88mjsally

Yea it’s a haul and I really don’t want to try shipping this. I did end up needing to keep the shifter but forgot to update this. I might be able to get it to Mexico beach FL which is at least a little closer

Got the rebuilt transfer case installed today. I thought I had the shifter figured out but then I test fit the console and it wasn’t going to work. Tried to heat it up and bend it but ended up breaking the threads off so went back to the drawing board. Turns out the zj ax15 shifter is set back further than an xj so it actually fits pretty decent and should let me run the oem console and shift boot. Test fit the new radiator too. Ended up just going with a stock brass/ copper one and I’ll have to get creative with the hoses. Hopefully it will keep it cool enough

One sucky leak to fix. At least it started leaking before I had the driveshafts back in. I got the new seal in, and I’ll put a transfer case back in tomorrow. Can’t decide if I want to put the rebuilt one back in or the one that I already had in it. The trans fluid didn’t look great either but hopefully it’s okay. It was milky but let’s hope that’s from me pressure washing it. I don’t have it in me to pull the trans back out at the moment and it seemed to shift okay driving around the house

Making some good progress this weekend. Got the fuel injectors and rails on. The wiring harness is mostly finished and hooked up. Jeep power steering pump pulley is on the corvette pump. Headers and collectors are bolted on. Waiting on a few more little parts then the big stuff left is the cooling system, fuel system, exhaust, driveshafts and tuning. Sadly the trans started leaking from the output so I’m also going to have to pull the transfercase off to fix that

I should have one too if he doesn’t have one^

Looks similar but my idler pulley is lower and I don’t think the oem steering reservoir will be an issue. Clears the hood fine. I have to get another smaller pulley but otherwise I think it’ll work. This is just mocked up but it seems to fit pretty well overall. Going to try the Jeep pulley as that’s what my buddy used in his xj ls swap and it seemed to work

Front accessories arrived yesterday and hopefully I can start getting them installed today. I went with a corvette style power steering pump setup from ICT Billet which I’ve seen other people use so hopefully it will clear everything. Also got the fuel injector spacers I ordered to use the oem vortec truck injectors

Been steady making progress the last couple days. Got the wiring harness pretty much buttoned up and all nicely wrapped with woven wrap. Fuse block is installed and almost all the way wired up. Got the aftermarket steam crossover on since the truck one hit the intake. Bypassed the heater core for now. Eventually I need to pull the dash again and replace the heater core and ac evaporator when I come back and add ac. I was going to order the Novak headers because I didn’t want to deal with fitment issues but the $800 price for coated ones was hard to justify. I ended up ordering 2 sets of Chinese eBay ls swap headers for about $200. The welds are actually surprisingly decent as is the overall quality. They fit really nicely as well, just need to order a different collector adapter for the passengers one as the o2 bung is in an annoying spot that hits everything no matter how it’s oriented

Got the gm pcm mounted in the oem Renix location with help from a PSI conversions universal mount. Fits really well overall. Still working on the wiring and next up is mounting the aftermarket fuse block under the hood

Took a little massaging but the engine is in and it fits really well overall. Just had to massage the firewall some for the bellhousing which I pretty much expected

I did a really good job cleaning the engine, the rest not so much but oh well you’re probably right lol. Come on down, I moved since last time I saw you so I’m about an hour closer

Mostly cleaned the transmission and transfer case up today. Didn’t do a great job but they are under the truck so it’ll be okay. Got it all bolted up to the engine and hopefully I’ll be able to set it in tomorrow

Had a few issues today. The QuickDraw kit is designed for the newer AX15 and won’t work with out of the box stuff with the older one from what I see. Luckily I had a backup plan which was the factory manual zj. After looking more it’s a rusty pos so I no longer feel bad about pulling the trans out of it. Going to clean it up tomorrow and hopefully get it bolted up to the engine. Clutch is on and one of the perks of this QuickDraw kit is it uses all off the shelf parts which will help down the road

Old 4.0 is out as of this morning and I got the engine bay cleaned up. Novak engine mounts are installed. Going to bolt the ax15 up to the engine tomorrow hopefully and get it set in its new home

Good used 2wd ax15 pulled out of a 1996 Jeep Cherokee with the 4.0. Sold as shown with an internal slave bellhousing. Seemed to shift good when I pulled it out of the jeep. Had around 170k miles on it when pulled. I’ve kept this around for a project then changed directions. Great for an auto to manual swap or to replace a bad BA10/5. $220 firm. Located in Orangeburg, SC. I ended up needing to keep the shifter

Pretty sure it is 3.55 which matches the front but I need to pop it open and check as it doesn’t have a tag on it. Worst case I’ll just regear the front to match whatever the rear is

Acquired a year old QuickDraw LS to AX15 adapter kit from one of my buddies. It uses a stock 6.0 clutch setup and flywheel which are on order as well as the pilot bearing

Got my new Speedmaster LS6 intake in today. Looks really nice and hopefully will clear the hood

AX15 acquired from a pretty much rust free half restored 1990 2 door xj that I’m sure nobody will like me parting out but it was my cheapest local 4WD AX15 so that’s what I’m going to use. Couldn’t bring myself to part out the 1995 factory manual ZJ I also bought for the transmission. Now I need to do something with a xj shell and another ZJ I sure didn’t need but sounds like a problem for another day

Well the ls swap is now in progress. I got most of the stuff disconnected from the 4.0 currently in the truck and it’s ready to pull out. Got the clutch pedal set in the truck from a 95 Cherokee I parted out a while ago. I cleaned the LS up as well. It’s a 5.3 with aluminum heads from a 2002 Chevy suburban. With it all clean I put on a car waterpump on it with a spacer kit for the truck balancer. Novak engine mounts are bolted on the block as well. Waiting on the intake now as well as the bellhousing kit for my transmission

Just let me know next time you are this way and we can possibly try to meet up

Man I wish you were closer… I have a good 2wd one in SC and have been searching for a 4wd one for my dually Comanche’s ls swap

Got started on the ls swap wiring harness. Thining down the factory harness from the 2002 suburban donor. It seems like a lot but really isn’t too bad. LT1swap.com has some really good diagrams which has helped a lot so far. Also forgot to post the pictures I took when I hauled it to a car show. I almost need a wider trailer

It’s aluminum and appears to be riveted together. There is rubber on the vertical pieces to cushion it from the glass as well. I don’t really have the stuff to measure thickness correctly. Honestly it’s a pretty complicated assembly so it would be hard to replicate without having one in front of you to copy all the dimensions and angles from and a full metal fab shop. That’s at least my personal opinion

It’s aluminum