New Tools for possible Jeep Purchase

I am looking to exchange my 97 Mustang for a 90s Jeep Cherokee XJ. My wife was in a car wreck a couple months ago in her Chevy Suburban which totaled her car when an F150 pulled out in front of her. She and my daughter walked away with no serious injuries. The same wreck in the 97 Mustang would have put me and my daughter in the hospital, best case.

In some ways a Jeep isn’t that much safer, but in other ways a bigger car will always be safer in an accident, plus I would be able to haul all of the kids in a Jeep.

My wife had a Jeep Cherokee when we got married and we have always regretted selling that, so this is an opportunity to get a Jeep again.

Anyway while we wait and look I ordered some tools to eventually live in the Jeep.

The SAE wrenches might go in the 68 Mustang eventually since the Jeep supposedly has more metric that SAE nuts.

Disassembling the passenger side spindle brake assembly

As part of my whole suspension refresh I have been working on Disassembling the passenger side spindle brake assembly.

This was a huge undertaking, with quite a bit of frustration involved, some use of cutting tools, and lots of googling.

One note I found online, to get the ball joints out of the spindle you hit the side of the spindle where the bolt goes through with a big hammer till it breaks loose.

I am going to clean these parts some more, tape off the parts that should not be painted, and paint the parts with black anti rust paint.

New Fuel Tank installed

Start by installing the sending unit in the fuel tank.

I missed getting a picture of my son putting in the 3M Strip-Calk, but that is the next step.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40068361/

Then you put the tank in place and bolt it in.

Next comes the fuel filler, with rubber hose, which is clamped in place.

Finally the fuel filler is screwed into place on its cork gasket, and the cap wire is bolted on.

And we have another piece back on the car.

Second dry fit of the new passenger side floor

Had a bit of time while the family were out to cut and grind to fit the floor support in place.

I need to compare these measurements against the last ones I took.

Then set the floor and seat riser in place.

I cut the end off the floor to firewall piece and re-bent the flange to face upwards instead of downwards.

I have a good bit of work to do here still, but I’m getting closer to welding all this metal back into place.

New Parts - Spring Perches

As part of my general suspension overhaul I knew I could not safely re-install my old Spring Perches so decided to order new ones now so I could do the entire front suspension work in one go. (Unless I decide later to replace the springs themselves.)

Old: 

New: