A few updates from the Quarantine Garage.
After hooking up the power steering and filling the system, the steering wheel jerked hard left and locked. It wouldn't turn at all. We disconnected the steering linkage and it was still locked. Pulled the lines and found rusty gunk in the new fluid. The hypothesis is that since the gear box had sat with open hoses on it for about 20 years, the spool valve or something inside got rusty and unhappy.
Icky Fluid!
So a new box was ordered from Summit Racing for 120. Not too bad but the core was 200. I sent that sucker back fast!
You dont HAVE to pull the grill/radiator but it makes it a heckuva lot easier to access the hoses and whatnot.
One of the joys of the rust belt is broken bolts. 3 of the 5!
Luckily it was easy to weld nuts on them and they came right out
Pretty new box!
Big news over the weekend. We were actually able to go for a driveway test drive!
Unfortunately the clutch was obviously not happy. It was acting like it wasn't completely disengaging. it was catching right at the bottom of the pedal. Gears were grinding. No free play in the pedal. Cats and dogs sleeping together. Mass chaos!
The linkage was not the problem. Although it was interesting to note that adjusting it all the way out so the fork was really preloading the bearing would make it sorta better.
Knowing the surprises left by the previous owner we knew we would be pulling the transmission.
And guess what we found? Something I have never seen before (because most flywheel wont let you do it...).
The previous owner installed the clutch disc backwards!
You can see some warping/damage/bending at the disc hub.
You can see some witness marks on the rivets that match the center hole of the flywheel.
A new clutch kit should be here midweek.
its always nice to find the cause of a problem. Too bad it required so much effort to get to it!
I forgot to mention. We also found hardware such as this bell housing carriage bolt. 
Sometimes I worry I'm overconfident in my mechanical abilities. Then I read something like this!
Previous owner must have overlooked the stamped "flywheel side" that has been on every clutch disk I've ever done. Classy. Of course, being a Jeep fan myself, raised in a Jeep family, that very well could be interpreted as written instructions and "dammit I don't need to read the instructions, woman!"
dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:
Sometimes I worry I'm overconfident in my mechanical abilities. Then I read something like this!
This thread barely scratches the things we have found. Some of it was big like the wiring but a lot of it was little things like odd hardware choices. Some of it is "shame on me" for not noticing when we bought it. I guess I got a little blinded by the amount of stuff that was new so I really thought I just needed to finish things up. If I had a time machine Im not entirely certain I would buy this example again but Im too far down the rabbit hole now. Its not that it was a bad value because we only paid 2500 initially, it was just much more work than we were expecting and its cost more to get it road worthy than expected (don't they always!). We really want ot make it drivable for the summer so we can enjoy it. As it is its been all work and no play.
barefootskater said:
Previous owner must have overlooked the stamped "flywheel side" that has been on every clutch disk I've ever done. Classy. Of course, being a Jeep fan myself, raised in a Jeep family, that very well could be interpreted as written instructions and "dammit I don't need to read the instructions, woman!"
You mean like this?
of course we assume he knows a pressure plate from a flywheel!
All work and no play for now but hopefully you're reaching the tipping point. At some point in my projects (usually after languishing for a year because I don't want to try to loosen flywheel carriage bolts or something) I reach a point where the big stuff is taken care of and the little stuff (some of which is fun to tick off the list as I complete it) gets more tolerable.
Well...in theory there will be a point like that in all my projects. Some of them have hit that point...some are, hopefully, close ;)
I know I'm preaching to the choir here. This isn't your first choir rodeo.
In reply to logdog :
That is very good.
[just like my berkeleying canoes!]
In reply to ClemSparks :
I think the fact our expectations didn't match reality with what it would take to make it drivable took a little wind out of my sails. But Mrs Logdog and I are either stubborn or stupid so we keep plugging away. Quarantine Garage time over the last few weeks has been interesting. Work on the CJ5 until we hit a roadblock, order parts, move on to the Chumpcar. Work on the Chumpcar until we hit a roadblock, order parts, move on to the van/her daily driver/ something else with a motor...Rinse and repeat.
Now I just need to keep myself from doing something stupid like adding a CJ6 or CJ8 to the fleet!
The new clutch showed up today. Exciting stuff!
The clutch came with TWO magnets. I think its a JK unlimited. Its hard to tell because it has round headlights instead of the normal angry face 2005 Chevy Silverado headlights.
Spent a little bit of time today starting to put it all back together.
While the transmission was on the floor I noticed a wierd plug on the transmission. Hmmmm whats that? Oh, its just a broken spark plug the previous owner jammed in.
Luckily the T150 in the shed had the correct plug. Its just a little aluminum block off.
This thing is a treasure trove.
dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:
Omg.
