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My first vehicle! 1956 CJ5
Hello, i have recently purchased my first project car. i found it in a local newspaper ad, and picked it up a couple months ago. it is a 1956 willys cj5, all stock drivetrain f4-134 hurricane, T90, Dana 18. I've already made some progress. When I got it the wiring was completely junk. Only one running light worked and it would turn on and off randomly and sparks came from the dash. It would also start and run with the key off so i'd have to disconnect the battery to kill the engine. So first i removed the dash and ripped out every wire then got a universal harness/fuse block. I have it installed and ignition wires done. There are also no brakes. Theres only drums in the rear and one of which has a 2 inch long cut in it from an angle grinder. Both are gouged to much to get resurfaced. Also missing wheel cylinders and the lining on the shoes is completly gone. The gas tank is missing, previous owner ziptied a plastic lawnmower tank to the ebrake cable on firewall. Only a few inches from the exhaust, nothing unsafe there. The body is extremely rusty, floors are gone. And the passenger side only has one body mount thats strong. Now on to the good stuff. The drivetrain is complete and runs amazingly. even in below freezing temps it only cranks for a second then fires and runs beautifully. The transmission shifts super smooth and the detents are still strong, feels like brand new. At first the oil was turning white and frothy. Theres no other signs of a blown headgasket. has good compresion and never smokes. It also had sat almost a year without being run before I got it. So I changed the oil, got a new filter and put in non detergent oil (it had reguler oil before.) and then drove it around the yard for over 2 hours and got it up to temperature. Probably the first time in many years it was run for more than a few minutes. Now everytime i run it the oil is still clean. I also got an original Jeep hardtop and doors from a 64 model. The top is in great shape, passenger door is good but drivers is missing glass and inner panel. My plan right now is to make everything mechanically reliable. I'll probably leave the body how it is for now, just patch the rust so it's safe. My goal is to have it at the Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival this June, then make it roadworthy for when I get my drivers license in a couple years. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. I also have a YouTube channel @jacobnovosel so please go check that out to see videos of the jeep. Looking forward to many awesome adventure with my jeep. Thanks Jacob.
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Winch installed on the CJ5
I got a winch mounted on the willys. It's a Warn M8000 Thats been sitting in the shop for years. My Dad got it with a TJ but that Jeep was wrecked years ago so then it was stored intill now. The engage/disengage lever was frozen. Would not turn to allow freespool. Was like this when we got it. So I tore apart the planatery gear system and found that the cylinder that slides back and forth was rusted solid. But with some work and penetrating oil it came lose. Regreased and new gaskets installed it works great. I'm guessing it got water in it and was never cleaned and also not used often. To mount the winch i used a universal flat plate on the frame rails. Then cutout the bumber for the fairlead. Because the fairlead hangs below the winch plate and the bumber is higher than the frame. I added 2 towhooks and used 3 hardened bolts on each side. I also mounted those vintage unity foglights. I got them with my new windsheild they were mounted on the top corners. I like them on the bumber better. And on the windsheild it could not be folded down.
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New gas tank and brake parts!
I got a new gas tank installed. Steel reproduction and new sending unit and cap. I also ran lines and an inline filter. I made the tank strap out of some stainless steel I got with the Jeep. Also just got brake parts in the mail so i'll be installing them later today. Thank you all for the kind comments.
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Windshield and fuel guage problems.
Found this new-to-me windshield. The old on was missing glass and the whole bottom was rusted out. Had about 1/4 " of putty. This one is the newer 69-75 style with the wipers mounted on the bottom to have taller glass. I have the wipers wired and working. It even has somebodys graduation cap tassle from 1974. Which if it's from high school they would have been born in 56 the same year as my jeep. I also tried wiring the gas guage. At empty the guage reads 1/2 and at full pegs the guage past full. I thought it was becuase the guage is 6 volt and I have 12 volt going to it. so I got a 12-6 volt reducer and it's still reading the same. I checked with a voltmeter and still have 11.5 volts at the guage and 12.5 on the battery. I don't know if the reducer is bad or what it is. Whould like to hear your thoughts.
