it just doesn’t give me confidence to wheel it hard. So, time to transplant the diff. 

While looking over both diffs, it looks like the new axle has a bearing cap on backwards, judging by the stamps. It’s on the correct side, but obviously turned around as shown by the inner machining. Ah, bad mechanics. I swear they are here just to make me feel smart. 

I’ve set up a Toyota third member before, but never a Dana 44. While the idea is similar, I will miss not having it up on the bench or being able to dial in the backlash. Shims are easy, right? 

I make a set of setup bearings, which actually goes quite well. It just makes everything gritty. I clean everything as best I could, but I do live in the desert with sand always finding a way in. 

After 4 attempts at setting pinion placement, multiple adjustments of the backlash, and checking the wipe pattern, I’m no closer to getting a pattern I like. Heck, I haven’t even seen the pattern on any of the example patterns. So I decide to use the “OEM shim thickness” as provided by the gear company that sold me the master rebuild kit. Here’s a fun note: there are multiple sources that given setup numbers for a Dana 44, all with slightly different numbers. Great. That doesn’t confuse me at all.

It’s been two weeks of half-hearted attempts to get the ring and pinion dialed in, and then I bail on it for a while. Family visits and time off work for traveling.

So, the Deuce runs now, but with a few concerns. I decide to take her on another shakedown run… to work. It is only 15 or so miles. What’s the worst that can happen?

You know how well that worked out last time. Yes, I am using one of the most human abilities: denial. I’m just going to ignore all the things that I know are wrong and see if I can discover new ones.

I do make sure that the new fire extinguisher in under the driver seat. And I take extra gas and a jug of water. Just in case. My standard bug out bag in loaded and I wear some good hiking shoes. As the Boy Scouts taught me well; be prepared. At least this time.

The thing about when you first start driving a piece of shit vehicle is that you pay extra attention to everything; every noise, every vibration, every smell. Well, the Deuce has a whole lot going on at once. Soon, we will engage denial and ignore it all, happily cruising around until something breaks. But for the time being, it can be nerve racking.

Is that new? How are the gages? Is that a happy engine noise? What is that vibration when I lift and turn left? How are the gages? Is that the road or is something important about to fall off? Gages? Can I even trust the gages?

All in all, it was a successful trip. I made it to work with the temp below 200F the entire way. The oil pressure started on the high side, but eventually dropped to my expected range. If I am going to continue driving it on payment, I need to inflate the tires a little for those 65mph S-curves on the way to work. But I’ll take the win! 

Just to give me a heart attack, a customer came into the shop and mentioned that our dumpster out back was smoking. Now, I know they said dumpster, but my brain immediately went to CJ ablaze! It isn’t that big of a stretch.

I went out back and indeed our recycle dumpster on fire. The Deuce lurked in the background like the other gawking tourists as we watched the fire department quickly douse the dumpster. The flames were luckily 20 feet away from my plastic gas can.

On the way home, when an air temperature of 99F, she got up to about 207F while driving 65mph in traffic. I slowed to 55mph and the temp dropped. Eh, driving it at 65 was a bit taxing anyway.

Back at home, I noticed that the radiator cap was from a bygone era and that the radiator wasn’t mounted well. There were air gaps on all sides of the radiator, the mounting was the bare minimum at 2 bolts, and there was no radiator shroud. I put some foam all around the radiator to make the air go through the radiator. I removed the winch off the front as I wasn’t planning on using it soon… not to mention that the fairlead was mounted to the other front bumper. I planned to leave the current towing bumper installed for quite some time.

When picking up a new radiator cap, I learned that my old 7psi cap wasn’t stock. I would feel much more confident with the new stock pressure 16psi cap installed.

Continuing to ignore several issues yet gaining confidence in the reliability, I decide to drive the Deuce around more often. I actually take it up to the cabin, the original intent of the vehicle. It does good enough, at least in respect to the cooling. It was over 100 degrees F at home and as I drove up the steep inclines, the temp topped out at 205F and then dropped when we got to the level areas. The suspension was rocketing up my list to fix. With blown shocks and ungreased shackles, it was a stiff, bouncy ride and my spleen was demanding something more compliant. I drove about half the speed I usually go with my modern JKU. Or less.

A few other little things were noticed. After a while, I could tell there was exhaust gasses getting to the driver’s seat. The rear diff needed a pinion seal as it slowly leaked. The steering could use a bit of inspection.

But she made it there and back. And actually made it to work and back the next day. And a couple days later.

Well, life happens. With the Deuce running, and somewhat reliably, I continued to drive it around. I did little things, such as ordering a fuel gage that actually is made to work with my sending unit. It only got lost in the mail for a week.

