Jeep J10

[Scott2]

I also happened to run across this old sweet Jeep and had to take it home. Original 79k mile J10 (1/2 ton) with a 7' bed, 360 V8, 4 speed manual, 4wd, original paint and some time earned rust. Most everything seems to work, and it runs and drives.

I just got temporary tags and now need to get it smogged. Not sure how that will go since there are a few missing vacuum lines and plugged ports. It also needs tires as they are so weather checked one exploded on the PO while driving. It has a some dings, bumpers are bent, grill cracked but overall it's great. This will be my sons' car next year when he gets his license.

[Clyde65]

Love the old J10, almost bought one in 1985...love the Honcho and Gladiators too!!

[Nut Case]

Rock On!!!!!

nc

[flashed]

Those old J10 trucks are too cool ,wish one would pop up here that was decent ,dont ever see them anymore .

[Scott2]

The very best part about this truck is that it’s getting my son and I working together! I am going to replace the ratted out tires with 33’s and need wider wheels. Friday morning I posted a request on a Colorado Jeep site and quickly found several guys willing to part with their old wheels. One of them was actually parting out a ‘79 J10 so we headed over there ASAP. Took the J10.

It was great going thru and picking out parts. For $300 we got the a set of good white spoke 15x8 wheels, a better chrome grill, an extra set of unbroken front turn lights, a window regulator, very nice door sills, and an entire spare bed!

My son got to help find and remove parts, participate in the haggling and loading and standing around bs’ing about our projects. We also met a couple of great guys in the local Jeep world which will pay off many times over.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Nice! My dad had a similar green 75/76 when I was a kid.

[mongocanfly]

Sweet!!...always liked the j10....

[Scott2]

Weenie, rock hard old tires are gone and new 33” tires are on! Looks and drives far better!

[Scott2]

Weenie, rock hard old tires are gone and new 33” tires are on! Looks and drives far better!

[mongocanfly]

Mucho bettero.....

[Nut Case]

White steel spokes ride again..

Keep on keepin on

Fun Fun Fun

NC

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by Nut Case

White steel spokes ride again..

Keep on keepin on

Fun Fun Fun

NC

My son wanted “period correct” wheels and tires - seems strange for a 15 year old, I was betting he would want new black wheels and black sidewalls like all the Wranglers run. Nope. So we went shopping on the local Jeep FB groups and shook loose a set of old, crappy white spokes which came off the same year J10 truck. I think they look pretty good.

[franken]

Not a fan of th wagon wheels, but have always loved the later (60+?) fullsize Jeep pickups. Bad tendency to rot in wet climates though. Quadratrac? Not sure the last is good, but...

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by franken

Not a fan of th wagon wheels, but have always loved the later (60+?) fullsize Jeep pickups. Bad tendency to rot in wet climates though. Quadratrac? Not sure the last is good, but...

I do have some mixed feelings about the white spoke wheels but what else would you run to look like it's still 1979?

I had a '79 Cherokee Chief that came with them and they were cool in 1982. They are also cheap and available and steel now (more survivable off road) and the kid likes them so we'll take this one step at a time.

It's an older Jeep so it has rust. Rebuilding my '51 has given me a greater tolerance for rust than I had before, not sure if that's good or bad? Nevertheless, this one has some rot in the bed floor here and there, surface rust on a few body spots, and the drivers floor is nasty and mostly gone. I'm OK with fixing those areas and I don't see anything worse so far. I bought an entire extra bed (an 8' bed vs my 7', and it has rust as well, just not where I need good metal) so I can graft in the right patches to mine.

No quadratrac, just conventional 4wd which works fine. I may punt on this drivetrain anyway and swap in a 5.3, trans and transfer case from a Silverado/Suburban 1500 at some point. The AMC 360 on it's best day is not much of an engine and the mileage is really bad. It has the 4 speed manual with granny first gear and it works pretty good but you can do a lot better than an effective 3 speed manual.

[Scott2]

The truck failed the smog test pretty badly today even though it's just a two speed idle test with equipment inspection. HC PPM has to be <400, at idle it was 835, CO% limit is 1.50 and at idle it was 3.44.

Everything in the emissions setup, air pump mess, and vacuum lines spaghetti is there and hooked up - took me two weeks and a big bag of vacuum hose and fittings. Had to find a vintage PCV valve that's specific to one of these AMC 49 state, late '70's, manual trans turds. Finally found a treasure trove of that stuff on a Wagoneer site.

