So it's back from the shop, t-case rebuild and a torough checkup. Lots of small things, brakehoses, wheelbearings, valves adjusted, some bad pieces of brakeline replaced, some wiring, starterring, generator allignment, belt. But it's back and drives better then ever.
Learned that the previous owner was carefull with the Jeep but did not drive it that much about 900 miles in the past 6 years, probably because all of the little issues that needed attention. Imho standing still doing nothing is far worse to an old car then making some modest mileage in it. Long drives instead of alot of short trips. Offcourse using it as a daily is something else, but 99% of problems and a lot of maintenance can be avoided by using it regularly instead of once a month or every few months.
Anyway, took it to a Jeepclub event yesterday and did some moddest offroading for the first time in the CJ3 It performed wonderfull. Left behind quite a few build TJ's and JK's in the mud. Wonderfull to see and experience what lightweight and narrow wheelbase offer in the kind of terrain we drive around here. I was always convinced lighter is better.
It's ussually muddy tracks and mudpits dug by wide Jeeps and Patrols on 33's and up trying to power through
the little CJ3 simply drives outside those tracks on the hard ground. The narrow mudtires are wonderfull to I was pleasantly surprised and had the best time offroad so far though i did hit a piece of burried concrete which knocked off a wheelbearing cap. It was to oval to put back and could not get it back into shape. Luckily this was at the end of the day and i used ducktape to protect the bearing on the way out and home. I'll have to get a few and carry them for spare, just a 5 dollar part luckily.
There is only one issue i need to fix and that's power :-) not engine wise though :-) but for the navigation and action cam lol they dont charge on 6 volts hahaha, talk about modern day complaints lol so probably some loose batterypacks stuffed in an ammo box should be enough for more then a few hours of filming and navigating.
Made a little video, gives a good idea about the kind of terrain we deal with over here mostly. This event was on an old abandoned military base at airfield Weeze in Germany.
Unfortunatly my camera was down (see problem above
) so i have only eye wittnesses, but i also drove the little 60hp mighty Willy over the old airforcebunkers, about 35 to 40 degrees climb over 20-30 meters long, effortlesly. I did not even need to push it to climb up. The descent on the other side was a different story with those 4 drumbrakes
i can clearly sense a discbrake upgrade coming during the winter :-D
Next event is 3 days of offroad fun and lots of beer in 2 weeks. About 500- 600 4x4's of all brands and kinds will have fun on roadbooks and 4x4 playgrounds on route, live music and campfires in the evening.
Dumped some period music under the video, i think it is'nt to shabby for some fast editing after a long day
enjoy
https://youtu.be/8RaOC6rOrkw
