cj 5 build

[WARRIORWELDING]

Good luck with your build, sounds like from the plans not much of the CJ will be left. Kinda a shame that one appears very solid and resto mod material, talk Criss into a full on frame and buggy save that one for posterity. Justy food for thought before such good iron gets the hack job. Sorry for the high jack and like I said before good luck with your build.

 

[Baker]

Well the motor is done just have to buy an intake for it! Already have a new carb sitting In a box waiting for it. I also picked up a sm465/205 tranny and transmission from Altoids on here so after I get my bell housing machined ill be able to throw my drivetrain together and into the jeep. When I come home from deployment I will be pretty busy. What do you guys think of the amc blue?

 

[Baker]

Time to bring this thread back to the top. I cleaned my garage up a bunch yesterday and organized my tools so I can start working on this thing again.

All I need I drop the drivetrain back into this thing is a clutch and an intake.

Clutch- what do y'all recommend for this ? Engine is amc 360 and tranny is a 10 spline sm465. I'm still a newbie so all input helps.

Intake - I think I'm just going to go with an edelbrock performer aluminum intake.

No pics just yet but hopefully this weekend will be productive and pic worthy.

 

[Baker]

Well this thing has just been sitting and I finally got sick of tripping over stuff in the garage so I dropped the long block in the frame yesterday. It's a little off center I need to adjust the right side motor mount. Still need to pick up an intake and start putting accessories on the front of the motor.

I listed this thing for sale but who knows I might hear it fire up and decide to keep going.

 

[Baker]

Well my ship got homeport shifted to Jacksonville, FL so with the wife still in virginia I brought the CJ with me. I figure without the wife nagging and her honey do list I can actually get somewhere lol.

I found a shop here and made friends with the owner. He was nice enough to let me keep the jeep there and come use his tools and shop whenever I please. So yesterday I hauled the jeep to his shop and started working on it.

I sand blasted the alternator mounts and painted them black, installed the intake manifold and threw a thermostat in it. I also sandblasted the crank dampner and all my pulleys and painted them as well. I started making a parts list and decided to call it a night. More to come soon should have the motor fired in a week or 2

 

[78cj5Guy]

I thought you were selling everything you change your mind?

 

[Baker]

Yeah I had lost interest for a while and I have a little girl due in April but now that I have time to work on it while I'm away from my wife I'm getting motivated again.

On that note I just picked up carb studs, radiator, and an hei billet distributor for this thing so hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get all my pulleys on, the radiator installed, distributor in, carb mounted and a few other little things done.

 

[78cj5Guy]

thats cool I got a 1 year boy he just turnd 1 december 29. glad to you see you get back on it. my wife wanted me to get rid of my jeep and my truck I told her she would go before thay did and she keeps her month shut about them now

 

[Baker]

Haha she didn't tell me I had to get rid of it but I had lost interest. Now that I'm close to hearing it run I'm wanting to finish it again.

 

[Baker]

Well something came up and I can't get anything done on the cj this weekend but I did buy a bikini top for it, a new ignition cylinder, radiator, distributor, and carb studs so hopefully I can do some work to it this week.

 

[Baker]

Mounted pulleys, fan , distributor, and carb than I yanked the motor back out so I can mount my transmission and transfer case.

On that note I ran into an issue with the bell housing. I thought I was good to go but turns out I had the wrong case. I snagged the right one and machined the bearing retainer on the lathe rather than rebore the bell housing. Than I used a piece of poster board and transferred the bolt pattern to the new bell housing and drilled the holes on the drill press.

I had to order the pressure plate and pilot bearing but I had everything else. So when I finally get my pressure plate delivered it'll all go back together and back in the frame rails.

 

[Baker]

Ok so pressure plate finally showed up. So I put my clutch on. Had to turn down a Chevy pilot bearing on the lathe to make it work.

Than I rolled the jeep outside and used the fork lift to slide the drivetrain in place. I put the grill back on and tossed a couple bolts in the headers to check how they fit. I also dropped the radiator in place.

The issue I'm gonna have to tackle next is the rear driveshaft. I also need a skid plate. Obviously the stock cj 5 skid plate isn't going to work. Rear drive shaft is going to be ridiculously short. Has anybody done this swap before?

 

[Baker]

Worked on it some more this afternoon. Put the starter on, both headers, spark plugs, and both fenders, and I was playing around with a grinder and my skid plate. I think I notched it just enough to clear my transfer case if I put a little spacer on the frame rails before I put the skid plate on.

I had to heat up the drivers side header and massage it a little bit with a hammer to clear my clutch linkage.

Starting to look like a jeep again!

 

[78cj5Guy]

looking good. and what brand are the headers?

 

[Baker]

They are headman headers. Picked them up on Craigslist for like $100.00 new in the box.

 

[Baker]

Alright I finally finished buttoning up the engine and fired it up. Thing sounds great I took a video but I got a new phone and can't figure out how to upload it via tapa talk. Does anyone know how to do that with a galaxy s4?

 

[grapehead]

any idea if a hydraulic clutch swap is doable on your drivetrain? i had done that on my old cj with a 4.2 and t5 after i got tired of the sloppy mechanical linkage, and would highly recommend it if possible.

 

[Baker]

I'm sure it's do able. Right now I'm just trying to get it on the trails and work out the weak links from there

 

[strange1]

I swapped an sm420/Dana300 combo into a cj5, and the rear shaft was very short. You will most likely need a double carden shaft to eliminate vibrations. My combo was shorter than yours, but with a spring over my shaft was running about 5 degrees short of maximum travel at normal height. I ran a limit strap in the center of the diff to keep it from maxing out and destroying the joint.

I just read more of the thread.... Are you keeping the 205 transfer case? Those things with the adapter are ridiculously long, I don't recommend putting in a short wheelbase rig.

 

[Baker]

I was thinking about maybe a twin stick 300 in the future and it's also going to get stretched but the 205 was a combo and I didn't feel like dishing out 5 bills for an advanced adapter to run the Dana 20 only to upgrade it in the future

 

[strange1]

If you are planning on stretching it quite a bit, the 205 may work. It will certainly be strong enough. I think the Dana 300 would be your best bet if you are planning on having it still look like a jeep when finished. I still have my sm420/dana300 combo out of my old jeep if you decide to change directions.

 

[Baker]

I'll keep that in mind man thanks.

 

[Baker]

Rolled it out of the shop tonight to make room temporarily for another small project.

Pulled the gas tank out to inspect it and make sure it didn't have any bad fuel so I don't trash my fresh motor. Replaced the sending unit and should have it tucked back in there tomorrow.

Still need to sand blast and paint the mounting brackets for my seats and install them. I need to swap out my steering column for a used one in good shape kicking around the shop, and start tackling the wiring. So far I've got a head light and both tail lights that work. Need to make sure it'll be road worthy. Some of the 36 year old wiring needs updating/replacing.

 

[upnover]

MIght want to consider just taking all the old wiring out and ordering a new 12 circuit one. Would be much easier, not to mention safer and more reliable.

 

[Baker]

Thanks for the advice I'll look into it.