88 YJ-CJ Spare Tire Carrier Part 1 and Turbine Wheels

Spare Tire Carrier Part 1

I've been tripping over the CJ7 spare tire carrier in my garage, so I thought I would mount it to the tub.  As always, nothing is easy...

The first problem was that the CJ7 Tire Carrier Holes slightly overlap some of the old YJ Hinge Holes.  As a first step, I need to weld shut those old hinge holes.

The second problem was just general wear in the CJ7 tire carrier.  The latch area was pretty wallowed out.  I'll reshape the slot and also weld in a reinforcing plate to make it stronger.

Both hinge points also had substantial wear.  As it was, the tire carrier would have rattled around while driving, which would be annoying.

Both hinge points are getting:

Larger diameter stainless steel shoulder bolts for more bearing surface area (from 7/16" to 1/2")

Bronze sleeve bearings

Other strengthening - I'll show this in a future post

Here are the old and new bolts and bushings:

Also, the tire carrier may need to be cut off and re-welded higher because of the larger tire size, as it may hit the bumper.  Stock was a 29" tire with bumperettes, and I'm running a 33" tire with a full bumper.  I'm guessing that it may need to move up 3-4 inches.  

The tire carrier will unbolt by removing the two hinge bolts, so it may not be something that stays on the Jeep full-time.  It's something that I could easily put on/take off as needed.  For longer trips or Jeep Jamboree, I could put it back on.  For daily driving around Austin, I could see leaving it off.  

Turbine Wheels

I picked up a set of four 5 x 5.5 Turbine wheels a few months ago.  They were never a factory option for a CJ7, but I like them on a Jeep.  I also like them because used wheels are also a lot cheaper than new wheels.  Here's a good example:

I cleaned up all four of my wheels this week.  Three of them cleaned up nicely.  I could polish them out more in the future, if desired, but that isn't high on my priority list at the moment.  

The fourth one had hole damage that I didn't notice when I purchased them.  It looks like those lug nuts loosened up and the wheel was flopping around. 

Turbine wheels use special shank lug nuts (shown below) that fit tightly into the hole.  So, this fourth rim cannot be safely used.  I've got a good line on a couple of more matching Turbine wheels, so hopefully, I will be able to get them soon.  

Center Punch Jig

I spent about 5 minutes on the lathe making a center punch jig out of an old 1/2-20 bolt. This is an excellent example of why I like having the lathe. It is definitely a luxury tool, but sometimes, it just makes things very easy.  

The jig will be used to mark the hole locations when I drill the 5 x 5.5 pattern in the rear rotors.  More details to come.