When I built my first jeep, I used the gas pedal from a CJ-5.  It was fine for driving around on flat smooth roads, but when I hit a bump, my foot tended to flop against it, which meant I would accelerate unintentionally.  It was just too sensitive an arrangement (dad used a CJ-5 pedal in his CJ too and had the same problem).

Eventually, I found a solution to the pedal problem. However, it took a bad day of racing to get there ….

Early in the Spring of 1985 I was at a PNW race competing in a team relay event somewhere north of Everett, Wa.  I remember the conditions clearly:  It was cold, it was damp, and it was rainy.

Jim, Tim, and Steve Carter and I teamed up for the relay event.  Between us we had three jeeps (my jeep, Otis and Priority I — or maybe II or III — I can’t keep track of all the Priority versions …).

It seems to me we advanced to the first round with no issues.  However, during the second round, things went awry.  Frankly, the precise details of how the rest of the race played out have faded with time.  What I do remember is this; First, my front driveline broke as I made my way around the course.  Then, when driving Priority, I broke its front drive line.  Finally, when driving Otis, I was trying to drive carefully as I REALLY, REALLY didn’t want to break another driveline.  At one point I got a little stuck (it was really muddy) and thought I had broke it (ugh!).  Fortunately I didn’t … I was perfectly happy to stop racing that day (we got eliminated in the 3rd round I think).

I tell this story, because while racing Otis, I noticed that my foot didn’t bounce and nor did the pedal no matter what bumps I encountered.  It was solid, yet the pedal depressed when necessary.

Later in the day, after racing, I looked at Otis’ pedal and discovered Jim had set it up so that the there was a roller behind the pedal.  While more complicated than the normal pedal, it really improved the ability to keep driving and accelerating smoothly over bumps.

So, I implemented that in my first build and loved the results.  I had hoped to implement the same thing in Biscuit using a classic foot shaped pedal like the Moon Aluminum Pedal. However, I couldn’t justify the cost (read here that my budget was getting tight), so I implemented what I call Version 1.0 of the pedal.

Using some aluminum plate I already had, I drew the shape of my foot onto the plate, cut it out, and then shaped it with my grinder.  Then, I went down to a locate skateboard shop and purchased some skateboard covering (sandpaper-like on the front and sticky on the back).  I cut the covering into the shape of the foot and stuck it onto the plate.  It isn’t beautiful, but it works well.

I’d like to clean up some of the rough edges in Version 2.0.  Below are some pics and a highly(?) technical schematic.

BTW, that race was the last day I broke a driveline.  I’ve never had a problem since.

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It all seemed simple enough.  I’d pull off the front, driver’s side tire, pull off the front brake drum, adjust the brakes (The front right was pulling some on braking, so I needed to adjust the front left), and put everything back together … easy enough, yes?

Well, that was last night.  This morning, I hopped in the jeep and drove down to the local gas station to get some gas, before heading to the local home/garden shop (Zamzow’s).

As I exited the station, my pedal suddenly drops to the floor.  Hmm .. not good.  I jump out, lift the hood, and, sure enough my accelerator cable connector had come loose. I re-attached the cable and drove back home to more permanently fix the solution.

So, I’m back on the road, heading to Zamzows again. Life is good.  I drive about 2 miles and I start hearing a tinging; “an odd sound,”  I think to myself …. I listen more closely; “That is coming from the front left side.”

And then it hit me, “had I tightened the lug nuts from my brake work the night before?”  Crap, I couldn’t remember.

At just that moment, when the grip of dread descended upon me that I might have forgotten to tighten the nuts, I was looking down at the driver’s tire, driving about 35 mph, when a silver bullet shot from the wheel and landed in the grass divider (never did find it).  Holy shit!  That was a lug nut!  I pulled over into the median (it’s a rural road with a grass median) and checked out the situation.

After doing some accounting (yes, that MBA of mine really came in handy about now), I concluded the situation was not good.  1 lug nut missing.  2 lug nuts loose.  2 lug nuts holding on the rim.  0 tools … and 1 idiot standing there (yes, that would be me).

What to do?  Head back home very slowly.  Every 1/4 mile or so I stopped, jumped out, hand tightened the lug nuts, got back in, and kept going.  Drive another 1/4 mile & repeat.  You get the idea!

I finally did make it home, tightened everything back up, PACKED MY TOOLS, and took off again. No more problems the rest of the day … whew!

However, to add insult to injury, my adjustments still didn’t fix the pull to the right I have!  Just know that I won’t be forgetting to double check my lug nuts in the future!!

