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Project “couple loose screws”

9K views 137 replies 8 participants last post by  Talbert 
#1 ·
This is my ongoing build of my CJ crawler
 
#30 ·
NashvilleTJ , the upper link bracket is welded in its final position , I have the spacer in there making it all the way to the passenger side because I thought it might get a bit close to the oil pan and starter at full bump , there is plenty of room to have it in the middle but I do like it on that side because it doesn’t bind with the 4 or 5 inches of up travel I have and it makes it close to the frame if I get around to making a bump stop for it
So to not answer your question I don’t know if I’ll keep it there or not 🙂
 
#31 ·
NashvilleTJ , the upper link bracket is welded in its final position , I have the spacer in there making it all the way to the passenger side because I thought it might get a bit close to the oil pan and starter at full bump , there is plenty of room to have it in the middle but I do like it on that side because it doesn't bind with the 4 or 5 inches of up travel I have and it makes it close to the frame if I get around to making a bump stop for it
So to not answer your question I don't know if I'll keep it there or not 🙂
I'm not an expert here so take this with a grain of salt, but I think you might have an issue with the strength of that setup with that narrow heim joint. It's not an issue with the bracket itself, but rather that the bolt is taking all of the force of that upper link, and I think the bolt will bend or fail. In a 3link setup the rotational load of the axle is mainly controlled by that single upper joint, so there is a lot of force involved. The bolt is carrying the load between the two brackets (2 1/2" maybe?), rather than the joint. In a johnny joint or a heim in a properly spaced bracket, the sleeve in the joint spans the entire width of the bracket, so the joint takes the load, not the bolt. Your spacer creates a focus point for the force, and the bolt will likely bend right where the spacer meets the collar.

My recommendation would be to redo the bracket to make it the appropriate width for that heim joint, or go to a larger johhny or heim joint sized to work with that bracket configuration.

Hopefully someone else will chime in with additional feedback and either confirm or deny my thoughts.
 
#33 ·
I couldn’t find a good way to make a brake light switch , I’m using a GM style brake booster assembly and pedal , it actually fit really well in the cj body with the LS motor and under the dash
 

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#35 ·
Got the radiator put in and finished installing sensors so it will run correctly , one of these days I entend to get this thing to the dyno to see what kind of power it makes
 

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#37 ·
It happened to be just one connecting rod bearing , turns out I didn’t bother to prime the oil pump and either wiped off the assembly line or didn’t put any on the rod for some reason
I removed the old bearings and cleaned up the crank with a small wire brush wheel on my pneumatic die grinder , it didn’t have any really damage to the crank just some scratches thankfully the bearing took most of the damage
I had some extra rod bolts laying around and used them and re torqued everything and lubed it up good and primed the pump this time
As of not everything is working great on the motor , I’ll have an update on that soon
I have taken an oil sample since running it and no metal bits left or high content in the oil
Hope that answers your question
 
#39 ·
Through out this project my biggest obstical has been getting good information, what I mean by that is the information of why to do something less than how to do something
For example in the process of doing an LS swap , something that’s been done a million times by others in there garage , I found it hard to get good information about the various sensors and the way the PCM is set up
I had a local company unlock the PCM for me and took off a lot of the Saftey settings for the engine I thought this would be great not having any sensors to worry about and just keep it basic like a carb set up to remove some worry’s while out on the trails as I was just going to have manual gauges to keep an eye on things
However this turned out to be a problem, being that there are a good number of sensors that make the engine run correctly to make the power everyone loves and is the whole reason for LS swaps
What was happening is that the engine was running extremely rich and having a hard time restarting after shutting it down because of the crazy amount of fuel , so much so that I thought a few injectors might be stuck open
What was actually happening was the lack of intake air temperature IAT and coolant temp ECT gibes the PCM a false reading , in this case it was telling the PCM that it was -36 degrees outside and coolant temperature was -36 , what this was doing was causing the PCM to want to give the engine a ton of fuel to warm it up so it could run properly , the engine temperature has a lot to do with the timing and performance/ emissions because of the engine is running too hot it will cut back on fuel or change timing to keep an optimal air fuel ratio
Being that it thought it was -36 it said full send to fuel and wanted to warm it up to lean it back out but as the temperature never changed it never leaned out the fuel
This seams simple now that I’ve looked and done a lot of research but doing a diagnostic on something and being effectively blind doesn’t work out so well ,I had also made a fatal flaw in thinking the tuners would have just installed a generic tune and I’d have no problem having it set with basic parameters needed
However it’s all sorted out now and I’ve got a great understanding of the LS motors and tuning them , if you are involved in a LS swap and haven’t been to LT1SWAP.com then stop everything and go there and look at the wealth of diagrams and write ups
Also don’t be lazy like me and watch a few YouTube videos of how to bypass things on the harness and run it with basically no information because it will cause more problems and headaches than just sitting down and doing the work
This is not an excuse but I work on construction machinery all day at work so when I get home and have no diagnostic information or schematics I get discouraged pretty easy , also doesn’t help that my brain is tired after being at work so I try and take short cuts and it always bites me later
And it doesn’t help that I drink too much while working on the jeep
I would really love to see if anyone has any technical manuals on gm engines or good reference data , I like to keep all my printed notes in a book when I’m done so trouble shooting is easy if I ever have to re do something later
 
#41 ·
Finally got the radiator and lines finished up, and got to run it for the first time with coolant
Ran for 1 hour at various rpms ,loads , trans in gear and it never got over 190*
5500rpm with absolutely no exhaust is pretty dam loud
Radiator is out of a 1994 ford ranger 4.0 with a 16” full time fan , however the fan was not hooked up till it reached 180* and the radiator cap also was put on at the same time , with a load and hood lowered I’m still pretty pleased with the temperature results and can’t wat to see how it does on the trail , hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to the welding shop to get bottles filled so I can weld on the lower shock mounts and be able to drive this girl out of the garage for the first time ever
 

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#42 ·
Fu€%%%%%%%!!!!!!¡!!!!!!!!

So today I went to install the brakes on the front axle , brakes that have been sitting in the corner of the garage for well over a year ... and it doesn’t clear my double sheer steering brackets...
please don’t be like me, use your brain
 

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#44 ·
I’m going to chop them up with the plasma cutter tonight and re weld them , if like to get knuckles but the closes junk yard to me didn’t have 1 single Cherokee with a Dana 30 that still had an axle under it , some grand cherokees but the were the style with the bigger brakes and different drag link mount
 
#47 ·
Got a free bolt bin from work !
Working to make my consumables area in the garage a lot neater , hopefully will be building shelf’s over the bolt bin soon to house the blue boxes and rolls of wire and such
Here is some of the bins I have organized, it helps keep things easy to find and remember what needs to be ordered
 

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#49 ·
She’s finally out and about , did some testing and found a few leaks that need addressed and some parts the need clearances but all in all it’s driving great and everything works

I’m also going to have to figure out some way to get a windshield this thing slings mud like nobody’s business
 

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#55 ·
She's finally out and about , did some testing and found a few leaks that need addressed and some parts the need clearances but all in all it's driving great and everything works

I'm also going to have to figure out some way to get a windshield this thing slings mud like nobody's business
Glad it is working... it sure is a good feeling to see everything working. I would suggest adding some fenders along with the windshield. I have the same problem with mine. Full width axles and no fenders definitely leads to large gobs of mud to the face and head. :)
 
#53 ·
Finally got around to fixing one of the most aggravating things on the flat bed trailer , the ramps vibrate and bounce under the lip on the dove tail and they are super heavy and hard to slide back to flip them up , so I welded a small tube to keep them from being able to get under the lip
 

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