Build Thread Goin Postal

[mylittlecj5]

A little off-topic, but I have a customer that wants to install disk brakes on his '83 DJ.
SO far we figured out to use the early DJ axle I have, and install the disks off a Dana 30 (from knuckles out). What we havent figured out is the steering. He is still right hand drive and has to stay that way (he is actually my mailman!).
Any ideas on what to use for a steering system?

 

[gliryan]

Well I'm not entirely sure. What I think you could use is one of the tie rod ends that allows for the drag link to attach directly to it. I think it is referred to as a "Y" steering setup.

I did some more work today. I flipped around my rear leafs as I had installed them backwards the first time. I cut off some of the bolts because they were quite a bit too long. I have also test fitted the spare driveshaft I have, I am almost certain it is a front drive shaft, and it is about 1/2" too long I'm thinking. I don't know for sure though because I'm missing the stupid piece to attach the ujoint to the tcase. I've got the ebrake on the tcase if that makes any difference. I also moved my leaf hangers back for the rear packs. Right now the shackle is pretty much vertical. I'm going to be adding a roll cage as well as a couple other things that weigh a little, so I will probably keep this position for the time being.

 

[gliryan]

Worked on the jeep today. Moved the rear leaf hangers back another half inch, I think this is the spot. I want to move them back another quarter inch but when I put a tank of gas, people, and the cage on I think this will be pretty close. I also tried flexing it out to see how close my shocks will be to being a good length, the rear seem to be pretty much spot on. So I tacked on the upper and lower mounts for the back. It seems to flex alright, I have no way of safely going farther than this. Oh and I can now get my spare front driveshaft to fit in the back in place. Just need to get my yoke to make sure its going to work. Pics suck, hey its winter and I've got a messy garage. Plus cfl lights don't provide that much lumens.

Oh I also put the tie rod on. This came out of a narrow track, but it was still too long. So I cut it down and plugged it. I wasn't satisfied so I also braced the outside. Yeah, its ugly. But I think its stronger than the rest of the rod at this point. I'd like to build a hiem joint setup anyways at some point. I gave dimensions to a friend for him to make me a steering arm for the top of the knuckle where those 4 bolts are. Going to be putting an arm on the top of that thing for the drag link like the old Willys truck thing.

 

[mylittlecj5]

Well I'm not entirely sure. What I think you could use is one of the tie rod ends that allows for the drag link to attach directly to it. I think it is referred to as a "Y" steering setup.

We looked at one off a YJ and determined it was too long, but I still think it could be shortened to work...this is on hold till I get my F-350's engine rebuilt...and X-mas is over...Gotta have priories straight! lol

 

[gliryan]

Another day in the garage! I decided I wanted a nice visual progress boost so I started on the cage. First I thought it would be nice to make rock sliders out of 1 piece of tubing, and bend the ends into the frame. Well I made 1 bend and decided that was going to be stupid. So I switched to a more standard straight slider attached to the frame with a couple of tubes going straight from the frame to slider. I had some 1/8" plate that I used to make pads for the frame attachments, idk if it mattered or not however. I decided on .120 wall for the sliders, then just .095 wall for the support bars. I also welded the sliders to the bottom of the body to stiffen it up. We'll see if that makes any difference, but I think the finished product will look pretty nice. I only got 1 side done.




Then I felt pretty good about what I accomplished. Decided to look at the power steering pump. Chopped the little tabs off the mount, and bolted them where they were closest to fitting. Did some grinding and welded that up. I don't know if the head gasket is going to be ok though. 1 bolt was removed for the engine hoisting, then I removed the next bolt over to get the mount on for the pump. I'll probably let 'er buck and see if its fine. But thats mounted up. With just myself it was tough to get it just right, so the pulley isn't sitting perfectly inline with the other pulley. Looks close enough. Its on the left side of the motor above the fuel pump.



I also tried to fit the steering box on. Its way too heavy to try and fab that up by myself though.

 

[gliryan]

So finally got some work done on the Jeep today with some help. I haven't been too ambitious because I didn't feel like buying diesel to heat my garage, and then my dad passed away. But I'm coming along and getting a little back to normal.

I got the saginaw box mounted up. That included boxing the frame, sleeving it, and drilling some holes in plate steel to mount it too and use as a template. I also started putting in the new rear crossmember but didn't finish due to not realizing how big of a pain it was going to be to get it in the frame channel. I may finish it before work tomorrow.



