Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Fury Fan wrote ... Days are ticking away and you're getting married and moving to another state. !shame As someone that got married 6 months ago, take some advice I was given by older guys: Don't do anything in the first year to compromise your relationship with your wife, it can take YEARS to recover from it. It's like investing for retirement - it's much harder to recover if you don't start early.....
Very good advice!
Actually I believe women are just wired differently and all you need to do is figure out how they think. I've been married for 44 years and I still haven't got it figured out yet.
Joined: Wed Mar 21 2007, 10:01PM
Location: Englewood, Co
Posts: 294
Well due to some unfortunate issues we're pushing the move back 1 month. Her grandfather was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It's very sad, it does however give me more than ample time to go to town on this project. I'm out there daily.. halfway done cleaning up the undercarriage... should hit about 130lbs of weight savings on mud alone after all this!
Latest updates:
Fuel System- I'm going to be modifying my existing fuel tank by adding a sump at the bottom with a single hole being drilled to lower the fuel pump into along with several smaller holes drilled out to act as a baffle. The existing mount for the fuel sending unit will be lowered and adapted to use a stock '04 in tank fuel pump. this way I'll never have to worry about needing to special order something. I can grab it off the shelf in any dealership or parts store.
The '04 uses an in pump filter and regulator but I'll use the 99+ vette regulator and one of the 4 vent tubes in my tank to act as a return line for that filter/regulator. It's a cheap part Napa sells it for $50 part # 3737 there acctual mfgr. of the part i forget their name but you can find the part for as little as $25 on ebay with a part number of 33737.
Wiring- I found a guy in Canada parting out an '08. I'll be getting the accelerator pedal/TPS assembly from him (S&P sells it for $140). Along with the in dash wiring harness, and an acctual engine harness for $180 shipped. This way I'll be playing with combining the new and old harnesses (chopping up the newer one to fix the old), however in theory life should be easier(read careuflly, cheaper) this way !study . I'm also getting the transmission shift cable from him. So that takes care of that issue as well. Once this is taken care of, I just need to replace the rear drum with some disks...
Since I've apparently got an 8.25 rear axle I understand there are quite a few jeep guys that have some nice part lists to take care of this. Anybody familiar with the swaps for them?
As far as keeping the wife happy.... our current plan is for her to drive this car out when we move she's behind it getting up and running reliably 110% !driving . After being together 5.5 years she's learned to trust my judgement when it comes to getting things done, even if she has reservations.
Joined: Wed Mar 21 2007, 10:01PM
Location: Englewood, Co
Posts: 294
Ok currently married and moved.
We arrived in Denver and I needed a place to keep my car where I could work on it. Found a garage that would allow that and my car is 1 inch too long for the garage door to close. yes the garage door is 19'9" my car is 19'10". Joy. But since I had the car on the trailer and it took 2 hours to get it in the garage the guy felt sorry for us and rented me out the garage cheaper... how'd i get it in? hehe pulled the hood, the front bumper and the front passenger fender, and stuck it in there at an angle
If it doesn't fit.. get a bigger hammer.
Project wise, I had to have the rear axle/diff rebuilt... bearings were shot and one of the axles was scored so badly that the guy told me he legally couldn't put it back in. He did find a replacement for $25 though. He also sent me to a shop that was able to machine the rear caliper brackets just a little bit so they'd fit perfectly on the axle. cost of the machine work. $5. yep. So, I'm going back to that guy for EVERYTHING I need, it appears he works primarily on axles but the work he's done for me is cheap as hell.
Wiring: The OEM Dodge wiring uses what's call an integrated power management system. This means everything goes through the fuse-box in the engine bay. EVERYTHING. So I called a few yards and have one of them sending me the engine/transmission harness, the engine bay harness, the fuse box, and the dash harness shipped to my door for 500.
Most yards are about the same they'll run you $150 per harness and $50 for the fuse box.
I recommend www.car-parts.com for locating yards that have something in particular that you're looking for. Especially with this early model bit.
So, rear axle is back from the shop, I just got the U-bolts today, I am almost completely finished sealing the bottom of the car with undercarriage coating. Tomorrow I'm pulling the transmission cross-member and taking it to the machine shop to have them take about 2.5 inches out and reinforce the rest so that there is clearance with the transmission.
Picked up a little MiG welder for $30 on ebay(50 shipping damn things heavy). Was harbor freights top of the line $300 welder. waiting for an extension cord that i found on ebay for $60 to show up so I can learn to weld and put my transmission tunnel back into place. If I mess it up too badly I'll just put the welder on craigslist for $150 and hire somebody to do it lol.
Hmm what else... ahh yes I think I have a solution for my fuel system issues.
The big thing that has been haunting me is how to get 2 wires into the tank through the sending unit. I tried a few companies such as pave. They have the perfect thing for it. But they want a minimum of $100 order... and at that rate they'll sell me 4 of the 1 part I need at $25 each.
The engineer that told me this did send me the specs to what they had however, and I'm thinking of a homemade remedy that goes a little something like this.
Weld a washer onto a nut, have the washer side on the inside of the fuel sending unit, and weld the nut into the unit (drill a hole and recess it half way) run a pair of teflon coated wires through the washer hole then fill it out with fuel safe epoxy on the bottom, the a layer of JB weld (thin) then finish the outside with more epoxy. The reason for this is that in the event of the epoxy having an issue with the temp differences and maintaining a correct seal the JB weld should have an expansion/contraction rate at least vaguely similar to that of a steel nut as there is a large steel content in it's mixture. The reason for using a nut is simple, the threads will help provide a proper surface area for the epoxy and jb weld to grip to help ensure there isn't a leak.
Am I over thinking this? Most likely. But after looking at the specs the guy gave me and another company claiming that their epoxy sealed units are good for a temp range of -20c to 120c I think I should be ok. And it shouldn't be too hard.
Aside from that, once I get the transmission mount issue fixed, it's a matter of putting parts back together until all that's left is wiring. I do have some body work that I need to do to the fenders as there is rust in some unseen places that I want to address while I have the car in many pieces.
I'm sure I'll think of more to add later, again once I'm done with all this and have it back together I'll take a photo of everything and post a step by step on how I got it to that point.
Joined: Wed Mar 21 2007, 10:01PM
Location: Englewood, Co
Posts: 294
In all honesty, it probly would, but I acctually want the fuel injection. I have the parts already just working out a few kinks. Since I live in Colorado I think it'll be easier dealing with the temp changes and the altitude changes when I don't have to re-adjust the carb all the time. The conversion kit for the crate hemi also costs a good penny.