The Family Truck

[Dadinator]

A little history.
1990 Pioneer Long Bed, Metric Ton, 4.0, AW4. It used to be a charcoal gray color.
My father-in-law bought it new.
He drove it until 2004. Hit a deer with it. Fixed it.
I bought it off of him for my son for $1K.
He thought it needed a transmission, but it ended up being a TPS.
I cleaned it up, fixed the TPS, welded the header, and put a few odds and ends on it to get it back up to snuff.
He drove it about 2 years and then wrecked it. Hit a tree.
Fixed it. Bought a Cherokee with mechanical problems and took the body pieces off it to fix then sold the rest.
Back on the road.
2 months later, wrecked it again. (Snow) Totaled the bed.
Bought a bed from a member and a tailgate from a local yard and installed. back on the road. He drove it until the last few months. He let it run down. I tried to sell it on here, but couldn't get a bite.
So I took it off his hands.

Now the fun begins. It needs a windshield and steering column and most likely a steering box. It also leaks oil and tranny fluid. I don't care about the tranny though, because...

I just scored a 1990 cherokee 2 door with a 4.0 and 5sp from a local yard for $400.
It has good dash, windshield, guages, etc. I'm gonna convert it, and fix what's wrong with the truck with it.
I'll put a new clutch, etc. in and check everything else out while it's apart.

So, here are some pics that I already have of it.

I'll update as I go.

Oh, and it's not for sale anymore. :thumbsup:

[Dadinator]

Excellent!

I pulled the bench seat, carpet, and headliner (if you can call it that) out today.

 

Floorboards are GREAT! Just a bit of surface rust in a couple of spots. Will clean and coat.

 

Somebody should have bought this when they had a chance. :brows:

[treklight]

Great Buy and metric ton! I believe it should have the D44. Good luck on all the upgrades.

[btm24]

I'm rly glad you got this and can't believe you almost sold it. So what are the fixin plans? :popcorn:

 

Brandon

[Dadinator]

Fixin' plans...

Swap the tranny and all the related components.

Fix the steering components that are a problem. Stop the bleeding.

Replace the windshield. Flush and replace all fluids.

Put in the console and gauges from the donor.

Bucket seats. Though the donors seats are not usable.

Few other trinkets from the donor.

I might be able to salvage the carpet, but if not then new carpet. New headliner.

 

Once nice and drivable, then I'll do the chevy drop shackles and pucks for about 2 inches of lift.

Some 15X8's and 31's.

Some minor body clean up.

Will need to find a roll bar and some lights.

There are some other small ideas I have, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Gotta get it back on the road first.

[Dadinator]

WooHoo!

The donor was delivered today.

I'll post pics of it and the stripped inside of the cab tonight.

:clapping:

[Dadinator]

Promised pics...

 

The donor:

 

The floor of the MJ:

 

Top without the headliner:

[87Warrior]

Those floors are a thing of beauty! :yes:

[Dadinator]

Good News...

I got the key lock moved over to the donor steering column and hooked up a battery.

It started, sounded good. I moved through the gears and tested the transfer case.

Seems OK mechanically. Stoked that the donor started and sounded good. Now I have a spare motor. :thumbsup:

 

Then I started on removing the tranny from the MJ. That thing has leaked oil for so long that the entire underside is coated. Fun. :nuts:

 

Got the drive shafts off, the xfer case skid and the cross member and starter removed.

Removed some bolts from the tranny.

 

Don't know if I can work on it tomorrow or not (have plans).

 

But the next time I work on it, the tranny should be out. Then I can start removing the donor stuff.

[Herc]

Looking good, will be a really nice truck when you're done with it

[Dadinator]

Got the tranny unhooked last night. :mad: :wall:

What a pain.

 

Didn't see that 1 bolt. (front passenger side) :doh:

Once I finally saw (Felt) that one, it came out.

 

Now will replace the rear main, and the oil pan gasket and see where else it's bleeding from... :dunno:

[Mike Stone]

if you need a column I have one cheap! grey,tilt, with key and steering wheel 50.00 obo

[Dadinator]

Column has to go...

 

 

That wasn't so bad...

 

 

 

Tranny out... That was a job. Stupid hidden bolt!

 

 

 

[Dadinator]

Well, since the change deleted all of Sunday's posts, I'll redo... :fs1:

Removed the torque converter and flywheel...

