1978 Jeep CJ5
Chronology of Events. Page 1
6/17/03
Watched this Jeep on ebay. 258 six, four speed, jacked up, big tires. Starting price was $2850 with an unknown (at the time) reserve price of $3500. After the second listing expired, made a direct offer of $2500 via email. Probably offered too much as they jumped on it and accepted the offer. Somewhat confusing arrangement as the guy listing the Jeep was not the owner. Exchanged several emails and a couple of phone calls regarding purchase details, primarily regarding the title. The owner had not transferred the title from the previous owner. Owner got the title transferred to himself and faxed me a copy of it to prove it.
6/21/03 Monday
Received faxed copy of title. Finalized plans with owner for me to come pick up the Jeep on Sunday, 6/29/03.
Saw an article on the web describing a flat tow of a newer Jeep YJ. Decided that is what I was going to do. Ordered a Hidden Hitch tow bar, model # 44000 like the one in the article. Ran errands here and there collecting the stuff I would need to tow the Jeep from Nebraska to Rochester, New York. Stuff like safety chain for the tow bar, home-made magnetic light kit, half inch drill, bits, tools, etc. By Thursday, 6/26/03, everything was set and loaded into the camper on my 2001 Dodge truck.
6/27/03 Friday
Left for Nebraska at 5 AM. 31 hours driving time. Drove interstate 80/90 all the way. Really bad traffic backup at the IN/IL border. Tried to go around the problem using IN/IL 30. Everyone else had the same idea. Overnighted in Davenport, IA and Oshkosh, NE.
6/29/03 Sunday
Arrived at the owner's home in Scottsbluff, NE about 10 AM. Drove the Jeep. Turns out the Jeep has the T-18 truck transmission. Paid the owner and he signed the title over to me. The owner and I installed the tow bar brackets onto the front bumper. Was able to use two existing holes and drilled two more. Bolted on the brackets, assembled the tow bar, attached it to the truck, installed safety chains and towing lights. Left for Rochester at exactly Noon.
7/1/03 Tuesday
Arrived home. 34 hours driving time. Overnighted in Wahoo, NE and South Bend, IN. Because I was unsure of how the Jeep would tow, I drove on two lane highways; NE 26, 30, and 92. Took IA 92 through Iowa. Got back on the interstate 80 in Moline, IL. Drove that all the way back to Rochester. The Jeep towed fine at 60 MPH. I mostly drove 55 though. Changed to spare on driver's side front (Dodge) in Grand Island, NE. Side wall was split around the wheel. From what I saw from the road and stops here and there, I must say that Nebraska and Iowa are clean and beautiful states. No roadside litter was evident.
7/2/03 Wednesday.
Started working on Jeep. State inspection items take priority. Here is what doesn't work.
- Item 1. Driver's side front parking and turn lights.
- Item 2. Passenger side headlight cracked (but works)
- Item 3. Stop lights
- Item 4. Hazard flasher
- Item 5. Fan blower
- Item 6. Clock
- Item 7. Fuel gauge indicator
- Item 8. No rear view mirror
- Item 9. Horn
- Item 10. Winshield wiper arms and blades
Traced item #1 back to a connector under the dash for the steering column. At the connector, discovered one wire barely connected and another wire with the insulation burned off. Cut out the connector and spliced the individual wires together with wire nuts. Not pretty, but functional. Head lights, tail lights, parking lights, side marker lights, and turn signal lights now work all the way around.
Steering Wheel Side Jeep Side ------------------- --------- White Red/White Stripe Green Light Green Yellow Light Green/Black Stripe Purple Red/Black Stripe (mostly melted off) Brown Pink Dark Blue Dark Green (two wires) Light Blue Dark Green/White Stripe (two wires) Black Black/White Stripe N/C Orange
Purchased and installed new head light to fix item #2.
Purchased and installed new wiper arms and blades to fix item #10. Parts are not OEM but are functional.
Removed a crappy looking radio and associated wiring. The installation was a real hack job which may explain other problems with burned wires discovered later. Now have a nice hole in the dash where the radio was.
Can't worry about the cheesy looking manual choke control cable. It was just lying on the bottom of the floor pan. I think a manual choke is fine, but to just leave it laying around loose pretty much tells the story of whoever did the work on it.
Removed bucket seats and back bench seat in order to work under the dash. Washed down the inside of the Jeep. Can't believe how dusty and dirty it is. Must have removed at least a 12 pack of empty beer cans from under the seats and this after the owner "cleaned" it out. Perhaps that makes a statement about the maintenance and care given to this unit (or lack thereof).
Battery went dead.
Changed oil and filter in Jeep. Fram PH-25 and 5 quarts Castrol 10W-30. Noticed significant oil leak from rear bottom of engine. It must have a bad rear main seal.
Changed oil in Dodge to 10W-30 from the 5W-30 that I mistakenly put in there prior to the trip. Washed the unit and scrubbed off the bug remnants from it and the camper.
7/3/03 Thursday.
Purchased tire covers for the Dodge as the ultra-violet from the sun rotted the tire that split out on the trip. Have been thinking of getting tire covers for at least a year. Now I pay the price for waiting so long.
Purchased a new "blem" battery from Interstate Batteries on Clay Road in Henrietta, NY. $29 plus tax and core charge. The battery has "Recon" stamped on it. Does that mean "reconditioned" ? The salesman described the battery as new with some visual defect. It is all black with no markings and looks fine. Cleaned up the battery tray and cables and installed the new battery. Got rid of the cheesy rubber strap holding down the old battery and just used the original hold down clamp.
Traced item #3 to the stop light switch under the dash. Removed the switch but it tested OK. I think it was improperly adjusted. Trying to find a new one as the threads on this plastic unit are worn out on the end which is probably why it was adjusted wrong. May have to reuse this one somehow. The brake lights work fine when I manually short out the switch connector plug.
Traced item #4 back to the hazard flasher unit under the dash. Took the flasher unit apart and the internals where all rusted apart. Going to get a new replacement. Will know if this problem is fixed, then.
Haven't looked at item #5 yet.
Discovered that the power plug was disconnected from the clock under the dash for item #6. Didn't plug it back in as the clock face is cloudy and renders the clock unreadable.
Did a little trouble shooting for item #7. Still doesn't work.
Need to purchase and install a rear view mirror for item #8.
Worked on item #9 some. Took apart the horn ring on the steering wheel. Only got into it part way. Don't know exactly how it is supposed to work. Can find no reference to it in the Chilton's manual that I have. Anyway, cleaned and sanded some rusty small parts and put everything back together. Tested the horn manually and it is dead.
Working on item #'s 3 and 4, found that the burned wire discovered while working on item #1 was bad all the way back to the fuse block under the dash. Had to cut back and remove much of the black tape wrapping the wire bundle to determine the extent of the problem. The wire got really hot and acted as a hot knife that sliced right through tape wrapping and fused itself to a green wire in the bundle. Green wire OK. The burned wire was Red/Black stripe. I cut it out and was able to find enough of the wire to splice in a replacement. Don't know what the wire is for exactly, but it does connect to the Purple wire on the steering column. Could it be related to the horn at all ? Going to do a little more debugging in an attempt to document the wire's function. I used wire ties to put the wire bundle back together instead of trying to wrap it with tape underneath the dash. I think that it will be all right.
Discovered that the dash voltmeter and oil pressure gauges are not original, though they both function. The oil pressure gauge is of the direct pressure type rather than an electric type as was original.
Disconnected the negative cable on the battery until I know for sure that there isn't a dead short somewhere draining the battery.
7/4/03 Friday.
The fourth of July; the nation's birthday. Spend the day creating this page of information.
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