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83 CJ7 Finally out of storage

15740 Views 99 Replies 22 Participants Last post by  Rkuehljr, 
Rkuehljr
4
I have had this Jeep since 85. Title says I am the original owner but there is a story that Maurice Cheeks bought it for his girlfriend in Texas and put plates from an old VW on it. In 85 he traded it with the same dealer who delivered a Camaro to Texas and drove this Jeep back to Indiana. As I recall, it had like 5,000 miles on it when I bought it. Anyway, it was my daily driver until 92' and got parked in the garage in 1998 with terminal skin cancer.

In July 2019, I finally had the time, motivation, and budget to start the restoration I had alway planned. So I rebuilt the carb, bought a battery, and bungee corded a gas can to the grill with some plastic tubing for fuel lines and fired it up.





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Rkuehljr
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Thanks ButusBlue, with your help terminals should arrive tomorrow. Then I can work on cleaning this mess up.
In the meantime I've been doing a bunch of smaller tasks.

I finished the harness alteration for the in tank fuel pump and sending unit. Unfortunately the 4 terminal Delphi connector was to wide to go through the hole in the rear fender well. But I had an 1-5/8" grommet that was just big enough, so I opened the hole up, the connector goes through, and it looks good. Then I needed to thread it across the rear crossmember. This should be easy, but I had that bright idea to box it and those openings I put in for the harness were none to big. The twilight connect fed in easy enough, but getting it to turn and orient to come back out on the passenger side took some doing. As I am installing the tail lights I started thinking about how they were going to ground through the Lizard Skin I sprayed on. So I decided to add a ground strap between the tail light and bolt drill and tapped into the roll bar support.


I installed the liquid and rollover check valves and hooked those up. The liquid check valve had to be repaired first. The hose barb to go to the roll over had broken off. I ended up drilling a hole down the center of a 1/4 bolt, cut the head off, and drilled and tapped the plastic. I wish I had taken a picture, but it seams like it should work fine.

I installed the windshield tonight. I watched a buddy of mine from high school cut it from a flat sheet and then install it in the late 80's. And then in the 90's, I had removed it and installed it in a replacement frame, so I wasn't thinking much of the task. I put the cord in the groove and lubed it up with dish soap so it would slide in easier. It was going in so smooth until I had about 10" of cord left to pull and I heard that distinctive tink. Yep, it cracked straight down from the top center. I guess I'll have to drive it back down to my buddy next summer to have him cut me another.


It is really starting to look like a complete vehicle

As long as you don't look inside

As long as we don't experience any flooding from the 6" of rain forecast over the next day and a half, I might be trying to turn this thing over this weekend

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Rkuehljr
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With type 56 terminals in hand, I routed power leads through the firewall terminal block for the fuel pump, rear power outlets, and stereo. I could then move on to installing the dash. That is when I discovered the parking brake bracket was interfering with the speaker. It wasn't much, but it was definitely holding things up. Now this bracket extended about 1 1/2" beyond where the parking brake attached, I'm considering notching but decided to just take the excess length off with the sawzaw so I don't throw a bunch of sparks. I thought I was being so careful and just before the cut was finished the release lever swung down free. I had sliced through the tab that supports it. If I can get the plastic gromet to pot out, I can weld it back, otherwise I am in the market for a parking brake pedal assembly.


My harness is missing one lamp base for the voltmeter. So until I can get a solution for that, I covered then end with shrink to prevent shorting. Connected up the control cables for the heat and vent. Where the heck did I put those push nuts I bought 2 years ago? Well they still work without them, at least until they turn up.
Installed the steering column and got it connected to the steering shaft and all bolted in.

The I went to connect the harness to the ignition switch and struggled. I also noticed that I had forgotten to connect the brake switch and there was no way I was getting my paws in there to make that connection. So when all else fails, what does any self respecting man do? He reads the directions. Low an behold, there are some specific instructions so that the column can collapse and it says to connect the harness before bolting in. So after removing the bolts and loosing the toe plate I get the brake switch connected and the ignition switch plugged in. This time I follow the TSM instructions for installing the column.
After checking that all the wiring under the hood is tight it is time to see what works. Turn key to on position and nothing. Parking lights and hazards work, nothing else. And I notice the ignition module is getting warm. So I disconnected the battery and started double checking. I found that I had everything reversed on the starter solenoid. While I was fixing that, I went ahead and added a ground lead between the alternator and the engine block.

