OK, so Dave showed up yesterday and the first order of business was to remove my custom stinger bumper and the 8274 (man, that sucker was heavy). Installation of the Fishbone Piranha front bumper went well, but we wound up a few fasteners short, and needed something a little longer, anyway. After a trip to Westlake ACE Hardware and some jooking about with the bumper and my old diamond plate front frame cover (that Dave had since painted black), we’re done! Honestly, I like the cover painted black better than bright. SCORE!!
Here’s a shot from Dave’s phone I forgot I had.Here’s another random shot Dave took of the engine, proclaiming that we would be hearing it running soon.
Did a few more random things, but didn’t get pics.
Getting Closer…Put the battery in, tossed the steering column in just so I could plug in the ignition switch and column plugs, and started testing for key-power hot leads for the ECU ‘Ignition’ lead, and frame-mounted ‘lift’ fuel pump. Decided to see if the halos are as cool as I hoped they’d be, and I’m not disappointed! Time to check the wiring diagrams to see if the ‘key-On hot’ leads I found are viable candidates.
LOVING these halos. I wasn’t even thinking along those lines until I saw a G-Wagen cruising with halo DRLs, and decided I gotta have ’em.Nice and bright – should be cool when I actually get to start driving it.
Got some more wiring done today. Dave turned me on to some cool distribution blocks, so I mounted them last week, and today I was cleaning up the routing of a few wires, and made the battery cables (using the power blocks). Also, got the battery, starter, and ground cables clipped and tipped so they won’t be all over the place and installed. Just a few more wires, toss in the steering column, top off fluids, check everything one last time, and it’ll be time to turn the key to see if this will actually run or not.
Here’s how the starting circuit and engine ground came out. Everything’s a lot further from the headers then it looks. Besides, they’re ceramic-coated and won’t run nearly as hot as the standard painted units.Here are the cool power & ground distribution blocks Dave found for me. When the battery’s in-place, it look a bit cleaner than that.
Got a few things done today. Pulled the old valve covers, and while I had ’em off, test-fitted the Scorpion 1.7 roller rockers and the fit – WINNER! Re-routed the main and fuel injection harnesses on the firewall to clean up the mess a little. Then boxed up the old valve covers, motor mounts, the old Duraspark distributor, and a few other things to send to Dave.
So, unlike the stock-style ‘saddle-mount’ Scorpions (that need longer push-rods), these 1.7 stud-mount units will work with the stock push-rods. BUT – I put the stockers back on, since setting the lash on these will take a good chunk of time (rotate the engine, adjust a few of them, rotate the engine some more, adjust some others… lather, rinse, repeat) and I want to hear this thing run sooner than later.Popped the new valve covers on, so I can send the old ones to Dave. Looks a bunch better (still gotta get those hoses under control).Gettin’ there. Got the main and fuel injection harnesses cleaned up and re-routed a bit. Next time, it’ll be all about battery cables, power & ground distribution blocks, and finishing up the engine wiring.And here’s the other side – gotta clean up that mess on the firewall. Then install the power brake booster, lines, & billet master cylinder along with the steering column, and reconnect the wiring for the grille.
One bite at a time. Got the fuel injection harness sheathed, routed, and plugged-in (except for the fuel pump and main power). Still need to mount-up and wire a couple of fuse blocks for the new accessories near the ECU (one always hot and one on keyed power), but that’s for another day.
Fuel injection ECU is plugged-in. The stray wires and old split-loom conduit is from the old wiring that I still need to clean up.Ran the fuel injection harness across the firewall and plugged-in the injector circuit, sensor circuit, O2 sensor circuit, and tossed the fuel pump & main power circuits over the battery tray to finish up next weekend. Getting closer.
I’m hoping that stray red wire in the top pic (connected to the Duraspark plug) is a keyed power lead – if so, I’ll run it to a fuse block for keyed power accessories (and the bundled-up ‘Ignition’ wire for the ECU). I believe it’s “13F,” with the light blue being “14” on the main harness – so both should be keyed power, if I’m right.
After finding the ECU yesterday, I made it my mission to get that sucker mounted up before I wind up losing it in plain site again. Best place I could find for it without having to bundle a bunch of wiring harness was over on the driver side firewall where the old factory Duraspark module lived. I also adjusted the driver door striker so it would close better, and laid the wiring out loosely where it will be routed for final connection. Tomorrow, I’ll finish up the wiring … See more
The spot on the firewall I wanted to mount the ECU has a pinch-welded seam sticking up about 3/8 of an inch, so I made this bracket to straddle the pinch weld. Took about an hour of using the Dremel and my fence as a metal brake to get this.After dropping and chasing the self-tapping sheet metal screws every time I started to drive them home, I finally got it mounted up. Soon, there will be a ‘key power’ fuse block, and a ‘constant power’ fuse/relay block living nearby for the EFI, electric ‘lift’ fuel pump, and H4 headlight relay power circuit.
