Grampa's Cj2a

As some suggested, I should have put another leg on the thing as close to the crossover tube as I could. After banging around for a week on the rocks of Moab it got bent up into the clutch pedal a little. It made it a little difficult to get the clutch fully depressed because the bolt on the pedal arm would bind against the plate.

So I decided better late than never and after bending it back away from the tube came up with the idea to make a leg out of a couple of pieces of angle iron.

I got it tacked in while still on the Jeep then pulled it off for the heavy welding. My welding is still not great, but it is getting better. I got a hood with a big window and put a cheater lens in it. 

Got some pretty good penetration.

Here’s the finished product.

close up.

Today I decided to finally take some corrective action on them. So when I put the wrench o. Them, four of them were soft. So four of the six bolts were stripped. One of the previous two I had helicoiled earlier, so really only one of the original threads are still good.

I got my helicoil kit out and got some more inserts.

The tap went in ok so that I didn’t have to use a drill.

Got them al, tapped out and the inserts in. I used a little threadlock blue on the bolts so hopefully they won’t back out any more. 

I think this issue might go back to several different occasions when I used my impact gun to tighten these bolts up after disassembly for varprious reasons. I’m thinking I pulled the threads somewhat and the pounding I put on the thing finally did them in.

I always have to learn lessons the hard way, but I didn’t use the impact gun this time.

I’ve been pondering whether it would be better to beef up my tie rod strength to maybe have less damage to the tubes but risk moving the weak point to the tie rod end, or even the knuckle or some other more difficult to repair/replace part, or to keep the stock arrangement. For now I’ve decided to stay with the stock tie rods with them as kind of a shear pin for the front steering and then to carry spare tie rods in my Jeep on the trail. Much easier to swap out a tie rod on the trail than a knuckle or a bell crank.

All that having been said, for now I’m keeping the tie rod that Jeff (Jpet) welded back together for me on the trail with his battery powered stick welding kit, because it’s just too cool to replace and I think it’s probably stronger than stock anyway. 

Here’s the before shot of it in case you weren’t following the Black Hills Run thread.

Here’s the bent driver’s side that I just replaced.

Hopefully Jeff will jump in with more detail, but it mostly seems to be enough cables to connect two 12 volt batteries together to make 24 volts, then the right welding rod. Jeff has experimented with different rods and found the one he likes the best.