Frankenstein Street Queen (a.k.a. SpeedBump)

[ckruzer]

So i got bored one day. The wife wasnt home.... (sshhh). Well i decided to rip out the leaking heater core, which turned into ripping out the upper core box and phleum, which turned into yanking the useless ecu out, which turned into "why dont i go ahead and start the dewire..."

 

[ckruzer]

Gotta figure out what im going to do here with the missing vent stuff. just an open hole. I have a plastic welder, and some spare sheets. Im prob just gunna weld in a blockoff underneath.

 

[ckruzer]

Installed permalok kit and almost forgot. Painted the oil pan, and the oil pan leak has a temp fix.

 

[ckruzer]

Soooooo. I dewired right. And barney fife'd it to run. Temp enjoyments! Well. My brake lights went out. Simple as a bad brake switch. But in my irritation to figure out the easiest thing in the world to diagnose... (i wasnt firing on all cylinders that day) I ripped off the oem plastic corners on the bummper, i completely ripped out the dash, and then almost took a baseball bat to the wiring harness. So i ordered a EZ-Wire kit. Lol. And drew the ign wiring diagram for when the kit arrives.

 

[ckruzer]

Um. So. Rewired it. Installed hei. Attached the diagrams i found most useful. The kit was so easy didnt need the instructions, but was a bit lost at the steering column. Wrapped up the new harness with PET flex hose. Lookin spiffy!

 

[ckruzer]

Got a flat dash designed made up by Dan.

 

[ckruzer]

Painted the grill!

 

[ckruzer]

Flat dash arrived! Got it painted up satin black

 

[ckruzer]

Picked up some vitamins for the build.

 

[ckruzer]

Finally put some gauges in and started wiring it up!

 

[ckruzer]

Installed the dash. Put two of the four speakers in. I didnt plan on defrost as the only real jeep defrost is a rag! I may consider some sort of vent system for when the 5.3 swap happens if i shoot to keep the AC. Prob not.

 

[ckruzer]

Had to drop the gas tank so i could clean up the sending unit and try and get the gas guage to quit bouncing around so much. Made sure my grounds were good. argh. still bounces. alot of wasted work. Looks like i will end up having to get a new sending unit, which is good because i got a the jeep 87 to 12 ohm gauge, and this unit is aftermarket giving me 0 to 90 ohm readings.

I also installed the mirror relocation brackets. I have been doorless for 9 months, after two trips to georgia i got a little worried about a dick cop (ahem henderson county) who might want to give me headache for no mirrors. So i didnt it. I dit it right too, by grinding down the stem keyways so it sits flush with no gaps.

 

[ckruzer]

Replaced rear drive shaft ujoints. Started to get bad vibes at 50 to 60 mph. Helped a little. Who knows where else its coming from. All wheel bearings good, tires balanced and at proper pressure. Im thinking ... screw it. Deal with it

 

[ckruzer]

The exhaust smell got so bad I had to either not drive it or fix it. So what i do? I waste 150 bones of the build budget and put in a new exhaust manifold. Good news, i get to delete even more emissions crap.

 

[ckruzer]

The wife got fed up with jeep crap all over the porch. So i had to build "my own porch" out back. (the woes of being garage'less).

 

[ckruzer]

Picked up F250 axles. Man, that dana 44 is one heavy rust bucket!

 

[ckruzer]

Built a stand out of some spare wood and put the d44 on it for disassembly. (this is what led to my stuff getting kicked off the porch lmao).

 

[ckruzer]

hubs, rotors, adn knuckles and steering stuffff removed. it was hard. about 3 days of work. everything was rusted together so bad. you can see where a bearing has spun. and you can see a bit of rust on those spindles. Good news is the inner spindle bearing is fine. Woot! But gunna have to finese these spindles back into gleaming shape.

 

[ckruzer]

Shafts pulled. Knuckles pulled. Old brackets cut off and started to grind down. Knuckles got new moog joints and high steer arms, and the rest of the 1 ton tre steering kit arrived.

 

[ckruzer]

Finished grinding down. ugh... the least fun part. also cleand up the pumpking and primer'd it with some rust protectant and self etcher.

 

[ckruzer]

Got the d44 finished grinded down and primered the whole thing. Getting ready for assembly and por15

 

[ckruzer]

Cleaned and primed the knuckles and hubs.

 

[ckruzer]

Picked up sm465 as a transmissioin option for phase 2. also picked up a lakewood bellhousing for the 5.3 and camaro mc and zoom clutch. May be able to reuse the clutch.

 

[ckruzer]

Picked up a cherokee ax15. has the long out put requiring the long tj np231. the snout is the odd fellow and will need the bushing type pilot. going to have to drill the tcase mount holes 10 degrees off. the attached template will help.

 

[ckruzer]

picked up a stock YJ frame that is rest free. got it for 300 bones plus the 14b in the corner included. maybe that can be for a phase 3 option . hahaha.