Jonathan's 1978 Jeep CJ-5 Project: Update

I thought I would give you an update since lately I haven't done too much to the jeep. I have just been out having fun with it.

Recently, a stop has been put to the fun since something in my AMC 20 rear broke when we were out wheeling. I head some loud clicks from the rear of the vehicle and wasn't sure what they were. I backed down the obstacle and checked out my rig. Visually everything seemed alright. I thought the problem was in the front axle since my front wheels started to spin out as the jeep was climbing. Later as my friend was doing some spotting, he noticed that my rear wheels were not doing anything. At that point, we realized that my rear axle was toast. So my friend had to make it up some of the obstacles and let me winch myself up. Later, I found that when I got out to inspect the jeep, I set the rear parking brake It turns out that I never disengaged it. That made for a lot wheelspin up just about every single hill since the jeep was basically rolling through the parking brake and dragging the rear axle. Once I took off the rear parking break and was humbled, I was able to make good movement along the trail by keeping my speed up hills (pardon the bouncy ride) and running the jeep in 4lo in 2nd gear (1st gear had too much torque and would just break free and spin). That was the recipe to get back to the main road. When we got back to the main road, I put the transfer in 4hi and drove all the way home with it. I kept my speed under 40 (the jeep's top speed is like 50) in hopes of saving the transfer case. When we were on the main road, I stopped and shifted into 2hi and put it in gear. All we could hear was some clicking and rotating parts in the rear axle and we could see the rear drive shaft spinning. There shouldn't have been any problems with turning on the asphalt since my front differential is open and the front and rear differentials were not connected (the rear wheels could turn at whatever speed they wanted since there was a disconnection somewhere between the pinion and the hubs).

Up until the axle broke, it had been making very interesting noises (like banging when the accelerator was pressed in 1st or 2nd or any high torque situation). I suspect some gear lash problem or a problem with the Torsen Gleason differential. I will do an autopsy to see what happened, but I have no plans on putting money into that axle. I would hate to put money into an AMC 20 axle and still have an AMC 20 axle. So I think the jeep project is going to get interesting again.

I basically have three plans, mild, wild, and tornado. One should be a weekend job. The others will take forever to accumulate parts.

Plan A: Swap the AMC 20 for dana 44, put manual locker in later.

Plan B: Do a spring over axle lift with YJ jeep springs and swap in a dana 44 for the front and a dana 44 for the back. I'll regear both (I may have to anyways) for 4.88 and run 35" tires.

Plan C: Same as plan B, but with dana 60s and 38" tires

Plan A ramifications:
My front and rear wheel pattern may not match. This would make carrying one spare a coin toss.

Plan B/C ramifications:
So far the only things I plan on having to buy are some new brake lines, a 4" drop pitman arm, axle wear items (bearings), shocks, ring and pinion gears, drive shaft, and tires.

Plan C ramifications:
Steering may be too weak, might have to heavily modify body components.

Here is a cj5 with SOA and 35" tires:
http://www.dirtroad.com/fcj5.jpg

Here is a jeep with SOA, full width dana 60s, and 38" tires:
http://image.4wdandsportutility.com/f/8501938/03104wd_10z+1977_Jeep_CJ5+Front_View.jpg

I plan on getting the axles and wheels for virtually free (I have a good source).

My strategies for these:
Brake lines: new
Pitman drop arm: ebay/craigslist/new if those fail
Axle wear items: Get these through checker, autozone, Internet
Ring and pinion gears: new, ebay, dad's sweet hookup
Rear diff/Locker: Unknown
Axles: My dad may have some axles I can have for free, I think he has some Dana 44s. I know for sure that he has tons of Dana 60s, in which case I'd have to work on getting 38s instead. I have also found a few people who have dana 44s for pretty cheap (like $100) on craigslist.
Wheels: Some big tough steel ones, I'll spray paint them black
Tires: I may have a sweet tire hookup too.
Drive shaft: I may need to have a shop do some drive shaft work for me.
Shocks: I could try using my current shocks, but they may be too short.

I am hoping to completely fund the entire project by selling my springs, shocks, axles, wheels, and tires.

Over on pirate, they have a thread of full-width jeeps (this is if I went the dana 60 route):
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=662844&page=2

Expect to see the above coming down the pipeline, there should be quite a bit of fabrication/restoration work going on there.

Back to the updates I've wanted to get to...

In the last month I totally cleaned my garage with soap and water. I even organized a bunch of my chemicals, hardware, welding equipment, and tooling.

We've been hitting this spot up almost weekly, chimney rock area off of Reddington pass. We usually grill gourmet food, chop wood, and build good fires.

I started the installation of the warn 8274. I ended up buying all new solenoids for it and am using 2ga welding wire to connect it to the battery. I used it when the rear axle broke and it worked great.

I put the backseat in the jeep because people have been riding along with me. I carry a huge toolbox, a shovel, and a backpack. My GPS was destroyed from my last outing because it slipped out of my pack. I think Garmin does a flat rate repair for like $110. I do not have a jack or a spare tire yet.

I had some gear oil with me because the transfer case front yoke shaft is leaking a little bit. I changed the gear oil in the transfer and transmission. I added like 30% Lucas oil stabilizer, that was a pain in the ass. It is extremely viscous.