Project Hollow

[Jagged]

It leaves me with an empty feeling inside...my bank account.

This Jeep J20 I purchased a month or so ago:







It came with an AMC 360 with a Holley 600 cfm carb, has an auto 727, non-quadratrac, and 33s with no lift. It's primered and so far I've found some surface rust, but I'm sure as I dig into it more will show up.

Problems that I am aware of so far are:

- Major header tick on the driver side, but I got some new gaskets that are "supposed" to help with that. We'll see.
- Door locks are screwed up
- Rear lights do not work properly
- Starter beginning to grind
- Tires need replacing
- Kickdown linkage is too short
- Oil dipstick leaks
- Hood release is funky and the PO's brother bent the hood up trying to get into it...grr

I have the exhaust gaskets, and the new door locks, and the new hood release latch.

Today I picked up some wire and bits to rewire the entire rear of the truck. I found out today that nothing was wired correctly on the passenger side and/or broke off, and that the driver side is getting finicky. So I will be doing some tracing and replacing wires until I have everything working correctly. So far I haven't found any power for the backup lights. Here it is now in the garage:

[REDONE]

Looks like you have a better jumping off point than me. Lookin' forward to some progress and engine pics!

[Stuka]

Sounds like a decent starting point. I always expect little stuff. Its the big stuff that I don't like starting with (Blow engine/trans, etc).

[Jagged]

Looks like you have a better jumping off point than me. Lookin' forward to some progress and engine pics!

I'll actually have some engine and other pictures later tonight.

Sounds like a decent starting point. I always expect little stuff. Its the big stuff that I don't like starting with (Blow engine/trans, etc).

Oh yeah. That's why I picked this up. With all its issues it, so far, has less than the others. My '05 Grand Cherokee has a blown transmission and I need this up and running (so apparently, I have to have the brake and signal and tail lights working so people know what I'm doing...) so I can go and get a new one. But at the same time, I figure if I'm putting effort into it I should just make a--hopefully--running project out of it and fix it up as I go. I would like to see myself using this truck regularly.

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Here are some engine bay shots. Not very great ones. Alas, these are what I can take right now.

[jaber]

Looks like a great start...

[66stepside]

I am digging the truck- the waggie hood ornament looks right at home. Keep plugging away at it!

[Jagged]

Looks like a great start...

Better than the other two attempts so far...

I am digging the truck- the waggie hood ornament looks right at home. Keep plugging away at it!

My wife and I both dig it as well. It reminds her of the Waggy we stupidly sold and miss because it was the only reliable vehicle we had. So we're hoping that it was all in the hood ornament and that'll carry over to the truck once the lights are fixed??? (Granted, since it's not the _same_ ornament, that logic probably doesn't follow...)

At any rate, I'm off to work on the lights today and hopefully get that squared away. Be nice to make SOME progress before the new year.

[Jagged]

Progress today? Discovered that there is no connector for the neutral safety/backup switch at the transmission, wires were incorrect for the brake, tail, and signal lights, and the flasher relay was wonky. New relay, new wires soldered in, and hoping to pick up backup connector tomorrow. I may get some heavier gauge wire and redo everything from the the split back. Also, tail lights are still wonky. Didn't feel like freezing my ass off anymore so wrapped it up for dinner. Then it will be time to tackle the header gasket; maybe tonight.

[Jagged]

Also, it is time to look for a canopy for it. Might have a line on a basic one. Eventually I think a lift and 35s would look pretty slick.

[Jagged]

I decided not to work on the truck tonight. First day back from the holiday brake has me slagged. So I wrote to my truck on Facebook. Pondering if I should get it an account now...

Dear Truck;

It's cold out there. And it's now dark. I bet you want me to put on some dirty clothes, climb underneath you, and get those juices flowing. Sure, you're in the garage. But it's still cold out there. And your backside is where most of your issues are, and that's facing away from the light and I have to open the garage door to get at it. So that means I'd have to find a way to shine a light up there and figure out what I'm doing while my hands freeze. I'm sorry, but I just can't service you tonight. I'm too tired and I have a toothache.

Goodnight Truck. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe... if you're lucky.

