401 swap into my CJ7

[TKFireman]

This morning I installed new bearings, races and seals where I could. Must say that my HF 20 ton press and race/seal driver set makes this much easier. After lunch fedex dropped off several boxes containing the AA adapter, 5 quarts of gear oil, new shift tower and small parts kit. I got the countershaft and reverse idler gear installed. Checked the endplay of the countershaft, put in a shim, rechecked and got .002" end play. Spec is .002" - .006" with .002" preferred, so I'm dead on there. The T177 and D300 I did both had loose roller bearings. This trans has its roller bearings in cages, makes it much easier to line everything up and put together. I have to wait until I get the new syncro struts and springs in before I can assemble the mainshaft and continue, they'll be here in a day or two.
The new shift tower is for a newer dodge shifter, with an adapter to use a newer GM shfiter. I got the kit with the adapter because it was the same price as everyone else's and gives me more options. My shifter is an older dodge style, I'm going to have to make them work together. I'm not sure how yet, but will probably wait until I install the trans so i can put the shifter where i want it at the height I want it.

 

[Tom@Hilltop_Machine]

Looks good. I have the older top with the round shifter opening. I wish I had the square one because they make a short shift kit so you can row the gears easier.

 

[TKFireman]

Thanks tknopp. I wound up with one of each style of shift cover, but the older style one has some bad rust on the shift rails. This picture is before I cleaned up the new version and painted it. I looked at the short throw shifters, but the ones I saw were pretty expensive, hard to tell how this one throws with just the stubb to shift it with right now. It seems like a fairly short throw, but it'll be different with a 3' shift handle on it

 

[TKFireman]

Surprisingly, the springs I ordered Monday showed up today, so i began putting the mainshaft together. I didn't take many pictures, but have a few. Most of the lock rings weren't hard to install, but one gave me a fit for about 20 minutes before i finally got it on. I finished up the mainshaft, installed it into the case then installed the front bearing retainer with RTV sealing it and the bolts. I put the rear bearing retainer on and checked end play, after adding shims, I got it as close as I can with the shims I have. It is suppose to be between .002" and .006" like the countershaft. The best I can get it is about. 0065" that's gonna have to do. I put the shift cover on and went through all the gears except 5th and they all worked fine. I'll install 5th and it's shift linkage tomorrow. This trans is getting very heavy very quick. When i brought it home I picked it up out of the bed of the truck and carried across the garage to my work bench, not sure I want to do that again.
While I was working my neighbor came over and asked if he could use my shop press to split his firewood.......

 

[TKFireman]

The rebuild kit came with three gaskets, two for the PTO covers and one to go between the trans and the x-fer case. I was thinking about just using RTV for the PTO covers, thats what everything else on it uses, ya'll have any opinions on that?

 

[TKFireman]

Finished up building the trans today. Installed 5th gear and the shift linkage for it. My homemade wrench worked well even though the 1/2" square hole for the wrench started giving way, but it worked. Strapping the trans to the bench worked good for torqueing the nut on, even though i don't have a torque wrench that goes to 270 ft-lbs, the breaker bar said it is as tight as i could make it. Im sure its in the neighborhood and not going anywhere. I installed the PTO covers, tailhousing and shift cover all with RTV and either sealant or locktigh on the bolts, depending on if the went inside the case or not. It shifts good through all 5 gears and reverse. I don't put any fluid in it yet, going to give the RTV time to set up first. I ordered a pigtail that will allow me to hook into the original reverse light plug for this trans. I still need a new release bearing, mount and driveshafts. Anyone that has done this swap, pictures of how you did the mount on the skidplate would be appreciated. The PTO ports make for a nice way to see how the gears mesh, and are handy if you drop a bolt in the case...I think I figured out how to use my current shift handle, I'll post pictures another day if it works.

 

[TKFireman]

Got some more done, I got the trans filled with fluid now that the RTV has had time to set up. There is a rectangular hole in the AA bellhousing that I assume is for some sort of sensor that my old junk doesn't use. I called AA and they said they don't have a plug for the hole, so i made one myself out of some rusty 1/8" scrap I had laying around. I also made my old style shifter work. I cut the adapter that came with my new shift apart, and cut the threaded stubb off the old style shifter housing that is ruined by rust. I put the two together with a piece of 3/4" ID steel pipe, drilled some holes and made some plug welds, smoothd it out and painted. It seems to work good and cost almost nothing. It shifts good with a full size shift handle on it.