With that corrected, I hooked the battery back up, but still nothing was getting power when the ignition was switched on. It did seem to resolve the ignition module getting warm. Back to the TSM and the wiring diagrams. Since things were working that didn't require the ignition switch, it sounded me something was wrong there. I was figuring the steering column was coming out again, but the TSM for removing and installing the switch was with the column in. Sure enough, you can get it out with the column in. Not sure how I am going to get those little screws started, but as I was pulling it out little bits fell on me. A quick inspection, I it was obvious the switch was done.


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Rkuehljr
The local NAPA had to order the ignition switch and 10 minutes after they called to tell me it came in, the power company shut the off to repair storm damage and they closed for the day. After picking it up on the way home from work, installed the switch. The TSM says put the key in run and the switch in run then install it without moving it. Ya right! I did apply some Nygel dielectric to the harness terminals which made snapping them on much easier and put the switch were I thought it should be. I turned the key to on and volt meter came to life, so I’m thinking success. Went ahead and turned the key to start and nothin. Now I’m figuring that I am going to needs to move the switch, but decided I better check the >30 year old solenoid first. Using a jumper, I applied power to energize the solenoid and the starter sprung into action. Back under the dash to adjust the switch to the other end of the travel. This time turning the key to start the starter responds. Success!! While it is working, getting the key to the lock position isn’t very easy. Any advice other than trial and error for getting the switch into the “sweet” spot?

Now I already have an electric fuel pump in the tank in preparation for installing a Sniper FI, so hooking that up to the BBD still sitting on the intake. But I really want it to run before embarking on that surgery, so I dump some gas into the carb and hit the starter. The old girl fires right off and comes to a pretty smooth idle before that splash of gas is gone.

Checking lights, most of the dash lights work including the dimmer. Headlights don’t work, front parking lights and passenger rear tail lights work. Turn signals don’t work. New radio does work and sounds pretty good, it is going to need some rear speakers to fill out the sound. I also checked that the fuel pump in the tank works when I apply power to the wire.

Working the headlights, there was power coming to the lights, and the lights checked good. That is miking me suspicious of the grounds, so I pulled the radiator out (glad I hadn’t put anything into it yet) to gain access. I altered the ground to go back to a known good ground. But plugging the connectors into the lamps reveals bad connections. So after replacing the terminals in the connectors and fighting to get the lamps into tight terminals, the lights now work.

Drivers tail light, checking the lamps and they are fine, checking for power in the socket finds none. When I look underneath, I find that I failed to plug the fixture into the harness. Tail and brake lights are now working. Reverse lights aren’t though. Lamps check good and the harness from the transmission is plugged in, so I am going to have to study this one some more.

The front side lights weren’t working, so I start by checking the lamps. Drivers lamp check good and there is power and when I put the lamp back in it came on. On the passenger side, I found the lamp was actually illuminating, but it is just a faint glow. Voltage in the socket is good, so I put a new lamp in and get the same result. I’ll noodle on this one for awhile, hopefully it will come to me.

Turn signals still don’t work. The right signal might be related to the glowing side marker, but all the lights for the left are working so I don’t understand that. The hazard lights do flash at an appropriate rate. Any advice on what to check?


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JoonHoss
Grounds. Then grounds. Finally, check your grounds.

That faint glow is likely feedback from a bad ground, iirc, those lights all get their grounds from a mounting screw in the housing

Hoss
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Rkuehljr
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So while I procrastinate chasing my likely ground problem with the front side markers, I moved on to installing seatbelts. I had bought a pair of Corbeau harnesses which are "universal" fit. After a trip to the hardware to get a 7/16-20 tap so I could chase the stuff out of the retractor mounting hole, the retractor was mounted to the tub and the guide on the roll bar. My memory was that the other ends of the seat belts had mounted using seat bolts to the floor. So using the supplied brackets I installed the ends on the drivers side. It was ok, but on the passenger side, one of the brackets pointed the wrong direction and the other is way under the seat. This was just not working. While staring at it, I also had memories of how I would have to hold the belt down to not trip passengers getting in and out of the back. So I started thinking about mounting the outboard end near the retractor and how that would make for unobstructed access to the back seat. It would be awesome to just be able to drill and tap another hole in the reinforcement, but I am sure it is too thin for this without a nut welded to the backside and no way to do that now. So I made a bracket that would utilize the retractor mounting bolt and create a mounting point for the outboard end of the belt.



