Offroad-Express

Well after (another) rather unfortunate event I decided to rebuild the jeep and make a few mods keeping it within the requirements to maker it easy to get it certified.


http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/HoopeFamily/picture063

Previously the jeep had been lifted 4" and at this stage i see no reason to take it up much higher than that just yet.

I have been documenting the changes and progress on my photos side that can be found at http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/album29

I really cant wait to get it back "off road"


http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/album29

Oh and just in case you are wondering, yes I left nost of the dents there as i could not see any reason to remove them

One word of warning is that Jeeps are quite lite and with nothing in them and larger tyres they tend to float quite well. when your floating there is not much you can do and often by the time your wheels finally touch the ground the engines electrics get wet and it conks out.

Where were you when you submerged the truck?

Solid project you have underway.

Matt.

The best start of a new year for me, watching a Jeep being brought back to life.

I remember reading about your encounter with the flood and drowned Jeep. It looks like a great project. Good on you for doing this.

This incadent took place up at Springhill just north of warkworth, i would not really say it was flood damaged as the only issue seems to be the water in the transmission. engine is fine and as i religiously took the time to go over the jeep with fisoline and waterproof all the electrical connectors it was near on impossible for the water to make it in to anyting else.

There is water in the differentials however not much, and a little in the engine but again not that much, oil fiters and oil was changed ASAP and engine was flushed with Kero. Fires up first pop and was even drivable until i stripped it down.

I have another engine, transmission and diffrentials that are being put in and will probibly rebuild the originals over time. Its handy having spares

The rear springs have been retensioned thanks to Snell Springs

The original headlights were full of water and the reflective coating in the back of them went green and vanished. Repco have replacements and yuo can purchase sealed beams for about $30 each or semi sealed for about $50.00 each. thats a lot cheaper than the $110.00 quoted from another source who carries jeep parts.

As i replace the bits i will let you all know what parts are used as im intending on (whereever possible) using third party seals and bearings due to the price of the jeep bits.

its probibly worth us all pulling together and making an NZ jeep pars list that we can refer to and source parts at the best price possible

Well better get back to the rear diffrential, im hoping to have it back together, painted and possibly in the vehicle tonight. have not botherd replacing the seals and bearings as they look good and there is no sign of any oil leaks. BTW when is someone going to make a better smelling diffrential oil

So this was the driveway you tried to get across?

The driveway is the first driveway heading north just before you get to the hoteo river bridge. The river had swelled and coverd the driveway. The water was not fast running and seemed quite placid.

It was only after pulling he engine down later that i discovered the problem was twofold. First the jeep was a little more boyant without the normal load in it. the second was that some plonker forgot to reinstall the rubber gasket on the distributor.

So jeep started to float, distributor took on some water and stalled the engine. If the points had not gotten wet then im prety sure i would have made it out.

Would it be possible to use ignition from 2001+ TJ? Its the same 4.0l I6 engine, but diferrent ECM with no distributor and spark plug leads. Three coil packs on a rail sit on the plugs directly. Makes it a little easier to waterproof.

Might be a long term upgrade project?

TJ: That certinly sounds like a good idea. it may be possible to just modifiy the existing system and replace the rotor with an optical or hall sensor that would do the same thing then sit independent coils on each plug. what way even if one coil fails the others will opperate.

I might look into this.

This is what i did to my last set of coils

http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/album30
Produces about 50'000v and with a fully chaged battery will self arc over a distance of about 50mm

I finally got the diff in and rebuilt the brakes today.
The springs have been re-tentioned, new break slace cylinders and brake pads. drums were OK internally but had a bit of scale on the outside. all the springs and mechanisim were ok.

I cleaned all the bits up and coated them with a rustkill paint including the drum appart from the area where the shoes bite in. hopefully this will reduce the amount of rust scale i have to deal with next time.

I drained and replaced the diff oil and checked all the teeth to make sure there were no visible craks that could cause be problems next time.

I had to put the rear tyres on just to take a look and see what the clearance is now like. It seems OK but i guess i will have to wait until the engine transmission are in and see how much height i loose.


http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/album29?page=5

While foing the breaks i decided to strip down the slace cylinders and see if i could rebuild them as a cheaper option. After pulling them appart and cleaning them down i went off to get a rebuild kit. Seals/Springs and Pistons were goign to cost just over $50.00. The guy then gave me the price for the replacement cylinders... $35.00. SO much for Reuse and Recycle.

its spelt like this [brakes]

no its jeep lingo coxsy,way out of are depth!

krawlr wrote:no its jeep lingo coxsy,way out of are depth!

No its jeep lingo because they break.........

Next your going to tell me I spelt Jeep wrong

No its jeep lingo because they break.........[/quote]

Good one-Just like my crappy Landrover

finaly back on track, almost finished the winch mount.


http://www.borg.net.nz/gallery/album29?page=6

update?

Well over the last few weeks i have been a little tied up but have managed to bend up some of the exo cage. I have also been looking at ways to attach the cage to the "chassis" preferably without welding it. The best way seems to be to pick up the same point that are used for attaching rock bars and combine these with the suspension mounting points.

will post some pictures as soon as the mount points are bolted in.

i went up to his place today borg [andrew] the trucks primered up, no interior , motor running, progress is being made,
we treid to bleed the brakes without much luck, oh no pics