I need to figure out what that stray wire is for (probably don’t need it…) and plug those holes thru the firewall (don’t need a hole for the clutch pedal linkage, after all).
I remember working on the Jeep back in September when Dave came to visit having to constantly pick it up and put it down, always getting in the way. Well, we weren’t anywhere close to being ready for it and I specifically remember saying, “I need to put this somewhere I won’t keep losing it under piles of parts and tools.” Well – mission accomplished. I put it in the best hiding spot I could’ve found: right on top of the trunk of the Mach 1 in plain site… and I’ve been looking for it off and on for the past several weeks. Geez, I’m an idiot.
Some days are just an exercise in futility. After noticing the A/C – alternator belt wasn’t lined up properly last night, I decided to try and adjust the aftermarket A/C compressor mount… only, there’s no adjusting it. Crap. So, I put it all back together with a couple of shims on the lower alternator brackets and got it as close as I could. Also, cleaned up, painted, and reinstalled the coil bracket I made to hang off the spare holes in the A/C compressor. I am now right about where I was 3 days ago, except for a few more wires trimmed up and the coil bracket finished up. And some people think I should work on cars for a living – LOL!
Didn’t like the way the A/C – alternator belt lined up after yesterday’s effort, so I pulled it all apart, hoping to somehow adjust the A/C bracket and use 3-belts… but, Nope. No joy there.Got it all put back together, and with a couple shims in the lower alternator brackets, it’s a lot better than it was when I started a few days ago.Still a bit of a mess after 3 days of fartin’ around (basically), but I did get the start solenoid wired up and finished the coil bracket.Dave should be proud of me for actually putting my tools away.
Today, I picked up on realigning the alternator bracketry after sweeping the ground under the grille with a monster magnet and stuffing the ‘magnet on a stick’ down into the grille area (with no love). Shortly after giving up on that while working on the fan and water pump pulley, I happened to look down through the engine bay and happened to see the missing fender/grille bolt – under the Jeep, almost smack in the middle. HTF did it make it all the way over there, having to fall down from the top of the grille and taking a trip almost 5 feet from the front of the Jeep?! I should go on The Price is Right and play Plinko! After getting the bracketry and fan belts back on, I finished up the start solenoid by tipping and installing the neutral safety switch and “12C” wire from the engine harness. Got dark, so I’ll hit it again tomorrow.
The missing fender/grille bolt after taking a ride nobody would’ve foreseen… just sitting there, laughing at me for wasting a half hour digging around inside the grille with the magnets. Well played bolt… well played.Dave and I were talking about clutch fans, and since I had mine off, I took a pic for him.Yay me. I got all three of the leftover wires hooked up to the starter solenoid after two days of working on the Jeep. I’m so awesome.My buddy and best DJ EVER, Dennis Allen kicking off the Five o’Clock Fastlane (request hour) with my requested Motley Crue – Kickstart My Heart to finish up his show for the day.
Got some bad news today that he’s going to be leaving after tomorrow (his last show). This sucks – now who’s going to jam with me while I work on this thing?! Based on some things I heard, I already don’t like the new guy and station management even less. Looks like tomorrow is my last day with 101.9 The Fire as well.
Looks like my plan to take leave tomorrow because of the nice weather was a good idea, since I won’t miss Dennis’s last show.
No good deed goes unpunished. My pal Dave is swapping my old 258 for a 360, which needs bracketry. Rather than pay top dollar for ratty old brackets off FleaBay, and since he’s become quite adept at fabrication, we talked and I offered to pull my alternator bracketry and make tracings/measurements to give him something to go on. Well, I pulled my alternator brackets and drew up the plans, and along the way of reinstalling, I now can’t get two bolts back in (one interferes with the water pump pulley), and I lost one of the bolts that holds my passenger side fender onto the grille… inside the grille itself. Also stabbed myself with the caliper (not bad, just pissed me off). So tomorrow, gotta re-reinstall the alternator bracketry and find that missing bolt just to get back to where I was when I started today.
Here’s the bottom alternator bracket. It was the easier one to remove, but after I called Dave, discovered he already has one of those. OK… moving on.Here’s the upper alternator bracket, with the top bolt that won’t clear the water pump pulley to come out. OK – looks like I’m pulling the belts, fan, and pulley just to get that bolt out. Yay!Here’s the upper bracket. Traced it out, measured everything, and tossed it all back onto the engine… just to have that top bolt not want to go back in the rest of the way. Guh. Why me?While I was at it, I took this pic so Dave could have an idea of what a bracket for the throttle cable should look like. He should be able to come up with something just with this pic.