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Instrument Cluster Regulators
It is amazing how a topic will sit dormant for a long time, then we have several questions on that topic in just a short period of time.
Over the last week we worked with a gentleman on an instrument cluster voltage regulator problem. You can follow the story here:
https://willysjeepforum.kaiserwillys...Gauge-Clusters
This probably has more than you really want to know about instrument cluster regulators.
I drew a quick diagram of how the regulator sits in the circuit. If you have 11.5 volts out of the regulator, it is fried. You should have about 5-volts out of the regulator. If it is working properly, it will drive a digital meter nuts and it may make the needle on a good old analog meter quiver around. Either the contact points are welded shut or the heater for the bi-metal strip has opened. You have nothing to lose – pry it open and see what you can find.
As I said in the last discussion, just about every manufacturer used the same type of regulator. If you can find one for a ’56 Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Chevy or whatever – it will be very close to the one you have.
Good luck – let us know what you find.
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Instrument Cluster Regulators
What you have described is a resistor, not a voltage regulator. It reduces voltage, but it does not regulate the output voltage. The voltage at the output will vary with the current drawn by the load. Think of it as a ballast resistor for an ignition coil - like the one that we saw mounted on the firewall of a lot of cars way back when.
An electronic unit is a very good choice if you are working with a 12-volt to 6-volt conversion, but in the case of a 6-volt system you only want to drop a couple of volts and most of the readily available voltage regulators need a higher input voltage that the normal 7.4 - 7.5 volts you see in a 6-volt system at normal charge levels.
If you are dealing with a 12-volt system, this would be a good choice:
https://www.amazon.com/SMAKN%C2%AE-D.../dp/B014ZQ6TFY. Tie it down to a good ground, the case is an electrical connection.
But, if you are still 6-volts, I poked around a bit and I found a couple of units that will probably do what you need at a cost that won’t break the bank.
This one is the original relay style. While it is an Old School approach, it will work just like the defective one you have. This one appears to have an adjustment screw to fine tune the output voltage if you need it.
https://www.npdlink.com/product/regu...e/100930/50625
REGULATOR, Instrument Voltage, repro, original relay style, located on back of gauge cluster, reduces voltage to 5-6 volts at the gauges.
1948-1952 F1-F3 AS VOLTAGE INVERTOR
1957-1964 F100-F350
Another choice is an all-electronic unit:
https://www.npdlink.com/product/regu...c/177873/50625
REGULATOR, Instrument Voltage, electronic replacement, no adjustments necessary, more reliable than the original relay style regulator, output is a constant 5 volts as required.
1948-1952 F1-F3 AS VOLTAGE INVERTER
For both units, the IGN terminal is the straight tab and the “curled” tab goes to the gauges. Get it backwards and it won’t work. And, the tab is an electrical connection - screw it down to a good ground point.
Let us know what you find out…
Hurricane making knocking sound
So over the weekend I pulled the willys out of the garage and let it idle about ten minutes. Aside from being a little rich (was just going to adjust that). Idled perfectly. Tapped the throttle a little bit and it started knocking. Is with rhythm of the motor and changes with rpm. Almost sounds like a sticking valve but almost to loud for that. It did this when I first got the jeep months ago, for about a minute then stopped and hasent done it scence. It has bean running great. Just the day before had it out doing 45. Fastest its been in a long time and never skipped a beat. I don't understand how it would just start doing this now after just tapping the gas.
Also where can I hook up a vacuum guage to the motor? I got new distributor parts and plug wires and was going to do a complete tuneup. I have electric wipers so no vacuum ports for wipers. I wanted to tune it with the vacuum, and now want to see if it has bad vacuum to confirm that it is a valve making noise.
I would like to know your thoughts.