The bracket is made of 3/16 x 2 with a couple body mount nuts I had left welded on 3 sides. After welding I drilled and tapped 7/16-20 for the mounting bolt.
When it is on, it is almost perfect alignment. When retracted the seatbelt is totally out of the way and the are no brackets on the floor to be kicking. Using the short bracket on the inboard side ended up working well. Sometime this winter I'll pull them out and paint them black.

Recognizing this is a safety device, it should probably be tested, which I hope to never have to do. What do you all see that would concern you?

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In an impact, it will pivot upward. You need to triangulate the bracket.
I can’t visualize the other side of that bracket, so if there are two bolt holding it, it shouldn’t pivot. But you really are playing with some engineering here and it’s your life. Off road, yeah no problem.
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Rkuehljr
So today I got motivated to chase my turn signal problem. The side marker lights on my 83 are not grounded through the fixture, so if it was a ground problem it would be in the wiring somewhere. The passenger marker had a green and a white wire to the lamp holder. The driver side had a green with trace and white wire. And back at the firewall terminal I found a green, green with trace, and a single white. So with my very limited 12v understanding, I surmised that the white wire was the ground, although I don't understand why the ground would be going through the firewall, so maybe something else is going on. Anyway I was expecting the white wire to be spliced since it appear to be common to both sides and figured that to be a likely failure point, so I went about pulling the harness loose. I was sort of regretting putting coolant in the radiator before sorting this our, but I was able to remove the top bolt and loose the bottom bolts to allow the radiator to tilt back enough to get my arms in. Working back from the passenger side, I inspected the wire, splices, and terminals. Turns out the white and green wires were also common to the front turn lights. I replaced the splices and terminals in the connectors on the passenger side, but that didn't fix anything. So I kept going figuring it must be the splices on the drivers side. But when I got the connectors off the front drives side I was pretty sure I had found the problem.

I'm not sure exactly what crushed these two wires together but it did a pretty bang up job. I don't even pretend to have an idea why the front lamp was well illuminated but side marker just glowed since they were fed off the same 2 wires. But once I replaced the two damaged wires and connected it back up, the passenger side marker was nice and bright. The right turn signal even works now! However it wasn't a complete win, the left turn signal still doesn't work. Tomorrow I think I will double check the lamps on the drivers side even though they all appear to be working before replacing the flasher.

Who knows, I might even look into why there is no power going to the reverse lights tomorrow. Or more likely I'll take it for drive to no where.

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Girth83
Rkuehljr said:
I was sort of regretting putting coolant in the radiator before sorting this our, but I was able to remove the top bolt and loose the bottom bolts to allow the radiator to tilt back enough to get my arms in.
Click to expand...
Maybe it will help someone else, (and maybe you just didn't want to do this, or my wiring is routed differently) but I too put in a new radiator (and filled the system) before attacking my wiring. I found that removing the headlight assemblies gave me enough room to reach in and pull all the wiring out. Of course, while playing with other wiring, I found the one heater hoses I didn't touch is seeping at the clamp for the heater core connection. I'll play with that later.
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Rkuehljr
Girth83 said:
I found that removing the headlight assemblies gave me enough room to reach in and pull all the wiring out.
Click to expand...
I considered doing that but thought access from the top would be better. I'm not convinced tilting the radiator back was any better and considered taking the headlamps out a couple times. If my radiator had a shroud I'm sure removing the headlamp would have been easier.

