Mike's 82 Chief

[Mrpatatomoto]

Finally got it home after owning it for a year. Tine to start a real build thread.

The day I bought it.


Today after a long needed bath.


Hard to believe thats the same color.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whats been done already;
*Chased most of the electrical gremlins, Still need to find out why the running lights don't shut off
*Blinker switch replaced
*New clutch and trans (Kind of) gone through
*New torque arm bushing

Immediate plans;
*New tires
*Figure out running lights
*Patch rust holes in roof from Shoddy P/O roof rack holes
*Bleed Brakes
*radio
*Fix auto anti theft device. Doors lock themselves when I shut the doors...

Eventual plans;
*Pig nose Grill (anyone want to trade for a muscle?)
*Passenger side rear side marker lense
*Stock mirrors put back on
*FSSR with 4" Soft ride springs - 1 leaf front and 4" soft ride springs with 0 rate 1" block rear should net about 5" of lift and be fairly level. (new front driveshaft)
*Serehill's rear window wiring and headlight harness (running wires straight to battery right now)
*HID's and light bar
*401 with ax15 5 speed trans and either stay with the np208 or get a d300, will probably settle for a 360 but want to stay 5 speed.
*14 bolt rear dana 60 front trussed
*Chase truck type roof rack

[Atla]

Oooohhh!

That look's pretty clean, any rust issues?

[Mrpatatomoto]

There is a rust spot in the cowl on both sides at the corner of the windshield and a few spots on the roof from a P/O doing a horrible job with a roof rack I assume. But no rust on the under side.

Just realized I took both pictures from almost the same angle.

Cowl spots



Roof holes


For some reason the exhaust is rusted here only



Ripped out the headliner card board, fabric as long gone and die to the holes in the roof it was very saggy, looks fairly good in the picture, but its not.
Before

After


any reason to keep the ratty old boards?

[TitaniaDieKrieger]

Weird that the rust bad in those spots but nowhere else.

[SJTD]

The boards are good for templates if you're going to make new ones.

You're going to remove the windshield? Prolly find more rust.

[ferox]

I would love to trade you a pig nose for your muscle grill. I have an extra in storage. The only problem is that I am in Portland, Oregon. Grills are expensive to ship due to their size, but maybe we could work something out. I might take a trip to San Diego later this year.

[Mrpatatomoto]

The boards are good for templates if you're going to make new ones.

You're going to remove the windshield? Prolly find more rust.

For now im just going to grind out the visible rust and plug the hole, may do a real patch at some point but not yet.

I would love to trade you a pig nose for your muscle grill. I have an extra in storage. The only problem is that I am in Portland, Oregon. Grills are expensive to ship due to their size, but maybe we could work something out. I might take a trip to San Diego later this year.

If you'll be heading this way that would be great. ill PM you.

[Mrpatatomoto]

Okay. So after looking for a wiring issue and not finding anything its time to ask.

The blinker lights in the back stay constant on all the time. If I pull the fuse to the brake lights the light goes off and the blinker works any ideas?

[Mrpatatomoto]

Little more screwing around and just running out of ideas. Blinker lights stay on in the back. blinkers and hazards flash just fine in the front. If I pull CLK.HAZ.STOP fuse the lights go out. I can pull both T/S and Haz flasher units and the light stays on I can unplug the break switch and the light stays on. There are no visible splices in the wiring where someone might have screwed up. It did have trailer brakes that I took out and put the wires back to how they should be (pink wire out of brake switch had a wire spliced in that went to the controller. I removed the splice and butt connected the pink wire back to its self) I have put in a new headlight switch and blinker switch inside column.

What does CLK stand for? I assumed clock then noticed there is a separate fuse location for the clock.

[jaber]

Does this look like yours?

http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/84-86_FuseBlock.jpg

http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/GW_wiring.html

The second link takes you to the wire schematics. Might start by finding and checking all of the grounds. That seems to cause a lot of odd gremlins. Might also check the actual brake light switch on the peddle to make sure its still in adjustment. Everything plastic out here is fragile and breaks when you look at it funny.

[Mrpatatomoto]

I have taken off all the grounds I can find and cleaned up the area. so it shouldnt be a grounding issue.

yes that is the right fuse block. Weird that the clock has two fuses...

*Update* Figured out it is in the blinker switch now I need to source another one of those. I replaced the top side of the switch already but it might be the wrong part or idk.

