J20 Plow Truck Getting Back on the Road

[JTruck-Connor]

Hey, so I decided to go ahead and throw this together. I haven't made a whole lot of progress on this but I figure I better start now on documenting everything. So this will be more of a 'before' post to start with. I recently acquired a dirt cheap 1976 J20 that had been used as a plow truck forever. It was a coworker trying to get rid of it so he could buy a Polaris to plow his driveway since it has a bit better turning radius. Anyway, I digress. I was pessimistic and expecting to find a rust bucket plow truck, but it is really clean and well taken care of, all original everything and even came with the original operating manual. Picked it up the next morning and managed to break it getting it off the trailer Anyway, it's an all original 401, TH400, BW1339. It's in good shape all in all, new carb and plugs, fluids replaced all around. Starts and runs like a champ. Unfortunately, the dipstick tube broke off in the block before it came to me, so I need to fix that, but it's all straight and mostly rust free minus some body stuff on the bed and floor pans.

And so I give you Plain Jane, the once-plow truck, now project, soon to be admirable FSJ.


(I never claimed to be a good photographer)








(That jeep mat covers a sizable hole in the floor. New pans are coming soon.)


(as you can see, I have some cleaning up to do...)

It was running and driving (if it could be said it was driving at that point) and I pulled it into the garage, started cleaning it up, took off the plow mount and in-cab controls, backed it out and I lost all my gears. Couldn't figure it out, but I knew (or hoped) the problem was in the transfer case. So a buddy of mine pushed me back up into the garage with his work truck and I pulled the tcase. Sure enough, the shifter broke and it is stuck in Neutral. I haven't fully torn into it yet because I've been so freaking busy, but there are bits of metal I'm not excited to see and the shift linkage moves freely, but doesn't move anything internal in the tcase itself. Gonna have to break it open and replace that. But all in all, once I cleaned it up, the old BW1339 is in pretty good shape, minus the 1.25" of play in the chain.



I know it's probably not the best using the bed of the truck as my work table, but hey, I'm working out of a small garage in suburbia so cut me some slack. Next on the agenda is tcase repair and rebuild (didn't have any pics of it apart), get both shafts looked at, and put it all back in to see if it moves. Pretty exciting stuff, I know. I'll hopefully keep things up to date. I'm waiting on all the work til I know if I have a title for the thing, but the PO is being slow on that. Again, wouldn't have bought with out a title, except it was almost free, so I figured what's the harm, so long as it isn't stolen?

Thanks for reading, I'll post again soon.

[JTruck-Connor]

MAJOR Roadblock

Well, I have to say, I am feeling quite dejected.

I pulled apart the tcase and found out exactly what kept me from moving. It was exactly what I expected, but so much more as well. The shift guide pin in the tail case broke and went flying about, shredding a lot of the inside of the tail case. Sigh.

At this point, I have to figure out whether to throw a new tailshaft in the transmission and switch over to a d20 or figure out if I can fix the bw1339. I am honestly so far out of my depth with it that I close to calling it and parting out the tcase for some funds.

I'll post again when I figure out what route I am taking.

[JeepJeepster]

This makes me want a J20 even more. I love those trucks for some reason.

Out of curiosity, whats the story behind the lip along the top of the windshield? Ive noticed some have it and some dont.

[JTruck-Connor]

To my knowledge, the roof over-hang is just a part of the original truck design. I've seen it on pretty much all the original J20s I've looked at from the 70s at least. I am totally new to the jeep world, having had no intentions to own a FSJ until I suddenly bought one, much to everyone's surprise including my own. So I am still learning this world. I know there has to be someone on here that knows exactly everything about that roof lip, but not me. Sorry I don't have more for you there.

[EKWagoneer]

The lip on the front of the cab is called the brow, like an eyebrow. I don't know when they stopped appearing on the trucks. Maybe 1979? Or 1980?

Hope this helps.
Ely

[Strode]

1980 was the last year for the 'brow'.

