To hell with all that other shit to talk about, JEEP!

I know it has been a shit ton of time since I posted anything original on here. All sorts of completely mind blowing and life changing things have happened to me over the last few months... but I don't want to talk about any of that. I have a jeep to tell you about.


That's right, after about eight months of work I have finally put the jeep on the road again. It is running for the first time in what I estimate to be about 40 years.

In the last few weeks I had finally gotten the the whole thing put back together. The engine and all the running gear was in. Everything was hooked up.

Rebuilt engine going in:


Engine as I found it:


Engine after being rebuilt:



You can imagine the anticipation as I was about to hot wire the thing and it was going to turn over for the first time. In my head I am thinking about all the things I might have put together wrong. The things I am pretty sure I did right but don't know for sure. About all the things that I will have to redo if I fucked it up...

With Chestocrates as my able-bodied assistant I connected the starter for the first time!

CONNECTED!



werrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

What the fuck?

"That is not enough noise. The engine isn't even turning."

The guys who had rebuilt the starter had put the wrong direction drive in it. When I connected it, the gear didn't engage the flywheel at all.

Another week.

OK. Now it is all back together. It should turn right over. So, I connect it all up again. This time when I engaged the starter.... it went

CLUNK!.......

That's it... and some sizzling sound from the starter...

Obviously something is still wrong. No problem I try various things and figure out that for some reason the starter is not powerful enough to turn the engine over. I had just rebuilt the engine so maybe things are a little tight. I consult Amateur-Sophist and a few other experts... Most seem to think the starter is still the problem.

I take out the starter again and have the starter shop look at it again. They say the did it right this time... and imply the size of my battery cable is insufficient to get the job done.

I assure them that that is not the problem...

Eventually I end up back at my house stumped. I built the engine totally to specs (I think), I didn't leave a wrench in there... what the fuck is the problem.

The transfer case mid-rebuild:


Finally I have an idea!!!!

Obviously I need more power!!! The easiest way to do that is to up the voltage to the starter. The jeep is a 6 volt system. I decide to take the battery out of the Buick and try that. It is 12 Volts, Don't worry, the internet seems to say it should be OK for the starter. So I took that battery that I got for turning a cold V-8 Buick in Montana and put it in the jeep. We are talking 4 digit cold cranking amps here!

It was like a wild animal loose in the house!

It worked quite well. It worked better than I could have ever expected. Sort of like when you discover the right tool for the job and that tool is a chainsaw... and the job is cutting up phone books!

Assume there was maniacal laughter!

It is running in this picture: (You may just have to trust me on that one.)



Soon after that the engine was running great though with the Buick battery in it. There was some other small quirks to work out... and now that it is a little broken in and lubed up on the inside, it only takes a reasonable 6 Volts to get her started.

As some of you may remember... success will soon follow. "Who thinks I can make it through that puddle?"