The PO had the catalytic converter and muffler in the bed when I looked at the truck and said it could be clogged and it's definitely beat up and old -- like me . It's back on now and could be a big factor in the test fail. Yesterday I ordered a new Magnaflow 3" converter and a Magnaflow 3" muffler with some 3" pipe as well. Stock is a single exhaust and not much room for anything else so I'm going to replace what's there and try a retest.

[67ChevyRedneck]

This is a pretty good article on carb. vehicles and how to help them pass the testing.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/car.../a113/1272536/

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

This is a pretty good article on carb. vehicles and how to help them pass the testing.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/car.../a113/1272536/

Good info - thanks! The PO had some guy doing general fix up and tune up before selling - same guy who put the exhaust system in the bed. I would bet a number of adjustments are off and I know the idle is pretty low. It might be smart to check plugs, wires and distributor and then have a good shop check out the carb, take a few readings and adjust it. It doesn’t run very well overall and with all the re-routing of vacuum and emissions lines I’m sure there are adjustments needed.

[Scott2]

I found this butt ugly ‘79 parts truck out in Kansas when it popped up on Facebook marketplace about 10:30 on a Wednesday night. I messaged the guy and bought it within about 30 seconds and drove out there from Colorado a day later and drug it back.

I really only needed a couple things - the front bumper, grill, hood, and a rear fender flare. I also kept most of the factory AC and cruise control parts. We got home about midnight Friday, my son and I pulled and swapped parts by noon Saturday and had it back up for sale by 1:00. In the second pic you can see the hood is swapped, the right rear flare is gone, the bumper and crap grill swapped in.

Sold it fast for $325. Got the parts I needed and the truck was here and gone so fast the wife didn’t have time to get aggravated! Not only did it go away, but a local guy saw my posting and offered me a free correct carb for my truck he had stashed away! An excellent transaction all the way around!

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by Scott2

Good info - thanks! The PO had some guy doing general fix up and tune up before selling - same guy who put the exhaust system in the bed. I would bet a number of adjustments are off and I know the idle is pretty low. It might be smart to check plugs, wires and distributor and then have a good shop check out the carb, take a few readings and adjust it. It doesn’t run very well overall and with all the re-routing of vacuum and emissions lines I’m sure there are adjustments needed.

The new exhaust with converter and a little tuning did the trick and it passed emissions!

[Scott2]

Update - the truck runs but it’s been a struggle to get it to run well. It came with a 2bbl carb out of something else that had bad linkage so I bought a remanufactured stock carb and swapped it in. Could not get the choke to work and neither could a local shop. Gas mileage so far is pretty poor too. So, with all those excuses lined up I punted and bought an LS based motor.

Got this 5.3 and 4wd/4L60e complete drop out, still all bolted together with all accessories, harness, PCM, gas pedal, O2 sensors, air box, etc. installed with 124k for $1700. Got it from the same guys I bought my 6.0/4L80e from before. Last time I messed up and they had taken off all accessories and separated the motor/trans. Took me months and $$ to find and buy all the bolts.

We’re going to yank the AMC 360 and T18 trans and sell it, then adapt the original Dana 20 transfer case over. More to come.

[mongocanfly]

All that and installed for 1700?....heck of a deal...ought to make the old jeep growl...

[Scott2]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

All that and installed for 1700?....heck of a deal...ought to make the old jeep growl...

All the accessories are installed or still on the motor, meaning I still have all the brackets and bolts. Getting it all planted in the Jeep is another task and definitely more $$! But yes, it should wake that Jeep up. The original 360 was a smog era motor and had ~150 hp fresh from the factory. Now it probably is the same as my Sears lawn tractor.

[mongocanfly]

Haha...I thought you meant installed in the J for 1700....

[Advanced Design]

Well guys, I’ve been missing all the fun here! In for the rest.

[Scott2]

Yesterday my son and I made a run down to FN Jeep in Colorado Springs. FN is a Jeep salvage yard with a fair amount of old full size Jeep stuff (I sold them the old camo J10 earlier in this thread) and we were shopping for a Jeep steering column with tilt and auto shift on the column. Found a nice one and then scored even more by finding a decent (rebuildable) set of bucket seats with mounts, a center armrest and the front seatbelts from a ‘78 Wagoneer, and then a big score when I found a pretty nice tailgate. Tailgates and seats are very tough to find and there aren’t any repops like there are for AD trucks.

My son drove on his learners permit (just turned 16) and he got a couple of hours of driving time. I got several hours of dedicated dad time, got to show him the joys and rewards of digging around salvage yards and finding parts, and tried to pass on a few things I’ve learned. We took a short break and walked thru nearby downtown Colorado Springs and stopped for a burger.

Once we got home we made a set of crosspieces with big casters to roll the new LS motor/trans around. Awesome day!