My 49 CJ3A

[stony]

Rebuilt my WO carburetor today.  I must say I was NOT impressed with the quality of the new parts, so except for some gaskets springs and plugs, just cleaned and reused most of the old parts.  The accelerator pump was the worst!  It was super tight in the bore, looked like poorly cut leather and to top it off the shaft was too thick to fit the slot in the cover, so I reused the old one.  Live and learn.

[stony]

Ok, my Jeep is trying to drive me crazy.  First the spindle nut socket, made me leave it at the farm for a week, then hid it in the bed of my truck by rolling it into the farthest front corner, then after I found it, I went to use it, looked for two hours, finally gave up and tapped the nuts in place with a screwdriver ( they were alresdy dinged up by the P.O.), went back into the garage and picked up my gloves, yeah there it was . Next I finished rebuilding my WO, and found the choke linkage had vanished.  After giving up and ordering a new one, next morning I found that it had rematerialized under a piece of paper on my bench[ch128563]
Good news is that I got my starter and generator back from the rebuilder, new 8 volt battery, and new (made in USA) voltage regulator that has been recalibrated to 9.5 volts.  Only thing left is checking the advance curve of the distributor, and installing a Petronix 6 volt igniter ignition module.  The wiring is a mess, but the ignition switch works and that is all I need to get it running, oh the horn works too.  Makin progress

[stony]

My exhaust manifold was in pretty bad shape (cracked), so I ordered a new one from the 1/4 ton guy on eBay.� Some good, and some bad.� The good:� the casting looks to be pretty solid, and it was machined very well, looks like it will mate up with the intake and block nicely.� The bad:� the exterior of the casting was pretty rough, and the exhaust openings were a poor match for the ports in the block.� Ordered some relatively inexpensive carbide burrs and spent about an hour on it to open up the casting for a better match to the ports.� Overall should work fine.

[stony]

Engine day!  Finished bleeding the brakes, and got the wheels on, so time to stick  the engine back in.  Did not have a pilot shaft (too cheap) so went to my wood lathe and made one out of an old ax handle.  Worked perfectly.  Head was all torqued down, so went with straps and a inexpensive Torin leveler.  Again worked really well, not too much trouble getting it together.  The trouble, and there is always trouble, came when I went to bolt it up to the bellhousing.  The two lower guide bolts went in pretty easily.  The problem was that the two upper block bolts are extremely hard to get in with the body on, almost no room.  Finally got it all together.  Clean out the garage and move it inside to finish tomorrow.  Progress!

[athawk11]

It doesn't look like you installed the accelator linkage rod to the back of the engine.  It might be a little tricky getting that set with the engine in place.

I like the engine color.

[stony]

What?  You just slip it into the bracket right? DANG

[stony]

Thanks Hawk, you made my day, got it fixed until I figured out I had the bracket on upside down, LOL!  I an NOT GOING TO PULL THE ENGINE!

[stony]

So, from the � you think you know what you are doing but really don�t� department.  As hawk pointed out I did not have my accelerator linkage on the block.  I left it off because I did not want to take a chance on damaging it, how hard could it be to slip it in.  Well didn�t work out that way.  It was pretty tight, but got one bolt out of the bracket the, and loosened the other, turned it and slipped the linkage in, then put the bolt back, not too bad.  Except that it would not work, the linkage hit the body.  Took a while but finally figured out that I had mounted the bracket upside down.  Got the two bracket bolts out, but found out that it was pretty much impossible th get them back in with a loose bracket.  Finally gave up and drilled a small hole in the firewall and had my wife hold the bracket so I could get the bolt in, once one bolt was in the other was not too bad.  Another 30 second job that took all day.  Still it is progress

[athawk11]

I don't know if this would help, but when I install or remove the two top flywheel-to-engine bolts, I support the engine with a jack, then remove the front motor mounts. I drop the front of the engine as much as possible. This gives you a little more space.� I have not forgotten to install the accelerator linkage, but it might make it a bit easier to manipulate it in to position too.

I will add...there is not a single person here that hasn't made mistakes.  It's how we all learn what not to do on the next go-round. 

[stony]

LOL, thought about that, but could not lift the front of the engine enough to get the motor mounts off.  I would have been ok if I had not installed the mount upside down.  But the engine is in and I was able to roll it into the garage where I can finish it up.

[stony]

From the why did I throw that away dept.  So went to put the oil filter in today, and guess what?  The gaskets that came with the filter do not fit.  The filter fits OK, but the gaskets are too small.  Seems I have a Purolator canister, and the gaskets are for a Fram.  Of course I tossed the old one out.  I can make one, but just one more thing.

[stony]

Plugging away, doing some small stuff.� Made a starter plunger block.� Glued two pieces of 1/8 inch aircraft ply together and coated with spar varnish.� Modified A spring to work to retract the plunger.� Hooked up the cables (24�, #1 gauge) to the starter.� left the plugs out and gave it a try.� Works just fine, pumping oil into the canister.� With any luck, should have it running this week.

[stony]

So another chore today.  Got a oil filter from KayservWillys, listed for CJ3A. And as I said in an earlier post the gasket does not fit the Purolater canister (the filter fits fine), so needed to make one.  Got some gasket material, used double sided tape to hold it on a faceplate on my wood lathe.  After a couple of failures, finally used a razor blade to cut one that fits.  Fun!

[stony]

Agggggggg!!!� Today was one of those days.� Started out OK, made up a set of plug wires, turned her over and checked with timing light, looks good.� Time to hook up the gas lines, no problem.� Put a couple of gallons in the tank, turned her over to fill the lines and filter...... nothing!� OK checked the pump, there is a undrilled casting that says �in� and right next to it a threaded hole, should be inlet, wrong!� Looked at the valves, it was the outlet.� Took the top casting off and turned it 180 degrees, put it back in, hooked the lines back up.....nothing!� Screwed around with it for about an hour, then finally looked inside and saw that the shaft on the diaphragm� had disconnected fron the arm.� Only took about another hour to get that hooked and pumping gas.� Time to see if she will run!� Turn on the key, hit the starter....nothing!� Little backfire through the carb, timing must be off.� Checked the firing order, OK, checked the timing again, OK.� i am absolutely sure that it is not 180 off.� Counterclockwise right? Right!� Swapped the #2 and 3 wires and got a little pop.� Uh oh, move #1 wire from 5 o�clock to 11 and moved all the wires.� Hit the starter, she is purring like a kitten .� It WAS 180 degrees off.� I can not for the life of me figure out how I did that.� Anyway she runs great, no water in it, so only ran it for about 45 seconds at ldle, but is showing 20 pounds of oil pressure so she is good to go.

[stony]

OK she starts and runs fine.  No water leaks (except a loose plug in the water pump), one tiny oil leak at the filter that a 1/4 turn fixed.  No water in the oil (whew) and my block repair looks just fine (whew again).  Got it timed, going to run it at 8 degrees btdc.  Retorqued the head (hot) to 70 ft lb.  Got a little movement on each of the nuts which I was not expecting.  Clutch feels great.  Time to put the body back together and take her for a spin.