neohic

Welcome! I love it when this truck pops back up. Are you a new caretaker?

Probably. The CJ has been getting out for little errands around town. Think I’m learning the secret handshake with the new transmission. It has been really nice driving this truck daily but I’m making a list of things that need attention.

Small update on this old truck. Daily driver status has been moved from our Focus to the Eliminator. Last weekend I noticed that the car was low on coolant and I ended up dumping a gallon into it. “That’s weird… it’s practically new!” I did some poking around and found a crack in the side of the cylinder head right next to a water neck. It’s under warranty yet so off to the dealership it went. Enter the Comanche to pick up the slack. Of course, the weather hasn’t been great… seems like whenever we need a second vehicle there’s typically snow in the forecast. Driving has been pretty well uneventful minus the alternator dying on me, and then today it was stumbling bad followed up with a no-start. Harrumph. It felt to me like a fuel issue so it got tested at the rail and things looked great. Ignition maybe? The coil tested fine, but not great. I replaced the coil with my fingers crossed only for it to start and then immediately die. Then I knew… the bank of relays got rearranged then the starter wouldn’t spin. I obviously had a failing fuel pump relay. For now, it got a cheap relay thrown at it with another one on standby in the center console. Runs great again! Found more oil where it doesn’t belong than I’m happy about though while I was under it. Lately, this truck has taken the personality of, “Oh! So you need me now? Well that’s just interesting, isn’t it?!”

Fun little project at the sewing machine today. Might add a few more bolts along the sides… maybe. Otherwise I took it for a little drive around town. Feels like the fuel injection is relearning itself that there’s a little more hitch in its giddy up.

Sure does!

Just about when the paint was dry on the new shifters was when I realized that didn’t like the reach it was to get to them. Another thing I noticed was they were encroaching on the passenger side leg room. This might be the fourth time I changed them? Feels much better. This also means that I took more out of the floor than I needed to, but that won’t make any difference when I make the boots. The next thing that was supposed to be on the list was a center console but then I started cleaning the shop and had to move the fuel tank I had earmarked for under the seat. I’ve got a project list that’s titled “CJ to Moab” that every once in a while I cross off an item. Additional fuel storage is on that list and it should probably happen before I make any decisions on a console. This tank is too big to fit under the seat as is. I’m mulling this over. I briefly grabbed a tape measure to start figuring things but quickly lost interest for the day. Something I’ve been putting off was getting the CJ back out into the world. Today was the first time I actually drove it off the property. First impressions were pretty good getting it up to speed… didn’t get over 40 though. Feels very “trucky” in how it shifts both while moving and also starting from a stop. There are for sure plenty of things to get used to in terms of new sounds and driving characteristics. I honestly was thinking the entire time, “Did it feel this slow before the swap?” as I haven’t driven it in a couple months. Anyhow… it was good to get it out.

Thanks!

I understand it’s not the focus of the picture, but cool calendar!

I was thinking the same thing. Someone checked all the right boxes for a sweet adventure wagon.

IMG_5920.mov Putt… putt… putt…

I am as far as I can get right now on the NP435 swap. The maiden voyage was just around the block. Things went well so I took the short trip as a win. It definitely shifts like a heavy truck now. I was assuming that it’d be a little more noisy, and it is. There will be a “getting to know you” period. As for this morning leading up to getting it out of the shop, some of the exhaust got lengthened, other spots got raised up, but all of it was in several pieces. This is really par for the course as far as exhausts go for me. Mine are generally pieced together from scraps. Once the exhaust was sorted, the factory skid plate got cut up. The front half flexes some but it has since it left the factory. The rear half got some additional bracing around the transfer case. Then I had to take the top cover off of the transmission and I found that I needed some added clearance. The transfer case shifter mount got reworked some and I bent around the shifters more. Next in line is to sit down at the sewing machine. I’ve got some scraps yet from the brown canvas bikini top that I’ll be using to break up all the black. Fingers crossed I didn’t just ruin my Jeep!

Funny how our past selves have such big plans, eh?

