We all know owning a CJ7 in New England can be problematic with the amount of salt we see thrown on our streets. I have personally owned three CJ7s which have all rotted out. I patched the body on number two, but it rotted out again..

    I bought this CJ around 2004 and I have to say after I swapped in my AMC 360, T-18, stainless hinges and added some new wheels and tires it was one of the nicest Jeeps I have owned. It had already had a 1994 YJ tub before I bought it so I thought I had a good chance of keeping it for a while.

   After 10+ years of being my daily driver it started to suffer the same fate as all the others. I tried to keep up with the rot, but it spread fast and once the frame was on its final leg I decided to park it. 

   I spent two years with a 2006 TJ Rubicon, which already had a rotted fender. I figured it was easy enough to swap out the fender and have a solid Jeep that would last me another 10+ years. Decided to clean it up and paint the rocker guards and light bar with Rustoleum bed liner(great product). That is when I found rot under the doors, in some places it went all the way through. Cleaned it up the best I could and put a fresh coat of paint on the problem areas.

   We then started having trouble with the automatic transmission not shifting properly. Found this to be a known issue, but when I brought it into the dealer they wanted to rebuild the entire transmission. Keep in mind the problem would go away for months after disconnecting the battery for five minutes. Even with the small rotted patches and bad shifting on occasion I kept saying this isn't such a bad Jeep that is until I saw a leak from the rear axle. My wife and I were growing tired of these small issues and I would much rather invest money into a CJ7 instead of a TJ. So the 2006 TJ and my 2007 Z71 were traded in on a 2016 Z71.

    For as long as I can remember I have been talking about building a CJ7 from the ground up and how great it would be. Well last year my wife said she is tired of listening to me and told me to start ordering the parts I needed.


  My third Jeep is going to be my donor for miscellaneous parts required to complete the build.

 The TDK Frame the day it was delivered.

TDK From 4wd.com

  Once the frame was ordered a full suspension system was next. Old Man Emu YJ springs with Crabtree Tool & DIe http://www.crabtreetool.com/Jeep%20Parts%20Order-form.html shackle hangers and shackles.

ROK40000	CONVERSION SLEEVE	8	6	48
ROK40012	1/2X4.5 GREASABLE BOLT/NT	8	7	56
ROK40916	9/16X4.5 GRSABLE BOLT/NUT	4	10	40
ARB60032	SPORT SHOCK GM-ISUZU REAR	2	99	198

ARB60057

SPORT SHOCK MITS TRITON R

2

99

198

ARBCS037R

SPRING JEEP YJ R SOFT TOP

4

115

460

ARBOMESB57

YJ WRANGLER SPRING BUSH

4

30

120

CrabTree

3” CJ Shackles

8

10

100

 After three coats of Eastwood black chassis I started to assemble my new 1983 CJ7.

  Now it was time to start ordering the drive line. I got quotes from a couple different shops to rebuild my existing axles and it was only a couple hundred more to buy a new rear Dana 44 from East Coast Gear https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/. Not to mention it comes with disc brakes

  Rolled the axle into the tent on my old wheels and tires and bolted it on the springs. Unfortunately, the U-bolts and U-bolt plates from the company where I purchased the suspension from did not fit the East Coast Gear Dana 44, but East Coast Gear includes them with the axle.

   I went back and forth about rebuilding my Dana 30 or buying another full bolt in axle and decided to buy a Dana 44 front end from East Coast Gear. My decision was based on the amount of money for the parts and the cost it would be to have the gearing installed. I understand that I could have went cheaper and only replaced the worn parts on the Dana 30, but this way I have a 5 year warranty on both front and rear ends and should not have any big problems for a while.
 

  

Novak Adpaters 700R4 Stage II with Rebuilt Dana 300

Updates to follow...

Today is the day

Ordered my Throttle Down Kustoms CJ-7 frame today!!!

I need to get the Jeep out of my head and back on the road.

Exhaust has been leak free since November 1,2012, which is amazing for a Jeep owned by me. Anyone who is looking for an exhaust for an AMC Jeep should really think about manifolds instead of headers!

Headers are gone, manifolds are installed.