[Mrpatatomoto]

Ordered a new full switch from flea-bay should be here thursday, on to minor things till then. Got the rear window working by the switch kinda annoyed all it was, was a fuse, I replaced the one for the rear switch (non existent) and assumed that the front switch was the same fuse since there was nothing in the front switch front fuse hole. *you know what they say about assuming* So that works now, just need to find out what its hanging on, about a fifth of the way down it stops and I have to get out and wiggle it then it goes down again.

Pulled out the ugly carpeted panels on the doors to find a horrible hack job someone did to fit 6x9's


So im going to get some diamond plate and replace all the side panels with that, shouldnt be too hard, just need to figure out how to nullify the rattling they make.

Sanded and primed the headliner bars because the rear one had a lot of surface rust and just decided to do both so they match.
Forgot to take a before but heres a comparison


Both sanded


Primed


Last but not least I took the cluster out, cleaned and re glued the "glass" back on since 2 had fallen. Used Clear silicone if that doesnt hold I will just pull the lenses out and run without them. I plan to build my own cluster later when I do a motor swap anyways.
Before


After


Still not great but definitely better. Could probably use some paint but then it wouldnt conform with the rest of the vehicle.

[Jjkage84]

Dude! That cluster looks awesome!

[Atla]

There are some vendors here and at IFSJA that sell ABS panels and Diamond plating to replace trashed door panels, might be worth looking into.

[243]

Nice Cherokee!

I have always liked the muscle grill on the later model Cherokee's and especially the pickups, preferring the razor grill on the narrow track Cherokees.

The turns signals can be a pain to sort out, grounds really are important and an easy way to check is to connect a temporary 10-12 gauge wire to the battery long enough to reach the back and touch it to the ground point.

I was so aggravated with the issue on my CJ I ran a 6ga cable from a ground buss above the battery to the back of the Jeep terminated with a brass bolt through the body. That picked up the tail light, fuel sender and future trailer light grounds.

[Mrpatatomoto]

There are some vendors here and at IFSJA that sell ABS panels and Diamond plating to replace trashed door panels, might be worth looking into.

I know. But I'm out of the job right now so Im trying to keep costs down. I'm gonna price check the diamond plate then decide if I'm gonna just buy the pre made ones from here.

Nice Cherokee!

I have always liked the muscle grill on the later model Cherokee's and especially the pickups, preferring the razor grill on the narrow track Cherokees.

The turns signals can be a pain to sort out, grounds really are important and an easy way to check is to connect a temporary 10-12 gauge wire to the battery long enough to reach the back and touch it to the ground point.

I was so aggravated with the issue on my CJ I ran a 6ga cable from a ground buss above the battery to the back of the Jeep terminated with a brass bolt through the body. That picked up the tail light, fuel sender and future trailer light grounds.

I figured out that with the turn signal off I still have power coming out both turn signals so I am replacing the switch in the column to see if that fixes it. I sanded down the ground in the back so its definitely getting ground.

I grew up in a pig nose wagoneer so that's why I like the pignose so much.

[Mrpatatomoto]

Got the angle grinder out today and ground all the rust spots on the roof, once the primer dries ill make some temporary plates that ill silicone on to keep the elements out until I can afford to get the spots cut out and patched correctly. A couple holes were much bigger than expected. Next might be the cowl but I dont know if I want to get into that project yet.

[Mrpatatomoto]

Does anyone know why my rear window only goes down 3 inches then needs shoved down an inch and then goes the rest of the way by the switch? its got a new window bar and pick a part window.

[Mrpatatomoto]

Got the door lock springs put in finally, more of a PITA than I expected but they work now, had to take the drivers side out and spray it with some degreaser because it was too hard to turn the key and I really dont want to bust the key. Its nice to only have the doors lock when you want them to instead of every time you close the door...

[Mrpatatomoto]

Got some more work done today, Started by fixing the hood catches so that they open at the same time. Before I had to pull the lever, lift the hood a tiny bit and pull the lever again then open the hood all the way. Now I only have to pull the lever once.

While I was working on that I was staring at rust on the nose of the hood and just couldnt look at it anymore so I got the grinder out and ground off the rust on the hood, cowl's and face plate since I had the grill off for access. Primer grey looks much better than rust IMO
The Drivers side Cowl looks much better than I expected.