realvc
Well-known member
I thought the welcome aboard was another hint.
Above 1200 Sq/FT The Warthog Hidey Hole
- Thread starter jbmatth
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
Thanks Outlaw, I'm working on it I guess, most of these "skills" were learned years ago working on my neighbors cattle farm.
I would love to have a Cuda, Charger, or Challenger from the hay day, but they are all out of the question. Those are the only MOPAR's I've every really considered owning.
I've wanted one for years, but wife can't swim and doesn't really want to learn in the middle of a lake.
I've never heard of anyone refer to a boat as an investment lol.
My guess is its farm related. Apparently gas-powered, but it could be a farm truck with a balebed.
Or....another Festiva so he can build a fleet of gamblers for the family.
Good guess, but nothing farm related. I would love to have a Festiva with that engine in it, but sadly not the case.
I know if I had a boat I'd end up on a "Three hour tour."
JB
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
I know, I know, I know.
Back to it after having a few days off of work, this will be brief but I have the new addition officially in my position now. As Herb mentioned the spark plugs are at a funny angle and there were not many manufacturers of a 360, I know of the Dodge/Mopar, as well as...AMC:
Well War Wagon got a bit of a sneak peak...
Here it is as I drove it home:
A shot of the interior as well:
It was in sad shape so I spent a bit of time power washing it and the Lil' Blue Truck, it was also great weather so I took the cobra for a spin:
Now cleaned up shots of the new Jeep:
And a sunset shot as well:
The Jeep is a '79 CJ7, 360 V8 AMC with some extra goodies on it, 4 speed manual trans, 35" Mickey Thompson tires, etc. It is a fun little driver and will be a blast to play with while a fix a few nagging issues then sell it. Long story but it was a great deal that I couldn't pass up but as with many other vehicles I don't have a need for it.
I have more to go over but am out of time, have a good one ya'll.
JB
Well War Wagon got a bit of a sneak peak...
Here it is as I drove it home:
A shot of the interior as well:
It was in sad shape so I spent a bit of time power washing it and the Lil' Blue Truck, it was also great weather so I took the cobra for a spin:
Now cleaned up shots of the new Jeep:
And a sunset shot as well:
The Jeep is a '79 CJ7, 360 V8 AMC with some extra goodies on it, 4 speed manual trans, 35" Mickey Thompson tires, etc. It is a fun little driver and will be a blast to play with while a fix a few nagging issues then sell it. Long story but it was a great deal that I couldn't pass up but as with many other vehicles I don't have a need for it.
I have more to go over but am out of time, have a good one ya'll.
JB
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Grizz1963
Well-known member
You are such a tease.
Love that ‘79
Love that ‘79
XJSuperman
Well-known member
OMG, you actually called a Jeep an "investment" , funniest thing Ive heard all week...but, its only Monday.
Looks like a good one though. Nice tires/wheels, bumpers, tuffy center console, and the body looks pretty clean. How's the frame in the back? You say its got a 360, so I wonder what it had originally. Do all the gauges work?
, funniest thing Ive heard all week...but, its only Monday.Looks like a good one though. Nice tires/wheels, bumpers, tuffy center console, and the body looks pretty clean. How's the frame in the back? You say its got a 360, so I wonder what it had originally. Do all the gauges work?
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Well ya got me on that one...glad you bought it right to flip!
You may have a Jeep obsession...just saying!
You may have a Jeep obsession...just saying!
I've been told, with practice I'm sure I can do better.
OMG, you actually called a Jeep an "investment"
Looks like a good one though. Nice tires/wheels, bumpers, tuffy center console, and the body looks pretty clean. How's the frame in the back? You say its got a 360, so I wonder what it had originally. Do all the gauges work?
I see what you mean there XJ, and glad I could make you laugh on a Monday. It should be easy to make a profit on it, I am into it for WAY less than current value.
Everything underneath looks great from the rolling around I did under it, it has an oversized gas tank as well back there. I'll check codes when I get a few spare minutes but suspect it was the 304 AMC V8. All of the gauges move, and give a bit of an idea of what is going on, now how accurate they are, I don't know.
When we first opened the hood I saw the exhaust and thought small block Chevy, then the distributor made me re-think that and I went to Mopar but the distributor was still wrong, that is when I realized it was an AMC. Kinda slow but I've never worked on a V8 Mopar or AMC so haven't paid any attention to them.
I personally would rather have a K5 or even a Bronco but can't argue this find. Now to just keep from breaking it for a few months.
