First Jeep build! Here we go...

Yea I guess they would, I dont have any experience with them.

 

what a badass jeep man
im dign the chevy in those pics too, what axle ya guna swap in it? a ford dana 60 and a corpraite 14bff in the rear YUMMM sounds sick lol

 

Thanks. For my GMC I snagged a set of...I know I know...dodge axles. I bought the D44 front and he had the rear with matching gears sitting right next to it. So I paid him $50 bucks for it and loaded it up. The rear is a Chrysler 9.25 and from what I've heard, its a decent axle. It will be sitting on 7" skyjacker soft ride coils with a long arm radius arm set up like the TJ's from tera-flex or rubicon express. Should be good. Only bought both axles complete for 300$ so purdy good. Once she is out of the shop, a few more weeks I will be starting the axles and suspention and trans swap on the jeep. Either then or when I get the new tranny put in my Ranger...either way Im doing it soon. I hear the rocks-a-callin

 

Well got the last of my parts ordered this morning. I got my tranny mount for the 4 speed and my pilot bushing from Novak-adapt on the way. Got my hi-steer in a few days ago along with my shackles, u-bolts and spring plates and lock-rite. Had a change in location for the build so I will be starting it sooner now. Should be cutting on her either this weekend or middle of next week some time. Will be flooding pics in soon as I get a chance.

 

So tomorow I start ripping the axles and suspention off of the jeep and getting the frame ready. I do have a couple questions for someone who knows more than I do though. I just got my custom pilot bushing from Novak to mate my 304 to the ford np435. Is that all im going to need to mate that tranny to my motor? I already got the bellhousing and such, just worried that I may be missing somthing in the clutch area. Also, I made the mistake of taking the shifter plate off of the 435 and can NOT seem to get her snapped back in. There a trick to it or somthing?

 

Well today concludes day 2 of the start of the build. I tell you what, its a whole lot easier sailing when the build is still in your head...a little different story actually doing it. I havn't got all that much done yet since today was purdy much a waste. Anyways, here are a few pics that I do have so far.

NT dana 30 pulled.


You guys like the white?

Or the black? Im diggin the black...

Front driver-side leaf spring bent. Over flexed and the upper clamp was a little too tight.

Here are my outriggers to outboard my front springs once I get the old mounts off.


Rear axle gutted for clean up and lock-right.



Ya....snapped a shifter for the dana 300. Not too happy bought that.

Found this nasty stuff underneith the 11 layers of electrical tape the PO had put on. Plan is to remove it all, beef up cage and paint.

Tub cut out for TJ flares.

Started cleaning up the front axle. Will be installing hi-steer arms in the next few days.

 

Dang you drink a lot of Monster! LOL

 

I noticed while cutting the tub that my marker lights on the sides are a little different. Meaning on the passenger side, the body panel is flat and the lens just screws to it and on the driver side, the panel is pressed inward a little so the lens sits inside. Is the how they came? Never noticed it before...
Passenger side...

Driver side...

 

Ha ya I had started on it friday moring and quit about 1pm. Slept for a few hours then went to work from 8pm to 5am and headed straght back to the jeep to start working on her again. I needed a little help espeacially since today was VERY trying on the nerves.

 

Those side markers in the rear are how my '74 is. I thought it was wierd too, but must be stock.
In other news: What are you going to do with those beefy shackles off the old springs? Im looking for some!

Looks great by the way!

 

I am selling them tuesday to a guy in town with the axles. They are con-fur....con-fer or however they are spelt 1.25 " lift shackles. I think I paid like 120 or somthing like that for them. If I had known that someone here wanted them, i would have slapped the old ones on it and shipped you mine. I will ask the guy which ones he wants. If for whatever reason he wants the stock ones then I will give you mine.

 

Sweet! I need some beef on my new kit! And what I have learned is ALWAYS give the early guys a shot first

I'm liking the setup and will be watching close as I will probably be following suit with what you end up doing.

 

Sounds good. I'll be posting up pictures tuesday morning of the progress. Its been a slow going the past 2 days because the PO thought it would be a good idea to bugger weld ALL of my springs mounts to the frame...I guess the 2 half inch bolts per mount wasn't good enough for him. So once I get all that off, I got to take my steering box off so I can cut the driver side ones off and then start preparing my frame for my outriggers. I may get my flares mounted tomorrow. Today, I was able to pull the rear axle off and get her on stands and since I had no sawsall, I decided to install my VERY first locker in the toyota rear.

 

Oh, also Thomplogy if the guy wants to confer shackels in the pictures, I can send you my old ones (which dont look like stock to me). They are purdy beefy themselves. If you want them, PM me your address so I can get them shipped in the next week or so. Here they are....

 

To mount my saginaw box, I was thinking of making a template, then making two metal plates to sort of sandwhich the frame rail, then once in place welding the plates to the frame. That sound like it would work?

 

Thanks alot bkd. Thats exactally what I needed. Now I noticed in the 4th picture that it shows a plate that was used to box the frame in. Now couldn't you (in theory) just use the mounting plate to box in that section? Or is that plate used to line the ends of the bolts up as they go into the mounting plate and for support? Thanks alot, really appreciate it.

 

On another note, I have made a little more progress yesturday. I finished installing the lock-right and putting the rear axle back together. Toyota axles may not be the best axle produced by far, but in the "ease of working on them" catigory, they come out on top, 100%. It took me about an hour and a half from start to finish to take it all apart, install locker and put it all back together. For a rookie...I think thats purdy good. Tomorrow I will be notching the front frame rails a little to take out some bad spots and may get the outriggers tacked in place. Pics soon to come...

 

Well in that case, I better box her in then. I wont be boxing in the entire frame just yet so I think I will box it from the front to where the factory partial box is and then add a gear box support bar also. Its going to be tricky though, because my driver side outrigger is going to take up that exact spot on the outside frame rail where the saginal bolts will need to go. So I will be taking it to work to have the plasma notch the hole thing out, then plate where it was notched and just use that outrigger as a shackle outboarder/gear box plate haha. Should be interesting.