jpnjim

BTW, I dig the chopped top, I never did get the street sign thing, but it's the Toyota frame (with the front wheels way too far back from where they should be) that puts this on the "p.p.t.J.o.o.i.m" list

Maybe its because there are so many available old/cheap Jeeps out there, but Jeep seems have more than its fair share of "odd" builds, so I'll start the "please put this Jeep out of its misery" thread with this gem; https://nh.craigslist.org/cto/6087370840.html 1948 Willeys Jeep Pick Up RATROD - $6000 4" chopped top, Toyota frame, 1963 Ford straight 6, 3 speed standard trans. Call only! Cannot respond to e-mails ^ anyone want to top this one? :thumbsup:

I have the same problem I usually just self tap the plate to the bumper face and cut a hole for a factory style plate light off to one side. A buddy has a plasma cutter, so I'm thinking about cutting out a license plate sized chunk of the bumper, and setting the cut piece in so the plate sits recessed off to the left side of the bumper At this build rate I have a few more years before I get to that point :doh:

I hear ya Jim, but since Big Papi retired the Sox and baseball in general don't turn me on as much anymore. Hopefully it will pass.......... I understand I know it was tough for me to watch them celebrate the end of the regular season (and Papi's retirement) then get swept in the playoffs :ack: Way to waste a golden opportunity to send Ortiz out at the top of his game. But such is life, it can be a good team this year if they can just get firing on all cylinders. I imagine there's less and less New England sports fans in your neck of the woods these days with all the :fs2: :grrrr: :mad: :wall: at Brady

New one is awesome! but I liked the Sox Win plate :yes:

That's pretty awesome, hope you post up plenty of pics (or video!) when it's done. ZJ rear coils are the same as MJ/XJ/ZJ/TJ fronts, only a lot shorter. Might be worth trying some uncut rear lift coils instead of the cut down front lift coils if you came across a set. I've used them + spacers in the front of XJ/MJ's when I wanted stiffer than factory springs, but not a higher ride height.

It would be cool to see a decal like this with 31x10.5R15 and or 255/85R16 sizes on it :yes: Not that anyone would ever use it to try to convince an inspection station that 31/32's are legit or anything :brows:

Best thing I ever did was buy my first house in a so-so area when the economy was total crap. It was terrible timing for me financially, but prices were dirt cheap, so buying a 2 family and renting out half would be cheaper than paying rent on the 1 bedroom apartment I had. When things improved for me financially, I kept the cheap house/low standard of living. I kept my bills low, and hammered the mortgage payment as much as I could, refinanced it when the rates dropped, and instead of dipping into the equity to buy crap I didn't need we paid it off after about 13 years. After 20 years of living cheap, the market was low again so I bought a house I really wanted at a good price. So it took 20 years to get what I wanted, but it was 20 years of living below my means, not worried about losing my house or going broke when I got laid off. I had friends that lived better during that 20 years, and friends that lived worse, I chose security over spending every dime I had. Your choice, or better yet marry rich and you can have security AND every material item you want :yes:

Car came out nice, you should be proud! Especially if you only ended up spending $4k ish in body and paint! I always loved the lines on that car :thumbsup:

Or use about 3 ft of extension! I installed mine seperate and while it was all 4 tires (no jack stands), easy easy!!! I cut a 9/16 combination wrench in half to reach those upper T-case nuts. & slip a second wrench around the stubby end for torque. I use the box end of the cut wrench for initial loosening & final tightening, and use the open end to spin the nut quickly when it's loose. It's really not that bad. Edit, It was 22 years ago, but I can still remember exactly what bench pressing the trans/transfer case combo in and out of my 87 Cherokee twice in one month feels like. Spinning the driveshaft with my feet to line the input shaft up into the clutch disk :ack: Once to do the clutch, and again when the slave cylinder went a couple weeks later. :fs1: I wasn't too dumb to do them both at the same time, just too broke. :( I don't think I could do that anymore so I do the trans and transfer case seperate now :)

I'd check for bent shift forks first. Rail shifter transmissions like this can act up if the shift rails get bent and do all kinds of bad things just like this. I never had an AX-15 apart, so take this info with a grain of salt.

Probably 15 years ago I bought some American Racing wheels for an XJ, Proudly said "Made In USA" on the outside of all the boxes, but each wheel had one of those cheesy little oval "Made in China" stickers on the inside of the wheel where the tire would cover. If I didn't pick them up bare to install tires myself I would have never known. :fs1:

^This links to a Haynes manual for me now lol.

I just did, and it bounced back on Ebay as undeliverable............ They are asking $19,500. Web site: http://www.hillcityhotrods.com/windowsticker.php?vehicle=867936&1998%20JEEP%20CHEROKEE%20SPORT%204-DOOR%204WD The auction *may* have been pulled, Petes link in the other thread goes to a Haynes Manual for me now :???:

Two more points, I wonder what his reserve is? If it's under 10k you could sell the rear bumper and visor for 5k a piece and have a free truck :fine print: :rotf: Best pic of the whole ad;

Few thoughts here; 1)it's way way above my ability to design and build, so keep that in mind with any of my comments below 2) I wonder why they didn't use late model rear inner door panels 3) shape of back door would drive me crazy 4) I wonder what they did to the uni-frame to make it all work 5) based on this, I'd want mine with a slightly shorter cab, and a short bed (or even a bobbed bed) 6) most importaint point, That's awesome and a work of art by someone with a lot of talent!