JB
It has taken me a bit to get back in the swing of things after returning from the Kansas Gambler 500 this past weekend. It was another great time where I got to see some people I'd met before and meet a bunch of cool people for the first time. One of the things I like the most about it is people building things that are very out there and you'd never expect to see and done for dirt cheap. One example is this Datsun 280z body on an Audi TT AWD chassis:
He and a couple friends built this car in a week and because his family owns a salvage yard he only has scrap price ******* in it. Fully functioning Audi drivetrain, HVAC, cruise etc. The only problem it had was a power steering pulley that decided to try to come off but he brought a spare pump and pulley knowing it had issues.
His brother built this first gen Supra with a 90's Mustang 5.0 fuel injected engine:
He had all of the factory wiring from the Mustang including the gauge cluster bungie strapped to the fender.
Another oddity was this Lincoln with a '79 Trans Am front end and a Dodge Magnum hatch grafted on all sitting on a 1/2 ton truck frame:
This is the entire group from the Sunday portion of the rally:
The little Chitbox made the entire trip with no issues whatsoever, well other than it struggled to go down the highway at 55. I decided to venture out a bit and drive through some water:
That was with the street tires on it, the last stop on day two was in a bit deeper water so I installed the 4 wheeler tires and gave it a go, just after where this photo is taken it dropped off about 9 inches and I had water to he headlights:
All in all I drove right at 300 miles in it and after day one I averaged just shy of 30 mpg.
Now that I'm home it is time to start working on some other little projects. The first thing was the Lil' Blue Truck decided to get the same exhaust leak back, replaced the gasket and the missing nuts:
These bolts were all double nutted and still backed off. If I pull the body again I'm going to replace them with either long tube headers that are easier to access or I'll put V band clamps in this area. I now have the new Jeep in the shop to work on the cooling system to help it get the temps down some. I thought the coolant was like pond water but when drained it was perfectly clean and green.
I'll put in a new thermostat before I refill it and flush the system, also make sure the air is all bled out.
JB
He and a couple friends built this car in a week and because his family owns a salvage yard he only has scrap price ******* in it. Fully functioning Audi drivetrain, HVAC, cruise etc. The only problem it had was a power steering pulley that decided to try to come off but he brought a spare pump and pulley knowing it had issues.
His brother built this first gen Supra with a 90's Mustang 5.0 fuel injected engine:
He had all of the factory wiring from the Mustang including the gauge cluster bungie strapped to the fender.
Another oddity was this Lincoln with a '79 Trans Am front end and a Dodge Magnum hatch grafted on all sitting on a 1/2 ton truck frame:
This is the entire group from the Sunday portion of the rally:
The little Chitbox made the entire trip with no issues whatsoever, well other than it struggled to go down the highway at 55. I decided to venture out a bit and drive through some water:
That was with the street tires on it, the last stop on day two was in a bit deeper water so I installed the 4 wheeler tires and gave it a go, just after where this photo is taken it dropped off about 9 inches and I had water to he headlights:
All in all I drove right at 300 miles in it and after day one I averaged just shy of 30 mpg.
Now that I'm home it is time to start working on some other little projects. The first thing was the Lil' Blue Truck decided to get the same exhaust leak back, replaced the gasket and the missing nuts:
These bolts were all double nutted and still backed off. If I pull the body again I'm going to replace them with either long tube headers that are easier to access or I'll put V band clamps in this area. I now have the new Jeep in the shop to work on the cooling system to help it get the temps down some. I thought the coolant was like pond water but when drained it was perfectly clean and green.
I'll put in a new thermostat before I refill it and flush the system, also make sure the air is all bled out.JB
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Grizz1963
Well-known member
Loving this whole Gambler thing.
Keep checking in
Keep checking in
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Looks like a good weekend JB! My Z28 rattles the nuts loose also, I ended up using metal lock nuts.
The Gambler 500 is a really fun event, some parts can get a little crazy especially in camp late at night, but it does a lot of good as well. I ended up with two bags of trash I picked up along the way and many others had as much if not more.
I ran out of metal lock nuts on the other side so I double nutted the drivers side, I'll have to order a few for the future, thanks for the reminder.
*EDIT* And now I have 50 on the way for $9
JB
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
My tractor has two steering bolts that kept backing out. Nothing on earth would stop them. I tried ever king of thread locker, lock nut, nordlocks, and almost welded them in. I finally took stainless steel and drilled out the bolt holes, then put it between the bolt heads and the axle and folded it over the bolts. SO far it has worked for 6 months or so.
