After owning the Jeepster for over a year, I am finally making some progress it kind of sat and collected dust this winter...
I bought the Jeepster as a mostly running project up in VT in November of 2013 and I had tinkered since then, but last summer I blew a brake line on it after trying to bleed the breaks and my TJ was also down due to a number of nagging issues preventing me from getting a sticker; wiring and frame rot etc. so I had no time for the Jeepster at all...
This past weekend Kurt, Frank, Carl, David S an Ish came over my neighbors shop and started to get my baby in running condition. We tore out all the old brake lines and replaced them with the copper alloy lines that make it a lot easier to bend. I bought a pile of parts before the job; 2 soft lines for the front, the little s bend hard lines in front, the soft line in the rear a 25' roll of lines a bag of 5/16th fittings and 3 of the clips to hold the soft lines in place (note you need 5 if you are doing this
) We ran all of the brake lines and they all went in without too much drama.One thing I was not aware of with drum brakes as I have not dealt with them since the late 80s on my 76 Oldsmobile Omega is the need to replace the brake cylinders, we found that 3 of them needed attention and I had brought 0. Tried in vain but nobody local had these for the 10" wheels. Owning all disc break vehicles (very quickly tossed the d35 out of my TJ for a 44 w/Discs) I didn't know about the cylinders in each drum, also didn't know that the front could be 1' or 1 1/8' bore so on Monday I had to pop back over to my neighbors shop and take the front apart again and measure.... I was glad to know I had 10" shoes but the two cylinder sizes were a surprise. We also found the D27 had a bad inner seal on the passenger front axle and the jeep had puked diff fluid on the shoes. I ordered all 4 cylinders and inner and outer seals for the front from Crown- Jeff was awesome! I called him at 10 am yesterday and he has a UPS Ground shipment hitting my neighbors shop today with the seals and cylinders so we can get the Jeep running and stopping today as my neighbor is actually a master mechanic. While he wasn't wrenching on my jeepster, he did let us use the runner service a few times last weekend. He's going to install the wheel cylinders for me and put them in and test the brake system.
While the guys were doing that I was working with David dropping the gas tank and replacing it with a new plastic one. Well wouldn't you know it despite the leak and smell of gas around the Jeep, the tank was totally fine. The issue was that the sending unit was not pressed into the hole properly and the vent line had dry rotted off causing the "tank to leak." We drained the tank and the gas was stale but otherwise clean and there was little to no sediment in the steel tank. The gas line and return line were both plastic so I assume they had been replaced by the previous owner. - I will have a steel tank for sale shortly btw, just want to clean up the outside before I take pictures and let the fumes out. The jeep would not stay running before, it turns out the gas feed line was loose on the tank so that issue should now be resolved too
Wish I had been able to get it on the lift before ordering the new tank, but man this thing is LOW compared to my other Jeeps... Another issue we ran into over the weekend with the gas tank, the sender wire was not connected to anything on the Jeep. It was dangling when we pulled the tank and I couldn't find a length of wire that matched the one on the tank. Someone on the JCCA forum told me that there is a loom in the left tail light that it should connect to.
A pic I stole off of my friends fb.
We also found a schrader valve and air lines in the rear of the Jeepster; was there a factory option for air shocks for the Jeepster or was that an aftermarket add on? No air shock on it now but the Jeep has a tow hitch and wiring to tow.
I’m getting there bit by bit. But, I still have a heck of a punch list:
the d20 T case does not shift as there is something wrong with the shiftier- probably the shift pin came out or something
the exhaust has a leak and the Jeepster needs a new muffler
need to inspect the R&P and change out the diff fluid
the radiator leaks
the steering is very loose despite being manual
needs a compression test on the motor.
I have some rust issues in the tail gate area and the cross braces
and the gold shag carpet really has to go
the seats need to be reupholstered (have some custom seat covers that rock thanks for making them Russel) I don't want to put them in until the messy work is done.
probably need to do some body work eventually
it most likely needs a 4" lift and bigger tires.
Long term I want to pull the ross steering and D27 out in favor of a NT D30 with discs but Jeeps are not built in a day.
My plan for the rig is very light wheeling, around town driving and to take it to some cruise night things in the area and booth duty for CFAC as people just don't see Jeepsters these days.... not to mention keeping it running and preserving a lovely Jeep.