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71 Wheeling Rig

Discussion in 'Builds and Fabricators Forum' started by Fireball, Jan 18, 2021.

  1. Jul 1, 2021
    Boyink

    Boyink Super Moderator Staff Member

    Tulsa, OK
    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2002
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    6,193
    Factory optional.
     
  2. Jul 1, 2021
    jzeber

    jzeber Well-Known Member 2022 Sponsor

    Morgan Hill, Ca
    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2003
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    3,322
    I was watching a video of one of the Ultimate Adventures and all of the Jeep guys laid bags of ice on the floorboards while driving in the heat.
     
    Puddle Jumper and Fireball like this.
  3. Jul 1, 2021
    Ol Fogie

    Ol Fogie 74 cj5 304, 1943 mb

    Southern...
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    Nov 24, 2019
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    1,765
    :rofl:
     
  4. Jul 19, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
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    Feb 9, 2018
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    I had some minor vapor lock issues when wheeling with ITLKSEZ and tomasinator a couple weeks ago in 88 degree weather. It was fine until you started crawling around the rocks in low range. That was fine too but afterwards when you tried to get back up to speed the Jeep would bog and run out of fuel when trying to accelerate. If you let it sit and cool it would recover. If you could keep it moving without getting into the bog it would eventually cool off from the extra air flow and recover too. That was the only time I hit it; speeding up after going really slow.

    The long term plan is fuel injection and I'm not fond of wheeling on hot days, so I'm not going to do an elaborate fix for this issue. Instead, I spent $10 and 45 minutes insulating the fuel lines from the tank where they pass over the engine. The aren't near anything else hot for the rest of their routing. Don't know if this will solve the issue, but it can't hurt.

    Newly insulated lines over the top of the engine:
    [​IMG]

    And also down the front between the distributor and the power steering pump. That was nearly impossible to do, but I manged to get it in there. You can barely see it in this picture:
    [​IMG]
     
  5. Jul 23, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2018
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    5,625
    Every time I go wheeling with ITLKSEZ he tells me a brake/turn light is out. Then I check it and it's working. I was beginning to think he was having some fun with me but if I wiggled the wires in the fenderwell I could get it to go off.

    Upon further investigation, the sockets in the lights weren't making good contact. I fixed the driver's side only to find the passenger side light lens was cracked and the PO glued it in place:
    [​IMG]

    So much for fixing that. It's an old NAPA light that's no longer available. Some day I want to do flush mount lights but don't feel like picking the perfect set of lights and cutting big holes in hte body right now. I found a cheap set of metal-housing surface mounts lights from e-trail.com and stuck them on the Jeep tonight.

    They also came with the added bonus of a license plate light for the driver's side. The Jeep didn't have one previously and I was going to install one of those license plate bolt LED lights but this doesn't require any extra wiring:
    [​IMG]

    I did find a poor crimp on one of the old connectors I didn't replace when I cleaned up the wiring a while back. I replaced that and then wrapped the tail-light plugs in stretch-and-seal electrical tape to keep water/dirt out.
    [​IMG]

    The new lights work and stay working when you wiggle the wires. Good enough until I figure out some flush mount lights in the future:
    [​IMG]
     
    dozerjim, Muzikp, blalp! and 8 others like this.
  6. Jul 23, 2021
    Puddle Jumper

    Puddle Jumper Rattle Can Master Painter

    Camas, WA
    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2020
    Messages:
    137
    Those look pretty close to what is on my 58, looks great.
     
    Fireball likes this.
  7. Aug 10, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2018
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    5,625
    I had fixed the horn a while ago, but it died when honking at this thing to get it out of the driveway:
    [​IMG]

    I tracked it down to me mis-assembling things when I put the Grant adapter horn stuff together. The instructions aren't super clear and I was missing the original GM pluger. According to the instructions, you remove the factory horn plunger from the GM slip ring and use it with a spring and a wire that hooks to the Grant horn button. I assembled it without the plunger and had the spring making contact between the slip ring and the button on the end of the wire. The instructions suggest the same thing but with the GM plunger. Either way, the spring was in the electrical path and turned into a resistance heater when I used the horn too long. It melted the tower off the slip ring:
    [​IMG]

    The spring was pushing against this terminal and was taking all the electrical load:
    [​IMG]

    I undid the terminal crimp, slid a new spring over the wire and soldered the terminal back on the other way around. Now the spring pushes the terminal against the slip ring and isn't in the electrical path. Here's the modified assembly with the new slip ring:
    [​IMG]

    ...and Hooray, the horn works again. It's louder too with less resistance in the circuit.

    The backup lights haven't worked on this Jeep since I bought it and it hasn't been a priority. I was laying under it tonight looking at the back-up light wire routing so I can match it on the '69 and I decided I should make them work on this Jeep too while I'm at it. The harness to the transmission switch was unplugged and zip-tied to the frame rail. I checked voltage and had nothing to either wire with the ignition on. After getting my fat old carcass under the dash, I found the green/white wire and fuse I was looking for. The fuse checked fine, but there was no voltage to it. After lots of trials, tribulations, and painful under dash excursions, I figured out the terminal on the ignition switch is inactive. I'm not sure why, but I moved it to a different terminal I knew worked and had power.

    Then I had voltage at the transmission connector and the lights worked if I jumpered it. All I had to do was plug the connector on the switch.....