Sincerely,

Me

I did at least drive in to town and pick up a timing light, a neutral/reverse switch, the connector for said switch, and some more wire.

[REDONE]

Darn it! I already convinced myself to edit a post I just made because of off color humor, and you go and post this. What kind of timing light did you get? I don't see your ignition box in any of your pics, you don't have an MSD do you?

[Jagged]

Darn it! I already convinced myself to edit a post I just made because of off color humor, and you go and post this. What kind of timing light did you get? I don't see your ignition box in any of your pics, you don't have an MSD do you?

I'm not very good at holding back my off-color humor. That's probably why I'm not popular on many forums. In fact, that is incredibly tame from what I would normally post.

Anyway, I bought this timing light: An Actron CP7529 ( http://www.actron.com/product_detail.php?pid=16315 ) I hope it's decent. I have an ignition module in the cab, and no, not MSD.

[Stuka]

I decided not to work on the truck tonight. First day back from the holiday brake has me slagged. So I wrote to my truck on Facebook. Pondering if I should get it an account now...

Dear Truck;

It's cold out there. And it's now dark. I bet you want me to put on some dirty clothes, climb underneath you, and get those juices flowing. Sure, you're in the garage. But it's still cold out there. And your backside is where most of your issues are, and that's facing away from the light and I have to open the garage door to get at it. So that means I'd have to find a way to shine a light up there and figure out what I'm doing while my hands freeze. I'm sorry, but I just can't service you tonight. I'm too tired and I have a toothache.

Goodnight Truck. I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe... if you're lucky.

Sincerely,

Me

I did at least drive in to town and pick up a timing light, a neutral/reverse switch, the connector for said switch, and some more wire.

This made me chuckle

[REDONE]

That'll work just fine! I was only asking because my fancy timing light doesn't work with my MSD ingition, it reads each spark in the multi spark discharge, which happens over 20 degrees of crank rotation, so I see four or five marks on the damper bouncing all over the place at the same time, haha! My cheap HF light works with the MSD, but my innova won't. Since you don't have MSD any light should work, and you've got the one feature that really counts on FSJs, a programmable advance. Since the timing marks on our timing covers are less than stellar and hard as heck to see, it's nice to just set your advance on the gun so that it shoots at zero when you're dead on. Also, the last Actron tool I bought had snap-on's name and contact for warranty and service support.

[Jagged]

Ah. Yeah. Ignition upgrades and/or whatnot will have to wait a while on this (or really any vehicle I have.) I'm actually looking at trying to make it to Port Angeles and back tomorrow to pick up a canopy...

Wish me luck that she makes it. 8 hours because I don't want to go the ferry route.

[Jagged]

Woke up to sicker kid and sick wife so couldn't really leave them all day to drive to get a canopy. There'll be another, somewhere.

[Jagged]

Installed new door lock cylinders yesterday, tried to suss out the wiring but this one is a cluster of mismatched wires (and by mismatched I not only mean colour, but gauge of wire, etc.) and just wires snipped for no apparent reasons. Things that don't work presumably because they didn't feel like crawling around installing them (such as my reverse switch connector.) I need it on the road soon so I may have to go the temporary fix route, but it will all have to be done correctly.

No backup lights, intermittent tail lights, and just a jumble of useless hanging wires. Best I can do there for now is start capping them off so they can't short out. All in all, nothing I didn't anticipate. It's how these things go--some people don't have the patience for wiring and just want it to run and drive and to heck with the rest.

[jaber]

Been mulling over your back up lights...

Not sure what year yours is, or even when they changed it (wanna say it was with the 727), but I put an '85 GW column and complete harness into my '75 J-20. The column has a switch at the firewall, on the top of the column base. It is where my B/U lights are run through. I might be able to get you a pic if needed...

Just something to look into.

[Jagged]

Nothing was connected to the neutral/reverse switch on my 727. So I picked a new one up and just need to run one wire to the fuse box and the other to the backup lights, at least according to the shop manual. My problem is sorting out the rats nest at the fuse box to make sure I'm running line to the right fuse. I am very tempted to rewire everything with a new harness from BJs at this point.