1983 J-20 "The Duke"

[Mixilpidilstick]

I have been a Jeep owner since October 31st of 2009, when I
purchased a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Sport "LaToya". It is as
bare-bones as they come, not one single option. But it
has made a good platform for building a daily-driver/weekend
wheeler. After a couple of years of wheeling with me, my
wife expressed interest in having her own off-roader. So, on
March 16th of 2014 I purchased a 1997 Jeep Cherokee Sport
"Louie". It is in pretty good condition and does not have
any rust, which is very unusual for Northern Indiana.

On May 8th of 2015 I purchased a 1983 Jeep J-20 from a local
Jeeper. Due to his expanding family, he needed to reduce the
number of Jeeps he owned. This worked out well for me because
my family and friends (Jeep Owners) had sat around numerous
times discussing how we really needed a tow rig and trailer.
Given that we regularly had 6 Jeeps on each trip, we felt it
was only a matter of time before one of us had breakage.

Last year one of the TJ's "Rambo" spent a little too much time
with his 2.5L on the rev limiter. On the 90 mile trip from
Bundy Hill OffRoad in Jerome, MI to his home, it happened.
The oil pump gave out on the freeway with about 20 miles left
in the trip. This put Rambo out of commission for our annual
trip to Rocks and Valleys Off-Road Park in Harrison, MI. If
you have never been to Rocks and Valleys, I highly recommend it.
We have unanimously agreed that this our favorite place.

So without further introduction...

"The Duke"
1983 Jeep J-20
Jamaican Beige
GVWR 8400
3-Speed Automatic
Part Time 4-Wheel Drive
3.73 Gears
Trac-lok Differential
Air Conditioning
Sliding Rear Window
Auxiliary Auto Trans Oil Cooler
Tilt Steering Wheel
H.D. Alternator

[Stuka]

Pretty rusty, but good to see it get a home.

And, welcome tot he forum

[Mixilpidilstick]

Thanks for the welcome.

To be fair to The Duke, I did post the pictures that highlighted the bad spots. It does have a fair amount of rust in the usual places. I am going to just replace the front fenders, likely with fiberglass replacements. The cab is in really good shape with the exception of the one rocker panel. I should be able to cut the old one out and have anew one welded in pretty easily. The frame has a lot of surface rust, but I have not found any structural issues with it yet. I am still trying to make a decision on the bed. All of the inner sheet metal looks good and relatively rust-free.

[Stuka]

You can still buy new bedsides as I recall if you are willing to go that far.

[Mixilpidilstick]

I saw I could buy new bed-sides online. I might go that route depending on shipping costs.

Thanks for the information though. Being new to Full Size Jeeps, I will take any wisdom I can get.

[Mixilpidilstick]

I went into this weekend with plans of getting a whole list of things done. Naturally, life gets in the way of my plans. I did manage to remove the unsightly topper. I need to get the sawz-all out to make it fit in the scrap trailer a little better. I am going to recycle the aluminum. I would like to think I could get $100, but I think after I remove the glass, plastic, and steel; that there is not really all that much weight there.

The one item I absolutely wanted to get accomplished was replacing the battery cables. The original ones were in pretty bad shape. There were several spots on the NEG/GND side that the insulation had worn off. There was also what appeared to be an 8 gauge wire going from a bolt on the engine, to the inner fender, to the battery. I wasn't real sure what that was all about, but I suspected that there was a grounding issue. This wire really bothered me because someone had just stripped off the insulation and wrapped it around some bolts. Poorly I might add. I simply touched the "connection" on the fender and it fell off. Also, the terminal clamps would not even fit on the battery post properly.



I removed the battery and cables and found a very rusty battery tray. I used a steel brush and a wire wheel to remove the bulk of the rust on the tray and surrounding area. I then used Rust-Oleum "Rust Reformer" to coat the area. Ideally, I would like to have remove all of these parts and refinish them properly. However, I am not prepare to make that kind of time investment at this point. I have had pretty good success with the rust reformer in the past. I figure it cant hurt.



Because the there was no hold-down device for the battery, I used some stuff I had laying around to make one. Basically, I used a clamp for hold conduit to the wall that I fastened to the battery tray. This created a loop for the highly sophisticated bungie cord to attach too. I think a rubber bungie strap would work better, but I didn't have any of those laying around.



I would like to tell you that after I had all of the wiring replaced, it started right up, but that would be false. That wire that started this whole process, as it turns out, was rather important. I ended up getting my volt meter out to check conductivity in several spots. The body was not grounded. I looked around for a broken grounding strap without success. I spent the next hour or so looking to see if I had the electrical supplies needed to remedy this. Of course, I did not. So after a quick trip to the local farm store, I had everything I needed to complete this project.

On to the next project, the hood springs. The hinge springs still work "okay", but they should be replaced too. The ones I am referring to are part of the hood release. I had read in the interwebz that the cone shaped things might just need to be adjusted. I wasn't real sure how this was going to help, but I thought I would give it a go. So after a lot of adjusting, I had determined that it made no difference. The springs just simply do not have enough strength to lift the hood. I came up with a way to make them work though. I disassembled both sides and cleaned them well. I then added an additional fender washer to each assembly. This allowed me to place the top nut between the two washers, which raised the bottom side of the spring by the thickness of the nut. It works great now.

[Cheap Hobby]

You can get the top mount hold down from the parts house or a top frame hold down as long as its is side mount. The new cable goes to the block or the head. 2nd wire 10 or 12 g goes from batt clamp to fender panel. Some have. Wire from fender panel to radiator support. There is a group strap from the block at the other out that goes around the cushion to the cross member
As for your bed repair you can always go with a flat bed.

[Mixilpidilstick]

Thanks for the info Cheap Hobby. I will look for the grounding strap to see if it still intact. Currently all of the battery cable and grounding issues seam to be resolved. I have a number of light bulbs that need replaced and the dimmer switch for the head lights is ceased. It looks like I can source that from the local parts store for a few dollars.

I am considering converting it to a flat bed. I do really like the styling on the bed, but trying to salvage what I have might be a lot of work. I am also considering building something custom similar to the M715 Kaiser bed.

[Mixilpidilstick]

While looking over the engine a couple of weeks, I discovered that a majority of the vacuum lines were either broken, missing, or falling apart. This explained why it took so much cranking on the starter to get it going. So after doing a fair amount of research regarding the emissions system, I came to the same conclusion of the majority, remove it.

I ended up removing all of the vacuum lines and putting in just what hoses I needed.

Brake Booster to the Intake Manifold
Distributor Advance to the Intake Manifold
Vacuum Ball to the Intake Manifold
PCV to the rear of the Carburetor
EGR to the rear of the Carburetor

I capped off the ports on the exhaust manifolds with some large bolts and JB Weld. Not sure how well the JB Weld will hold up to the heat, but we will see. I am planning on putting new hears and exhaust on before too long anyway.

I also found several wires that were not original and not in use. It appears that previous owner had several auxiliary items that were no longer present. When all was said and done, I had a nice pile of tubes and wires that were no longer needed.

I also made some spark plug wire separators with zip ties. Thank you Mike Finnegan from Roadkill for that tip. I have to say, they look pretty good. I thought I took a picture to share, but apparently not. I will try to remember to take a few and add them to this post.