Same. Reminds me of some older International pickups.

I found some cool articles among some random interweb searching. It was originally printed in 1987 and Motortrend has everything archived. Enjoy! https://www.motortrend.com/features/jeep-thrills-august-1987-982-1322-92-1/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/jeep-thrills-september-1987-982-1300-110-1/ https://www.motortrend.com/features/jeep-thrills-october-1987-982-1296-50-1/

So good to see an update on this!

IT MOVES!!! I need to bend around the shifters a bit, maybe figure some skid plates, modify the exhaust, and make some shifter boots. I’m going to keep an eye on the transfer case output also. Might need to clearance just a bit if it ever gets to full droop. Overall, I’m very happy with it right now.

Back at it. The new pilot bushing gives me plenty of engagement on the input shaft. After that, everything fell back into place. Hopefully this is the last time the transmission goes in for this project.

I can confirm that a 4.2 HEI distributor will fit in a 4.0. I’ve got this setup in my CJ.

Driveshafts are done. I dropped them off at my usual shop at 1:30 today. By 3:45 I was told they were ready! Then I got home from work and ordered up my pilot bushing from Novak too. All in, unless something major comes up, I’ll be skating in right around my goal budget of $1200 for the transmission swap.

Another great day in the shop! The more I looked at and continued to cut up the original crossmember, the more I wanted to just start over. I figured that the factory did a fine job of making the brackets line up, so why not reuse what I could? The new section is a piece of 3/16x1.5x1.5” tube. Success! Now I could measure for driveshafts. Old ride height measurements are in parentheses. Not near as bad as I figured. After that, everything got torn apart to get a for sure number on the pilot bushing. Novak’s AMC to Ford bushing should work out perfect. Next will be getting the floor wrapped up. … note to self, that dash wiring is still a functional mess.

Got a good jump on rebuilding the floor today. I made a large removable cover so I can get to all of the transmission top cover and upper bell housing bolts. Started off with a real mess… I made slits in the floor and just started bending back sheet metal to get the transmission in place. This got cleaned up, new metal was added, and I reused most of the original top cover. Then there’s the crossmember… if I had access to a tube bender, I think I’d make something fancy. I’ll be reusing the old one after I box it all back in. Probably more tomorrow.

Such a rad camper setup!!

I think I have a solution figured from Novak. Probably won’t be until Monday before I hear back from them. In the mean time I’m tackling other issues. The transfer case shifter wasn’t going to work so why not twin stick it? The shifters need to be longer but I was using scraps and tractor parts from the hardware store. I decided to get the transmission hung under the Jeep too so I can rework the floor and get hard measurements on the driveshafts while I figure out the pilot bushing. Yes… it’ll have to come back out which is kind of a pain but I think I’ll do a better job on the floor if I can get to both sides. The crossmember got thrown in too. Guess what?… it needs to be reworked also!

Big day in the shop with one potential road block… more on that in a bit. For the most part, everything went fairly smooth with rebuilding the new transmission. I didn’t take hardly any pictures while trying to get through it while everything was fresh in my head. With the shifter straightened out, I declared the 435 un-Bronco-ed. Removal of the Dana 20 and T150 was also very straight forward after cracking loose what seemed like an entire tube of red RTV. Had to set them side by side for a good comparison. That T150 is tiny! Then, even though nothing was cleaned, I mocked up the whole assembly to double check measurements. Here’s where I’m leery… I had the pilot bushing fairly far into the crankshaft for the T150 input shaft. The input shaft on the NP435 is shorter than the T150’s. With the bell housing back on the engine I could measure how far the pilot bushing needed to move. One slice of bread later… … and it moved fairly easy. The bushing is now protruding out 7/16” (14/32”) and the bushing itself is right around 21/32” leaving 7/32” still in the crank. With it that far out, the measurement from the face of the bushing to the transmission matting surface on the bell housing looks like this… … giving me just over 7/32” on engagement after the taper. So… what say everyone? Run it or figure a different pilot bushing?