March 12, 1999- I cleaned up the garage today. I painted the rear leaf springs last night and painted the small parts for the rear end today. I set the transmission on the table and waited for the parts to come in the mail. I put the springs together and painted the small parts to the front end differential. I cleaned the lifters.
March 13, 1999- I put the rear springs on the Jeep frame. Later, Bill Stripp came over to help. I put the transmission back together because the parts had come. I painted the springs. I finished tonight by cleaning the rear differential. (I�m going back to school tomorrow.) I had a good time.
March 20, 1999- I worked on the camshaft last night. I had trouble with the small oil hole lining up with the hole in the engine block. I took a small drill bit, reamed the hole, and then sanded it very smooth using 400 grit sandpaper. Dad says, "The bearing needs to be seated." I don�t know. I have never done this before.
March 28, 1999- I tore down the transfer case and found everything intact. I would have cleaned it up last night, but it wouldn�t come apart. This morning, with a little tap things came apart. Greg Sechler came through with the bolt I needed. (Greg is an excellent machinist with whom I went to high school.) It just needed a little grind with the Dremel tool, and it was ready to be installed. For future reference, this bolt was used on the third rod. Also, I found out that my main bearings are .030 over bored. Because of this, I can�t put the crankshaft in the engine. I painted the transfer case oil pan blue-green like the engine block. (We put Danny�s water pump in his cj7 jeep today.) It was fun.
April 1, 1999- I returned home for Easter break. I worked long and hard on the transfer case. The oil seals were difficult to remove. I had to bend them until they were unrecognizable to remove them. I also put the 4x4 seal back together. I lost the spring, which means it might not seal quite right. I combined the transmission and transfer case all in one, and I�m retiring at 12:20 this evening.
April 4, 1999- I put the bell housing on the transmission and finished the emergency/transmission brake. (The extra transmission brake is used because if the brake system with a single-piston master cylinder were to have a hole in the line there would be no way to stop the vehicle.) I am missing a needle bearing out on the front u-joints. I rebuilt the brake-cable from the hand break to the transmission, and I cleaned up some of my tools. (I moved the coal out of the shed and hung up the go-cart. It will be some time before it will be worked on again.) The 4-wheel drive seal may leak a little because I bent the spring when I put it back together. I had to make the transmission to bell housing seal and the transfer case to dust cover seal out of Mountain Dew boxes. Neither of these seals have any oil pressure. I also made cardboard washers for the top box bolt in the front of the transmission. This should work well. I�m still waiting on the .030 bearings for the engine.
April 11, 1999- Today was a good day. I put the main bearings in the engine, and the clearance I measured was perfect. (between .0015 and .002). The rod bearings clearance was close enough. I felt as if I was delivering a newborn with slimy oil all over my hands. I forgot the thrust washer on the camshaft, and I had to take the gear off the crankshaft. After assembling it, I realized that I forgot to notice the timing marks on the cover. Now it is all together. Dad helped me flip the engine into position and prop the engine up in the back with a block of wood. Now I need a clutch plate and a throw-out bearing to put the engine and the transmission together. I put the fuel pump on the engine, along with the timing gear cover and the oil fill tube. I cleaned up the oil collector and painted the back of the flywheel. I sorted through the boxes to find the connecting rod nuts. I couldn�t find all of them. I had a lot of fun today. My bearings are finally together correctly.
April 24, 1999- (I ran home to do laundry before finals.) I put on the 5th stud from the front of the manifolds. I had to grind away the old stud to get the manifold off the engine. It cost a whole $1.40 for a new stud. This was surprisingly cheap. I tried to find those locking nuts. (These were all metal expandable locking nuts.) I had no luck.
April 30, 1999- I�m finally back. I had to tear the engine apart again to put on the flywheel bolts. My brother, Dan helped. I connected the transmission to the engine. I painted the new water pump and oil pump. I put the interlock back into the transfer case. The interlock prevents shifting the transmission into both 2-wheel drive and low range at the same time. (Later, I found out that this situation may twist off the rear drive line and that the interlock prevents it.)
May 1, 1999- I received the special locking nuts from Somerset Engine re-builders last week. Today was a great day. I put on the water pump, the fan blades, the fuel pump, and the oil pump. I painted some parts of the radiator and almost finished rebuilding the starter.
May 5, 1999- I rented a valve spring compressor. It worked like a charm. I bought all the electrical components for the engine. This included the spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap, points, condenser, battery, coil, alternator, belt, radiator hoses, oil filter, battery, cables, and a thermostat. (Today, I shot a turkey and cleaned it).
May 6, 1999- I bought a feeler gauge and took the valve spring compressor back. It�s early morning, and I haven't accomplished much. Later that day, I installed the valve cover and put the manifold together. I put on the tail pipe, the carburetor, the head, the coil, the oil filter, and some of the alternator parts. I took the pulley off the generator and put it on the new alternator. The bolt size is quite large compared to the one on the alternator. The bolt was severally rusted on the generator. I had to wrap a nylon cord around the pulley to keep it from turning when I turned off the nut. That worked very well. I also filled the transmission and transfer case with 90 weight oil. The engine is filled with Quaker State oil. (At this point I made a mistake by using 10-30 weight oil and not the original 30 weight oil. This mistake will damage the crank shaft later.) I put the spark plugs into position. Tomorrow, I will build a bracket for the alternator.
