what drive train would you swap in?

[raser13]

hey guys, i've been looking at bone yards for cj parts and coming up pretty bare in this area. what i did find was an old mail jeep just rotting away. it's body is in let's say 70% good shape and about 30% rust. and it has the original four banger motor. the frame is still in good shape with no cancer. i know that i can probably get this thing cheap and it's calling to me to get it back on the road. with little access to alot of cheap amc parts around i was thinking of doing a ford or chevy swap out just to get it back on the road a little quicker and cheaper. what would you guys recommend for a motor and tranny combo to swap out to? and what would they come out of? would you recommend swapping out the axles to something else at the same time. i'm not afraid of the work. and the bone yards have lots of ford and chevy parts to spare. so let the masters share their knowledge with me.

 

[cass]

is it a 4x4 mail jeep? if its 2wd i would recomend a 2.3 ford pinto motor and tranny.....or ranger 2.3 and tranny. pinto will have a 4 speed and ranger could have auto or 5 speed or whatever else. those two are good combos and the after market behind the 2.3 is awesome. you can take a fuel injected 2.3 and put a adapter on it to run a carb without any trouble. i just know this because before my CJ5 i had a sand rail i converted from volkswagen to ford 2.3 pinto motor. it ran like a bastard for a 4 banger to!


or.....

350 chevy!!! and a 350 trany!!! :drool:

 

[raser13]

i guess i should have been a little more specific in my musings. i was looking at making this into a good 4X4 toy. i would like to have a 4X4 set up with a manual tranny. hadn't thought about looking into rangers. are the sixes and trannys that are in them really tough enough to handle the trails and such? i'm not planning on making this thing climb cliffs but i'd like to get out into the mud and rocks with it. is there something that had a 302 type set up that was pretty strong but had the smaller width of the jeeps? i don't remember any V8 rangers. what about the chevy side? any thing really god and bullet proof there. don't mention dodge. i've had a few really bad experiences with them and i'm not looking to go there again unless there is something that you guys deem as just amazing.

 

[cass]

bronco is about the only thing i can think of that fits the bill. of course it has full width axles. but that would get you a ford 9 in rear and a Dana 44 high steer front if you choose the right year.

 

[Old Dog]

. what about the chevy side? any thing really god and bullet proof there.

Any 350 or 4.3 would be good. Any swap is not going to be cheap though.

 

[raser13]

i know that modding to a different set up aint gonna be cheap. i really meant cheaper. i'm thinking i'm probably going to go the ford route. i had a lot of them and am used to their set ups. plus everything uses that beautiful ford 9 inch. i can find something with a 9in and disks and really be set up nice. now i have to see if i can get the jeep for the right price.

hey cass what years of bronco had the high steer front?

 

[csuengr]

No Bronco had high steer. Some had a high pinion Dana 44 ('78-'79 only). Maybe that is what he meant. There are far more F150's than '78-'79 Broncos and have the same running gear. Anything after '79 has a TTB front.

There is also two versions of the Ford coil spring, high pinion Dana 44 . Light duty and regular. The diff is that the light duty has cast outer tubes with the radius arm mounts. The regular has welded on radius arm mounts.

 

[Incommando]

EB's were not "full width" either. The 9" is pretty over-rated for off-road use. The pinion is extremely low. It is just another 1/2 ton rear like the 8.8, Dana 44 , etc... If it was so hot why didn't Ford ever use it in anything but light duty 1/2 ton trucks? Heavy GVWR .5 ton trucks and of course the 3/4 tons got the D60 or another better rear. " rear with discs"?. You gonna try to make a '79 Lincoln Versailles rear work in that jeep?

Making an unusual 2wd jeep with a lot of issues into a decent 4x4 is really a not-recommended way to go especially if your ability, experience, knowledge, and money are all Limited .

The SBC or even Ford swaps have been covered to death all over the jeep web and there are literally hundreds of articles about it. Have you researched at all?

The Ford HP Dana 44 with the weld on radius arm mounts was used in the light duty vehicles like the F150 & Bronco in '77-prior while the junk cast in versions were '78-'79. I am 99.5% sure that they did not co-exist year-to-year as "light" or "heavy" options. The same era of F250, even the low GVWR versions, got a HP Dana 44 that used a leaf spring front suspension not radius arms. Same special pkg F250's got a front D60 that was also leaf-sprung. And to repeat the Bronco was not high steer.

Back to the OP: Why don't you just build the jeep in your sig line? To be quite frank the build you are debating in this thread is far beyond the ability of someone who can't identify what axles are in their current jeep. "1977 CJ5 304ci ,T-150 tranny, and dont know the diff's"