A little project update on Chug A Lug

At least you got something done on your jeep today. I just walked by mine to listen to the neighbor miss adjust the valves on his FJ40. I just sat and watched the show as he and is father went at it. At least I had 5 dogs to scratch for the show.
A decent day.

OH I also figured out how I am going to brace my Box extension since I have no draw bar. My rear cross member which is Rectangular tubing. Is held on to the 4) L brackets that are part of the Receiver Assembly with 4) 3/8" Button Head bolts. I figure I will make a little channel shaped bracket that will attach to the outer pair of bolts and hang down a bit below the Rear Cross Member to get a decent angle. And the use that bracket to hold one end of a strut that has Rod ends on both ends. Much like the Strut I made to Support the Steering box. That way I can either use Bolts and Lock nuts or even just a couple of Pins and Hairpin clips to hold the struts in place.

My box extension for camping gear will only be 15" long so it won't need to big of braces. Its only going to carry camping gear and maybe a couple water jugs.
 

Well crap Turns out the U-Bolts I bought from NAPA will not work. The threads do not come up the shanks far enough. AND the threads are rolled not cut so running a die up the (as I now see) undersized rod is of no use and the threads are barely 40% of what they should be.

I guess I stop by the Drive Line Suspension shop we deal with at work (SIX STATES) and see if they can fab up a set of them. If not they are cheap to order on line exactly what I need. But of course that sets my time line back at least a Week-10 days if not more.

OK so today I worked on finishing up my fancy Alternator Bracket and getting the Alternator as well aligned as possible. I still have to get a couple Stainless Steel Bolts to finish up. And I have to add some threads to the Big Pivot Bolt at the bottom. I was going to go to a Stainless Bolt but after measuring a few of them they were slightly undersized when compared to the Grade 8 thats in there now and since wobbling around is not so good for the alignment I'll do something else to fancy up the Bolt.

Anyway heres a bunch of photos to show off the Alt bracket.

In this one you see the chrome fan disc I put on behind the Speedway aluminum 5/8" wide pulley not sure if I mentioned but the Disc improves the fan ability to pull air through the alternator.







So I thought it was time for a Right Side View Photo of the whole engine.



And a nice front view ( I did a bunch of editing to clean up the background on this one as it looked to messy)



The chrome fan disc makes it look like dual belts LOL

And I also finished up the Oil Filter Bracket. I made one of the more complicated pices I have ever made on my crappy milling machine to create the brace at the bottom. I used a fly cutter to create a curve that matches the outer diameter of the 1704 Oil filter in a L Bracket shaped piece that then is attached to one of the Oil Pan bolts with a little 1/4" thick spacer to get up over the lip of the Pan.  A Stainless Steel Hose clamp cut down to just fit and the worm drive screw hides behind the Filter but still easy to get to. AND MAN IS THE WHOLE THING STABLE NOW!!! nothing like a tripod to support something.





This bottom view shows the little brace. Its in such a tight area that its about Impossible to get a good photo of the L bracket.





You can just barely see the hose clamp screw in this photo



Braided steel hoses I need to figure out a couple little brackets so they can't rub on anything as they travel over the Timing cover.



I was able to buy premade hoses from Summit racing that were just the right length of course they both have to have adapters to go from NPT to -AN fittings but it all works. Hopefully it all won't leak when the time comes.

I am very happy with the way the Oil Filter Bracket came out. It uses existing bolt holes it appears that it will clear everything. And it should make doing oil changes pretty easy. And the BIG plus is the extra Quart of Oil it will add to the system since it dose not drain when you shut of the engine. I can still have 5 quarts in the pan and not have the oil level to high on start up. The hoses end up real close to the same length if not a little shorter. And while the Filters are not real common 4-5 manufacturers make them and I am going to buy a case of them just in case. I will still buy one each time I do an oil change so I always have a stock pile.

A note NAPA has a quarterly oil filter sale and I had them order me 10) of the 1704's I'm good to go for the next 30K LOL

OH I also got a notice that the back ordered Spark Plug indexing washers and my super bright Tail light bulbs have shipped.

Getting quite a pile of parts stacked up around here.


Edited by Mark W. - 28 Nov. 2017 at 12:21am

I can't wait to see this. I'm stoked!

OK so a report on the US WHEEL series 68 that showed up a couple hours ago.

The all important backspacing is the same as a stock 15" KH wheel at 3.5" even though its a 6" wheel

There is a flat ribbon type weld that runs across the outer rim that I am not so happy with. But I guess I'll live with it as grinding it out and repriming the wheel would be a PITA.

AND YES IT WILL CLEAR MY 11" BRAKES Yea,

Now to buy either 9 more if I decide to have a matching spare for both sets of tires and wheels or 7 more and I use a tire from the idle set as a spare. As they are a current item I guess I can always change my mind later if I only buy 7.

I might have to change my mind about the rear center caps as even a 3" will stick out past the wheel But then the fronts stick way out so I guess thats no big deal.

Possibly they are very thin.

Actually I just measured and the 3" tall cap will just be below the edge of the Wheel and with the Tire nearly 1 1/2" wider on each side then the wheel it will end up set back plenty.

So the Willys gods must really be interested in seeing Chug back on the road.
At work (driving construction dump truck) we get a $1250.00 annual bonus for safety and variuos other aspects of our job. Last year through a failure of my new CB radio (I was being spotted while backing up on a work site by another driver and his warning I was about to hit the safety guys private pickup with my trailer never came across the radio. New bed on two year old Tacoma $5600.00
So needless to say I was sure the drivers bonus was all gone!
Thrusday while heading home from work I get a text from the wife with the amount of my paycheck deposit. Its like twice what it should be.

Only answer the boss still gave me if not all the bonus at least the majority of it. Exactly what happened I'll find out when we get home and I can look at my stub which comes in the mail(we are away from home this weekend for the wifes birthday)
So to cut to the chase looks like a windfall of $900 in Willys money. I got so excited I placed a order with Summit Racing for the heater I want and some more fancy plumbing stuff.

y