The exhaust leak on the right front header to block is getting to the point I can’t ignore it. But I do. I mean, I can see where is gasket is blown out. That will be an easy fix, right?

With the rear axle leaking from the pinion seal, I head down to my friendly autoparts store, pick one up and wait until I have a few minutes before work some morning. After prying the old seal out, I clean it all up and notice that the seal doesn’t look exactly the same. Compared to the old one, it appears to be a smaller diameter. The test fit confirms this as it falls into the hole and rattles around. Great.

I head back down the next free day and ask for another pinion seal, but “not the first one”. The guy pauses, looks down further and finds it. Seems that the part I need isn’t listed under a Dana 44, but the 44-M or 44-HD. The seal should fit either one, their system says. I’m not confident in their system. I think the wrong seal might actually fit Homer instead, so I keep it.

Get back home and go for the quick install. The seal doesn’t quite want to go back in. There are two spots it hangs on. Sure enough, there are tiny burrs that I dress with a file. Seems to do the trick. It didn’t go in smooth, but it went in and didn’t leak afterwards. I’ll call it a win.

Back to ignoring several issues, I continue to drive it around. I’ve run up almost 500 miles and it is (still) functional. More than that, it is a hoot to drive. I’ve started to just accept most of the current issues. It bangs, it rattles, it jumps over bumps but it is just plain fun.

We took the bikini top off and enjoyed a night ride with the Milky Way over our shoulders. Sure, the windshield rattles a lot more and I notice that the windshield clamps are crap; of the 6 bolts holding the 2 top pieces to the windshield frame, 3 are present and the rest are broken off and painted over. It takes less than 2 minutes to reinstall the bikini top, so that makes night driving fun. Just need a good way to store it while driving.

Coming home from out post-midnight Milky Way ride, I finally decide that the exhaust leak is getting too loud to ignore…at least for my neighbors. So I order some exhaust manifold gaskets and head to the garage to pull the headers off. All of the bolts are loose. Two are not even finger tight. Now, I can understand that near there would be loose bolts where the gasket was blow out, but not one single bolt needs two hands on the ratchet.

Needless to say, it is easy to undo. The bolts practically fall off. While undoing the header collector to the muffler flange, I inspect the rest of the short exhaust system. I notice, not for the first time, that the rear of the Muffler is attached to a solid metal L-bracket. At least it is a single bolt up into the body to give it some degree of movement when the engine rocks on the motor mounts. Just not enough for my liking. Put that on a list of things to change.

As I pull back the headers, there is one cylinder on each side that shows white in the exhaust port. Great. The exhaust manifold gaskets show that there were leaks at just about every cylinder, not surprisingly given the lack of bolt torque. While trying to figure out how to approach the problem, it hits me. Just pull the damned motor. I have a hoist and a stand and I should probably inspect both the top and bottom ends. So why not? It’s not like it is complicated. My brain mocks me by thinking “Sure, an easy exhaust manifold gasket swap, huh?”

So, do I pull the motor? Naw, back to denial time. Throw the exhaust header back on and ignore the rest. For now.

That night after work, we grab the tow bar from home and drag the Deuce back to its garage spot. It is now 3 to 1 on towing versus driving home.

Assuming that the hose that was crushed developed a leak, I grab some fuel hose while in town. The old hose ends were cracked and I have already trimmed back the ends on every piece. I did my usual check from the carb back, and every line is dry. Check the gas gage and it is just below half tank. The gage even wobbles as I hop out.

Did I mention that the shocks need replacement? It wobbles like jello when I jump out.

At the fuel pump, I pull the hose and put on a hand pump. Nothing. Seems to support the leaky line, or a bad pickup unit. Drop the left side and the tank. I’m really getting good at that. Pull the hose and plug the hand pump onto the outlet. Nothing. Must be the pickup. Great. Only that isn’t the word I used.

I disconnect everything and prepare to drop the tank completely. Just before lowering it, I drop the pickup of the hand pump into the filler neck to empty the tank. I get nothing. Huh? Is this pump working? Pull the suction end out, which is wet with gas, put my finger over the end and the pump works fine. OK. I get that annoyed feeling.

I drop the tank the rest of the way and don’t feel any sloshing. More than an annoyed feeling.

Loosen the sending ring and pull out the sending unit. There is less than 1/4″ of fuel in the bottom corner. Sure sheathing hatred.

Stop laughing Brian.

I should explain: Brian was my college roommate and we were best men at each other’s weddings. I’d call him my best friend, if guys had such things. It is a rather emotionally abusive relationship. At least it goes both ways.

