AMC 20 part 3 - cutting and grinding

Finally got around to working on the Jeep again.  Work takes up too much time in my life.  So this is the progress on the AMC 20.


First up is leveling the rear end on jack stands.  Then measure the distance from the brake mounting plate to the middle of the hole in the spring perch.  On the narrow track it is 5 inches.


Then the using the angle grinder with a cutting disk I took off the old spring mounts.  Then the metal was ground flush, well as flush as it can on this old rear axle.  Paint was also removed so the weld will not get contaminated.


The new part was placed in position, leveled, then rechecked and tacked in place.  At this point it was checked again.


Once satisfied with my measurements it was welded in place for good.  There is a lot of splatter on the welds but that is due to my use of a flux core wire feed welder.  If I had gas it would look better.


This just shows the original mounts and the new one I built.  Supposedly the longer mounts make for better off road handling.  Now all that is left to do is install one more axle, mount the springs and through it under the frame.

AMC 20 part 2 - spring perch fabrication

In part 2 we are going to be fabricating some spring perches.  Over the years mine have collapsed and filled with rust and other stuff.  As with most things I like to fabricate I start with a drawing.  TurboCAD 14 was used however paper would have been fine as well.  For myself it is easier to make changes and add dimensions.  Plus it is saved on my computer so I can go back to it.


The metal used was a piece 12" piece of 2.5"x1.5" square tube, 3/16" wall thickness.  This tube has a welded seam so that will be cut out.  We want solid metal.  First layout, mark, center punch and drill the 1/2" hole.  For the aftermarket Rancho leaf springs I had to make the hole a little bit larger than 1/2".


Then a template is made up and transferred to the part.  Once transferred a 4" die grinder and Dremel tool is used to cut it out.  Here is one finished and one in progress.


The next operation will be to measure the placement of the old spring perches.  Then it will be onto cutting off the old ones and welding on the new perches.

AMC 20 part 1

Onto the rear axle rebuild.  This is the AMC 20 rear axle that came standard on a lot of the CJ-7s through the years.  It is known for being a weak link due to its two piece axles.  This weakness will be fixed with a set of Moser axles.  While this axle is apart new bearings and seals will be installed.  Like all parts of this Jeep rust is present on everything.  Onto the cart the axle gets hoisted.  This is the same cart that I used to take the frame off the truck with.




The original planetary gears.  They were in good shape for being 30 years old.  One minor chip was all.  These are coming out and a Lockright "lunchbox locker" will be going in.  Basically a locking differential.  This will provide power to the wheel that needs it.




All cleaned up with a coat of POR-15 rust sealer.  New bearing races installed as well.  When reassembling the pinion I had to take it to a shop to have the crush washer crushed.  I tried with all the tools I had but could not get it to crush.  In fact the mechanic with the 3/4" impact wrench had a hell of a time.  But he got the correct preload on the bearing and it cost me $20.




New bearings were pressed onto the Moser axle.  This went real smooth with the press I had.  Thanks to my Dad for giving it to me, it is an invaluable tool.




Finally the one side of the axle is complete.

T-176 transmission/Dana 300 transfer case

So I picked up a T-176 4-speed transmission with Dana 300 transfer case.  Also another bell housing.



A Centerforce clutch pressure plate was also picked up.  What came with the Jeep was a T-150 3-speed transmission and Dana 20 transfer case.  The T-176 adds another gear, it should produce better gas mileage and perhaps a higher highway speed.  The Dana 300 is a bit more stout over the 20.  My bell housing that came with the CJ had a hairline crack and will now be sent to the metal recyclers. 

Throttle Down Kustoms Frame

August 2007 a order was placed to Quadratec for $1800.  Shortly after a 18 wheeler pulled up to my house with a new frame for the CJ-7.  The frame was on a pallet.  Unloading it was not to bad.  I own a service cart that was used by NCR to repair mechanical cash registers.  It can easily hold 800 lbs.  We slid this off the truck and onto the cart.  Minutes later it was in the garage and onto a pair of saw horses.  My motor lift was used to help me lift it.




This thing is solid and the welds are really nice.   It was ordered for a narrow track setup just like what I have on my Jeep.




POR-15 Chassis Coat was used to coat the frame with.  Unlike POR-15 rust sealer it is not a self leveling paint.  This left brush marks and bothered me.