I should have named this thread OM-JEEP
ClemSparks said:
This thing is a treasure trove.
For sure. There are some things I am rolling my eyes at and moving on.
Some of it is just stupid stuff. The transfer case shifter had a bolt that was too long. He had to add a couple washers to get the threads to catch. But he also crammed a coarse thread bolt in a fine thread hole. I was able to grab the bolt and undamaged bracket off the spare Tcase.
metty
New Reader
4/28/20 8:35 a.m.
In reply to logdog (Forum Supporter) :
I had a 1978 CJ5 with a 304/T150 and someone put a spark plug in the exact same spot on the trans. i wonder if the original plug was prone to breaking and it just happens to be the same size as a readily available spark plug
In reply to metty :
The one in my spare transmission is a little aluminum plug. I could see somebody pulling it out to make filling the oil easier and maybe losing it, but thats just a guess. Im not sure why else it would ever come out.
It looked like this.
The last few weeks have been a bit of a headache. The transmission has been in and out a couple times (currently out) and I am going to set the whole project aside until fall so I can get some of the house projects done while its not snowing.
I seem to be fighting 3 separate issues in getting the transmission/clutch all sorted.
Issue 1 was the clutch disc that was installed backwards. That was easy enough to fix.
Issue 2 was something I noticed when installing the transmission a time ago. I saw some witness marks and non-1976 era looking silicon around the shifter housing. I popped the top and found lots of chunks, shavings, and pieces of bearings inside the case. Luckily I have that spare that seems ok so I can call that problem fixed.
Issue 3 is something I didn't do a very good job of documenting with pics. The clutch is still not disengaging completely. I compared the aftermarket bellhousing the PO installed with an OEM one I had. There were a few minor differences so I installed the OEM one and OEM fork. I also replaced the linkage with a new kit because after inspecting them I found some egg shaped holes and worn bushings and it still wouldn't disengage all the way. I can move the fork a bit more with a pry bar and the clutch will release. I grabbed a hydraulic setup off a 4 cylinder (didn't mount the master to the body, I set it up in a jig to depress the rod by hand) and I still cant get it to disengage.
I have some more things I want to try with the hydraulic setup before condemning it but I am out of time for now. I am going to stick it back on the dollies and roll it to the corner of the garage until Fall. I am sure Im overlooking something that will be obvious after I figure it out.
I will let my head clear and tackle it with fresh eyes and a pumpkin spice latte
Its been almost a year so its time for a bump up. I've been cussing and kicking it pretty heavy over the last couple of days.
To recap- the big headache has been in getting the clutch to release. The hydraulic set up wasn't going to work as far as mounting it to the firewall unless I redid a bunch of the wiring from the harness I installed. I basically mounted the fuse box where the master cylinder would need to go. I don't think it would matter anyway, because even when I installed the master in a jig last year it wasn't releasing it.
To avoid needing to R&R the transmission a ton I took the input shaft and release bearing guide from the junk transmission and set it up so I could experiment with linkage until I could spin the input shaft by hand. Not pretty but it worked. Those wrenches were perfect for holding the bearing guide in place.
Sometime last winter I ordered one of those kits with helm joints on the rods and lengths. I thought maybe the extra adjustment points would get me where I needed to be....but it didn't. I could still only get the clutch to release it the throwout was majorly preloaded.
After much head scratching, cursing, wondering why I ever bought the stupid thing I think I found the answer. I took the Z bar, a bit of scrap 1/4 stock, broke out the welder, and extended the clutch side adding extra leverage. The top hole is the stock one and I added the 2 lower. That seemed to be the magic because the clutch actually released.
I think the root problem is I have a vehicle that wasn't really built with "quality", or "Fit and Finish" in mind when it was new, coupled with 40+ years of DIY repair, and an aftermarket body. I have no idea how square and true anything is and getting that last bit of travel on top of all the stacking of tolerances has been difficult. The linkage isn't pretty. I have washers as shims to try and get the Z bar in line, the clutch rod isnt as straight as I would like but I think the helm joints will work. However it doesnt have to be pretty if it works. The real test will be after I stuff the transmission back up in.
That's totally the type of thing that would stump me for a year or 3 and stall out a project. I'm happy you got it figured out!
In reply to ClemSparks :
This thing has been such a pain that I'm fully expecting something else to pop up to keep it from driving soon....
The plan is to get the trans back in and drive it over the summer in only 2wd. The Tcase linkage needs work to be functional so I will just not use it! There are lots of other things to do, but we want to actually be able to enjoy it a bit before lighting more dollars on fire. At one point it was "Can't wait to take it offroading" and now its "I just hope we can drive it to the local ice cream stand".
As they say on Roadkill- Keep lowering your standards until you achieve a goal
