About a year and a half ago I took my 78 CJ5 completely apart - I mean completely - engine, body, axles, stripped it to the frame. I found out I had a broken motor mount and a rusty gas tank.
I read somewhere that all jeep owners should get an intimate, working knowledge of their jeep - but let's not go there right now...
In any case, here are some places where I screwed up -
1. When you take off the fuel lines and break lines, clean and dry them inside and out. Store the in a clean, dry place. I had to buy and re-bend new ones becasue condensation plugged up the insides.
2. If you own a cam-corder take pics at major stages so you can maintain a pic reference as to where all the parts go - in particular mounting brackets, wire harnesses, just about the whole damn thing - because you will forget and you'll be there scratching you head and your ass trying to figure out where all the little parts go - hell, I still don't know were they all go.
3. Get and label a bunch of containers for bolts, screws, wires, retaining clips and all the other little bunch of crap you will need to either put back on or replace - if you don't the head and ass scratching takes charge here.
4. Make sure to squirel away more money than you anticipate - by the time I finished buying paint for the frame, wire brushes, new bolts, nuts, washers, fuel and break lines - I spent two hundred extra. The saying nickle and dime to death comes to mind.
5. If your Jeep has torx bolts, replace them all with hex bolts and damn each torx bolt to hell as you throw it into the neighbor's yard. Torx bolts suck.
6. Speaking of bolts - expect to loose a lot of skin and blood as you bash your knuckles when either come loose or break.
7. ... and last but not least, don't do it. It took me almost 2 years of not Jeeping to realize that taking it apart was a big mistake. I wish some would take'n a boot to my ass when I started and kicked some sense into me. But, two years ago, nothing could change my mind - not a boot to the ass or the head, so take that bad boy apart...
oh, if the wording sounds funny sometimes, the letter on my keyboard between the c and the b doesn't work - it kind of limits a person' ocabulary