 

[TKFireman]

Over the weekend I got the bellhousing painted and figured out what mounts I'm going to use. Today I took everything apart and found a few other issues that are going to cost me money. There's a surprise..........first, the t-case will not slide all the way onto the trans. The later 4500's adapter was cut more shallow than the early ones. AA makes a kit to replace the input bearing and retainer on the d300 to solve this, so I made another call to Zach from A to Z and the adapter is on its way. Again, his price including shipping was less than AA's advertised sell price before shipping, but it still isn't cheap. I was aware that this may be an issue, but was hoping for the best.
I pulled the T177, bell housing, clutch, pilot bearing and removed the flywheel. The reason for removing the flywhell is the guy at AA said that the flywheel needs to be no more than 1 1/8" thick from the disk surface to the mounting surface of the crank. Of course, mine is about 1 1/4" so i will need to have it surfaced by at least 1/8" glad I found out now instead of after I got it all assembled though.
The stand I made to go on my floor jack worked well....at first....then I realized it is too tall to roll out from under the jeep. This was not an issue with the relatively light T177, but the 4500 will be a different story. I may try removing the exhaust from one side to make clearance, if not, I may lift one side of the jeep, roll it under, then lower the jeep again, I'll take some measurements and figure it out.

 

[TKFireman]

This thing proceeded to kick my butt today
I reinstalled the flywheel after another call to AA to double check the thickness, the guy I talked to today said mine was fine, and that was an old instruction sheet that hadn't been updated. So I installed the flywheel, got all the bolts torqued, then removed the flywheel because I realized that I had forgotten to put the dust shield on first. After fixing that I installed the pilot bushing, clutch, bellhousing, starter, lower dust cover and slave cylinder. All of this wasn't bad, hardest part was finding a place to mount the external release arm return spring, since AA doesn't incorporate that into the bellhousing likt the stock one, when I asked about that to AA, I was told to fabricate a bracket for it...
That's when things got frustrating. I spent about 4 hours this afternoon trying to stab the 4500. I never even got the input to engage the clutch splines. I'm obviously not a mechanic, but this got ridiculous. The alignment tool slides right in, everything looks to be lined up, I even have a spare clutch disk I dug out to make sure it went on the input. The release bearing slides freely on the input retainer. I had the floor jack under the trans and a bottle jack under the bellhousing playing with different angles. The trans is in fourth so i can turn the output to adjust the input shaft. I'm stumped.
I'm done messing with it today. Tomorrow I'm goin out of town for the day, going to pick up a XJ front double cardan shaft and yoke which happens to be along the route of my trip. I reckon I'll try again Saturday. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Picture 3 it looks like the clutch disk isn't lined up, but that's just the angle of the camera and my bad photography
Picture 4 is the fartherest I got it in.

 

[TKFireman]

Figured out that if I angle the trans a little with a wedge under the front of it, it helps to line everything up. I also found out that the two LUK clutch disks that i have with the same part number are made slightly different, the one with more bevel on the splines is easier to start onto the input shaft. Got it to slide into the clutch disk, but no further. I measured everything out, the pilot bearing is not binding, nothing is bottoming out, the clutch disk is centered, the alignment tool slides in and out easily. The only thing I can figure is that i dinked the pilot bushing slightly while installing it. The alignment tool is about .020" smaller than the input. Tomorrow I think I'm going to remove the bellhousing and clutch and see if the trans will slide into the pilot bushing without anything else in the way.

 

[TKFireman]

Success!!! Turns out that i must have deformed the ID of the pilot bushing slightly, not enough to be noticible, but enough for the pilot tip to not go in. I very gently hit the outer edge of it with a round file and it slid right in. Got it all put back together and trans stabbed without issue. Drilled new holes in the skid plate and got it mounted, even though it'll have to come back out later. I didn't put the t-case drop spacers in. I don't think trans would fit without either a 1" body lift, which i have, or the drop kit. I'm going to have to bend the shifter a little, and it appears that I'll have to trim the tub a little to make room for the twin sticks, but that's going to have to wait until the new input kit gets here so i can bolt it up and see.

 

[TKFireman]

Got more done. Installed the starter and slave cylinder. Wired up the reverse light switch, bent the shifter to fit better. Its still pretty tall, may cut it shorter, but gonna try it like this first, see if i like it. Got the new input retainer for the dana 300 in today, and after stripping the torx heads on two of the bolts, and drilling them enough to break the heads off, I got the stock one off, and new one installed. The new retainer uses a sealed bearing and no front seal. Then got the t-case mounted. I also bought a new hose long enough to run the trans vent into the engine bay, beside the stock t-case vent, which I later noticed is cracked, so I'll replace it too.
I still need to bleed the clutch, fill the t-case with oil, get the rear driveshaft cut, order a new front driveshaft, which may wait a while, torque down the trans mounts, install the twinsticks, make a new tunnel cover, and get a longer speedo cable, but getting closer everyday.

