65 Waggy 4bt swap

[Pablo]

Here we are late in the day. We are on the way home after going up the mountain with the Heep on a trailer. You can see the little roller tires still on there. The Heep drives at this point, but has some seal leaks from sitting 8+ years that need to be attended to. Only the engine temp gauge works. The doors are not aligned yet so you have to hold them just right or the door won't close. No horn... missing somewhere. The windshield wiper gave up the ghost. No parking brake. No gas cap, we could not find the key to the old cap and just cut it off there. It wasn't the right locking cap anyway and was a PITA to get on and off even with the key.

So, considering all this and that the tires are 10+ year old used take offs not meant to be used on the road-- I elected to trailer it home.

[Pablo]

A couple day's later and new shoes are on... some cutting was required. Luckily, it was all rusted out where I had to cut in the rear quarter panels, so I didn't sweat it much, just hacked the rusted areas out that were in my way. However, much more cutting is required to clear/flex/turn. Eventually, I might get rims with better backspacing and less scrub radius, but probably not anytime soon. I am happy with moving the axle location's. The front axle went forward an 1 inch and the rear about 1.5-2 inches. You can see the rear tire is not as close to the rear door as some Wag's are. Will still need to cut, but it will be easier to cut above and to the rear versus getting too close to that door.

The new shoes are 37 inch Cooper Discoverer STT Pro's. I thought about the Patagonia Milestar's, but I did not like all the reports and video's of cut sidewalls, nor the Made in China aspect. So I went with the Cooper's as I have always liked them in the past, and the last SST Pro's I bought clearly said "Made in USA".

Thanks to Randy @ http://www.reliabledieselaz.com/ for the engine re-power and fitment work. Lots of additional work was done to make the 1 ton's fit including mocking up and welding in new spring perches and getting the hydroboosted brakes, new turbo and 1 ton steering gear and pump working with the Wag.

Many thanks to Andrew at https://letzrolloffroad.com/ for building up the shaved 1 ton axles.

[Pablo]

Next Up:

• Door and tailgate alignments
• Vehicle alignment
• More fender cutting/trimming and probably some sheet metal welding (as needed to patch cut and rusted out quarter panel areas)
• New gas cap on the way
• Install cheap Navajo Blanket style bench seat cover to make it work for now.
• Cheap lap belts
• Horn working. Wiring is present, need to find where I put the horn when I took it off...
• Parking brake... not hooked up yet. Need to get the square Wagoneer peg/parking break pedal into the round Chevy Disk Brake AAM 8.5 axle's parking brake hole.
• Windshield wiper motors/assembly. Stock stuff doesn't work at all.
• Remove the 80's era headliner's and door covers-- eventually will replace with custom covered panels built using ABS backer boards from user meninblack.
• Install Hellroaring battery isolator and 2nd battery
• OBA and locker hookup
• Charge/test Vintage Air AC system and hook to O-Scope to see how the controller communicates with the HVAC box

Those are the next priorities... then much more... bumpers, winch, radios, cage... etc.

Also, more pics and some video's as soon as I decide where to host the vid's (it won't be u-tube).

[Pablo]

Got the mono crud, so not too much going on. Progress since last update:

• Fenders rough cut.
• 80's era retrofitted headliner removed from vehicle and saved. The backer is in rough shape but could probably be reused with some fiberglass work and TLC.
• 2 Napa Premium Legend AGM group 65 batteries installed. I need to fabricate a holddown bracket for them. Right now they just sit there...
• Hellroaring battery isolator roughed in and wiring ran. Yet to do: I need to mount the isolator cleanly. Right now it is held down by one sheet metal screw and wiring is unsecured.
• Gas cap from Rock Auto installed. Yet it leaks out the cap when the fuel sloshes ( cap since replaced with PartsDude cap that works).
• NOS Kaiser era rearview mirror ordered to replace broken 80's rearview mirror.
• Passenger front floor patch panel ordered from BJ's to fix the rusted floor on that side. Ordered new drain plugs too.

The Battery Isolator Switch before install.


The Battery Isolator Controller.


Above is the the Battery Isolator Controller Switch after install, please ignore the wiring mess. The dash wiring is just tied up there for now. The controller switch rests up above the parking brake assembly and is tucked out of the way unless you go looking for it.

When the controller switch is placed in the lowest position, the backup battery is isolated entirely. With the switch in the middle position, as shown in the pic-- the backup battery will charge if the alternator is charging the system. Otherwise, the backup battery will be disconnected when the system is not charging. In this position nothing draws from backup battery, it is only topped up and kept in reserve. Placing the switch in the up position ties the two batteries together in parallel. This roughly doubles available amps. This would be used when winching or starting the engine with a dead or low primary battery. The switch locks so that you cannot bump it accidentally. To set the switch you have to pull it outwards to unlock it, and then move it into its new position. The green light on the switch comes on when the battery is tied together in the up position, or when the backup battery is charging with the switch in the centered position.

Some strange stuff I found:

• Rear tailgate is original per the paint layers matching the rest of the vehicle. Yet the drop down license plate holder is replaced with one that says "Cherokee". I have a backup tailgate, but it too needs work. I may just try to redo the rusty original tailgate and convert the plate holder back to the original style since the tailgate is original to the vehicle.
• When they put the 80's headliner and interior panels in, they added cross braces to support the headliner. Some braces were bolted in, but the one above the windshield in the front was welded in place. I don't know if I can go back to the bow headliner with the braces in place. I like having them from a strength standpoint. Decisions will be made after I get the parts Jeep back up here and look at the headliner bows on it and compare the two to see what is possible...
• Jute insulation was installed above the headliner directly contacting the sheet metal of the roof. It has caused some surface rust that I must clean and stop. I don't know why they didn't paint the ceiling before putting jute against it.

Also... I am working on horn mounts in the front valence since the batteries are mounted in the fender where the horn used to go. One horn will go on each side of the rhino grill facing the opening of the grill. Horn wiring is ready and waiting...

[Pablo]

So, progress... slowly:

• Horn electrics work. Relay was MIA. Horn wire wasn't fully contacting with the horn button.
• Wiper motor runs slowly when not hooked up to the linkage on a bench using the stock switch and when jumped to a power supply. It sounds like a mixer full of gravel and the two speeds appear to be about the same speed most of the time, with the occasional sprint in HI. It has a June 1964 date stamped in it (so probably original). Options are to buy a rebuilt one, or I pony up the cash for the Detroit Speed intermittent wiper motor...
• The Battery Isolator connectors are just too close together on the battery isolator unit. I don't trust them that close. I am working on taking a 3D scan of the isolator and printing up an insulator/spacer next week. It should force them to stay apart. Will probably 3D print some cable management/attachment options.

Issues:

• Review mirror not shipped yet. Ridiculous. I got a shipping notification label creation yesterday. Hopefully, it gets sent out soon. Also, I found my missing interior passenger door handle and window roll-up handle.
• The wiper linkage is mighty close to the Vintage Air unit, but appears to clear. I will have to get a working motor to find out for sure.

Also, to bench test the old 64 wiper motor I found this helpful:

[Pablo]

Well, the wiper motor has a 6/64 build date. Note it is the same three terminal unit used in C-10 pickups of the 60's.

The rebuilt stuff I have used doesn't impress me in the last few years, so I have elected to rebuild the old washer motor myself. If that doesn't work, then I will punt and order a rebuilt unit.




So, I drilled out the rivets and took it apart. It is filthy with a capital F. The original grease is mud at this point... with dirt and a dead bug or two in there that I fished out. That explains the grinding noise...



The armature/windings look brand new.




The internal wiring is shot. It has cloth insulators that are fraying.



The brushes look... well brushy in my non-expert opinion... but a little worn/short. The springs holding them in tension are kinda rusty and suspect at this point. Not sure if I can replace those springs though as I don't know anything about getting new ones of the correct type/tension.

The seal between the firewall fell apart upon removal, so I will order a new one.

I am ordering the brushes and the parts to rebuild the washer assembly too. I have not gone inside it yet. It clicks when the magnetic switch is triggered on the bench but that is it. I expect all the seals are shot.



I have redone the wiring harness from the dash switch to the wiper/washer motor and used mainly new packard connectors (two original connectors remain since I could not find replacements for them). I just de-pinned the old connectors and inserted the new wiring terminals into them. That is the last of the original wiring that was hooked up to anything, so I can rest a little easier. There are still courtesy lights and feeds that are not hooked up and I will get around to replacing those wires later on before hooking them up.

Other stuff I have made "good enough to use", but not really done yet:

• 
  Battery Tray lined with polyurethane.
• 
  Battery hold down made and hooked up, I still need to weld reinforce the cut/bend points and then plastic dip it all. Will further need to weld bolts on to the sheet metal to mount the hold down with a wing nut instead of requiring tools for removal.
• 
  Battery isolator mounted with bolts/nuts. I will replace the blind nuts/spacers behind the firewall/cowl with nutzerts when I get some more time to drill out and install them.

I have not had time to get the horn mounts done, but the horns and wiring both test ok.

[Pablo]

The engine bay as it sits now. I will add some short videos soon.

[Pablo]

Video link:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/BMaVp2C9pnU6/

I am not touching youtube, so sorry about that in advance.