1983 cj5 restoration

mresky

New member
Hello everyone, I just bought a 1983 cj5 with a 258i straight six with a holly 4 barrell carb. I am going to take the body off and i am going to completley rebuild the engine, tansmission, and clutch. Does anyone have good rebuild kits for all of these and what would anyone recommend for an original 2 barrell carb. Also any links to your restorations would be great too. There is a slight clanking noise at high rpm and also i believe the timing is off slightly. What would be the best website for pricing and parts. Any recommendations on anything will help. Share as much as you'd like. Thanks
 

Hey everyone, Here are some photos before teardown. enjoy.
 

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Here are some photos from day 1 tear down.
 

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Hey ! Welcome to Jeepz.com ! That is one great looking CJ , and I'm not just saying that because that has always been my #1 favorite jeep but I must say it will look great after restoration. It looks great now .
i really appreciate it when someone puts their heart into a restoration and I also appreciate that you have contributed to my favorite charity , saving CJ 's !!!!!! Thanks for saving a great jeep that the whole world knows to be a legend ! Greg
 
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I would personally keep the holly carb. The stock carbs on the 80,s models are junk and plagued with miles of vac hoses. look into qudratrac, 4wd hardware for your rebuild kits. Good luck
 
I would personally keep the holly carb. The stock carbs on the 80,s models are junk and plagued with miles of vac hoses. look into qudratrac, 4wd hardware for your rebuild kits. Good luck

I second that ! The Holley is more rebuild friendly than a motorcraft 2150 . Used one once on a v8 360 . I like Holley. Yeah , check out QUADRATECH , I think you'll like that site too !
 

Thanks 69jeepcj, Yes I do like the holly and know they are good carbs but the thing I'm concerned about is that the 4 barrel will eat through a lot of gas. I know if I were to go back to a good 2 barrel the engine would do better on gas compared to the 4 barrel. And I will def check out quadratac. Thanks for the advice and I'll take any other advice you got in the future. And keep checking back. Ill be putting up new pictures every week. Thanks.
 
Hey everyone, today was Day 2 of teardown. Today I got the main body lifted off the tub and stored from the rafters. I had some trouble with the a few body mount bolts that were stripped. Enjoy
 

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Here are some more photos from day 2.
 

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I also have a curiousity question for you guys, on my 1983 cj5 the back end of it does not have a tailgate. Its all one solid body. Is that stock and normal or is that an aftermarket rear that someone put on there. It looks stock yet I've never seen one without a lowering tailgate.
 
tailgates are a option with aftermarket fiberglass bodies. All cj,s should have a tailgate from the factory, if you have a steal body and no tailgate, someone closed it off. Could have been because of rattles, personal preference, rust. Your jeep looks to be pretty solid, looks good. Good luck with it. On some aftermarket steel and fiberglass bodies, the tailgate opening is a option, so the body could have been replaced at some point too, and they didn't get the tailgate.
 
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Hey everyone, today was day 3 of teardown, I got the engine completely stripped and ready to remove and put on an engine stand. Thats what I will be doing next.
 

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More photos of day 3
 

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More day 3 photos
 

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Want to thank you for the really great photos and wishing the best of luck on your restoration .
I appreciate that you waste no time and jump right into it ! I'm curious as to what camshaft was used since a four barrel intake was installed . Wondering was this engine set up for that kind of induction in regards to valve timing , lift , etc. , cylinder head porting and all that would be entailed . As it was , the Holley needed a float bowl gasket as the manifold is stained from a gas leak . I would say its previous owner really enjoyed this jeep to its fullest ! I know after the rebuild ( which will be soon at the speed you productively move at ! ) you will be enjoying it too !
once again , best of luck ! Greg
 

Want to thank you for the really great photos and wishing the best of luck on your restoration .
I appreciate that you waste no time and jump right into it ! I'm curious as to what camshaft was used since a four barrel intake was installed . Wondering was this engine set up for that kind of induction in regards to valve timing , lift , etc. , cylinder head porting and all that would be entailed . As it was , the Holley needed a float bowl gasket as the manifold is stained from a gas leak . I would say its previous owner really enjoyed this jeep to its fullest ! I know after the rebuild ( which will be soon at the speed you productively move at ! ) you will be enjoying it too !
once again , best of luck ! Greg

Hey greg, thanks for following my thread. I will definetly let you know what cam is in there and I will put up pictures of the cam. I will be putting the engine on my engine stand within the next 3 days and i will be taking it completely apart and taking pictures of everything. so within the next 7 days I should have pictures and an answer for you as to what cam was in it. So please check back and find out. I will let you know about the float too. Im going to do a rebuild on it very soon. your most likely correct. I also had leaks from all my major gaskets around the engine and transmission but thats normal for a 30 year old jeep thats never been restored.
 
I am so looking forward to this build as we all are ! This will be better than any 1/2 hour TV show like spike TV or any of them . This will be like live classroom experience to learn about CJ's as I never had my hands on one , just other jeeps like my XJ , SJ , a little on the YJ but I hope to get a CJ someday and this will be a learning experience like I have been getting from other members of our forum . Really want to thank you for your detailed work and photos . Thanks again , Greg
 
tailgates are a option with aftermarket fiberglass bodies. All cj,s should have a tailgate from the factory, if you have a steal body and no tailgate, someone closed it off. Could have been because of rattles, personal preference, rust. Your jeep looks to be pretty solid, looks good. Good luck with it. On some aftermarket steel and fiberglass bodies, the tailgate opening is a option, so the body could have been replaced at some point too, and they didn't get the tailgate.
I thought tailgates were a factory option. The CJ 5 I'm driving now doesn't have one. If it has been altered they did a good job. ( and if so, it is the only thing they did right to the body!) I will say I have never seen a CJ 7 without one.
 

I thought tailgates were a factory option. The CJ 5 I'm driving now doesn't have one. If it has been altered they did a good job. ( and if so, it is the only thing they did right to the body!) I will say I have never seen a CJ 7 without one.

I was told on another jeep forum that there was someone who posted an original window tag of their cj5 when they bought it from jeep and it had the option of a no tailgate option. most people wanted tailgates but a few people took the option of no tailgate. so its apparently factory not to have one.
 
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