Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

Rock On!!!!!

nc

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

Mucho bettero.....

Re: Jeep J10
 

White steel spokes ride again..

Keep on keepin on

Fun Fun Fun

NC

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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...

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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! :metal:

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

Re: Jeep J10
 

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.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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

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

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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! :metal:;)

Re: Jeep J10
 

good score on the J parts...did you have any nerves left after the learner permit ride?...haha

Re: Jeep J10
 

I only yelled once! He’s actually a pretty good driver and we went out today to teach him to drive the stick in the Jeep. That’s a work in progress!

He would really like to have a manual in the J10 after the LS swap but you already know what it costs to find a good manual trans and all the parts from Columbus. It’s going to be an auto for now.

Re: Jeep J10
 

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 try 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. Awesome day! :metal:;)

Re: Jeep J10
 

Looking good!

Re: Jeep J10
 

My son and I pulled the seat and floor covering out of the cab today to see what we’re dealing with. Just a little rust on the drivers floor! There was the classic fix of a piece of sheet metal laying over the floor and duct taped into place but the rust had gone beyond the patch. Several thick floor mats were on top but you had to be careful or else your feet would go thru the floor! Pass side is better but still has a few holes. We ordered patch panels and will get these fixed up.

Also ordered a gallon of Lizard Skin ceramic insulation and a couple of boxes of Dynamat to insulate the cab nicely one we get it patched up.

Then we stripped the wire harness off the new motor - need to figure out where to get it stripped down to a stand-alone harness.

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One more pic today - we made sure Mom is happy and we can keep spending money on both my truck and my son’s! She got a new Honda CR-V yesterday and is a very happy girl!

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wow...thats some more rusty floorboard....he don't need that LS...he can just Fred Flinestone it..

Re: Jeep J10
 

It’s been freezing ass cold and too cold to work in the garage, even with the heater going, especially since every time it even starts to get warm somebody opens the garage door and all the heat is gone in a heartbeat! Finally warmed up to the 30’s outside and I ran the heater for a day and a half and got the floor warmed up from probably 10 to something tolerable.

Anyway, started fitting a patch panel to the rusty hole in the J10 floor. Got my son out to help and we got the rusty crap out and the panel fitted and tacked in. Making progress.

Re: Jeep J10
 

looks much better.....I see hes getting his learn on...

Re: Jeep J10
 

That should help keep the heat in... Nice work!

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Working a little here and there on the truck. Got my old Dana 20 transfer case rebuilt and twin shifters installed. Mated it to my 4L60e trans with Novak adapters. Happy to see that the shifter parts clear the trans connector!

Also decided to switch motor mounts to get more motor position adjustability as the 5.3 Tahoe motor fits snug and theres the front driveshaft to keep clear of the fat trans pan. Removed the old towers and some mounts I was looking at, cleaned up the area, and assembled new adjustable mounts. These came from Novak Adapters.

And yes - if you look closely at the 4th pic I managed to cut thru the brake line right there. Crap.

Re: Jeep J10
 

Hung the whole engine/trans/transfer case in the engine bay. Fit in there generally OK - hits the brake booster where it's sitting now but will get back to it tonight and try to get it in the right spot. Note that I already "deleted" the stock heater core and fan to get some clearance and give me a spot for the battery. Going to VA system.

Re: Jeep J10
 

good looking parts Scott....sucks about the brake line...sounds like my kinda luck...you could go with a smaller booster for more clearance

Re: Jeep J10
 

I just picked one up too. Couldn’t find a chevy i liked that wasn’t insanely over priced plus i already have a few and figured what the heck.

https://i.ibb.co/bv3W6Qj/4-FA95159-5...621-A39-FC.jpg

I still have to figure out how to get it home, sitting at a friends dad’s house in Colorado which about 1100 miles.

I dont think I’m going to go all out like your doing. Just gonna get it running and drive it around town

Re: Jeep J10
 

I just picked one up too. Couldn’t find a chevy i liked that wasn’t insanely over priced plus i already have a few and figured what the heck.

https://i.ibb.co/bv3W6Qj/4-FA95159-5...621-A39-FC.jpg