I have been blowing off Jeep work the last couple of weeks. Getting home after dark and going out in the cold just does not seem like fun. But I have borrowed a welder from my Dad so I need to start learning how to that works. Continue reading “Jeep is hovering now”
So way back in September I found out the original brake light switch on the car was bad. So I replaced it with a new one. Then this last weekend my wife and I were filling tires and checking lights and found the brake lights were not working again. I quickly tracked the problem back to the switch. Evidently the new switch suffered some infant mortality. Dammit.
I bought 4 new tires and had them installed on the powder-coated wheels. I went with street radials that are similar in size to the original 7.35×15 bias-ply tires. P225-75R15. They are whitewalls but I put those on the inside. Whitewalls are wrong on this car I think.
I finally got the new bulb sockets in so I put the instrument cluster back together with new bulbs and the new voltage regulator.
Tonight I put the steering back together but first…
So I ended up taking the drag link back out of the car. The end plugs that came with the rebuild kit are very, very different from the ones that were in there before. Not only are the plugs longer but the slots in the end are a lot shallower.
The guide pins are different too.
Time to read the manual. And the manual says that I am doing it all wrong. According to the manual the steering box end should have the spring on the outside (plug) end and the bellcrank end should have the spring on the inside end. So I tried to put it together that way.
So there is no way to get the ball in that socket. My first thought was to compress the spring. So I rigged up this tool to do it.
But the spring is too long. So I put one of the original springs back in which are a lot shorter.
But with the spring fully compressed the ball still will not go in there. I am not sure what the heck to do. So I am posting a question on the Jeepster forum to see what the interweb knows.
I collected my painted steering parts and started putting things together.
This morning I started back in on attaching the new alternator. First step was soldering in the fusible link. The first wire on the right went really well, The second one not so much. The red wire is original to the car and the solder did not want to stick to the old dirty copper. By the time I got it soldered it was a big mess and the shrink tube would not fit over it. Rats. I should un-solder the whole mess and start over but I am ready to wrap it in electrical tape and move on.
Looks pretty nice. Then I realized I had not put the wires below the alternator back in the loom so I had to take it apart again and fix it.
So then I put it together and realized I forgot to tighten the bolt on the alternator bracket behind the coil. So I took it apart again. This time I put spacer washers in there to make everything line up better. The red circles show where the washers are.
The mount is nice and tight, wires are loomed, and brackets lined up. Then I realized I had the belt on the wrong pulley. At least this time I did not have to take it apart completely.
I do NOT want to take this apart again. But it looks good this time. I checked the wiring and the ground on the alternator with a meter.
On my last parts store run I also picked up a ground strap. I don’t see on on the engine so I figure better safe than sorry. The plan is to use one of the holes in the frame where the snow plow used to mount for one end and a bolt on the engine for the other. The hole in the frame is pretty big so I rigged up that stack of washers to make it work. I nee.d the big long bolt because the frame is fully boxed.
So here is where the picture of the installed ground strap would go but that picture did not turn out well at all so we will just have to imagine it.
Speedometer cable time. With the instrument cluster out of the way it pulls right out.
I wiped down the cable then fed it back in. As I put it in I lubed it with cable lubricant.
Here is the transmission end of the speedometer cable. I took it loose to make sure the cable got back into its hole correctly. No problems I hope.
I still don’t have the bulb sockets for the instrument cluster so I moved on to the steering. I took out the reach rod. This comes out by removing the cotter pins and unscrewing the end caps until the socket is loose enough to pop off. The sockets are pretty worn but I have a rebuild kit.
I removed the steering bell crank as well. I removed the pinch bolt then the big pivot bolt. I expected the bushing to be badly word but it is nice and tight.
I popped the tie rod end with my nifty tie-rod-end popper.
And we have tie rod ends. I measured these and marked the positions of everything so I could put it back together like it came apart. Then I settled in for a parts cleaning and painting party. Then while the paint was drying it started to rain. So the end result was no pictures. But I take some putting things back together tomorrow.
I want on a NAPA run and scored a rebuilt 65A Delco alternator, a fusible link, and the alternator electrical connector. Now I have to install it.
The first step is to figure out the existing wiring. What we have here is the factory alternator wiring adapted to the ammeter my dad installed. The positive battery cable is connected to the starter solenoid. A red #12 wire runs from the solenoid terminal to a ring terminal that has been bolted to a blue wire running back to the ammeter on the dash. That joint is the silver blob in the upper middle of the picture. Another blue #12 wire runs from the other side of the ammeter to that ring terminal in the upper left of the picture. So that is the battery side of the circuit. The other loose red wire with a ring terminal supplies power to the rest of the car via the circuit breaker back on the kick panel. Both the loose ring terminals used to attach to the output terminal on the old alternator. The thin grey wire feeds to the amp light on the instrument cluster.
This picture I took before ripping out the old alternator shows how the wires were connected. We are going to do something similar but more safely and with (hopefully) better reliability.
First step is get the old regulator out. We will not need this any more, the Delco is internally regulated. Three screws and it is gone.
Second step replace that bolt and two ring terminals. I soldered the wire from the solenoid (and battery) to the ammeter wire and protected it with shrink tube. That white stuff all over the valve cover is debris from the tape that was insulating the old connection.
This is the custom fusible link I put together to feed this system. The idea behind a fusible link is to protect the rest of the car from a major short. The link is simply wire in a extra-sturdy insulation. If the system shorts the wire burns up contained in the insulation protecting the rest of the system. The fusible link should be 4 gauges less than the wire being protected. Since with are running #12 wire the fusible link is #16. Since there are two branches off the alternator I put two fusible links on one ring terminal. That ring terminal will connect to the output terminal of the alternator and the two branches will be soldered to the red and blue wires in the picture above that feed the car and battery respectively.
Time to test-fit the new alternator. Fits nice and the wires will reach.
I also ran a new negative battery cable. Here you can see it snaking down to the bottom bolt on the alternator mounting bracket.
I got a new voltage regulator in the mail so I decided to take a side trip into getting the gauges working again. The main reason is I want to make sure the amp light will work with this alternator. I installed the regulator and rigged the alternator wiring so the car got power. But the gauges are still dead. Dammit. I checked the ground on the regulator and that was fine so the problem must be elsewhere.
I figured the next step was to remove the gauge cluster and see what is going on. It actually came out really easily. I unscrewed the speedometer cable, disconnected the electrical connector, then pressed the spring clips and it popped right out.
Now we can see everything. I should have done this before, it gives great access to the rest of the dash wiring. You can see here where the regulator goes and the electrical connector on the right side. When I turned the cluster over it rattled. That can’t be good.
And there is the rattle. Three of the light bulb sockets are broken and several others are pretty brittle. I think these are standard IP light bulb sockets so I will just replace both the bulbs and the sockets.
I tested the printed circuit board on the back of the cluster and found that the board is good but the contacts on are all pretty dirty. I cleaned them up. That might have been the problem but I will also check the cluster connector wiring before I put this back in. I will also have to clean and lube the speedometer cable, which will be a messy job. Meanwhile I will have to finish up the alternator wiring. But I am out of time for now.
I have been taking the Jeep on longer and longer shakedown drives. Last Tuesday I even drove it to work. The suspension and steering are a hot mess and the tires are crap but I knew all that. The only odd thing has been the charging system.
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