 

 

 

Removed the front skid plate and the oil pan...

 

 

 

That's it for now. :clapping:

[Dadinator]

Well, this weekend, I did...

Nothing.

:doh:

 

Good intentions, fiddled with the bike, then other things came up.

Oh well. I'll Have to work on it this week. :dunno:

[Dadinator]

Well, didn't do much this week either.

But started on some stuff this weekend.

 

Got the donor moved into the garage and started disassembling.

Had to jury rig the MJ's battery into the XJ as the XJ had been butchered as far as battery cables...

 

Got it in and the MJ's battery was dead. :fs1:

So got the focus out and jumped the XJ with the dead MJ battery & wiring rig. Started.

 

Moved it slowly into the garage.

 

Then I took out the console, glove compartment cover, clock, loosened the heater controls and gauge cluster.

 

Tomorrow I start on the tranny or the steering column, or both. :shake:

[Dadinator]

OK so steering column was first.

I got in the donor and now that its in the garage, it has thawed out. It stinks!

Obviously mice have taken refuse as I cleaned out a nest under the console when I removed.

 

Nasty truck. :ack:

 

Today I removed the steering column and pedal assembly from both vehicles.

 

What the? :dunno: At least we know where it originated.

 

 

Now I have to take this from the donor:

 

And put it in this spot on the truck:

 

 

Slowly but surely. :wrench:

Didn't do as much this weekend as I had hoped, but I had domestic issues.

(Had to babysit the granddaughter) :shake:

[Herc]

Lookin good, these things take a bit of time. Just keep going at it and it'll be finished eventually. :wrench:

[Dadinator]

Well, I got the clutch master cylinder mounted and the pedals moved over and connected.

:clapping:

[Dadinator]

Well, got the transmission out of the donor.

:thumbsup:

:wrench:

And looky here, the donor had a flowmaster.

:banana:

 

Donor also has a lift kit of some sort and some aluminum lower control arms.

Might have to move those over too. Not sure how much lift. Doesn't seem like much.

 

I'll try to get the flywheel and clutch out of the donor this week.

Then I've got to start buying some stuff. (New Clutch, slave cylinder, etc.)

[Dadinator]

Well, I didn't do much this weekend as I was sick. :fs1:

Better now.

I pulled the clutch and flywheel from the donor.

 

I pulled the cluster from each ready for the swap.

 

Got the steering column sitting there, but it isn't really attached yet. Should get that this weekend.

 

Got the donor out of the garage which makes the better half happy. :clapping:

[Dadinator]

Going slowly. Had plans all weekend and didn't get to do much.

 

I managed to get the new steering column attached and the new gauges attached.

 

And I went to a local yard and picked up some trinkets.

 

Also bought a new rear main, o-ring for the oil filter adapter and oil pan gasket.

[Dadinator]

Things just never go as you think they will...

I was not looking forward to the rear main after reading about people struggling to remove the old one.

Well, mine came out with 1 hit of the punch. :nuts:

 

 

Then off to the oil pan. Thought it would be easy. Well...

Spent probably 2 hours cleaning the block of the old gasket.

 

 

The pan was so caked with dirt and grease and oil that I spent probably close to an hour cleaning it off.

Then flipped it over to start on the gasket. Cleaned about 1/3 of it off and noticed that it seemed warped on 1 corner. Then I noticed there was a damaged part like someone hit a rock. :doh: So now I'm thinking that I might be able to straigten it up, but will it seal? Decided not worth the risk. :fs1: So, back out to the donor. Removed the oil pan from the donor. So after removing it, I put the MJ one on it with 2 bolts so it won't be dripping all over the place. Then I spend another hour cleaning the gunk off the donors pan. Got tired and called it a day. Still have to remove the old gasket material off of the pan.

 

Picked this up.

 

 

And they resurfaced this:

 

 

Not doing anything today...Have plans. Slowly but surely.

[Dadinator]

So today I blasted the gunk off of the transmission and transfer case.

 

 

Then I installed the oil filter adapter with the new o-rings.

 

 

Then I installed the oil pan with the new gasket.

 

 

Then finally the flywheel and new clutch.

 

 

Getting there.

[Rymanrph]

Good job man. Its coming together.