[Kaiserjeeps]

What a great looking truck. Some of us started with some pretty rough rigs. It looks like once you get past the transfer case and floorboards and maybe a few other things, you will have quite a truck. I like the stainless trim. And the truck is pretty darn straight too. I would call that a really nice score. We will be watching. Congrats!

[JTruck-Connor]

Ely and Strode, thanks for the info. I had no clue, and it always helps to know how to put a date on the trucks I see out and about.

KJ, thanks, and I know! I saw the truck and the guy selling it to me was joking when he offered. He said "Oh, no it's just an old plow truck, I was mostly kidding. Wouldn't want you to have to deal with it." Made it sound like it was going to be rusted through on every panel. Looking at it I was honestly very surprised.

To update: I do have the transfer case back in (with special thanks to Tad and Rang-a-stang for low range unit contributions) and will fill it this week. In getting everything back up under the truck, I noticed I needed some new u-joints for the rear drive shaft. Of course it couldn't go smoothly, because in removing them I found one of the ears on the shaft is bent, so I'm going to take it in and do some new shafts. Any recommendations here? Should I upgrade or just replace? I think it's just stock, but I'm thinking of getting something a little beefier for trails. Just thoughts. Mostly still trying to sit on my hands because I STILL HAVE NO TITLE which is very frustrating. The owner before the PO takes forever in correspondence. But it looks like they lost it and we will have to go through the replacement process.

Anyway, just day dreaming about when I can finally drive the dang thing.

Take it easy, everyone.

[WrenchMonkey]

Do you plan on lifting it, ever? If you do I'd either do it now and order custom DS's or use the old one until option 1 is more feasible. Nothing quite as lame and replacing something only to soon thereafter need to replace the same with something else

[Frank Ziebert]

Sound advise! Absolutely the first step in any build is to figure out what you want to do with it when you're done building.
Looks like a good truck from which to start. I run/have run Tom Wood's shafts on all my rigs. Once I had a problem with balance and their customer service to get it fixed was outstanding. Tom definitely stands by his products.

Looking forward to following your progress.

[JTruck-Connor]

Finally Back at it.

Hey guys, been a while.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with life putting a jeep build on the back burner. Clearly, this is the case for me. I was really hoping to get this thing up and running before it got too cold here in CO, but it looks like I'm a little late with the recent weather we've had. Already scraping ice in the mornings.

Anyway, I have a buddy coming up tomorrow. I'm super excited for it. This weekend, I took Friday off, and he and I will be doing a bunch. Brakes, shocks, springs, headers and 3" purple hornies (it'll be annoying til I can afford a full exhaust overhaul), general tune up and cleaning. It feels good to know it will be moving soon. I'll try to remember to take pictures and things, but I don't even know how to show them to y'all considering the whole image hosting fiasco. I'll find something for it. The only parts that didn't make it were the drive shafts. I ordered them, then found they wouldn't be here in time, and decided to cancel the order. I will put some new ones on in the near future. Til then, I will put the old one on to get it up to the corner and finally wash the engine bay. I found the oil massacre culprit- my dipstick tube decided to change to the quick-release, two piece model. Not ideal. I have the new tube but I'm waiting for the exhaust overhaul to put it in, as I have to pull the manifolds anyway. Well, I'll update early next week and let you all know if another J20 is back on the streets.

Cheers!

[JTruck-Connor]

Finally some real progress

Buckle up, this one is a long one.

I got my friend out from TX, and he and I went to town on this truck. I am trying out Google for image hosting, so let me know if/ when it doesn't work right so I can fix it.

We started with the ever important list. Watch it throughout, it keeps getting longer


So basically, I ordered a bunch of parts- tune up, headers, brakes, shocks, the works. We were planning on getting it running on Thursday night, start the work around on Friday-Tuesday. Of course, that turned out to be pretty ambitious. Roadblock after roadblock on this one. Wrong parts ordered, things didn't fit, and there was way more wrong with it than I thought. Here is the engine bay on the first night as we started tearing into it. I know it's filthy, I'm working on it. The plan was start with exhaust, since the broken dipstick tube was technically the only thing keeping me from turning it over and we had to lose the manifold to get at it.



