Ewan's 79 CJ-5 restoration project

Engine installed!

 

Flywheel back from the machine shop and installed.



New Luk clutch and pilot bearing installed.

 

Bellhousing, clutch fork and slave cylinder installed. I did manage to get one shock installed until I decided it was time for beer and pizza. Priorities.

 

Skid plate install....what a nightmare. I picked up another late model CJ5 frame to replace the twisted broken one that originally came with my CJ5. The new frame I picked up had a skid plate for a Dana 300, I kept my skid plate since I'm keeping the original T150/D20 combo. I spent a good 2+ hours trying to install my skid plate. Long story short, there appears to be 4 holes on the bottom of the frame, only the forward three are threaded. My skid plate, needs to be mounted using the rear three holes, but I had only one useable threaded hole. No matter how I arranged the skid plate, the best I could do was one bolt on either side.



What I ended up doing, was welding a grade 8 bolt + washer to the tip of a metal coat hanger. I was able to fish the bolt through the frame using the coat hanger and drop the bolt through the frame. Gave the hanger a good pull and it came right out. Captive nut on the bottom and called it good.

 

Rear shocks installed. I'm going to install the starter to day and start stripping down the manifolds. I really wanted to start tearing into the transmission but I don't have much more time left before I leave for elk hunting.

 

Steering gear installed, tie rods and remaining steering components will be installed tomorrow.

 

Tie rods installed.

 

Looks great! Hopeful mine will look this good. Thanks for all the good info.


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All HD steering components? They look great! I need to upgrade mine!

 

All stock Omix-Ada stuff which was pretty decent quality for the price. My XJ is my offroad Jeep, the CJ5 won't see any serious offroad. I'm only running 31" tires with the stock suspension, I figured the factory tie rods would suffice.

 

Some progress this evening, most of the day was "wasted" cleaning up the garage. Alternator and exhaust manifold in, intake manifold currently drying.

 

Finished installing the manifolds today, exhaust goes in tomorrow hopefully. New brake lines and hardware on order from Inline Tube.

 

Worked on the exhaust today, spent most of the day running back and forth to the store. Exhaust had been chopped, fixed, spliced, cut welded, etc..When I took it out it was one long piece which makes it a pain to work on in the future. I cut out most of the rusted pieces and fitted slip on adapters using clamps. I did manage to screw up the tail pipe, the orientation is wrong. It will end up working out since the pipe is a bit longer than I want it. Once I get everything tightened up I'll cut the tail down a few inches.

 

Transmission isn't too bad, no metal shavings at the bottom and oil was fairly clean. A few chipped gears though.

 

I have plenty of scrap tubing left over from another project so I made a "holder" for the transmission gears during removal / assembly.

 

Gas tank cleaned up, moving onto skid plate and other misc hardware.

 

Brake lines arrived this morning via FedEx. I was hoping to install them today but the brake line clip set I ordered was missing from the box. Huge rip / hole in the side of the box big enough to put your hand through.

 

Fuel vent and return lines in.



Transmission is tore apart, case cleaned up and paint drying. The only gear so far that appears to need replacement is the reverse idler gear, lots of broken and chipped teeth.

 

I was hoping to have the brake lines in by now but I spent two hours last night screwing around with the stupid gas tank. The gas tank strap appears to have been repaired at one point but the threaded stud which was welded on was far too short. I gave up for the night until the hardware store opened in the morning. Tank is now in and I managed to find some metal cable clamps that are rubber coated which I used on the vent/return lines.

 

Brake lines installed, still need to purchase the soft lines. Slight problem with the rear brake line, the one shipped to me by Inline tube is way too long.



I checked my original frame photo (79) and my new frame (80), both have the brake line ending here.



I'm tempted to ship it back, for now I've been able to re-route it to make it work.