The Moses Build
 

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ok so I found this jeep that has been sitting on a farm for over 10 years. Sticker bushes growing inside and all. Talked the guy down to $700 and now she is mine. Obviously after 10 years of rotting, I had to trailer her home because she wouldnt start. After replacing the battery, battery terminals, alternator, serpentine belt, spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, oil change, antifreeze and fresh fuel.... What do ya know, she fired right up. I soon realized that none of the lights were working so I went straight to the fuse box. Yup, all of the fuses were rotten and falling apart as I was pulling them out. Put new fuses in and now she has lights. The heater still isnt working so im going to replace the blower motor next. I have a lot of plans for my new baby but I have to get her street legal first. Ill keep you all updated on how the build goes.

Welcome to CF and to Jeep ownership Toy Hughes!

Well I found out that the clutch was bad so I spent the day trying to drop the transmission. Its a manual. I got everything disconnected and unplugged. Still have the cross member in place to support the weight. All thats left if to loosen the bellhousing bolts. After some research it looks like I ran into a similar problem other people had. The top two bolts... From what I read online, its a E12 Torx socket. Went and bought a set of torx sockets. Tried 10, 12 and 14. None of them fit. E12 was the closet but kept slipping. I cant tell if its stripped out or what. Cant really see it. Any suggestions besides pulling the motor with it? I have an idea but I dont know if its the greatest...

Update: Too much rain
 

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Ok so due to the crappy weather I havent been wanting to crawl under the jeep and work on the transmission so I started a new project on the jeep. The interior. So far I have gutted out the seats and all the carpet. Still need to pull the headliner. Im planning on doing a bedliner. Not sure if im doing spray or roll on. Ill keep everyone posted with more pictures.

Drop the crossmember with a jack slowly and you should be able to get a better position to take those bolts out. Then, head to the hardware store, and match it up with a hex bolt grade 8 bolt. Toss those E12 in the trash

I would roll, no overspray and it's pretty fun rolling it on.

Definitely drop the cross member and tilt the engine back as suggested above. Just watch that the fan doesn't puncture the radiator. You'll probably need new motor mounts too. The 5 speeds beat the mounts up pretty good. While you have the crossmember off, check the trans mount. They can rot and collapse over time

Looks like work
 

Looks like a lotta work. Keep the updates coming.

Digging deeper...
 

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First I just want to say thank you guys for the input. That sounds like great advice and I will let you know how it works out when I get there.

Ok... So while pulling the interior I found a rats nest under the back seat. Seat belts were chewed through. So I knew it might have some wiring issues but I didnt know it would be this bad.. The dash was pretty beat up and brittle. All of the switches were seized up, guages not wanting to work, no dash lights working. Radio wouldn't turn on or anything so I decided to pull the dash.. There was definitely a rat crawling around inside there in the past because there was more nesting materials inside. I now have the dash off but im not sure what to do. All of the plugs were corroded, rusted and falling apart.

So here's my question... How much of this wiring is needed for the jeep to run properly?? Am I able to pull it all out and put in a custom aluminum dash with aftermarket gauges and just hardwire everything somehow to toggle switches??
The old dash and old wiring is all garbage. And if im going to this extent, should I just pull everything and do a 350 swap? Something that doesnt have so much wiring and vaccuum lines?
P.s. Im trying to build this jeep strictly for wheeling. It wont be street legal. I will be towing it to the woods. So no need for blinkers and speedo and all of that..

If you are building it just for wheeling then zip tie the gauge cluster in place zip tie all the wires in place and forget everything else. If it runs that's all you need.

If you aren't worried about the gauge cluster then add mechanical oil pressure, water temperature, and voltage gauges and call if a day. Dont even worry about a tach, the engine knows where the rev limiter is;)

If doeant run as it is and its wiring related, you may have quite a task figuring out what wiring issue is causing it not to run.