Well, it was a very hot and humid weekend here in the Chicago suburbs, but I managed to complete my CJ disassembly. Removed the Engine and trans, and the tub all by myself. Well I had a cherry picker doing the heavy lifting. To the man that invented the reciprocating saw… THANK YOU. While trying to remove the body mounting bolts I found that the rust had eaten through so bad they would just spin in place! So I strapped it to the picker and started cutting through them. Finally got it out of the way and on the trailer. I unfortunatly found some rust holes through the frame, but luckily the frame is in pretty ok shape except in the very back, which will be easy to cut off and repair. Here are the picks!

A few shots of the TUB shows the current rust situation, leading me to get a new tub. Found one in Cali, original CJ7 no rust. Ordered it and trying to find someone to deliver it fo a reasonable price. Original price to ship is 900.00!

The motor and Trans

The rusted frame section.

So its time to repair the frame, and start ordering parts! I will create a seperate link to each part as I install or reapir different parts. So you can easily find pictures and information on each step.

Well, I started to remove the engine the other day, have drained and removed the radiator, alternator, power steering pump and the wiring harness. I must say the engine looks very small without those parts. I did not get any photos as I was preparing for a trip out of the country. I will be gone for a week, however I did arrange for a guy to come out and do a bunch of sandblasting for me! It’s and hourly charge, so I am trying to find anythign and everythign I can that needs blasted. If you live in the Lake county area and need somethign blasted let me know, we can have a bunch of things done at once and save some money! I keep thinking while I am in asia I should visit the phillipines and check out the repopped tubs, however I dont think that will be possible. I will post updated pics when I return

So after looking at this for a while I decided that getting it road worthy was not going to be as quick as I thought. I had planned on just replacing the fluids, brake system, and fixing the lights as the engine runs great. I then also noticed that the temperature, gas and oil gauges were not operational. Still not too tough to fix so I thought. Upon further inspection the oil pressure gauge does not work because the adapter was broke off where it connects to the block. The wiring is totally not up to par and the gas tank while it holds fuel, has a hack wiring and pump system buggered up.

I decided I had two choices, part it out, or tear it down and completely rebuild it. Being a glutton for punishment, and always biting off more than I can chew, I decided to do a frame off complete rebuild. So step one… Up on the jack stands and begin to dissemble…..

Remove the wheels and get that front axle out.

I ended up having to cut off the U-bolts on the front axle as they were so torn up my impact wrench and half a can of liquid wrench would not loosen them up! If anyone has any tips on getting the front rear leaf spring bolt out let me know. Impact wrench – just turns the bolt about 45 degrees and the spring moves with it. I am assuming there is a metal tube inside the spring bushing that is rusted to the bolt, so may end up cutting the bolt off. I am trying to save the springs although I am not quite sure why, as they will be replaced with the lift kit I intend to install. – UPDATE once again the great bunch at www.jeepforum.com came to the rescue, I will be cutting the bolts out when I get back to town!

With having my kids every other weekend, and traveling internationally for work I will only be able to work on this sporadically. Check back for updates!