Next Thing

So here I am; I've just finished the tire carrier and it's time to take my bi-weekly trip around the neighborhood In the Jeep. I like to do this to; charge the batteries, knock the dust off and boost my moral. I noticed after going around the first corner that the brakes feel... a little spongy. So I turn my Jeep around to go back to the garage for a quick adjust and bleed.

While dialing the brakes in, I flashed-back to last year where I had replaced the: rear drums with 11" brakes, put all new hardware in the front brakes(for now) and replaced all the brake lines and realizing the only real weak link is the master cylinder (it's a single chamber).

After the adjustments I took the Jeep back out, slammed on the brakes a few times and they lock up every time (my neighbors love me). So feeling confident that I'm going to be able to stop if a kid jumps out in front of me, I continued on my weekly trip.

When I was finished and was pulling into the garage I started to list the "PROs and CONs" of changing/upgrading the master cylinder.

Here's what I came up with:

Keep or upgrade the frame mounted Master Cylinder

PROs
No body cutting/fabricating and is the easiest... I think.

CONs
I'll always doubt em' unless I go with Herm's Solution, but I'd still have to hear the sound of the pedals scraping the side of the floor board hole when I hit the brakes

Upgrade to Firewall mounted Manual or power brake Master Cylinder

PROs
Peace of mind when I take this thing down Lions Back.

CONs
There goes my stock heater/ stock location.

So at this point I'm thinking... "what are the parts going to cost me?" If I go with Herm's solution it's 150 bucks(new) and lose my body lift to make it work.

I looked to see if anyone else sold a Early CJ5 hanging pedal conversion kit... nope.

So I started researching on to the forums... yep tons of people have done it, but everyone has a different solution. Some use brakes off later CJs, some use YJ parts and others scavenge from TJs.

Really for me the decider will be what I'll find the parts on ebay, or at a junkyard for. Curiously I pop my phone out and launch the ebay application, I put in "jeep pedals" and get about 240 search results. To my surprise I find a 03' TJ brake/ clutch pedal set that has two days left, it has no bids and the starting price is .01(+15 bucks shipping). I hit the "bid now" button and hope for the best. A couple of days later I am notified that I have won and so here we are on to the next misadventure in Jeep fabrication. Awesome!

So much for posting a week later...

Well I guess the blog got put on the side burner for a bit. Hmmm... So where did I leave off, that's right I had finished the tire carrier structure and was running into some new issues.

First issue, poor tail light placement.

Awhile back I bought some newer style tail lights so I would have a backup light and just installed them where the old stock lights went. So I primed and installed the tire carrier then I put the lights in and... yep they would hit when opened. So I opted to go with LED type tail lights, I really couldn't get into an Early CJ with square tail lights.

Second issue, poor placement of the Gas Filler.

When I installed my rear gas tank, I just placed the filler out the back over the tail lights... Now this would have still worked, but it looked funky. So I visited Ebay, purchased a new filler (my old one was chrome plated plastic)and moved the filler over to the passenger side of the Jeep. After all that I took it all apart cleaned up the body work and primed it. It was a ton of work but I'm happy with the end product.