With the kids coming up to visit, I wanted to add a backseat that would allow more than two people to go jeeping.  My goal was to combine the seat with a new tire carrier and have the entire unit easily installed and removed.  This current setup doesn’t allow for a tail gate; however, I don’t care about that right now.  In fact, I could create a back that is permanent with this unit at some later time if I wanted a tailgate.

So, here are some pics of the process:

I started with a couple brackets that bolted to each side of the rear portion of the roll cage that were connected by a heavy piece of angle iron (I have lots of heavy angle iron).

Next I bent a loop from some roll bar tube and then welded it to the angle iron (you can see that I needed to trim a bit from the bottom of the loop).  Then, I added a left and right arm that I attached to half-tubes which I clamped to the roll bar.  The loop leans backwards at the same angle as the front loop angle leans backwards.

The next step was to add an attachment for the rear tire carrier.  I welded a piece of tubing to the top of the loop and a bent piece of tubing to the angle iron.  In between, I welded a piece of rectangular tubing.

Then, I added a platform for the bottom of the seat.

After creating a template for the plate that will hold the spare tire, I cutout a piece of heavy metal, drilled three holes, inserted the studs, and welded them in place.  Then, I welded the plate onto the until.  Here, Karson is doing some spray painting.

Next, I added a strip of metal across the back loop so I could bolt on the back of the seat (made from wood).  The bottom is also wood and bolts in place.  Both still need to be padded.  The final pics below show the entire unit in place (though I have since painted the wood black and the strip across the back the color of the tubing).  This is nothing fancy and, though not as wide as I’d like, will meet my needs for now. And, we tested it out today and the kids love riding back there

I blame my mother.

Had she not very kindly given me some cash to do ‘whatever’ I wanted for my birthday, I wouldn’t have gone to the Jungle Jims on my birthday.  I wouldn’t have pulled those springs off the truck.  I wouldn’t have installed the springs, that lead to the vibrations, that drove me crazy all month, that forced me to pull apart Biscuit’s entire rear end and redo everything – spring pads, shock mounts, and the transmission undercarriage.

So, a simple 1.5″ lift thoroughly disrupted my entire month. How’d this happen?

I blame the recent emergence of geometry.  You see, 20+ years ago geometry didn’t exist.  Or maybe it did, but somehow, in someway, my 1st jeep was enveloped in a geometrically-free zen-like zone where geometry didn’t apply, because I never had the problems I encountered this month, despite the fact I set up everything else nearly the same.

What am I rattling on about?  I’m talking driveline geometry 101.  Unfortunately, I was busy the day they held that class. So, I set up my driveline in the same manner I did my old one:  My driveline angled straight out from my pumpkin (with the pumpkin angled at the transfercase like the way it should be done when a CV joint is used), with the only angle at the transfercase.  I probably put 10,000 miles on my last jeep without issue.  So, why would I do anything different with the new jeep?

Well, everything worked on Biscuit, until I put the 1.5″ lift.  But, that little change caused the angles to change enough that the driveline was vibrating my socks off at certain speeds, which is a pretty good trick since I normally wear shoes while driving.   So, as I detailed a couple weeks ago, I thought I had solved the issue by using an angle shim to adjust the angle of the pumpkin.  However, after driving it a few times, i realized this wasn’t a fix at all.

So, last week I decided it was time to do it right, to tear off the old spring pads and start from scratch and change the angling of the transfercase output shaft and the input shaft of the pumpkin to make them the same. Here were the steps.

1) Remove rear end and remove old spring pads and shock mounts and then drink beer.
2) Build new spring pads.  More beer.
3) Connect everything back together to test the driveline angle.  Uh oh, I discovered the driveline angle was 30 degrees (ouch), which allowed for almost no flex — not a good thing.  Breathe.  And Breathe some more.
5) After hmmming and hawwing, I decided I needed to drop the transfercase/transmission just over an inch.  So, I removed the undercarriage.  Get energy drinks ….
6) Redo the tranny/tc undercarriage — I had to cutoff the angle piece and weld a new piece onto it. More Beer
7) Reattach the tranny/tc — this resulted in an improved angle, with the tc sloping down 7 degrees.  Skip beer and drink water.
8)Then, I rotated the pumpkin upwards 7 degrees. More water.
9)Next, I pulled everything apart so I could weld the pads. Margarita to celebrate  potential success.
10) Finally, I slipped the rear end underneath and connected everything back together. The result was the driveline now angled 24 degrees. While not ideal, I can live with this for the time being.  More beer …

Today, I finally got Biscuit back on the road.  I have to say, I wasn’t entirely sure that all this work would to solve the problem, but I am HAPPY to report that not only are all vibrations gone, but also the noise I was getting during deceleration has disappeared as well. So, next week I’ll be heading back into the hills.  The heat is finally here in Boise and all the snow should be gone from the trails.

