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Marn's 73 Wagoneer Thread

432K views 2K replies 196 participants last post by  Marn 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello!

My name is Dr. Marneaus. You may remember me from such threads as the original "100,000th post wins" and "97 TJ's 'Build Up'" as seen in my signature.

This was the little jeep that could. It inspired many, and gave me many good times. I have kicked myself every day since selling it almost 3 years ago...but everything happens for a reason.
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f22/97-tjs-build-up-335660/

Today I'm coming to you with something a little bit different. I'm no longer a poor college student who daily drives his mildly built TJ.

I'm now a poor college graduate who daily drives what used to be his mom's station wagon, but rolls weekends in a slightly different style.

I picked this up today.

Introducing "THE BEAST" as it has been named by my friends and family.







1973 Wagoneer. Epic.

Okay okay, it's still a station wagon! But I'll be doing more than grocery getting in this beast.

Here's the low down...

The good:
-360
-Part Time 4wd with Warn Hubs up front
-BJ's Offroad 4" Spring lift. Still SUA. Less than a year old.
-33x10.50 BFG KM2's...less than a year old with warranty paperwork.
-It drives fantastically. Had it on the highway all day in he 100+ degree -heat doing 75 keeping up with traffic.
Seats and most of interior is in awesome shape

The bad:

-It has a ton of leaks from what I can tell...but doesn't look like anything too serious.
-Has an auxiliary fuel tank installed, and the original tank is in my back yard. So, I have no idea how big this fuel tank is (only the aux. is in the jeep). There's a switch and whatnot, but I dont know how any of that crap works.
-A little bit of rust, but I'll be trimming it off to fit the tires.
-Bumper rubs tires, i'll put it on and trim it this weekend.
-Buncha gauges don't work. Speedo and fuel and oil work though.
-Headliner is ripped and falling...oh well, gravity happens.
-All weather stripping is dry rotted to hell.
-AC stopped working this past year...I dunno why or what to do.

I'll keep this thread going as I advance down the list.

It already feels GREAT to be back in a jeep. I'm psyched to have this bad boy at my disposal. I think it'll be a lot of fun.
 
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#1,467 ·
One of the things I never got to do on my on Cherokee before it was traded away, always like seeing nice clean axles! :cheers:
 
#1,468 ·
Didnt touch em over the weekend, I think the woman is working wednesday/thursday nights, gotta make her sister watch Evil Dead on wednesday, so hoping to have ball joints in on thursday. Then I can reassemble. I'll pick up rotors and studs this weekend. and then it'll be back together.


maybe i'll get a wild hair and put that locker in the front end?
 
#1,470 ·
Grewe02 said:
I'm sure you probably mean the new one, but nothing will ever beat this one
First of all, no, the original one.

And second, that would be army of darkness fool! I may just make her watch that so we can just get the full story of evil dead in like 5 seconds then get to the funny.

The reason she needs to see evil dead is because her and I went to see scary movie 5 and there was a big ole part Bout the new evil dead trailer haha. And before she can see the trailer or the new movie she needs to see the original!
 
#1,472 ·
The new one was good man. I had high hopes due to the first ones and have yet to be disappointed by any of the series. Kinda bummed that the only thing Michigan gets i movies is a Demonic Book & Robocop.

It's cool to see that you Keeping this almost totally OE man.
 
#1,473 ·
All freakin done!

Got everything reassembled, torqued to spec, etc. One of the knuckles is easier to turn than the other, but whatever, they both turn smoothly and are nice and solid. Before one was super super stiff.

I started doing the wheel studs with a lug nut and a ratchet and was all "this sucks, and is going to take forever" about 5 seconds later the lightbulb came on and I got the smart idea to go out and hit it with the impact gun. took all of 5 minutes.


But yeah, done!

 
#1,474 ·
Looking good Marn! Reminds me of those teeny tiny itty bitty rear wheel wells my grand waggy had. I did a lot of... uh.... trimming to fit 33x9.50x15's with a 3 inch body lift and add a leafs. I "think" you will be ok with the rear offset like that unless you lift it more.
This 83 FSJ cherokee I have out back... I dont think it has an offset rear and I think the gas tank is behind the axle, I could be wrong though.

You are going to be amazed when you get the front axle in and can turn a lot sharper lol.

The wheels and dog dishes look great! And nice job matching the pop up to your waggy, that looks pretty sweet together!

Last thing didnt I send you a glove box liner? :laugh:
 
#1,475 ·
After doing everything, one knuckle was way loose and the other was nice and firm, it was bugging me, so i got home around 8, grabbed the necessary tools (i knew off the top of my head haha) on my way through the garage from my work truck to the back yard, and broke the damn driver side down.

all came apart, but i DID have to hit the top of the ball joint a little with a hammer to get it loose. i definitely wasnt wailing on it.

Anyway, re-torqued everything to spec, and it was still loose. A little better but every time i tightened the top nut down to 100 ft.lbs i would have to go PAST that to get the castle nut to line up.

I undid everything and tried again. still loose.

tried again, still loose.

Tried one last time, still loose.

Okay. Went out and got the left over split sleeve, installed that, torqued everything down, and it was quite a bit better. It still sits low in the yoke (threads exposed) but everything is torqued to spec, and the steering was more stiff on that side than before. Still seems a little less than the other side, but im not going to sweat it. I checked, rechecked, rerechecked, rererechecked, and rerererechecked my work. I'm confident that everything was done to spec, everything is nice and smooth, and solid, so, I'll go with it.
 
#1,477 ·
Why. Why do I do it. Why do we do it?

Here it is the day i brought it home, in June of 2010.


Here it is a few weeks ago, essentially 3 years after purchase.


There is like $5500+ in there somewhere (beyond purchase price), and the only difference I see is a stock bumper that came with it, and mismatched wheels.

If physicists want to study a black hole, there's one sitting in my driveway.
 
#1,480 ·
done. or am i?




After spending 300 more dollars that i dont have on what i THOUGHT were the final parts of the axle that i needed to get it under the truck (200 bucks for tie rod ends, are you serious?) I realized i needed some brake hoses. Okay, no biggie.

55 dollars each, locally. 55 freaking dollars for a rubber hose with a fitting on each end. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!! It never ends. i cant stand it anymore.

I can order all three freaking stainless steel lines for a lifted rig for less than that from BJ's offroad. I am so pissed. I cannot stand this jeep and i regret ever starting this stupid freaking axle swap.
 
#1,481 ·
I feel your pain dude. It's hard when you fear you're losing interest. Just think of how awesome it will be to get that thing under the jeep. After that, just enjoy it and maybe lay off the projects for a while. :) I wish you luck, you really have gone through everything on that rig. It's awesome.
 
#1,482 ·
Pretty cheap if you ask me I have had my TJ for a little over 3 years I give $10,500 for it paid it down to $5500 refi'ed it for $13k and its back down to $7500 now. Now add in about $3000 in mods and to be honest visually it has different bumpers and a soft top with soft doors after selling my hard top and full doors.

So yes they cost money, but your into yours cheap, Im looking at $13,500 for the last 3 years and I still have the 4 popper and hate driving on the highway.

Im into my gladiator right around $3500 and its just sat for 3 years HAHAHA!
 
#1,487 ·
the chevy parts will work because they are exactly the same in every aspect other than the fact that they are about 3" longer, which is desirable. also, they arent in some catalog under "jeep" so they cost about 1/3rd as much.
 
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