All,
I believe I have the overheating issue figured out in the Jeep. Turns out the muddy water I remembered seeing was just in the overflow tank not the radiator itself. I drained it and the coolant looked great, changed the thermostat, refilled with 2 gallons of distilled water, then started it to run on high idle. After a few minutes it was up to operating temp and just stayed steady at 180°F (82°C).
One tip for ya'll that I've been doing recently and had great results doing, when installing a new thermostat one of the toughest parts is purging all of the air out of the system. What I do is drill a 1/8" (3mm) hole in the flat part like this:
When you fill the radiator with coolant all of the air in the engine will go through the hole then back into the radiator, works like a charm as long as the radiator fill cap is the high point of the system.
So I drained the mostly water mixed with a bit of coolant out of the radiator last night and will fill it with coolant today and verify the balance is correct before removing the overflow and cleaning it out a bit.
JB
I believe I have the overheating issue figured out in the Jeep. Turns out the muddy water I remembered seeing was just in the overflow tank not the radiator itself. I drained it and the coolant looked great, changed the thermostat, refilled with 2 gallons of distilled water, then started it to run on high idle. After a few minutes it was up to operating temp and just stayed steady at 180°F (82°C).
One tip for ya'll that I've been doing recently and had great results doing, when installing a new thermostat one of the toughest parts is purging all of the air out of the system. What I do is drill a 1/8" (3mm) hole in the flat part like this:
When you fill the radiator with coolant all of the air in the engine will go through the hole then back into the radiator, works like a charm as long as the radiator fill cap is the high point of the system.
So I drained the mostly water mixed with a bit of coolant out of the radiator last night and will fill it with coolant today and verify the balance is correct before removing the overflow and cleaning it out a bit.
JB
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Back at if after being in my youngest brothers wedding over the weekend. I tell you all of this running around on the weekends is really killing my shop time.
Well on my way through a small town near home I decided it was time to stop by H.F. and use a coupon. I picked up a little bigger engine for the mini-bike, this should do:
Another view:
It is a Predator 212 that is rated at 6.5 hp. I'm going to leave it stock for the time being and see how it performs then either remove the governor altogether or at least add some spring tension to it. Do a few speed and acceleration runs with each and decide my path forward after that. It fits okay as is though, just a little cutting on the foot peg supports then I'll need to add some support back in:
Before I can mount the engine I need to get the new clutch in and longer chain, should be here tomorrow. Hopefully by Wednesday night I'll be driving it.
Just playing around to see what it'll do and may eventually add some speed parts and a torque converter to really wake it up.
JB
Well on my way through a small town near home I decided it was time to stop by H.F. and use a coupon. I picked up a little bigger engine for the mini-bike, this should do:
Another view:
It is a Predator 212 that is rated at 6.5 hp. I'm going to leave it stock for the time being and see how it performs then either remove the governor altogether or at least add some spring tension to it. Do a few speed and acceleration runs with each and decide my path forward after that. It fits okay as is though, just a little cutting on the foot peg supports then I'll need to add some support back in:
Before I can mount the engine I need to get the new clutch in and longer chain, should be here tomorrow. Hopefully by Wednesday night I'll be driving it.
Just playing around to see what it'll do and may eventually add some speed parts and a torque converter to really wake it up.
JB
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OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
JB, I put that same engine on a go-kart my oldest boy had. It was a belt drive torque converter setup. With my 200lbs in it, it would move that little kart pretty impressively! It tragically died in the lean-to fire we had, haha.
Grizz1963
Well-known member
Bigger motor
Bigger fun.
Bigger fun.
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
Bigger is always better.
Grizz1963
Well-known member
YUP....!!!!
Too much power is just enough
Looking forward to evolution.
Too much power is just enough
Looking forward to evolution.
Well made good progress last night on the mini bike, I installed another spring I picked up for throttle return then re-installed the gas tank and intake filter. I was going to call it a night because the clutch and chain hadn't arrived but was still showing as out for delivery.
I opened the shop door at 6:30 when I see the UPS truck pulling in to deliver. Woo Hoo, installed it, cut down the chain and ready to go. Put in oil until it was mid way up the dip stick, filled with gas and attempted to start it. However, I wasn't getting spark.
I messed with the kill switch and oil level kill switch and then ran out of time. I'm now wondering if because it was on the kick stand if the oil was away from the level sensor and not letting it read therefore not allowing spark. No time to check this morning as it was a gym day. I'll give it a go after work and hopefully get to go for a test drive.
JB
I opened the shop door at 6:30 when I see the UPS truck pulling in to deliver. Woo Hoo, installed it, cut down the chain and ready to go. Put in oil until it was mid way up the dip stick, filled with gas and attempted to start it. However, I wasn't getting spark.