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Wow! The jeep looks great. I've been wanting to restore my old 78 CJ5 for some time and spotted the Thread by MD Juan as he worked through fixing some of the issues identified by people on the forum. I had decided to watch and wait to see what got resolved. It seemed that they had fixed most things except the cowl. I did see your fix and that is what I was thinking I'd do as well - cut out their jacked up cowl and graft in a good one. My assumption is I can buy a replacement cowl online. What I don't know is if they all come from MD Juan as well or if there are other making the replacement parts. I have heard there is a company in China making body parts too. With respect to your tub. Did you get it from Willies Overland or somewhere else? It seems like you had to fix an awful lot of stuff.
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John Strenk
Rkuehljr said:
So today I got motivated to chase my turn signal problem. The side marker lights on my 83 are not grounded through the fixture, so if it was a ground problem it would be in the wiring somewhere. The passenger marker had a green and a white wire to the lamp holder. The driver side had a green with trace and white wire. And back at the firewall terminal I found a green, green with trace, and a single white. So with my very limited 12v understanding, I surmised that the white wire was the ground, although I don't understand why the ground would be going through the firewall, so maybe something else is going on. Anyway I was expecting the white wire to be spliced since it appear to be common to both sides and figured that to be a likely failure point, so I went about pulling the harness loose. I was sort of regretting putting coolant in the radiator before sorting this our, but I was able to remove the top bolt and loose the bottom bolts to allow the radiator to tilt back enough to get my arms in. Working back from the passenger side, I inspected the wire, splices, and terminals. Turns out the white and green wires were also common to the front turn lights. I replaced the splices and terminals in the connectors on the passenger side, but that didn't fix anything. So I kept going figuring it must be the splices on the drivers side. But when I got the connectors off the front drives side I was pretty sure I had found the problem.

I'm not sure exactly what crushed these two wires together but it did a pretty bang up job. I don't even pretend to have an idea why the front lamp was well illuminated but side marker just glowed since they were fed off the same 2 wires. But once I replaced the two damaged wires and connected it back up, the passenger side marker was nice and bright. The right turn signal even works now! However it wasn't a complete win, the left turn signal still doesn't work. Tomorrow I think I will double check the lamps on the drivers side even though they all appear to be working before replacing the flasher.

Who knows, I might even look into why there is no power going to the reverse lights tomorrow. Or more likely I'll take it for drive to no where.
Click to expand...
One of those wires goes to the Turn signal filament and the other goes to the Running light filament. It actually grounds through what ever filament is not on.

This only becomes a pain if you ever switch over to LEDs.
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Rkuehljr
Thanks for the kind words. It's no show piece, but I don't want to be afraid to drive and use it, so it checks that box and looks good from 5 feet.

I have heard there is a company in India doing some panels that sound like better quality, but they don't make all of them yet. My understanding is that MD Juan is the only company making the complete tub. This Jeep had some sentimental value to me and because of that I don't regret restoring it. But if I ever want another, I will find a survivor without rot to start with.

Getting the cowl to the correct shape would really take a jig to clamp it into before welding to the firewall. Doing it again, would probably take the entire cowl out of the MD Juan along with a bigger part of the firewall. Keeping a hunk of the firewall holds the correct shape. Spot welding the cowl to the side panels is way easier than butt welding panels. I also found that the shape of the recess for the engine as different, and moving that seam down looks like it would make it easier to blend. The cowl and upper firewall are usually the best areas left on old jeeps, so finding a donor should be easy.

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Rkuehljr
John Strenk said:
One of those wires goes to the Turn signal filament and the other goes to the Running light filament. It actually grounds through what ever filament is not on.

This only becomes a pain if you ever switch over to LEDs.
Click to expand...
Well isn't that fun!

Thanks for clarifying John

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Rkuehljr
I’ve been trying to figure out why the coolant temp sensor for the Sniper is reading 135-145 when I know it should be much warmer. I replaced the 195 thermostat with another 195 and gained nothing. I pulled the hose from the thermostat housing and heater core and connected to a garden hose to flush it out and be sure the intake manifold isn’t plugged. It wasn’t. I did a similar with the heater core and no restriction. So I put YJ thermostat housing on it so I could move the cts there. That helped as now it was reading 175-185 and the sniper can spend more time learning and less in cold enrichment. But after I had Ben out running around this afternoon I popped the hood with the engine running and the hoses on this circuit aren’t even warm. So clearly coolant isn’t circulating through this circuit. Unless someone has a better idea, I think the next step is the water pump to be sure the return passage isn’t blocked.

