The trooper will be crawling soon

Pinkston

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Mebane, NC
Here is the newest project for the trooper to get it crawling better.

S10 Bell housing, SM 420, and a dana 300

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This combo will take my crawl ratio from 30 something : 1 to 84:1 and I still have the option of 4:1 in the t-case.

Rebuilding the tranny

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Dana 300 all cleaned up with Novak adapter and twin sticks

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you and lee need to get that fawker together and come to the playground. belive me, its way better than where yall busted the trooper (lee told me the story) :flipoff2:
 
Man, that's gonna be a nice, short driveline!!
 
generally that's a good thing... not so much on a SAS'd trooper though. the biggest obstacle to overcome on one is getting a front shaft in. usually remedied by shoving the front axle way forward (at least 5 inches, more is better) and keeping the suspension low. that's another complication in and of itself due to the shape of the frame. pinkston has done both pretty well though, plus he's got more joints to choose from now than just the flex challenged isuzu one. keep in mind they've got enough rear shaft to require a 2 piece with a carrier bearing, so they've got some room to grow in the drivetrain department if need be. autos have a much more friendly front ouput to pinion length.
 
RufusTheRam said:
plus he's got more joints to choose from now than just the flex challenged isuzu one.
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True, but at the same time, the old set up Pinkston used a toyota U-joint/flange assembly and we redrilled the isuzu flange to accept it. None of the spicer u-joints for the dana 300 are gonna have the range of the toyota joint. But as you already pointed out, with as far forward as the axle is pushed, and with the relatively low height it should not be an issue.
 
looks pretty.

tyler
 
That ought to do it. Pics of vehicle?
 
got4-lo said:
i saw that thing at URE with a bust pitman arm. anyway is there a cage in that thing.
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Yea, the pitman arm is taken care of now. No cage in it yet. It will get an exo one of these days.
 
Pinkston said:
Yea, the pitman arm is taken care of now. No cage in it yet. It will get an exo one of these days.
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hell ya. like bigwoody said, nice to see other things besides jeeps.
 
Well everything is in. Still working out some bugs though. For some reason the front output on the t-case will not shift into low, its shifts into high fine. Any ideas? (dana 300 by the way)

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After all the bugs are worked out the big hole will get covered.

Also added some beef to the back.

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hind sight is 20/20 , and this is nothing I have not already told Pinkston. But in helping him through all of the mods and the swap, the caddilac motor is cool, but if we had know that he was gonna swap tranny/t-case a month after the motor swap it would not have been the motor of choice.
The reason he originally decided on the caddy motor was it would bolt up to the isuzu tranny. (bad idea with the gearing of the isuzu tranny/t-case) Looking back a 350 would have been a much easier swap knowing he was gonna end up with the sm420/dana 300 combo since the 350/ sm 420 setup is easy to figure out and 350 parts can be found in gumball machines . :flipoff2:
We have most everything worked out, but getting the caddy motor/s10 bellhousing/ custom made flywheel (for the old tranny)/ and the dana 300/ plus going back and having centerforce make a custom clutch to bolt in and all work together has been at the least a royal pain in the ass.
Plus we still had to find a pilot bushing and a throwout bearing to work with his oddball situation (not fun dealing with the dumbass parts monkeys when you can't give them a part # or exact application) :mad: I still think we are gonna need to find a different clutch master also since the new slave is alot larger, the stock master doesn't seem to move enough volume to get a good clutch feel. So back to argue with the parts monekeys to find something that will bolt up or can be modified to bolt up. ( although I have a YJ master that might do the trick for him)
But the plus side is the caddy motor is lighter, and has more HP/TQ than a TPI 350 of the same year, plus it is unique. (and he gets to put caddy emblems on :huggy: ) It should end up being a very sweet setup once we get all the bugs worked out. Now I just need to talk him into putting a 60 in the front :flipoff2:
And on another note, getting a front driveshaft to work with the short driveline combo and the placement of the motor (stock location) has been and still is gonna be a challange even with the front axle pushed forward 6"+
Looks like one of the new Tom Woods super flex joints might be the ticket though.
 
Pinkston said:
Well everything is in. Still working out some bugs though. For some reason the front output on the t-case will not shift into low, its shifts into high fine. Any ideas? (dana 300 by the way)
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did you try it with the rear in low? there are interlock pills that keep the front out of low unless the rear is in low, if you havent modified it.
 
I drove the Trooper around some this weekend and so far so good. The rear brakes need to be bled some more. They still have air in them after bleeding them for over an hour already. Still need to fine tune the clutch, probably just bleed it out some more. So far im liking it, the new crawl ratio is going to be very nice. Here are some new pictures.

Surprisingly we were able to use the stock crossmember in the stock location. It work out real well.

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New real drive shaft. 1310 CV on the transfer case end and a 1350 yoke on the other with 7" of slip. The tubing is 120 wall.

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Drive shaft, shocks, and anti wrap bar are in place.

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New front drive shaft made of triangle PTO tubing.

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Yes, it really is as steep as it looks so I am using Tom Woods superflex joints. I was a little suspect when I ordered them, but they really do allow alot more droop. We will see how they hold up.

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that looks like a pretty steep angle matt, your sure you dont want to bump that motor back like 6". its not like lee has any thing better to do :flipoff2: oh and lee thanks again for the steering help, it was much appreciated
 
I dont like the angle either, but it will work. The engine is not getting moved back. If anything the front axle will go forward, but I dont want to do that either.
 
cool man- crawlage is mo betta' :D

btw- I'm getting closer to getting those 36"s on the zuk.

btw again- it's funny about all the "not a jeep" posts b/c guess what's in his backyard ya'll????????? :)
 
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