Driver side actually dropped relatively easily. (please no judging the garage floor. There isn't enough pig mat in the world for this truck)


The passenger side had other plans- a creative quick release method on this one.


Never seen a manifold straight up cracked in half on a running truck. Needless to say, it probably wouldn't have run much longer that way. We had to call it a night once we pulled the exhaust and buttoned up a few other things. Day one done, we woke up and the driver side header just about fell right into place.



(post 1 of 2)

[JTruck-Connor]

Finally some real progress (2/2)

Continuing from last post.

We spent the morning on some basic maintenance stuff- oil filter went in, dipstick tube fought us fiercely but went in, and we made parts lists for oil pan (gaskets and bolts) along with some different stuff for the exhaust I forgot to order. So we broke for lunch. Got tacos and saw this in the parking lot:


Good times. Got the honda ready to make a parts run-


Anyway, enough fooling around. We got the driver side in good, and then the passenger side gave us all the trouble in the world despite being completely clear access with the heater core out. The bump stop on the frame by the front diff was completely in the way, we had to drop the starter again, it's a whole fiasco. Bad pic, but you can see the bump stop there above the diff.


Well that was it for that day. Then some R&R at Rocky Mountain National Park.


And back to it. Getting into Saturday night now. Got a sawzall for the bump stop and running to the parts store for header bolts. Saw another gem-


Got the Driver side attached with the dipstick tube in, and with how much that tube fought us, getting it in was such a win that we pretty much quit working that day a little earlier than expected around 10 or 11.


The last thing we did that night was start on the bump stop. Got the notch we thought we'd need and found out we were gonna have to cut the whole thing out. Unfortunately, it was too late to be that loud, so we saved it for the morning.


Next morning, we went to get bagels and I swear the universe was rubbing it in my face that my classic wasn't running. Found a guy having coffee with his chevelle.


Anyway, got back to work, pulled the bump stop and realized, as many of you probably already have reading this, that the off-set front diff is right in the way of the passenger side header. We racked our brains for options on a Sunday, both of us calling people, and sure enough an 87 Grand Wagoneer had JUST showed up to LKQ pick yard and we got there to replace the broken passenger side manifold. Big sigh of relief there. Also got a spare carb and some assorted bits I was missing. Might go back for the bumper, even though it isn't quite right. A moment of silence for the fallen comrade, but glad I can grab some parts to keep another on the road.


By the time we made it back to the house, it was pointless trying to accomplish anything else. A cold front was rolling in with an expected 5 inches or so of snow, and we needed a last parts run. We bought exhaust parts and connectors to get the 3" purple hornies I ordered on there, just to have something other than open exhaust, but we didn't have it in us to put it on that night. We went for beer and blues at the brewery instead.

[JTruck-Connor]

Follow up

I had work on Monday, so my buddy started exhaust. Turns out we had the wrong stuff with the Hornies, so we left it open pipe. It was rigged poorly, but our new mission was to get the thing back in the garage under its own power. Sure enough, Tuesday after lunch we got the exhaust rigged and on the thing, and it's an exciting feeling. I've got video, but I know I can't get it on here and I haven't uploaded to YouTube yet, so I will try to get it up here later on.



In the end, we got it to move, stop, and idle. Tuned it just a little, and in all honesty, it's not in that bad of shape. There is a lot of work left to do, and I'm under no delusions that it's ready for the trails, but this was a lot of progress and I really enjoyed it. Next is brakes, shocks, suspension, some more tuning, and I think 2" of lift will clear that front diff so I can have my headers and hornies. All in all a very productive update. If you made it this far, props and thanks for reading.

Cheers!

[Full Size Jeeper]

Nice, does it have a J1 paint code? Pewter Gray Metallic. Mine was originally bought out of Colorado, but not by me.