There is 3.5" between these two, I think I'm going to have a clearance problem when flexing… Sorta over looked that, probably going to have to get a shorter arm, or modify something.

 

[jeepboy45]

Good luck and continued progress on your jeep...
Sorry to hear about your Father's passing...

brian

 

[mtnwhlr]

Real sorry to hear about your dad RIP. Jeeps looking good

 

[gliryan]

Thanks guys.

I'm pretty sure I need to move that box. Every other box I'm seeing mounted is up another few inches, and forward some too. I moved the jeep outside yesterday. Today I'm planning on working on it as much as possible.

 

[tonkatrucksryan]

So sorry to hear about your Father. Turning wrenches on my jeep always makes me feel better. Great build so far. Keep up the good work!!!

 

[Incommando]

you will go through ujoints right and left if you put a Dana 20 with an offset Dana 44

Not necessarily.

The late 70's FSJ's that had the manual transmissions and a Dana 20 Transfer Case with a centered output still used an off-set rear differential Dana 44 . It worked just fine and again, was a factory set-up. They did have the CV-style u-joint at the Transfer Case , though. Granted they had a 109" wheelbase but at the same time the axle was wider and had a greater off-set, too, than a CJ IIRC.

 

[gliryan]

Some more work done today. Not a whole lot, but definitely some. I redid the front shackle hangers. They are not finished completely yet; not finished being welded on and not boxed in. I think they will be strong enough, anyone think they aren't good enough?




and here it is back on the ground after both sides were finished.




I eyed up the front shocks today. I think I'll tackle those tomorrow. These narrow axles don't make mounting shocks too easy. I worked a little on the gas tank mounting as well today. All I really did was cut on piece of angle iron and set it in place. I realized however that my original mounting plan won't work. I'm going to support the rear of the tank as well as the two sides. I didn't have enough angle iron to complete the two sides to I skipped that for today. I also thought hard about pulling the body lift, I'm torn. I really want it out but don't want to go through the hassle to try and get the body to fit this frame. Plus it messes up my gas tank mounting a little bit. I'll probably leave it in and regret it later.

Anyone else notice that the front of these frames bend in a little? At like the last 4-5" it bends in ever so slightly, enough to mess up the spring hanger if you mount it flush with the frame

 

[gliryan]

Mediocre work done today, a little disappointing but I was out and about for quite a bit longer than needed. I straightened out the front of the frame with the help of my high lift and then pounded a thick piece of channel in between the frame rails. Worked good. Then I ran errands. Came back home and welded in angle iron to sit the fuel tank on. Ended up not being perfect and still needs some work to hold the tank well though.

Then not having decent steel to make the rest of the gas tank mount I moved onto the pedals. They were super sticky, after soaking them with penetrating oil and moving them around they freed up nicely. I'll be adding a brake booster to the brake to help with those steep trails. Also looking at putting in disk brakes up front before too long. I've got most of the holes drilled in the plate as well as the cut for the booster to fit through. Quite a bit of work left but I can see some light at the end.





no holes yet in this pic, but finally got to use my torches to cut this off and the booster hole.

 

[gliryan]

Steering box, brake booster/master cylinder out of a Mitsu Eclipse, and pedals all mounted. This morning I mounted the reservoir for the master cylinder and pulled all the old brake system stuff off including the lines. I estimated about 20 ft of hard lines needed, that should leave me with a few extra feet, at least more than enough. Where should I get soft lines from or what from?

I looked a little closer at my rear drive shaft as well. I think I can use the one I have, it seems to be identical to my front drive shaft so I'm guessing it is. It should be just the right length if I use my ebrake on the tcase setup. I need the part that the ujoint bolts to that then bolts to the ebrake piece. Anyone? The front driveshaft needs to be lengthened an inch I think. Once I fix the pinion angle it might work though.

I've got about 1 page of to do list left minus a couple of big not needed things. Half of them involve buying something

this is what I'm planning on using as the rear driveshaft. Its only 1.25" o.d. on the small end. If I have a problem with it being too weak I'll fix it then. Motor is stock 4cyl F head and the gears are 5.38's so I think it'll be alright.