I also noticed that the battery voltage has dropped to 11.5 after running for an hour+, so I’m going to have to figure out if the alternator output is low or if the addition of the fuel pump, sniper, & stereo is exceeding the output. Suggestions?


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I got my 78 CJ5 way back in 1987 when I was 19. In retrospect I never should have bought it. I was just in the military and trying to get a loan to buy a different one and couldn't get one without a co-signer, etc. That's when stubborn determination set in and I found mine at one of those lots that will finance anyone for ridiculous interest. I probably paid twice what it was worth when all was said and done. :) I spent countless weekends in the post auto shop fixing practically everything. I learned a ton and wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Since then I've patched the frame multiple times, put one of the early fiberglass bodies on it which I have hated from day one for many reasons not the least of which is just the poor quality of the tub. I am told that since then the new fiberglass tubs are pretty excellent near perfect replacements for the steel bodies. Anyway I totally get the sentimental value of your Jeep. I'll never get ride of mine.
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Rkuehljr
Had a couple hours this afternoon, so I pulled the water pump and found my problem. The return on the pump for the heater had a big ole clump of hard stuff blocking it off. I was able to knock it loose with a screw driver and flushed the debris out. While it was off I took the opportunity to clean the timing marks up so I can set the timing when I put the Sniper ignition on. After putting it back together I started it and once it warmed up it was obvious that there was coolant flowing. So that problem is solved.


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Rkuehljr
Spent some time this morning figuring out why the blower motor wasn't working. Voltmeter was showing power getting through to the connector for the blower when grounded to the battery. I was afraid the motor wasn't grounding after I painted it, but a jumper from the positive terminal to the motor and the blower would run. That just left the terminal to be the culprit. Since it still had the original rubber terminal on the harness I tried crimping it with pliers to get a better connection, but no joy. After crimping on a new terminal, the blower was working normally. So now I'm getting hot coolant to the heater and a working blower.

Since it was expected to be in the 60s and sunny I was able to convince the wife a ride into the country would be a good idea.


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Rkuehljr
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With cold crappy weather set in for the next 3-4 months it is time to do some of the things I put off so I could drive it.

I had noticed a vibration above 60 and the TSM says that is caused by lateral runout in a wheel. So I started checking on that and found the LF wheel bearing is loose. So I will have to fix that first.

Made a blanking plate for the fuel pump that will double as a mounting plate for the coil out of 3/8" aluminum remanent I found at the local Alro Outlet. I was initially concerned about how I would cut it neatly, but a cheap Chinese aluminum cutting blade for my table saw made easy work of it.


Started stripping off all the "computer controls" and ignition so I can install the Sniper ignition that has been sitting on the shelf for months. A big pile of stuff was pretty easy to identify to go since it was part of the feedback harness. Then the slow tedious process of pulling the other un-needed bits out of the engine harness. I am also taking this opportunity to to redo the splices that AMC wrapped with duct tape so I can protect them with heat shrink.




Does anyone know what the oil pressure switch (the two wire switch on the same port as the pressure gauge) is used for? I will leave it unless someone knows that it was only used by the computer control.

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John Strenk
Rkuehljr;41403345.... Does anyone know what the oil pressure switch (the two wire switch on the same port as the pressure gauge) is used for? I will leave it unless someone knows that it was only used by the computer control. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk[/QUOTE said:
Yes, It was used for the echoke that you don't need anymore and also the manifold heater that you will still need with an EFI setup.

When the engine was running and you had sufficient oil pressure, the oil pressure switch gave power to the echoke and also the relay that controls the manifold heater. The echoke stayed on all the time but the relay turned off when the engine reached 160*F. That was controlled by a switch in the intake manifold.

None of that was hooked to the computer. So leave the oil pressure switch, temperature switch and the relay installed.

https://www.gleebledorf.com/manifold.html
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Rkuehljr
Thanks John, I’ll have trace out how that temp sensor fits into that control. It is a single wire device, so it must be a NC ground switch? How does the thread sealant not insulate it?


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