Back when I worked for GM, I bought the cheapest S10 I could to drive to work, as the union workers didn’t share my affinity of foreign cars. While still under warranty, it sat in my driveway and refuse to start. I had it towed to the dealership only for them to tell me it was out of gas. Meanwhile, the gage happily indicated 1/4 tank. It was a known issue and they replaced the sending unit under warranty with a new, better part.

Or so they claimed. Several months later, it happened again, this time while driving. Let’s just say Brian thought this was hilarious. Like gasping for air, can’t talk, thinks he broke a rib funny.

His point was that we all know GM makes junk and that I trusted their gage… Twice. After that, I used the trip odo religiously.

I can not tell Brian that I just ran out of gas. Nope. In fact, I don’t think he knows that I bought a second CJ at this point. He’s going to have a field day.

At least there were some good points in dropping the tank. I can see that the return line brazing is cracked on top of the tank. The electrical connection to the level sensor is loose through the top of the sending unit. The fuel hose was getting old enough to replace.

Otherwise, I’m frustrated by not thinking of it sooner. Stupid gages. At least I can double check the gage before reinstalling everything and only relying on hope.

I decide to get a new sending unit after removing the old one. It looks old and used up, not to mention the cracked return tube. Get the parts on order and do my best to vent the garage of gas fumes. But I’m still fuming.

While waiting for the parts fairy to show up, I test the gages. The stock gage does not have the right resistance, but then neither does the aftermarket gage. Great. I can make due until I find a gage with the right resistance. A quick internet search finds the same style as the one installed in my dash but with the correct resistance… and it is a completely different part number. Nice going PO.

When the sending unit arrives, I hook everything up and tighten the gas tank into place. Per my dad’s great suggestion, I refrain from installing the gas tank skid plate until I know it works.

While I was hooking everything up, I decided to change the oil. It was too late to fire this beast up without changing my neighborly status from “redneck” to “annoying redneck”. The oil looked clean enough from when I bought it, and I assumed the PO changed if before selling it, but I wanted to start fresh with a known oil.

Ever have one of those oil changes that just doesn’t go right at all? Yep, it was one of those. I pulled the plug and got the pan drained without a spilled drop. At this point, I should have emptied my nearly full drain pan, but naw, the filter only drips a little.  Right? 

I put some cardboard down and scooted the pan into place. Reach up and grab the filter… It ain’t budging. Arg. This is definitely one of my pet peeves. Just oil the new gasket a little and don’t over tighten the filter. How hard is that? But I am prepared and have the filter cap wrenches. As I reach up, the ratchet falls off the cap wrench and performs a decent dive into the full oil pan. Only a little oil goes everywhere.

Laugh it off and try again, but the motor mount is in the way. While trying to get at the filter, two fun things happened. I managed to slosh a quart of oil over the edges of the pan moving it around. Chalk it up to be tired. Thank goodness for the cardboard. The second is not oil related. Trying to find a better angle to loosen the filter, I tried reaching in from the top.

At this point, I’ll revisit the wiring situation for you. The PO had installed a 12 circuit fuse block and wire harness. Some wires must have been too short because near the terminal there would be 3 splices and 4 wires, sometimes multiple colors. Fun stuff. The wires were not the worst I have ever seen, but it merits an honorable mention spot. I had already removed the coil and electronic control module it in lieu of a single wire HEI setup, which removed a lot of wire mess.

So back to the point that I am reaching for the oil filter from behind the alternator from the top. Suddenly, it’s the Fourth of July. I don’t remember pulling my hand back, but I was all good. No burnt hair or anything.

At this point, no strands of wire were left connected, only a thin charred string of insulation and a nice welding ghost on the header. Hey, that explains why the battery wasn’t charging!

Quickly disconnect the battery and investigate. It seems the power wire from the alternator to the positive battery side of the starter solenoid was twice as long as it needed to be and had rested up against the exhaust header. Needless to say, the wire insulation was no match for the heat of the header.

I take off dead wire and get back to the oil filter. Wiring can wait.

For removing the oil filter I have another alternative, the gripper style wrench. I hate using it as it crushes the filter can and I was planning on cutting the filter open. Luckily, it takes the filter off without crushing the filter too much.

As I take the filter off, the motor mount gives it a high five in passing, causing it to slip out of my oily fingers and swan dive into the full oil pan. A belly flop is a good description. There is now oil 3 feet in every direction, except where my face stopped the splatter.

At this point, I can only laugh. With my mouth closed.

After cleaning up the Exxon Valdez II, I finish up installing the new filter and filling the crankcase.

I scrounge around and make a new, much shorter alternator wire. While installing it, I also clean up the existing wiring with electrical tape, conduit, and copious amounts of zip ties. All in all, I am happy with all the progress I’ve made, ignoring the effort expended to get there, and can’t wait to see if she runs in the morning.