Now, while I blame mom for a torturous month, it motivated me to fix everything correctly.  Thanks Mom!  And apologies to Robert Pirsig for the blatant theft of his book title .. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Here are a few pics (honestly, I was so mad about having to tear all this stuff apart that I didn’t document this too carefully).

Here is a pic of the rear end pulled. I’m about ready to remove the spring pads:

These are the new spring pads made from 3″ x 2.5″ tubing.

Here’s the undercarriage before I cut off the angles.  You can see the replacement angle sitting on top of the carriage.

Here I’ve cut off one side.

Here it is complete. The result is the undercarriage drops everything just over an inch.

And, here it is finally back together :-).  And the body leveled out just where I want it.  Who would have thought a simple lift would cause soooo much trouble!

Well …

June 5th was my birthday.  For my 45th birthday, my mother gave me some cash and said ‘get yourself something special’.  It seemed simple enough.

I decided to get myself the rear lift for Biscuit that I’d delayed ever since I discovered my rear springs weren’t quite as high as I had thought they were (can you say mismeasurement?).

Fortunately, I’d had the fore-sight (yes, it does happen now and then) to use some late 1980s cherokee springs in the rear, because they were inexpensive and widely used.

So, on Saturday June 5th I dropped by the Japolpy Jungle in Nampa, tools in hand, sun in the sky and enthusiasm high, for some shopping!

You see, I’d done some research and it turns out that the folks with Cherokees have been using Chevy S-10 and similar vehicles as low budget lift solutions. Simply using the eye-cutoffed main leaf, builders can achieve a 1″ plus lift.

So, I went in search for a S-10 of some kind.  Low and behold, I quickly found a S-10 truck with no truck bed, which meant NO crawling underneath the vehicle — halelluah, it truly is my birthday

Even better, there was little rust, so the nuts and bolts came apart easily.  Not only that, but I gained some extra karma by loaning some tools to a couple guys who hadn’t quite brought what they needed. I was set … or thought I was ….

After gathering the springs and a few extra hoses, clamps and other items, I left Jalopy Jungle and looked forward to a quick and easy lift.

Of course, it’s never that easy ….

As dumb luck would have it, when I first aligned my rear drive line, I set it up so that my drive line went straight out from my rear pumpkin and only angled from the transfercase.

A simple lift of 2″ with a couple of the leafs from the S-10 Blazer obliterated the dumb luck.  2″ of lift altered the geometry of the rear driveline enough to create vibrations that rattled the vehicle at speeds as low as 30 mph (seriously rattled).  At first, I thought the vibrations were the result of bad u-joints, a bent driveline, a loose transfercase output shaft, and more.  I also tried changing up the spring height, installing different variations of springs 7 times.  Finally, because of the Dana 18 gears I installed in the Dana 20, I was able to rule out everything, but the rear drive shaft, because I was able to cruise down the road at 30 mph using the front drive line.  So, the problem was with the rear driveline … damn!

So, I chose today (Saturday the 12th), a cloudless, beautiful windy day in the 80s when I should be jeeping, to be crawling around the garage finding a solution to the problem.

First, I started from scratch.  I rebuilt the old springs and took Biscuit for a drive; good news, there were no vibrations.  So, it was the lift and the geometry of the rear driveline that was causing the problem.

Next, I lifted the rear using only 2 long leafs from the S-10 with eyes removed.  I also used a custom ‘angle leaf’ to compensate for the 1.5″ leaf.  Finally, I positioned an angular measuring device on the bottom of the pumpkin to insure it didn’t move much.

Well, after 5 hours of work, I can finally announce success!!!!!  No vibrations and I have my 1.5″ lift which leveled out Biscuit’s body.  So, tomorrow I get my delayed birthday drive.

Not only that, but after testing 3 different fuel gauges, I have a fuel gauge that properly measures the level … So happy birthday to me!

Here are some pics of the painful, week-long process.

BEFORE:

Jalopy Jungle:

The Wedge:

Sizing up the wedge:

After the wedge: It’s amazing the difference an inch & a half can make!

One little mod I’ve been meaning to implement was the installation of some drain holes for the driver and passenger side floors.  This allows the interior of the body to easily be sprayed out after a day in the dirt.