I messed with the kill switch and oil level kill switch and then ran out of time. I'm now wondering if because it was on the kick stand if the oil was away from the level sensor and not letting it read therefore not allowing spark. No time to check this morning as it was a gym day. I'll give it a go after work and hopefully get to go for a test drive.
JB
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
JB, I had to wire around the oil level kill switch to run the engine on the go-kart.
oldironfarmer
Well-known member
Oil kill switches are over rated
I planned to do that as well once I knew I could get it to run, I have a kill switch on the handlebar that would be in a better location anyway. I do need to remember to verify oil level when the engine is at least level.
Oil kill switches are over rated
The engine is a built in kill switch for oil level, if it isn't adequate the engine will stop, easy as pi.
JB
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Funny story about oil level switches.
Several years ago I had a client that I maintained all of their lawn care and curbing equipment. He brought me their cement mixer that was part of their curbing trailer, the mixer was mounted on the rear end of their flatbed trailer. He informed me that the mixer wouldn't run during a job they were doing. Before having him back it through the narrow access to my shop in the back yard I figured I'd walk out to the street and see if I saw anything that jumped out at me. I was able to fire it right up and it ran great. I saw nothing wrong with it. The owner was frustrated so he drove off and scheduled the work for the next day.
The next afternoon rolls around and when I arrive home from work I see the flatbed trailer was dropped in front of my house. Now I was frustrated because I had told clients to not drop things off without contacting me first as I worked by appt. only. I called him to get the story and evidently it failed to start again on the same job but they had completed an earlier job that day and it ran fine. Again, I fired it up and found nothing wrong. I left it running for about an hour and started it multiple times, each time firing right up. Called the client and informed him to come and get it as nothing is wrong.
The next day he called me while I was at work furious with me because he was at the same job and it was not starting. He said he got it to fire twice and it immediately shut down. I explained that when he brought it to me it was running fine and he started yelling at me because he was up in the avenues in Salt Lake City and it was quite a drive from his shop and getting up and down those steep narrow streets with his truck and trailer was a pain in the ****.
THEN it hit me..... I asked if he was on in incline and he said "yes, quite a steep road." I asked him to go around the block and come in from the other direction and park and see if that works as it could be the oil level switch giving him fits. He called me a couple of hours later on their way home from the job to tell me the mixer ran great. Never did get any kind of apology for his somewhat rude phone calls but oh well, water under the bridge.
Several years ago I had a client that I maintained all of their lawn care and curbing equipment. He brought me their cement mixer that was part of their curbing trailer, the mixer was mounted on the rear end of their flatbed trailer. He informed me that the mixer wouldn't run during a job they were doing. Before having him back it through the narrow access to my shop in the back yard I figured I'd walk out to the street and see if I saw anything that jumped out at me. I was able to fire it right up and it ran great. I saw nothing wrong with it. The owner was frustrated so he drove off and scheduled the work for the next day.
The next afternoon rolls around and when I arrive home from work I see the flatbed trailer was dropped in front of my house. Now I was frustrated because I had told clients to not drop things off without contacting me first as I worked by appt. only. I called him to get the story and evidently it failed to start again on the same job but they had completed an earlier job that day and it ran fine. Again, I fired it up and found nothing wrong. I left it running for about an hour and started it multiple times, each time firing right up. Called the client and informed him to come and get it as nothing is wrong.
The next day he called me while I was at work furious with me because he was at the same job and it was not starting. He said he got it to fire twice and it immediately shut down. I explained that when he brought it to me it was running fine and he started yelling at me because he was up in the avenues in Salt Lake City and it was quite a drive from his shop and getting up and down those steep narrow streets with his truck and trailer was a pain in the ****.
THEN it hit me..... I asked if he was on in incline and he said "yes, quite a steep road." I asked him to go around the block and come in from the other direction and park and see if that works as it could be the oil level switch giving him fits. He called me a couple of hours later on their way home from the job to tell me the mixer ran great. Never did get any kind of apology for his somewhat rude phone calls but oh well, water under the bridge.
That is a great story Mike and really hits home on why some of the troubleshooting working on stuff is so important and frustrating. In his eyes there was no difference and all should be fine, but in reality there has to be something causing it to not run in that specific situation.
For my case, I tried a few troubleshooting things and at least got it narrowed down to no spark before having to call it a night. Now I'm certain that is what is causing me issues but I'm at work and can't just go test it at lunch. Now if that isn't the issue I'll have to do more digging and will report back. For such a silly little toy I'm really excited to get to play with it some more with double the power.
