My J-4500

[SOLSAKS]

j-10 jim
i have said it before
but your front end with the green and the black is AWESOME
such a neat job.

dave in NC

[rang-a-stang]

j-10 jim
i have said it before
but your front end with the green and the black is AWESOME
such a neat job.

I agree! Both J10Jim's and Crankyolman's look awesome. two of my favorite front ends on this forum.

[Crankyolman]

I like the black with the green as well. Since I'm going to paint the lower half of mine with a dark color, and since it already has chrome bumpers and had the shiny grill, I wanted to go with chrome on everything. I thought about going with that style of light but chose the ones I did because they have that vertical stripe look similar to the pie pans. I've been thinking about those brackets and since I just bought an air compressor that can run a die grinder and 4 or 5 hand held grinders that will do the job, I will probably go ahead and remove the brackets. If I ever want to reinstall the razor I can always fabricate some new brackets and install those.

The headlight bezel issue is only getting worse but I want to give BJ's a chance to make it right before I say too much about that but if you haven't seen it already you can read about the issue here http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=184627

I haven't gotten much done lately because it has been wet, cold, raining, snowing, which is rare in Seattle in February (or any time for that matter) and I took my wife to Vegas for a 3 day weekend. I have some ideas in the works for the bed and and am considering trying to rebuild my existing tailgate but that means removing it and driving around without it for a while while I do that but I have just about given up on finding a good one that I can afford.

[Crankyolman]

Today was a nice sunny rain free day Unfortunately at work all hell broke loose and time was a real issue. Somehow during the chaos I managed to find a bit of time to sneak out and wire up the extra headlights.

They still need adjusted a bit but they work

[rang-a-stang]

looks FANTASTIC!!!
You happy with it so far?

[Crankyolman]

looks FANTASTIC!!!
You happy with it so far?

Thank you. Yes I'm very happy so far. The wiring is a big ugly mess right now but that will get cleaned up soon enough.

The weather has been so crappy lately I haven't been making much progress but Seattle summers are awesome and hopefully I can get the body work in order. Last week I got a brand new 33 gallon 150PSI Craftsman air compressor for $100 and figure that will be very helpful for painting and body work. A while back I noticed a cold breeze blowing on my left hand while driving and yesterday I was looking for the source and noticed a little patch of what looked like surface rust just below the windshield in the same area the breeze seemed to be. I took a screwdriver and scratched at it just a little bit and the screwdriver went all the way through, so that's one more bit to cut out and and fill when the time comes. Now I need to keep an eye out for a good deal on a mig welder.

[Crankyolman]

You happy with it so far?

I have an update to that. When I drove to work this morning I got to use the new quad lights and it's a night and day difference...that is to say when I hit the high beams it becomes like daylight in front of me so I am absolutely ecstatic about them

[Crankyolman]

I managed to get the wiring neatened up a bit today.


I still haven't decided where the final location of the relay will be so I left the wires long which is why they look like that.

[SOLSAKS]

hey man,

i like those 4 headlights burning,.....

sounds like they have good candlepower.

dave in NC

[Crankyolman]

hey man,

i like those 4 headlights burning,.....

sounds like they have good candlepower.

dave in NC

Thank you.

They are actually about the cheapest headlights I could find, Wagner H5006 which are only $6.23 on Amazon so I wasn't really expecting much but I am very pleased with them. They are even pretty close to adjusted correctly, which surprised me, I was expecting to have to do a lot of adjusting but they only need a little bit.

[Crankyolman]

Not much going on in my little world right now, the sun has decided to show up the past few days so I have been working on a few things I have been neglecting. A while back I started smelling the distinct smell of burning oil so I had a look under the hood and sure enough a valve cover gasket had started leaking. Fortunately my local autozone stocks a few AMC parts, the valve cover gasket being one of them, so I was able to get a set and take care of that. That also gave me the opportunity to check if there is any cam wear, since my engine now has a little over 3,000 miles since overhaul. Everything looked real good and clean, so I'm happy there.

Then a couple days ago I started noticing a quarter size puddle of oil under the truck whenever I stop for a bit. I had previously seen a few drops underneath and was never able to figure out exactly where it was coming from. Now it had gotten bad enough I was able to determine it was coming from the Tee I had added when I added the oil pressure sending unit. My ultimate plan is to get a length of grease gun hose and thread that into the fitting on the engine, then attach it to a Tee on the inner fender and add the 2 sending units to that where they are easy to get to if they start to leak or otherwise need attention. For a short term fix I just removed the Tee and installed the original pressure sensor for the idiot light. My guess is it won't be very long before it drives me crazy not knowing exactly what my oil pressure is and I get around to fixing it right but for now hopefully it doesn't leak any more.

[Crankyolman]

I haven't been doing much to my truck lately other than driving it because I've been waiting for good weather and trying to concentrate on fixing our house but yesterday I got this

When I got the truck it had the original mirror on the passenger's side but the driver's side was this this goofy little mirror

Which worked perfectly well but just looked terribly mismatched so I've been keeping my eye out for a suitable replacement one to come up at a reasonable price and one finally did so I bought it. I had to buy the whole framework to get the mirror but that's not a big deal I can throw it away, give it away or just put it away in case I ever need it but I'm trying not to hoard things.

Anyway, I took the mirror off the bracket it came with, took the mirror off my truck and installed the new old mirror.


If you look real close the mounting bracket on the mirror is about a half inch lower than the original one on the passenger's side but I'm pretty confident that I am the only one who will ever notice.

