~~~ Say hello to my little friend!!! ~~~

SWEEET!!! OOHH, I am so freaking jealous! Looks like you got your self a real honey! I'm sure you'll enjoy every mile! :-)

Travis, If you look around on ebay, you can probably find all kinds of stuff for it. See if you can get a good service manual. It'll pay for itself the first time you use it. Have fun, man.

For wiring, look at Painless. From what I've heard, they're the best.

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 11:01:29 -0400, "TJim" shared the following:

I am LOVING it. Today I ate lunch at my desk really quick so I'd have time during my lunch hour to take a drive... and then took off for some close-by trails. Fortunately I spend most of my time at work away from others so they won't have to see my mud-caked shirt and pants. heh heh. WHOO HOOO!!!! Just got back from some pretty intense stuff. Maybe I won't even need to paint the Jeep. I don't like that blue color, but most of it's covered up with mud right now anyway. I *almost* got uh....(what to you call that?) high centered? Where I was going over some kinda rough stuff and started to teeter a little bit...couldn't get traction...left rear wheel was completely in the air, spinning and right tire was spinning in mud...gotta get some kind of lockers...and a little bit of lift...I was able to work the steering wheel back and forth until the right front tire caught a little bit of traction and got me out of it. Need to get a winch, too. And some knobbier tires... Man, this is TOO MUCH FUN!!! :-D

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

Might not be the wiring, it might just be the ground strap you were looking for. That would explain a lot of stuff not working, or only working sometimes. The dash cluster lamps will all blow out within months of each other (good quality control there), while you're back there just replace `em all.

The Painless product really is pretty good and I'm happy I bought one.

Here's the stuff to watch out for: The harness will include several lines that won't do you any good, like stuff for a relay-controlled line for a radiator cooling fan and an air conditioning compressor. Just bury them someplace. The bulkhead connector at the firewall is a physical match for the factory hole but not for the factory harness, so you can't mix-n-match, you have to replace the whole thing. The behind the dash wiring is a direct fit and goes fast, everything is tagged so you know what goes here.

The under-hood wiring is less so. You'll want to partly unloom the harness and relocate some things, like instrument signal wires which emerge in simply wrong places. The ignition system sub harness is not included in the kit, which you won't know until you read the instructions

-- if you yank all the wires before the box arrives you're in trouble. The alternator leads are a "one size fits no one well" compromise to fit Jeep's multiple sources for alternators, and the tags for this part of the harness were either vague or absent in the one I got. Most, but not all, of the "factory preterminated" kit has factory-style connectors on the end. In particular the "push-on" quick connectors for the back of the gauges, the oil and temp senders are absent. I spliced mine back on for the senders.

And, of course, the price tag is anything but "painless".

Again, I'm happy with the kit, these are just some things to know before ordering. On the upside, you can salvage the wires from your old bulkhead connector and reinsert them into empty cells in the the new block to make spiffy and clean connection for accessories like extra front lights. The plastic parts won't interchange, but the wire terminals will.

If you make any changes to your wiring, don't use 3-M quick-ons or crimp butt-splices. Strip, solder and heat shrink tubing them. Rust is your enemy. Weird trivia: AMC used duct tape on their splices inside the loom.

The oil pressure sender for the 1970s engines is an item that is prone to failure. Just for the back of your mind.

Travis,

I bought a 73 Ford Br SNIP

I know it's fun, but don't go wheeling alone. I like the blue. I love CJ5s. Get a winch. (I can say that even though I don't have one.) Have a ball!

Pictures?

:)

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 18:26:12 GMT, John Sevey shared the following:

I didn't take any today but I did when I went out Sunday... I was going to post those pictures last night but got busy with other stuff. Here's a preview...and if you use a little imagination when you look at the url you can figure out how to view all of them... :-)

it's true... I didn't air down the tires...)

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

That's sweet! Looks like you picked a gorgeous day to go out, too! I am SOOOO jealous! ;-)

I concur.

I know what you mean. I was Jeeping up in northern WI last weekend and didn't take a single Jeep picture. Shame on me...

Of course, I don't have a "legendary" web site that's in need of content... :)

Doesn't look like it mattered too much -- except perhaps for pics 4-8.

I don't know about you, but to me it is really cool seeing a vehicle being used for its intended purpose... :)

-John

LOL!

Sure different than the VW eh?

So when you get high centered with one wheel in the air, you can bang hard on the brake pedal which will stop the tire in the air from spinning and transfer the torque to the tire on the ground. It works great, especially on ice.

I have had guys going for straps when they see me stuck on ice with one front and one rear tire spinning, then I hit the brakes a couple times and bingo 4 rooster tails and away I go.

My CJ7 owners manual even mentions you can use the emergency brake to load up the spinning wheel and transfer the traction, but that way has never worked for me.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

travis wrote:

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 15:16:32 -0400, "TJim" shared the following:

Yeah, the plan was to paint the Jeep that day, but it was so nice outside that I couldn't resist. :-)

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

They used to sell split e-brake handles for VWs. Dual levers with handles going off in opposite directions, sort of Y shaped when viewed from the top. Each lever would be cabled to the rear wheel on it's side of the car. I would think this could be a helpful rig on jeeps with open diffs or LSDs, too. Travis, did you ever see these?

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 08:44:56 -0400, "TJim" shared the following:

Only in the magazines, never in person. I think they called them "steering brakes" or something to that effect. They were intended more to help you steer in the sand by braking on one rear tire at a time than to compensate for a non-fully-locking diff. At least that was my take on it. I never got into the sand dune stuff. I stuck with mud/rocks/hills. :-)

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!

I think you're right about the "steering brakes" thing. It should work pretty well transferring torque away from a spinning wheel, though. Hmmm. I wonder why no one seems to be selling anything like this...

Hitting the brake pedal works too well maybe?

I mean, they use them on VW's to help slide around a corner, not to lock a spinning wheel.

With some practice, the brake pedal hit works great.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

TJim wrote: