Picked Up A 71 For A Buddy Of Mine......

Yeah I noticed your just up the road. That would be a blast I've been dying to do some vintage iron runs. And the sheet metal aspect doesn't worry me too much. More worried about clutch linkage and driveshafts lol

 

Yes James?
If we get something together you would be welcome to join us. Of course you would have to get permission from Steve and 1969Jeeper

 

Haha the more the merrier

 

That's good , I'm yet to see any decent car / booster seat that provides adequate protection for that quick head / neck side to side , for and aft movement that can happen just about anytime regardless of the terrain in a Jeep............takes some age / time for those little guys to develop the neck muscles needed to control that noggin from moving around....

 

My children all went wheeling while in car seats we strapped them in and padded the sides by thier melons with foam. If you are aware of them and drive accordingly it’s all good. They all loved it and still go.

 

I know what you mean. I would like to see 3 Simpson racing car seats in there or something like this if they were going hard wheeling.
Children's Racecar Seat: Custom Made Youth Race Seat by The Joie of Seating
Randy LaJoie builds the best seats hands down. You can fall asleep upright in them.

 

Finally got rid of those ugly black wagon wheels. Steve went with 33x10.50's, they should pair nice with the Rocky road Yj spring kit that's due to arrive any day.
A 33" tire wont fit on the Kayline spare tire carrier, so that will probably end up being build similar to mine.

 

I forgot to mention that the increase to 33" tires pairs up very nice with his 3.31 gears. Steve can now pull hills in 3rd gear, 55mph @ roughly 3,200 RPM. Shift to fourth for cruising on the freeway at 2500 RPM @ 70mph. Sm420 trans makes up for the highway gears when off road.

 

My kids have all wheeled with me starting around 2 or 3 depending on size. My big Zeke (3) goes a lot in his car seat, with padding, but I don't do anything wild with him in the Jeep. Mostly logging roads, hunting camp trails and such. If I'm going to climb something or beat the Jeep hard on an obstacle, my wife Kim and Zeke will get out. Even when my Anastasia (7) and Alekczander (10) go, I make them get out if something looks hairy. My son CJ (14) drives a lot when we wheel, so he's OK.

 

We installed a RR spring kit on Steve's 71 on Sunday. Yup, we did the whole thing in one day. From the time we jacked it up to sitting it back down, it took us 3 hours to do the rear and 4 hours to do the front. Some of you have wondered about the Rocky road YJ spring kit and your saginaw steering box conversions.
Of course no two saginaw swaps have been installed in the exact same location, but here is how his came out. The steering box plate is an Advance Adapters for a manual saginaw; which I added an extra ear to for the fourth bolt. Both of our steering boxes are mounted back far enough that the power steering hoses are hidden behind the grill. Next item on the list is tie rod flip.

 

I'm coveting that RR YJ spring kit... big time

 

I will post pics and a ride report when we get a chance.

 

How did the rear shackle angle come out? My body is still off the frame but the rear shackles are leaning in toward the front quite a bit. Has me scared that they might never settle back to where they should be.

 

They are pretty much straight up right now. I think that one we get his rear tank installed and new tire carrierthat they will settle down. Over all it’s too high is you ask me. He went with the medium heavy springs.

 

Here are some shots of Steve's jeep with the RR yj spring kit installed and his 33x10.50's. We took it for a test drive and it was down right dangerous at anything over 40 mph. We stuck 6 degrees of caster in it and that improved the steering, but it is still pretty hairy. Next project is a tie rod flip, which should fix the bump steer and help with the handling issues. After that is finished we are working up a home brew sway bar setup.

 

Now that Steve's jeep is about 3" taller, I'd swear that my wife shrank my pants...... Definitely needed some help getting in and out.
I wish that I could say that I built these my self, butt all I cut was the 3" angle iron. the rest was contracted out...





From there we went on to the steering. First order of business was bumpsteer. A tie rod flip got the steering arms almost perfect.









This is the third tie rod flip that I have done. Takes me about 1 hour from getting the jack out to finish now. I like to heat up the steering arm just a little so that it doesn't pull the heat out of the weld. Not cherry red, but too hot to touch. There is a teaser shot of the swaybar disconnect in the 4th pic. I gotta get pics in the day light.

 

Been a while since we updated this thread.
In anticipation of the upcoming rubicon trip, Steve wanted to upgrade his cooling system. He purchased the champion CC7071 unit. CJ5 CJ6 Radiator (70-71) Buick V6
His jeep came with a 17" fan installed and the shroud had been hacked by the previous owner. The shroud however slipped right on to the radiator. Only thing we had to do was remove the 1.5" fan spacer that was installed by the PO.

As far as the radiator goes, all bolt holes were in the proper location and it was about a 1 hour job for the two of us. I cannot say how this would work with the stock fan.

 

Steve has 4 kids...... going forward he wanted to make sure that he could pull himself out..... I'm hilarious, even my wife laughed at that joke.

I cut the upper portion of the Rocky Road spring hanger off and welded them on. The previous owner did a number on the rails, winch brackets make it look a lot better. I love using these weld nuts......


We started off with a piece of 4"x4"x1/4" box tubing and cut it in half.



Universal winch plate from amazon. Punched a hole for the steering box adjustment.



Welded both the top and bottom of the plate to the side brackets. Excuse the tachometer wires, I was checking the timing.





Steve got called out on a semi truck tow. I went and broke the one of the jeepers commandments....... Thou shall not mount a fellow jeepers winch while he is at work.......



Only a couple more things to do before the Rubicon trip. Steve has been dailying the jeep to get the bugs worked out.

 

One more check off Steve's list before the rubicon trip. I added these so that Steve could utilize 4 point harnesses. I still have to add a tab for the belts. The bars angle upwards so that his kids can climb in the front of the jeep and walk to the back. Over the past couple days I put 50 or so miles on Steve's jeep. While the Rocky Road Yj spring kit rides better than the stock springs, it doesn't even come close to the comfort that my jeep has with my own custom yj spring install.
We have the exact same springs, same front shock valving, and sway bar.