[Crankyolman]

A couple weeks ago my water pump went out. It was really no surprise, I had been hearing a noise like bad bearings on it for a while but I got a year and a half out of it after the engine was rebuilt. The reason I didn't replace it when I rebuilt the engine was that it is a '72. In case you don't know late '72 and late '71 AMC engines have water pumps that are about 1/4 of an inch shorter than '73 and later water pumps. I think '68 to '72 AMC cars have the same short pump but I've also read that these pumps were actually only used on Jeeps of those years. Whatever the case is this makes the '72 water pump problematic and expensive. When my pump went bad I first asked about it here

( http://www.ifsja.org/forums/vb/showthread.php?t=185133 )

One of the big problems is that a lot of companies advertise that their water pump fit's the '72 but when you dig a little deeper it turns out that it doesn't. The problem is usually that the mounting flange for the fan is in the wrong place and the casting contacts the harmonic balancer. Quality is also a big issue.


After much research it seemed like the options were buy an Edelbrock water pump that is $245 or find a water pump rebuilder. I even looked for a rebuild kit and try to do it myself but couldn't find one. Another option was to get the harmonic balancer off a post '72 360 and shim the power steering pump and alternator brackets and use a later longer water pump. That last one was probably the cheapest option but I have gone to a lot of trouble to keep this truck as original as possible so I started looking for a water pump rebuilder.



I remember the days when there was one of these in every big city byt of course it has now become cheaper for companies to just sell new ones so the rebuilders have largely disappeared. I found 3 possible options in the entire country. One in Arizona, one in Oregon and one in Michigan. So I contacted all 3. The one in Arizona wanted $150 plus shipping, the one in Oregon wasn't available and the one in Michigan said $109 plus shipping. To me cost wasn't really the biggest factor as much as the impression I got from the rebuilder but truth be known I did feel best about the cheapest one.



Right about this time I also found Galvin's AMC Rambler parts
( http://www.ramblerparts.com/product_...roducts_id=665 )
Who seems to have the correct water pump for $105 plus shipping and a $50 core charge. I seriously considered buying that one and sending mine out for rebuild so I have a spare but really how long will it be before I need a new one again?


So after much thought last Thursday I mailed off my water pump to the water pump man in Michigan ( http://waterpumpman.com/services.html ) He received it on Saturday. He sent me an invoice on Tuesday. I paid it as soon as I received it and it was in the mail on it's way back to me that afternoon.


Today I checked the tracking and realized it was out for delivery I was actually having a really bad day so this was some good news. I was looking forward to getting the truck back up and running. It's weird how much I have come to rely on my truck as my every day driver.



When I got home I found a box with my water pump waiting for me. Excited to get it put on I grabbed it and headed to the truck. That's when it started raining So I went inside and stared out the window hoping it would let up. I was scheduled to take a 2 hour online class for my work starting at 4 which wouldn't leave me much time afterwards to get it in. So I went out in the rain and putting my pump in but ran out of time before the class so had to quit.


Then I couldn't get my stupid work tablet to connect to the class After 45 frustrating minutes of trying I gave up and went back to working on the truck. I actually find working on the truck to be calming and relaxing and soon was ready to fire it up. After the day I had I was expecting something to go horribly wrong but it seemed like everything went well and my truck is back up and running again

[Crankyolman]

It's now been 21 days since I put the water pump back on and I'm happy to say there hasn't been a problem since


That said I am hoping some of you guys who know these older trucks might be able to answer something for me.


I have noticed the rear end is looking a little oily. I don't know if this is from the engine leaks that I have finally fixed, or the slight transmission front seal leak that I am currently ignoring, or if the front seal on the differential has started to leak. My plan is to drain and refill the differential so I broke out the handy little 1972 Jeep service specifications manual that originally came with the truck to see what fluid it needs.


The manual states "For conventional axles use MIL-L-2105B, grade SAE 80. For Trac-Loc rear axles use only special lubricant, Jeep Part No. 94557"


I looked at the differentials and can't find any tags on them to identify them. So my questions for you guys who know the '72s are, what is the difference between "conventional axles" and the 1972 version of "Trac-Loc" or even what Trac-Loc means? I'm assuming it's probably limited slip but I don't really know and the interweb hasn't been very helpful. How can I know what I have? Should I just use limited slip fluid or do you guys recommend something else?

[Crankyolman]

Because of the rear differential leaking I broke out my owners and service manuals. I like to read through these from time to time because they are actually very informative. One thing I noticed and would like to share is a little bit of history in, or rather on, my manuals, I think it's actually kind of cool.

This is the Service specifications manual, not really much to look at from the front really but it has obviously been around.



The back side is where a little history starts to reveal itself. As you can see, when it had 29,819 miles it took a trip to a town in northern Washington called Twisp. Since I was told the truck spent it's life in and around Monroe Wa, a trip to Twisp was around 178 miles through the mountains and he got 15.5 miles per gallon doing it. The other figure indicates he also got 16 MPG on what was probably the trip back. I have to wonder why the trip to Twisp?


Now on the cover of the owners manual there are some more mileage calculations a few years later.


One is noted as 66,755 miles in a town called Darrington which is 55 miles from Monroe and again in the mountains. 177 miles later he did the MPG math and was still getting 16MPG I know I don't get anywhere near that but it looks like the gas thiefs didn't hit me last night so maybe I will actually get 12 MPG this week.


The last little bit of history in the manual is in the inside cover

where it was noted on Nov 11th 1978 at 62,739 miles the oil and spark plugs were changed and a grease job done. Since my truck was built in May 1972 that means it got almost 63,000 in 6.5 years or an average of 9,652 miles a year.