How are the early cj's setup for pedals? I ended up building my clutch pedal right off the clutch lever because there was no way to easily use my pedal box I had, which was likely from a late cj.







I'm trying to figure out how to attach my steering column. I built up those angle iron brackets as a start. But I'm lost as to how to effectively do this. As you can see someone had already started trying to swap this body over to left hand drive.


here you can see one of my freebie seats. I need to modify the body so that the seat can sit back in a better spot. At least I wont have to worry about someone tall wanting to drive lol. Me being 5'6" I'll be fine

 

[gliryan]

I finally think I figured out the rear driveshaft. I was absolutely stuck on thinking it had two ujoints, one on each end. I found a piece that fit onto the ebrake that has a splined end on it so the drive shaft can slide in and adjust length with axle there. Is that how these old cj's work? I am still unsure because one tcase I have has a ujoint adapter on it. I'd use that but then I'll need to extend the length of the axle. I'll have to get that straightened out this week.

 

[gliryan]

Got a tcase rear driveshaft companion on the way! I clocked the front axle so I have a little angle up, should be around 6 degrees. Unfortunately the front driveshaft is like 1.5" too short!! Oh well, if I had known that though I would have probably pulled it back that far to be able to use stock ones. So now I need to extend this one, or hopefully find one just a little longer.

I started chopping my motorcycle this weekend, so I'm going to probably finish that first. Or at least get it rolling again before getting serious work done on the cj again.

EDIT: also I figured out the leaning jeep. I think the issue was one of the leaf packs weren't tight enough. I tightened them both up this time and the thing is sitting flat. I didn't think about it until later that evening, but I bet that was the issue.

 

[gliryan]

Been slow working on this thing the past month or so, I've been working on my bmw and some on my motorcycle.
As of now I've got a gas pedal, my drivers seat has enough room now to easily fit, I've got front steel brake lines, and probably a couple other small things done.
I'm stuck with drive shaft choices, soft brake lines, and what to do with my brakes. I'm guessing the wheel cylinders are probably all frozen. I'm trying to decide where to go with the brakes. I need extended brake lines, and possibly drum brake overhalls. I eventually would like disk brakes on the front, I am not sure if I should do that now or if I should wait until I have more money and time to get parts. I'm about a month away from my first planned wheeling trip in this thing…I hope I can get it together in time.
OH! Also the steering needs to be finished. I'm stuck between just getting a tapered drill bit and flipping the tie rod and buying a heim joint setup. Looks like $310 from ruffstuff with shipping for a 3/4" heim setup.

 

[BC CJ]

Cool Jeep you're building. I've always thought converting the slide doors to swing open from the back would be cool. Suicide doors on a Jeep - that would be unique

 

[Kane]

I really like this build you are doing. I love cool and odd ball vehicles. Please do not stop posting pictures.

 

[gliryan]

I really like this build you are doing. I love cool and odd ball vehicles. Please do not stop posting pictures.

Will do!

I have been slowly working on this now that my 2002 is fairly road worthy. Yesterday I started on the wiring. I really think I've got 2x's as much wiring as needed. I discovered my regulator had some broken stuff inside it, so I swapped the generator for a generic chevy alternator I had laying around. Can't beat $45 alternators anyways. The chev pully isn't correct as its too narrow for the fat fhead belt, but it seems as though there wont be any issues with slippage. Some point in the last week I ran all new hard lines for the brakes. I found caliper brackets for disc front setup. I also cut open the floor so that the shift levers could move far enough to actuate the tcase. That does work, what a relief.

I wired up the ignition coil, starter, and alternator yesterday. Today I hooked them to a battery and it turned over! I started gutting the harness on the left side of the engine, there are tons of wires already with ends cut off and others that I'm getting rid of. Seems to me there was a flasher setup over there, included two boxes, one bigger one smaller. I'm going to get rid of those in favor for an electronic flasher relay I think.

I really need to finish the steering. Still need to either do a tie rod flip or order heim stuff. Need to get my fuel tank mounted still, fuel lines, soft brake lines, disc brake front swap, modify drive shafts. Thats the short list. I'm thinking maybe building square tube dshafts as it would be really easy to do and cheap. Also I don't think this will have road use as a goal for this summer. But we'll see, shafts aren't at the top of the list. Braking and running are.

too much !


chev alternator in place