I know it is just a frame and not many people would see it but I see it.   On the front crossmember some hammered black paint was tried.   It covered up the brush marks but still did not look right. Due to personal and work circumstances it sat in this state for about 4 years.  That was until I took a 2 week vacation and started working on this again.  So the frame was sanded and the hammered paint was stripped.  Aircraft paint stripper was used.   This is some nasty stuff.




Now it is painted with an oil based "farm and implement" paint.  "Construction Yellow" was used and is the same color as used on Caterpillar heavy equipment.  Now we are back on track.




Time for parts to go back together.

Teardown part 5 - frame

So this is the final teardown segment.  After this we can get to building a Jeep.  Since the frame was so rusted I determined it was unsafe.  Fist sized holes of rust is not a good thing.  If it was only one part of the frame I could repair it.  Not so with this one.  The suspension was also shot.  Most people who build a Jeep replace it anyways.  Out came my 4 1/2" angle grinder and I cut off the front end.  All the motor mounts, sway bar casting and other unboltable parts came off.  Most of these will have to be refurbished.




Then the AMC 20 rear axle was cut off.  The leaf springs discarded.




At this point the angle grinder was used to cut up the frame to manageable pieces.  Surprisingly it only took less than 30 minutes to cut this old frame up.  This is what remains of it.




And the pile of metal that once was a frame.




The white paint on the frame part I did.  When I disassemble anything I use my digital camera to take photos of everything.  Digital photos cost nothing so taking a couple hundred pictures while taking a vehicle apart is a no brainer.  When I put these out for trash pickup someone picked it all up before the trash guys got there.  You won't get a lot for steel if you recycle it unless you pick up a lot.  Now that major teardown is completed it is time to order some parts and start rebuilding.

Teardown part 4 - motor/transmission removal

Now it is time for some heavy lifting.  The AMC 256 6-cylinder, T-150 3-speed transmission and Dana 20 transfer case must be removed.  Right now this is the chassis sitting in the garage. Notice I blocked off all fluid/air/gas intakes with plastic bags.  Don't want any critters getting into places they do not need to go.




Before taking out the motor/transmission 30 years of oil and grease needed to be removed.  Out came the engine cleaner/degreaser and a pressure washer.  Lots of rust and grease stuff on the driveway.




This is the transmission and transfer case being removed.  I separated it from the bell housing to make it easier.  At this point I found a crack in the bell housing.  That is another part to be replace.  We will see what condition the gears are in when I get to that part of the rebuild.  At this time the clutch plates were also removed.  These were in pretty good shape but a new clutch will be installed anyways.  It won't be as easy to replace when the body tub is back on the frame.




Here is the frame without the motor/transmission.  The bell housing and transmission skid plate also sit on the frame.  At this time the garage is getting quite cramped.  A lot of boxes for work were being stored in there(boxes on left).  These were eventually evicted and there is much more room to work.  Finally the motor was put on a motor stand.  This time around a four wheel motor stand was bought.  Back when I raced cars at the local short track I had a 3 wheel one.  It was prone to tipping over so I recommend spending the extra cash on this one.




Some of the original engine paint remains.  They no longer make this color.  It was a metallic dark teal color and quite nice looking.  When this gets cleaned up it will be a standard Chrysler blue engine paint.  Fun stuff I found on this motor is all the emissions garbage was taken off.  Or more like ripped off.  Will have to properly plug all the holes up.  Also at some point something pierced the oil pan.  They fixed the hole with caulk.  The type you use in your bath tub.  Already have a new oil pan ready.




In hindsight it would have been a good idea to run a compression test on the cylinders before removing.  The motor ran really well and only had 87K miles on it.  But I will find a way to run a test with it on the stand.

Teardown part 3 - tub removal

Now on to removing the tub.  With the plywood floor removed I can see the full extent of the damage to the tub.  The years have not been kind to this Jeep.  But hey it is a Jeep and is made to be repaired, broken, then repaired again.




After seeing the state of the floorboards I determined that I needed to weld in some support.  If I did not do this this body would fold when being removed and then need replacement or massive repair.  Most people would abandon this tub and order a replacement or find a junkyard donor.  Around here junkyards suck and no Jeep parts are on hand.  $4200 for a steel replacement tub is also not realistic for me.  I could spend $3000 for a fiberglass tub.  But if I wanted a fiberglass vehicle I would have bought a Corvette like my good friend Dan.  So some 1" steel tube was welded across the tub.




This arrangement of three bars worked.  They are tack welded on and will be easy to remove.  In the end you will never know they were on there.  My motor lift along with some hold down straps were used to lift the body from the tub.  Four guys could have also done the job but most of my friends around here avoid manual labor like I avoid tofu.  Oh well that is why man makes machines.