I wake up all hopeful and do a check double check on everything I touched. It was a late night. With everything looking good, I try to start her up. Crank. Crank crank. Crank crank crank. Nothing.

I pull the fuel hose at the pump and it is dry, but it was also a little loose. Huh. I check all the other hose clamps, and they are all a little loose. Just loose enough to suck air.

I purposely hadn’t over tighten them, as the PO had and caused one of them leaked where the hose clamp cut through. I expected the new hose to set a bit, but didn’t expect them to be that loose. Lesson learned about new rubber taking a set.

It was all easy to tighten… Except the two on top of the tank. Had to drop the left side of the tank… Again. But after it is all retightened and bolted back together, we try again.

Crank. Crank crank. Crank crank… Vroom! Haha hahaha! What a lovely sound. Not my maniacal laughter, but the motor. I back the Deuce out of the garage and let her idle. Check under the hood and back by the gas tank and no drops, drips or sprays anywhere.

Before the wife heads off to work, I throw an empty gas can in the back and drive to the gas station. It actually makes it down and back, running well. I am stoked. But will it keep running?

Later that afternoon, I decide to risk a little trip and head up into the hills for a hike. It would be nice to purposely take a hike instead of being forced into it by a broken CJ.

It was a wonderful hot summer afternoon for a drive up to cooler temperatures with a beautiful sunset coloring the rocky cliffs out here. Just the perfect evening. That’s not saying that The Deuce was perfect, but she got me home.

Issue 1: it ran a bit hot after a while, enough to boil out some coolant out the overflow bottle, although I had overfilled the system and it was 102F out. Issue 2: As I pulled into my neighborhood, and heard a distinct metal “tink!” from the suspension that I will have to investigate. Issue 3: it pops and bangs on downhill deceleration. Running too rich? Issue 4 which occurred after I got home and cut open the oil filter: glitter.

Well, that was fun. Seems that I’m not quite done yet. Not that I expected to be.

One question I always get is: how do you tell them apart? Now I understand how the parents of fraternal twins feel. I swear it is easy.

The Deuce sits higher, has black fender flairs, comically knobby tires, a double roll cage hoop, and somehow just looks… angrier? Homer just looks like he is out to have some fun.

When I finally got the two CJ jokers side by side in the garage, I slowly started to understand just how different they really were. Almost nothing important really matched up. Seems I bought a late early-CJ5 and an intermediate CJ5. While quite a bit of hardware can mingle on both sides of the garage, most of my issues seem to highlight all the differences.

Here are some of the differences I noticed initially:

• Axles. They both have Dana 44s in the rear, but the diff is centered on the 75 and offset right on the 71.
• Steering systems, Homer’s is mounted by the firewall while the Deuce’s is up in front of the axle, however both are sloppy
• Pedals, lower vs upper pivot
• Master cylinder, frame rail vs firewall
• Engine, obviously, which all the accessories including cooling
• Heater, Homer has none

Here are the similarities :

• wheels/tires
• front bumper (important!)
• seats, maybe

Beyond the mechanical differences, they acted very differently. While they both wandered down the road, due to worn out parts, the steering felt rather different.  Homer was lighter and more nimble where the Deuce felt as big as she looks. Both were non-power steering boxes, so slow steering was tough. Luckily, the stock giant steering wheels helped.

The original suspensions were both shot. Stiff, old leaf springs and dead shocks. Both rode like skateboards. Hard on the kidneys. They just bounced down the road and would randomly change directions after hitting bumps.

The Deuce had the added benefit of wobbling like a top when you got out. And while you drove. It was fun, in a drunken boat ride kind of way. Since a few of the body mount were rotten, that probably didn’t help.

The Deuce had a ton more power with the V8 vs the V6. It would just leap out of the way. Homer was definitely slower but that was greatly improved after the carb rebuild and actually setting the timing. Still, it was nothing compared to the Deuce’s 304. Too much power and random steering changes added a rather kamakazi approach to passing people.

For brakes, they both initially sucked. Of course, they might be better when adjusted right. Luckily, both would slow down greatly just off throttle. And they both behaved much better after repairs.

Now for the seat-of-the-pants feel… literally. The seats in Homer were low backed and caused a bit of back pain where the seat ended. Some of that was due to where the seat was mounted. As far back as possible, but sitting high the adjusters. So I removed the sliders and mounted the seat lower. That helped the steering wheel to gut distance, but made my knees stick up rather high. Oh well, it was slightly better. Meanwhile, the Deuce had higher mid-back seats. Which would be more comfortable if they weren’t worn out.

When it comes down to it, they are both fun to drive. The Deuce is definitely more aggressive and takes a bit more focus. Homer likes going slower, mainly due to the gearing. They both put a smile on my face.