I knew I didn’t simply want holes; instead I wanted holes with stoppers.  But, I was concerned the stoppers would wear on the fiberglass. So, the other day I drove down the road and browsed around the local Home Depot store to see what I could find.

One idea I had was to check out the PVC aisle to see if there were any stoppers for PVC Pipe.  After looking around, I discovered some $.15 stoppers that could fit into 2″ PVC I already had.  So, I bought the stoppers and went to work.

First, I drilled 2″ holes with a drill saw.  Then, I cut two pieces (one for each side) PVC to about 4″ (my fiberglass body has two layers of fiberglass with a foam core).  I then used some handy marine glue to stick the PVC in place.  It takes the marine glue about 7 days to cure, but once cure, it’s there for life.  Here are the finished results — nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

Here’s the hole with the stopper in place.  I still need to put some herculiner around the edges to blend everything in better.

This image shows the stopper out and the top of the hole:

This image shows the bottom of the hole:

Just the two following updates tonight.  I’m gonna fix some food and relax tonight!

Today, May 15th, the Boise Foothills gods opened the gate at 8th South, which allows for four wheel drive vehicles to head up into the Boise Hills from 8th Street.

So, with the 82 degree weather, it seemed liked a perfect day to drive the mountain. Besides, my new tire carrier needed testing.

Taking off about 2pm, it took about a half hour from the base of 8th street to get near the summit, where a bypass road allows travel along the mountain ridge both east and west.  Along the way, at one point I heard the passenger front tire collide with portion of the fender that sticks out too far.  It make a very loud crunch and I saw the entire right side of the front clip lift a few inches.  Clearly a design flaw!  I got out to check out things out and my initial assessment was that nothing got damaged.

So, I hopped back into the jeep, drove upwards and, instead of reaching that bypass road,  I chose to take a mini 4×4 trail off to the side to checkout the vista that is right before the bypass.  That’s when things went a bit awry.

At this point, I got out and checked the fender more closely.  You can see in the pic that a crack has appeared across the fender … oops!  Moreover, there was some damage underneath the fender.  No worries though, I can repair it all; it just accelerates the need to fix the ‘header bumpout’ on both fenders.

So, after checking out the fenders, I snapped some pics, got back in the Jeep, and, to my amazement, had a problem getting it started.  The engine that was running perfect up to that point chose that moment to suffer some altitude sickness (it’s about 6000 ft there).   It just stopped starting and running normally.  And, without a clutch to feather, I had to rev the engine, drop it into reverse, and try to spin the jeep around so that I could point it down the tricky hill.

To make a long story short, I restarted the engine many times and feared the battery would die before I could get the engine working long enough to spin it around.  However, I did manage to get the jeep pointed downhill and, thankfully, did not kill the battery; but it was far too close.  So, I need to develop a strategy for managing the carb at those higher levels as there are many places at that altitude left to explore.

Here are some pics from where I stopped.  You can see how the trail disappears in back of it. I had to spin the jeep 180 degrees and get it pointed down the steep incline.

Here’s the crack …

Here’s a shot of the carrier with the jack tied on to the back.  I’ve got a solution for bolting the jack onto the carrier, but I’ll highlight that in an upcoming post.

Here’s me with some seriously ruffled hair enjoying the view.  I have yet to discover the jeep won’t start easily.

Here’s a panorama.

Among those odd-n-end projects I’ve been meaning to complete is the tire carrier.  Since I don’t foresee installing a rear seat in the near future, I decided to build a carrier that would blend in with the roll cage in a way that the tire would be inside the rear area when I install a top (another odd-n-end to-be-done project).

My first decision was to utilize the same strategy for the carrier I used for the rear view mirror:  cut a piece of roll bar tubing in half and use that as a mount to tie into the roll cage. I also wanted the carrier removable in case I wanted to add a rear seat and put the spare tire on the rear bumper.

In this pic I cut a section of tubing in half and then cut one of the halves into two pieces:

After widening them slightly, I have tested all three pieces on the roll bar:

On the longer of the three pieces, I have fashioned two sections of tube that will attach to the piece:

This tire mount was in terrible shape, so I decided to cut off the top piece and work from it:

Here, I have cut the mounting plate and have prepared some rectangular tubing for attachment to the plate.

You can see here that I have welded the tubes onto the half tubing.  I also ground the square tubing pieces and welded those onto the round tubes.  In addition, I welded the carrier plate onto the tubing pieces. Finally, I have added the lower bar and cut the tubes so they will conect to the bar:

Here are some pics of the finished product.  Again, the carrier plate isn’t perfect, but I saw no need to waste it and it works perfectly fine.