Was-Clutch Is-Clutch

The title sounds a bit Dr. Suess. Must be too much reading to the girls. Anyway, back to the garage work. I promise not to rhyme Mr. Fox Sir.

After spending over an hour modifying six 5/16-18 x 1 1/2" bolts to replicate the special bolts Willys used to secure the pressure plate to the flywheel, I was ready for the 10 minute job of installing the clutch.

The top bolt is original, the bottom is a new grade 8 from the local Tractor Supply. I thought the unthreaded portion was going to be the perfect length and I'd only have to cut them down. Turns out I needed to add about 1/8" more thread.


Fortunately, I found the right die in my meager kit of threading tools. I spent some extra time with a thread file and thread restorer to dull the new threads a bit and remove burrs.

And after getting that all done it was literally about 10 minutes of work to get the clutch installed on the flywheel.

Motor Madness

After some delay, I got the motor mounted on the frame. I live in the suburbs so there's no triple pole teepee and chain rig in my front lawn. My neighbors all shake their heads at me over the grinder sparks and hammer sounds coming from my garage. Thanks to a buddy loaning me his engine crane so I at least look semi-professional and neighbor-friendly.

Motorin'

I spent some good quality time with the motor this last weekend. It was pretty dirty and greasy. A previous owner had decided to paint it red, even covering some old cow manure up under the water pump.

How it was before:


Mid-process of cleaning and stripping the old paint:


And after two days of wire-wheeling, scrubbing with Simple Green, STP Engine Degreaser, rinse and repeat:


I got to be a pretty big fan of those open cell paint strippers you put on a drill. Even at low RPM it took off a lot of rust and old paint and never plugged up. I burned out my Dremel tool using the mini wire wheel, but I got all the little spots cleaned out pretty good anyway.

I painted the motor Hemi Orange even though it is obviously not a traditional or original choice. What can I say? I like the orange on black contrast. Plus, the Hemi Orange is worth like +15 HP. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

I still have to clean up the manifolds and replace one of the long studs. Someone did a farm repair and replaced one of the manifold studs with a bolt and three or seven washers to make up the length difference. Farmers. . .

Rollin', rollin', rollin'. . .

It is off the jackstands! My wife, Alisa helped out a lot on this segment of the project. While I worked on mechanicals, she got out the paintbrush and the SEM Rusthield. She painted up the axles and spots I missed on the frame.

Sitting on 1" Rancho lift springs, it will be ready for some better tires in the 29" to 31" range. I'm undecided on whether to use the stock 16x4 rims or keep the 15x8 CJ rims on it.

I put the grill and rear shocks on just to fool around and see what it looks like. The grill will be coming back off shortly so we can set the motor on the frame.

Patience, Grasshopper

I was fighting trying to get the flywheel removed. Pry bars and my 195 lbs wouldn't make it budge. I would work on it for 30 minutes or so, then move on to something else. That went on for 3 nights or so and I was about to get out the sledge hammer. Then, a friend suggested I use a little heat. (Why didn't I think of that??)

I went down to the local art supply shop and looked for some bee's wax to help the job along. They only had a 1 lb. block for $18, but the nice lady behind the register offered me a 50% off coupon when I complained about the cost. I'm not sure if I'm getting old or grumpy about prices, or what.

Anyway, I put a little heat on the dowl-pin bolt and then melted on some bee's was and let it wick into the junction. Let that sit for a minute or 2 then a little more heat. I put a nut on the end of the bolt and gave it a few love taps with one of my favorite hammers. One side popped on the first cycle and the other side took 4 or 5 heating cycles.

Anyway, it is off and ready to go to the machine shop for resurfacing. A new clutch kit from NAPA sits on the floor waiting.



I'm learning that patience is better than brute force on this project.

The Was-Clutch

I knew I would have some clean up work to do when I separated the bell housing from the motor. When I picked up the 2A there was fresh chewed-up paper towel in around and it was otherwise evident a mouse or 3 had moved in.

I took the previous owner's word that the engine turned freely and didn't bother with it until I got home. Once in my garage, I took out the plugs, put a wrench on the crank and when to give her a spin. Well, there was some not-so-nice noises from the clutch and the fork was loose. I let it sit for awhile before coming back to it after working on a few other things.

Upon separating the bell from the motor, it was immediately apparent more was wrong than I thought. There was a lot of debris in the housing, and not just the small rodent kind.


The only evidence of a friction plate was a small amount of powder in the bottom of the housing and a few small flakes. The flywheel escaped major injury, but the 6 bolts holding it to the crank didn't do so well.

So, it is time to pop the flywheel off and go to the machine shop. New clutch will be ordered from NAPA or Walck's 4WD.

Frame Work

First order of business, after getting everything organized, was working on the frame. The stock springs were discarded because the hinge bushings and spring eyes were nearly worn through. I guess the original farm owner didn't like to grease the bolts. That meant cutting these nasty bits off.


And while we're at it, might as well cut all the shackle hangers off and replace them too.


The original battery tray was pretty much hanging on by a spider web so I zipped that off too. Luckily, the previous owner had already purchased a new battery tray, but it was not installed.

After a bunch of grinding and working with a wire-knot wheel and my wire brush, I got a pretty clean looking and solid frame.


There are a couple areas of slight damage on the front frame horns that will need some attention.


So I'll straighten them out, patch-weld 2 small cracks near the crossmember tube and box them in with these.

The frame boxing plates are created by a member on thecj2apage.com forum. They are nicely made and just about dirt cheap.

A few weeks later and I found some time to put on 3 or so wet coats of SEM Rustshield. I attached the new spring hangers and shackle hangers I got from Walck's 4WD with grade 8 hardware and some red locktite. I'll back that up with welds before it drives.

Looks like new! Next stop will be putting Rancho 1" lift springs under it and the axles from my other 2A (recently rebuilt).

What followed Me Home One Day

I have to thank my brother-in-law, Geoff, for finding this project for me. I'm convinced the guy carries around a bag of BS in his car just in case he sees someone who he wants to shoot the chit with. He always seems to have an ample supply. . .

Anyway, as I'm told, he's driving down the road near Corning, NY and sees a 2A for sale. The owner is outside nearby so he stops to check it out. He's thinking he can talk about the 2A I already own and see if there are some loose parts, or something that would be for sale. The guy leads Geoff back to his shed (I didn't ask anymore questions) and shows him a basket case of a 1947 CJ-2A, but it is original and numbers-matching.

Geoff and I immediately traded a few phone calls which ended with me directing him to give the guy whatever cash he had in his pocket and immediately get his utility trailer. Well, we didn't have to be quite that impatient, but it was only a few days later when I piled the family in the car for the 4 hour drive to pick it up. Early on a Saturday morning we were loaded and headed back to my garage.

The trailer was loaded with all sorts of goodies. Geoff's truck had another 7 or so cargo bins filled with various bits and pieces of electrical and mechanical parts. There were a couple carb rebuild kits, some 3A parts, and other goodies that came along.


There is extensive rust, damage and "repair" on the passenger side of the tub.


Another look at the Swiss-cheese tub.

The motor generally looks to be in good shape. It turns over freely and puffs air out of the cylinder head. It still sports all the 6V equipment and the canister oil filter.

The frame looks really good and solid. The axles turn freely, but obvously haven't been rebuilt in awhile.


The fenders are in unbelievebly great shape.
Aside from having peeling non-stock paint, the hood is solid and looks great. (see my other 2A peeking out of the background?)


Now the work begins. . .