OK then, someone must have needed a new nose, that sucks. You could probably fab some sheet metal panels up to support the headlights, and hide it with a later full width plastic grill.

My old 73' granny trans & 4.10's = big heavy and slow even with a fresh 360, bigger cam, Edelbrock Performer, dual exhaust & Holley 750 vac. omega_rugal, you said the one you're looking at doesn't have a grille? Does it have the sheetmetal that would normally be below the grille like above?

Depends on what you want to do with it, if geared right, a 4.0L J20 would be a decent around town truck. I had a 73 J4000 (3/4 ton) as a daily driver for a few years, with a wide ratio granny gear T-18 & 4.10 axles, even with a decent 360 (torque cam/intake & 4v Holley) it was still going nowhere fast. It's easy to forget how many old full size trucks went their whole lives with L6's chugging them along, in all honesty, other than holding the shifts out a few more RPM's, I don't a think 4.0L swap would have changed the slow moving, stump pulling personality of that truck. Well, that and maybe the 8MPG might have improved to 10 with MPI lol. :doh: :yes:

My foggy memory is telling me the Renix Manual TPS was 3x's the price when I needed one, so I just went with an auto's. :yes:

Big big differences from 62-73 and 74+, 1974+ has a lot of improvements, easiest way to tell is to look at the wheels, almost all 62-73's have a 5 lug (on 5.5") wheel pattern (1/2 ton and 3/4+ ton) 74's went to 6 lug for the J10's and 8 lug for the J20's. 62-73 J-Trucks (not Waggy's) had terrible 2" wide front leaf springs and were spring over axle up front. 74+ J-trucks went to the (much better) 2.5" wide Waggy style front leafs, and were SUA. 74+ had open knuckle front axles 62-73 had weaker closed knuckle front axles. That should narrow it down for you, there were also big changes in 1980, with the front axle drop going from passengers side to drivers side, and the top of the cab losing the built in sheet metal 'visor'. If there's no VIN, look for an aluminum plate under the hood, or on later Jeeps, an emissions sticker, the sticker should give a model year, the aluminum plate a serial number.

We don't have hording problems, we just need bigger garages/basements/attics/backyards :yes: The last realestate agent gave me the :dunno: :hmm: :???: :nuts: look when I told her I only wanted to see houses with 'unfinished' basements :driving: :wrench:

just to add, that "4th shift" is probably the lockup torque converter going in and out (pretty sure the 86' had a lock up), and that 4cyl may struggle pulling overdrive on anything but flat ground even if you do the swap. :driving:

Swapping in a overdrive Jeep 5 speed, or finding a later (hard to find) 4cylinder AW4 4spd Auto are the simplest swaps, but the AMC L4 uses one of the most common "GM 60 degree" bellhousing patterns around: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GM_bellhousing_patterns = almost every transmission was made in that pattern at one time or another. so even GM 4 speed auto's are out there that will bolt up, but you'd have to figure out how to make the starter and flexplate work. A S-10 T-5 (5 speed manual) would be an option too, though a Jeep AX-5 (weak) or Dakota bellhousing + AX-15/NV3550 would be the most common solution.

The AMC 6 changed bellhousing bolt patterns between 1971 and 1972, so if that L6 is original, the trans will not bolt to a 4.0L. The 4.0L shares bellhousing patterns with *66-91 AMC V8, and 1972+ AMC L6's. So a 1970's/80 Jeep T-18, or T176 4 speed will bolt up to a 4.0L, but you'd have to do something about the Crankshaft Positioning Sensor, since the 4.0L MPI needs one to work. FSJ T-18's used super long input shafts & extended bellhousings to get the transmission shifter out from underneath the dashboard, I don't know if the T170 series transmissions in FSJ's did the same thing or not, so keep in mind if you go with a non-FSJ transmission you might have to get creative if the transmission shifter pokes out from under the dash. T170 series Jeep transmissions are made by Tremac, they are decently strong, but far from bulletproof in a full size. 6 cylinder gear spacing is similar to our AX-15/NV's, without the overdrive. T-18's are strong, but with wider spaced ratio's, my old FSJ had a non-syncro 6.32 first gear, so it was a glorified 3 speed, starting in second gear on the street. I'd probably just use an AX-15, or NV3550 5 speed overdrive trans, and try to keep it alive in while pushing 1000lbs more Jeep around. I don't have a 1970 Jeep Factory Service Manual handy, but the 1969 book says ALL Gladiator L6 (232) automatics came with 4.27 axle gears, so the overdrive would be helpful. Also, double check the year, the J20 name wasn't used until 1974, lots and lots of changes were put in place from 1970 to 1974. *66-91 date for AMC V8's is for the later thin wall V8's, and does NOT include the first generation AMC 327 Vigilante's that were held over, and still used in Jeeps up until at least 1969. The first generation AMC V8's had it's own bellhousing pattern different from the later V8's, and the L6's.