Clutch Leaking

Discovered a slow leak from the bottom of the clutch bellhousing.  It seems to be coming from a weep hole, but that might be because this is just the lowest point on the bellhousing.  Or maybe it's not a weep hole and a plug is missing?  Not so clear from the diagrams I have access to...

Back On Her Feet

The suspension rebuild has been complete for about two weeks.  After driving around the neighborhood a few times, seems OK.  Here she is:

The new front shocks are at full extension when there is no weight in the vehicle, presumably because of the extra lift from the tow shackles.

She still leans to the right, but after many measurements of the frame it's straight as far as I can tell.  I've heard the spacers between the body and the frame on early CJ5s were wood (!) so it could be that the spacers are rotted out on one side and not the other.

Leaf Spring Mounting Plate Mods

So, as reported earlier, I bought new leaf spring mount plates.  Surprise! Now the U-bolt washers don't fit in several places.  I briefly considered hunting for smaller diameter washers, but it turns out that a socket wrench doesn't fit either -- that's a non-starter. (How could the manufacturer have decided that that was OK?)  So, I ground out room where I needed it.  Here's what the front mounting plates look like after grinding but before (re)painting.

Front Tow Shackles

Here's a picture of the driver's side front tow shackle installed:

The new shackles are incredibly beefy.  They're a direct replacement for the stock shackles, and allow easy installation of D-rings or flat towing hardware (through the middle/forward hole).  Unfortunately, they also add about 1" of lift.  Problems this creates: (1) I'll be 1" over stock in the front but 0" in the rear, and (2) There's now a huge gap to cover in order to mate the leaf spring to the axle, and the passenger-side side brake line (installed by the PO) is too short [correction 2/19: Turns out it's just barely long enough].  I think solution to (1) may be just to put these on the back as well (so 1" all around).  I think the solution to (2) will be just to combine axle reinstallation with brake bleeding, and then replace both lines with longer lines.

More Suspension-Related Horror

Here's a picture of what I discovered when I tapped out the front hanger shackle bushing shell on the driver's side:

Was hard to see previously because the inner shell was not rusted and had become the same shade of road-grime as the leaf spring hanger.  The whole hanger needs to be replaced, which will involve cutting it off from the frame and welding a new one back.  Not interested in buying a welder this month, so I'm going to hope that vertical sections of the hanger are sufficiently strong for rolling in and out of the garage, and I'll come back to this later (but before leaving the driveway...).

More Shocking Shock Revelations

Here's a picture of the bottom end of the front passenger side shock absorber.  The improvised "bushing" (and only thing holding the shock in place) was a section of garden hose that had been crammed in between the eye and the shock mount post.  Even my dog thinks that's messed up:

Some time in the past, something bad happened to this vehicle on the right hand side.  Both lower shock mounts destroyed, weird wear patterns on the mounts, and you can see in the above picture that the shock itself is dented.  

Front End Tear-Down Complete

The front suspension tear-down went much faster than I expected; just a few hours.  Not sure whether it was actually easier or whether it was just more PB Blaster + time to soak in, or maybe it's just knowing what to expect.