JB
For my case, I tried a few troubleshooting things and at least got it narrowed down to no spark before having to call it a night. Now I'm certain that is what is causing me issues but I'm at work and can't just go test it at lunch. Now if that isn't the issue I'll have to do more digging and will report back. For such a silly little toy I'm really excited to get to play with it some more with double the power.
JB
I've been lurking here for years enjoying the updates. I guess this is my chance to say hi.
Go ahead and bypass the oil sensor. I put a HF engine in a go-cart 10 years ago. Great engine at a great price, but the vibration and bouncing tripped the oil sensor constantly. It was bypassed within 10 minutes of initial install.
The Comet variable speed clutches are pretty cool if you go that route.
Go ahead and bypass the oil sensor. I put a HF engine in a go-cart 10 years ago. Great engine at a great price, but the vibration and bouncing tripped the oil sensor constantly. It was bypassed within 10 minutes of initial install.
The Comet variable speed clutches are pretty cool if you go that route.
Cleanspg,
Thank you for commenting, if you've been here that long you've seen the variety of projects that get worked on in my little shop. I try to stay busy if at all possible. Welcome aboard.
I'll do that first thing when I get home today, I really want to go play for a few minutes on it before I break something either bike related or on me. A helmet will be involved. I've considered the Comet and others of similar design, I just worry with the size of the bike and the even lower starting gear it'll just want to wheelie all the time, I suppose nothing re-gearing could help. I also worry about the size and if it would even fit. I suppose I could always keep it for a go cart build in the future as well.
JB
Well that was an easy fix, all I had to do was unplug the oil level sensor. I discovered the way it works is by grounding out the ignition when the sensor senses no or low oil. I also wired in the kill switch on the handle bar to this same set of plugs and bam I have two kill switches. Well after that it was 3 pulls and this thing came to life and settled into a nice idle.
First ride was an experience, where before it would bog and struggle to pick up speed especially in grass, now.
It'll pull the front wheel off of the ground in gravel or grass so I have to remember to lean forward when getting on it hard. The new top speed is 32 mph (51 kph) vs 24 mph (38 kph) before. There is no front break so I parked the front tire against the welding table and did a little burnout before getting some wheel hop:
Oh it was so fun but it bit me once on a hard start and I went over backwards. I don't think I'll be getting a torque converter for it and may even get a smaller rear sprocket to slow acceleration down but raise top speed. Also I ordered a new intake, exhaust, carb jet kit, and stiffer valve springs to raise the RPM limit a touch. I'm thrilled with it and will enjoy some miles this weekend.
JB
First ride was an experience, where before it would bog and struggle to pick up speed especially in grass, now.
It'll pull the front wheel off of the ground in gravel or grass so I have to remember to lean forward when getting on it hard. The new top speed is 32 mph (51 kph) vs 24 mph (38 kph) before. There is no front break so I parked the front tire against the welding table and did a little burnout before getting some wheel hop:
Oh it was so fun but it bit me once on a hard start and I went over backwards. I don't think I'll be getting a torque converter for it and may even get a smaller rear sprocket to slow acceleration down but raise top speed. Also I ordered a new intake, exhaust, carb jet kit, and stiffer valve springs to raise the RPM limit a touch. I'm thrilled with it and will enjoy some miles this weekend.
JB
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OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Glad it worked out, JB.
Sounds like a lot of fun for a mini bike! Do we start the fund for the emergency room visit now? How does that work?
Now you need to get a video of doing a wheelie going by the shop!
Sounds like a lot of fun for a mini bike! Do we start the fund for the emergency room visit now? How does that work?
Now you need to get a video of doing a wheelie going by the shop!
Finallygotit
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Hahahaha.....
That put a smile on my face. Have fun JB!
That put a smile on my face. Have fun JB!
I don't want to take money from ya'll, but I have heard a lot of good things about gofundme and something called onlyfans, but not sure how those work.
I can try, I have a couple of videos but to be honest it is too time consuming to upload them to youtube so I'll just pull a still photo from the video.
Hahahaha.....
That put a smile on my face. Have fun JB!
It was and is a great time, just part of hot rodding I guess, putting way too much power in something that doesn't deserve it. I do wear a helmet though, but probably need to get some more gear.
JB
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
Ain't nobuddy wanna see that.
don long
Well-known member
Stopped in to wish you a happy thanksgiving
Don
Don
rixtrix1
Well-known member
Happy Thanksgiving, JB!
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
Happy Thanksgiving.