The engine lift made short work of lifting the tub off.  The lift was moved to the left and the remaining chassis was rolled out of the garage.




Once the chassis was out of the garage the tub was placed on the garage floor. 




Once tub was down I could tilt on its side by myself.  It is really not that heavy.  The tub was placed on two furniture dollies on its side.  Now it is a simple matter of moving it out of the way when needed.

Teardown part 2

This is part two of tearing down the Jeep for inspection/rebuilding.  One thing surprising to me is that the cardboard glovebox is intact.  With as rough as this Jeep is that was one thing I expected to be missing.  Even though this was in good shape I ditched it and a plastic one or a metal fabricated one will take its place.




Next up was removing the steering column and dash board.  Then the pedals were removed.  The previous owner "Jerry rigged" the clutch assembly.  I believe the piece of metal on the right is what is commonly used to hang garage door openers with.  It is not even square and welded to what is left of the body mount.  Not safe.




 Here is what the Jeep looks like with the entire front clip removed.




Next up was the windshield.  Well the folding hinges were a solid piece.  There is a hold in the center of the hinge for oil but I doubt this windshield was ever folded down.  So cutting it off was the only answer.  Using the angle grinder the hinges were cut in half.  Then the remaining pieces were unbolted after much difficulty.  I found PB Blaster to be a great tool.




Surprisingly there was not much rust.  Just a little at each corner.  Easily fixed and will be completely hidden.  Lastly the seats and other odds and ends were taken out of the tub.  The extent of tub rot is now coming into view.




Also the rollbar was also removed.  This required welding the torx bolts to the roll bar.  There was so much rust they would just spin in place.  I don't know what AMC's addiction to torx bolts is but they will not be going back on.  The rollbar is the old style that bolts to the top of the wheel wells, it will be replaced with a full cage that is tied into the frame.

Teardown Part 1

So starts the teardown to see what I have to work with.  First thing was moving it into the garage.  This was accomplished by pushing it with a Dodge Ram 1500 van.  In the couple months my Jeep sat in the driveway it stopped running.  Fuel was no longer getting to the carburetor.




Some of the interior being stripped out.  Under the carpet was plywood being used for floorboards.  This was another thing I asked the seller but was deceived by.   I do not know why blue paint is on the interior either.




The front fenders and hood off.  As you can see more rust.  The top half of the shock is missing.  Years of re-wiring and half assed repairs are also visible.  But on the plus side the fuel pump looks brand new!




Lastly you can see just how much rust damage there is. 



Just above the frames body mount should be a piece to mount the tub to the frame.  It is long gone!  Plus around the heater cores is major amounts of rust.  Found out why no fuel was getting to the pump.  The previous owner used copper tube to run new gas hard lines.  The tops had corroded through.  Which means no suction. 

1979 Jeep CJ-7 Narrow Track

I believe Luke Skywalker said it best when he said - "What a piece of junk".  He was referring to the Millenium Falcon upon first seeing it.  Well that is what I thought when it rolled up to my house upon delivery.  It definitely won't make point five past lightspeed...  This Jeep was bought from Pennsylvania off eBay and I had it shipped down to Florida.  In April 2007 I paid $3000 for this.  Cost to ship to Florida was around $700.  Lesson learned for me is a $400 plane ticket to check out the Jeep would have saved me thousands.  Even though I spent close to 45 minutes on the phone with the seller this thing was a bucket of rust.  But I wanted a CJ really bad.  So going forward, never again.  Here is it as shipped to Florida, snow plow and all!


Now for some of the positives. Snow plow works perfectly and caused my neighbors here in Florida to give me strange looks. It started, drove, ,all electronics, all gears and transfer case worked. That is a big plus and only 87K original miles on it. Hard tops fiberglass is not rotten. It was funny though breaking and having the rear wheels come off the ground from the weight of the plow. Now for the bad.


This is the rear frame, or what is the remains of it.   The other side was not much better. In fact someone welded some random angle iron and "fixed it".   This was one thing I grilled the seller about.  He said there was rust, but this is not technically a safe frame anymore.


This is that random piece of angle iron.  Who knows what this piece of metal was cut off of before being welded in place.  Check out that wiring as well.  Somehow the seller managed to hide all that before listing it.


Here is another patch of rust on the main tub.  I won't bother with any more, we will cover that in the tear down.


Another shot of the plow.  Useless in Florida.