    What a pain in the rump. The floorboards are bed-linered so pulling up the transmission cover is a project I didn't want to tackle tonight. Rater than do that, I struggled for 20 minutes in the 1.5 inch gap above the transfer case and finally got it plugged in!. The picture is terrible, but it's where the green wires are:
    [​IMG]

    Whoohoo! :bananatool::
    [​IMG]

    I'm not sure is this if from reaching up under the dash or over the transfer case, but sacrifice was required:
    [​IMG]

    Man this little stuff takes so much time to fix.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2021
  8. Aug 16, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2018
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    Since the days are getting shorter and we really enjoy our evening Jeep rides I decided to upgrade to LED headlights on the '71. I still wanted it to look vintage though.

    These guys sell light kits that are basically Hella H4 housings and LED H4 bulbs:
    They even have lenses with the 3 aimer nubs on them. However, they are kind of expensive at $209 for the VCm3 set I was looking at. I ended up buying empty Hella housings and what look like the identical LED bulbs from Amazon for about $90.00 total:
    [​IMG]
    I trimmed the gasket to fit around the LED bulb:
    [​IMG]

    Installed:
    [​IMG]

    They have flatter faces than the old sealed beam bulbs, but look good enough for me:
    [​IMG]

    They seem to work fine during our evening drive, but it wasn't that dark out yet:
    [​IMG]

    They have a nice hard low-beam cutoff with a little sweep up to the right. They should be safe for oncoming drivers:
    [​IMG]

    I'm too tired tonight, but tomorrow night after dark I'll aim them and try them out.
     
    Rubicloak, Ol Fogie, blalp! and 4 others like this.
  9. Aug 17, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2018
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    After some adjustment, here's what the new lights look like.

    Low beam:
    [​IMG]

    High beam:
    [​IMG]

    Bright for sure but the jury is still out on the LEDs. The low beam cut-off is so sharp because the LED bulbs without any bleed-over to the other side o the reflector you have to aim them pretty high to see anything going into a dip. Then you run the risk of blinding oncoming drivers on low and the high beams end up way too high in the air. I may revert to standard Halogn H4 bulbs and relays instead. Time will tell.

    On a good note, I'll mostly be driving the thing on deserted gravel roads after dark and not on the highway.
     
  10. Aug 17, 2021
    Norcal69

    Norcal69 Out of the box thinker 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Northern California
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    You might take a look at the mounting flange on the LED bulb. Allot of them have a provision to clock the mounting flange which changes the light pattern a bit.
     
  11. Aug 17, 2021
    Puddle Jumper

    Puddle Jumper Rattle Can Master Painter

    Camas, WA
    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2020
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    137
    I have gone to LEDs in all of my rigs, I don't think I could go back to halogen lights so dim compared to LED. :bananatool:

    Although I do need to adjust mine in the Jeep, they are a little wonkey, but I don't drive it in the dark either.
     
  12. Aug 17, 2021
    ITLKSEZ

    ITLKSEZ Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

    Liberty Lake, WA
    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2015
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    6,656
    All who put LED headlights in old jeeps are hereby shunned. :madwife:
     
    Danefraz, Rubicloak, Twin2 and 2 others like this.
  13. Aug 17, 2021
    Norcal69

    Norcal69 Out of the box thinker 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Northern California
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    Ol Fogie and givemethewillys like this.
  14. Aug 17, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
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    They aren't all bad from a functional standpoint. These Truck-lite built as an LED lighst are fantastic and fully DOT approved:
    They just don't look right on an early CJ5.
     
  15. Aug 17, 2021
    ITLKSEZ

    ITLKSEZ Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

    Liberty Lake, WA
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    6,656
    :madwife:
     
  16. Aug 17, 2021
    duffer

    duffer Rodent Power

    Bozeman, MT
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    Sep 17, 2009
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    My big question is whether or not any of the LED headlights will fit within the depth of our CJ buckets and even if so, does one still need to cut the back off anyway for cooling? I have KC's LED's in the JK and it was an amazing difference over the stock headlights. But JK headlight mounts are open back.
     
  17. Aug 17, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
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    This setup fits the buckets without modification. These particular H4 LED bulbs have the same footprint as a standard H4 Halogen bulb. Time will tell if there are cooling issues. I ran them for about 40 minutes driving the other night without issue, but don't know about longer term durability.
     
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  18. Aug 18, 2021
    Puddle Jumper

    Puddle Jumper Rattle Can Master Painter

    Camas, WA
    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2020
    Messages:
    137
    I have run H4 LEDs in my FJ cruiser for the last 4 years, and not had any issues with them lasting, and they are the same size as a halogen bulb, the ones I put in the Jeep are the same ones I have put in my 80 Toyota pickup and my FJ, I have been super happy with it and they are cheaper than a quality H4 halogen bulb too.
     
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  19. Aug 19, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
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    The glove box door latch is broken in the '71 like most of them seem to be. I put a repo in the '69, but it doesn't have the cool styling of the original.

    I pulled the old latch for the '69 apart to see what's up.

    A very complicated pot metal peice has snapped in half:
    [​IMG]

    The actual cross sectional area where it broke is tiny. It seems like a bad design:
    [​IMG]

    I don't think this will work, but I've glued it together with JB Weld. Once this round dries, I'll add more to get as much cross-section as I can and the file away the minimum to get it to work:
    [​IMG]
     
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  20. Aug 23, 2021
    Fireball

    Fireball Well-Known Member 2024 Sponsor 2023 Sponsor 2022 Sponsor

    Pullman, WA
    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2018
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    ...and the expected results when trying to assemble it with the spring:
    [​IMG]

    :cry:

    It was worth a tray. I'll have to try to grind/file one of out steel but it's a small complicated part and I won't have time for that any time soon.
     
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