Well, I spent most of yesterday removing the old rotted Hedman headers to make way for the new Crown Automotive exhaust manifolds. I spent about $40.00 on grade 8 mounting hardware, but it will be worth the money and time to have a quiet exhaust!

Hedman ELITE HTC headers, not very ELITE.

Before:

After 5 years:






These should last much longer than the headers.

Exhaust Work will begin October 29,2011

Well my third set of headers has rotted out. Decided to make the switch to factory exhaust manifolds with a single exhaust. This should cut down on heat inside the Jeep, and cut down on costs when it comes time to replace the muffler, and cat.

Saturday I plan to have the old headers removed, and the new manifolds installed. If I can get it done soon enough I might even be able to drop it off at the local muffler shop.

Once the exhaust is squared away, it is time to start fixing all the little stuff that has been breaking.

First on the List will be my heater switch, nothing worse in the winter then no heat.

Next I will drain my rear diff and fill with new fluids. To do that I will need to drill out the stuck bolts.


I have so much work to get done, before the bitter cold hits. Good thing I have a car stero in the garage :-).

Time for some indoor hobbies.

With winter in full force it is time to move my focus from the Jeep to indoor hobbies. A couple things I would like to do this winter.

1.) Start and finish my 2007 Camaro concept model(same as 2010 Camaro minus the location of the gas cap).

2.) Get some much needed track time with my R/C Car.

3.) Learn C++.


I think I can accomplish the first two, but the last one is something I have been talking about for a very long time.

The fan is great!!

I am very happy with the latest flexalite fan that I bought. I hope to get another good 10 years or more from this fan.

Pickedup a Flexalite Black Magic 160 Fan

Located my old receipt(10 years old) for the electric fan and brought it to the speed shop. unfortunately, the model I had was now discontinued, so I ordered the next one in line. Plan to install the fan this weekend and repair the rear diff oil leak this weekend.

Fan troubles

My flexslite electric fan broke a couple months ago after 10 years of loyal service. The rubber gasket around the shroud wrapped around the fan and broke all but three blades off. I bought a cheap $50.00 to get me through the week, but ended up using it for the past couple months.

Decided to buy a larger one(again cheap) for a more permanent fix. After making a set of brackets(not the best looking ones) I found out it would not clear my water pump.

Now I am out 120$ and still not real solution. I plan to order a new Fan from the speed shop using the same part number from my original Flexalite fan.

Garage Day!!

After doing the swap my garage was left looking like a small tornado went through. Let's say the name of the tornado was named SonicCJ7...

extras:

I did not post all of the pictures that were taken during the engine swap. So here they are.

The Day the engine started May 14,2010

I ran into all of the standard first start bugs.

including:

- trouble when trying to align my distributor and oil pump.
- Carb vacume leak at the base

I am very happy this project is done. For now....




The knocking you hear is the center force clutch weights hitting the throw out bearing. After I adjusted the clutch they quieted down.

May 12,2010 The engine is in the frame.

Today my Dad came over and helped drop the engine in the Jeep.




I hope to have it running tomorrow afternoon.

Re-purpose clutch linkage

Used a part from my new clutch linkage which was suppose to be for a 1" body lift.

May 11,2010 Engine is almost ready to drop in.

I spent yesterday assembling the rest of the engine. I needed to purchase a 1 1/4" wrench in order to use the harmonic balancer installer that I rented from the store. I was worried that the installer would strip out my crank threads(already messed up and needed to tap once from the puller) but the balancer went on without any issues.

Pilot bushing located...

Part BK 6151031 from Napa works.

Now I just need to figure out this stupid pulley problem.

Last piece of the puzzle is the pulleys then I drop it in!!

May 2,2010 Started to assemble

Started to assemble the engine.





Ran into a small problem. I am using the same pulleys and harmonic balancer from my previous 360, but for some reason they don't line up on this new engine.






I located a spacer that I think was used to space the harmonic balancer out. Need to ask around to see if that is where it belongs.

The search for a pilot bushing...

I have been trying to locate a pilot bushing now for two days. I bought one which was suppose to fit a 1980 CJ-7 with a 304, but it did not fit the engine or the T-18 input shaft.

I located a bushing online at Napa that comes close to my measurements. Placed the order today and should see it by next week.