 

[TKFireman]

Got several little things done today. New vents installed for trans and t-case. New speedo cable installed. Found out that my engine is now slanted back around 5°, had to adjust the manual choke cable due to the new tilt of the engine. New CV yoke installed and driveshaft dropped off to be shortened. Length is 20.5." Bled the clutch, but after firing it up and going through the gears, I think it needs to be bled some more. Installed the twin sticks, several times, playing with the bend in the sticks. I think I got it to a place it will work, but going to have to shorten them, think they will hit the dash with any size knob on them. Also filled t-case with oil and torqued down mounting bolts

 

[TKFireman]

After figurin out that the trans output was bottoming out in the dana 300 just enough to put everything in a bind, and the new cv yoke was slightly too long binding up the rear output, i fixed those problems, got everything installed with my shortened XJ driveshaft and took it around the block. drove and shifted great
i still need to tweek the twinsticks and make a tunnel cover. Changing the angle of the engine when i removed the t-case drop changed the exhaust angle to the point it leaks badly at the heaer collector joint, so i need to fix that, but it runs and drives now.

 

[TKFireman]

i cut a slit in the exhaust and let the gap open up to get the angle it likes and welded it back shut, no more exhaust leaks. Also got the tunnel cover made, but not sure where im going to find a trans shifter boot. im having trouble posting pictures with this new set-up for the forum. it won't let me paste the photobucket link anymore.......

 

[cj5walt]

Congrats on getting it going!


Lemme know if you want to part with the t177

 

[TKFireman]

I'll send you a pm shortly cj5walt.

 

[Transplant]

Great build thread....I love this engine/transmission combo in the CJ body!

Color me jealous ~

 

[TKFireman]

Its been a while since I've updated this. Engine and trans are working good together. I broke the 35" mudders loose the other day in second on dry pavement. I still need to find someone that is good with Holley's to help me dial it in. A few other things I've accomplished is a new front driveshaft, I put in a charcoal canister which helped get rid of the gas fume smell. I ripped all the OBA lines out that were cracked and leaking and have DOT push lock fittings and hose ordered to replace it. I'm curently working on some rock sliders made from angle iron bolted to the frame, 2x2 square tubing as out riggers, 2x4 rect. tubing for the sliders and round tubing as steps. I haven't learned to post pictures with the new set-up. If i figure it out, i'll post some up.

 

[TKFireman]

I've got all the air lines replaced and have started on the sliders. It'll be a few days before I can work on it anymore due to working a lot. A few days ago I switched the vacuum advance from ported vacuum to manifold vacuum, and this thing is running smoother than ever, runs strong and the shut-downs are cleaner. So far I'm liking the manifold vacuum. I hope to put it on a dyno before too long just to see what it'll do and get a professional to help me finish dialing it in.

 

[Caver Dave]

I broke the 35" mudders loose the other day in second on dry pavement

If you haven't welded up that M20 (stitched the tubes to housing/trussed), better do it now! Tater spun his tubes/chunk at the Flats with a 258 & 33"s

 

[TKFireman]

Thanks for the heads up. I've heard a little about that, do you just remove the paint and put a couple 1" to 2" welds between the tubes and housing, or weld it all the way around? Does it need to be disassembled at all, or drain the fluid from it first? I plan to go down to 33's before long, the 35's scrub, and I don't want to cut any sheet metal off the fenders. Before I truss it, I think I would look for a 9" to replace it with. Replacing the axles may happen in the future, but can't afford it now or anytime soon.

 

[Caver Dave]

do you just remove the paint and put a couple 1" to 2" welds between the tubes and housing, or weld it all the way around?

Stitching would be fine or if you're getting some "seepage", weld it all the way around (short stitches, alternating sides). Some will argue you need nickel rod/pre&post heat/blankets/peening to do it "correctly"... but there are dozens that were stuck using buzzboxes/crap rod and hundreds that were MIG'd still out there being abused

 

[TKFireman]

I stitched the tubes of the AMC20 with a mig, has to make it stronger, even if it isn't the perfect way to do it. Thanks Caver Dave. I can't post pictures right now, I'm on duty at the fire station, but I got one slider welded up on the the passenger side, but I'm a little concerned I set it too close to the tub. It has about 1/4" gap between the slider and the tub. I put a highlift under it and lifted until most of the suspension was out and it flexed to where it was very close to the tub, but could see a little light between them. Ya'll think I should cut them apart and set them up a little lower? If so, how much lower?

 

[TKFireman]

I decided to lower the slider down some, so I cut it apart, cleaned up the parts and set it back up with a 3/4" gap between the slider and tub. I got everything welded up, bolted it on and the flex was more than I'd like. I picked up on it while watching it, and it looks to be torquing around the frame rails. I'm going to try putting another plate on the inner side of the frame to sandwich it, then I can tighten the bolts without worrying about crushing the frame and see if that works. If not I'll look for some sleeves to go through the frame or add 2 more bolts to each mount to stiffen it up.. I also added some gussets. I'll work on it some more friday, but I think I'm getting low on my welding gas, went through it faster than normal, I need to check for a leak.