Project RGM-79MJ

[mgbeatlefan]

Hey everyone! New guy here. Name is Patrick and I've been lurkin' around the forum since I got my MJ back in February. Picked it up to replace my XJ which rotted away. She's got a 4.0 with the BA/10 trans for now. Plans were to swap over my IRO 6.5 Long Arm lift and run it as is for a while. Which worked for a little while.

 

But on to the pics.

 

How she was the day I brought her home next to my XJ.

 

Old company decals off and fresh paint.

 

 

After I had the front diff explode on me on my way to work. I spent that weekend swapping over the axles and suspension from the XJ under the MJ.

 

Wound up being a little taller than I had planned. WIth the factory springs in the back and a spring over conversion, it had about 8.5-9" of lift in the back so I had to throw some 8" lift springs in the front. All sitting on used 34x10.5 Super Swamper TSLs.

 

Just to mention that all this was done 4 days before heading out to NAXJA Winterfest in Attica, Indiana.

 

Get everything finished up in time and had a blast out at Winterfest. Always a good time with some really cool dudes.

 

 

After the trip I tried to drive it into work and one of the front control arms sheared a bolt and dropped the arm while I was doing 70 down the highway. Talk about a fun ride! Got it towed back home and immediately decided it was never going to see road duty like this again! That's when my mind really started turning.

 

I have an old 87 Dodge pickup that I was going to use as a cheap truck challenge rig for a little contest we were going to have at work( I work at Iron Rock Off Road if I hadn't mentioned that yet).
After doing some measuring, I decided to swap over the entire drivetrain from the Dodge into the MJ. So i got to work stripping down the Dodge.

 

 

That's about as far as I have gotten on it so far.

 

Overall plans for mods are as follows:

 

8" Lift grown to like it :)

Front Dana 44

Rear Dana 60

Dodge 360 V8

727 Torqueflite

NP208

~119" Wheelbase

3 Link front

4 Link rear

Tube bed

 

I'll be updating this with more progress as I get time to work on it. Been doing some housework and the garage is just full of stuff so there isn't any room to work.

 

If anyone has questions or suggestions, feel free to throw em out.

[neohic]

I KNOW THAT TRUCK!!!... and welcome! Nice to see another MN member. There's a few of us scattered around the state. That truck of yours was offered to me a couple times along with finding it again and again for sale. Glad you found your way here! Neat that you work at IRO too. There's a few members around here that know your products very well.  :cheers:

[mgbeatlefan]

I KNOW THAT TRUCK!!!... and welcome!  :cheers:

 

That truck of yours was offered to me a couple times along with finding it again and again for sale. Glad you found your way here! Neat that you work at IRO too. There's a few members around here that know your products very well.  :thumbsup:

Sweet! Yeah I jumped on this after finding it on CL. Always been a fan of Comanches but they don't pop up very often.

[neohic]

They pop up now and then around MN, but you have to wait for the good ones. I would assume you know Duane just north of you in Princeton?... lots of good parts up his way. There's Austin (xjrev10) that's way north too. I know he sports IRO parts left and right on his rigs... the ones he can manage to keep for more than a few months anyhow. Are you on MN-Jeep?

[mgbeatlefan]

Yeah the good ones are hard to come by.

 

I don't think I know Duane. Always good to know of some parts laying around :)

I am not on MN-Jeep yet. Will probably join in the next day or so. Just been super busy lately.

[mgbeatlefan]

Been making a little more progress lately.

 

Almost have the Dodge stripped all the way down. Hoping to have it all pulled apart tomorrow night then I can pull in the 'manche and start tearing into it.

 

Beware the upcoming picture dump with little text. Gotta make up time!

 

 

So much less wiring than the other Jeep :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something is about to happen....

 

 

Yep. Sometimes you've gotta come up with redneck solutions :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that brings us up to tonight's progress. Planning on getting the engine pulled tomorrow night once I dig the rest of my engine stand out of the shed. 

 

Hoping to be able to get the axle pulled Thursday night and get the Comanche into the garage for teardown over the long weekend.

[mgbeatlefan]

I apologize for the lack of progress. Been pretty busy lately and haven't had any time to work on the truck. I did manage to get the engine and the axles pulled. I was really happy to get the stock exhaust manifolds pulled off the engine since the bolts were very rusty. The new headers should be here by the end of the day Tuesday so I should have everything I need engine wise for mock-up purposes.

 

The axles are pretty much prepped. the rear axle will be a pretty straightforward affair and I'm not too worried about it. The front axle is another story. I will probably be building a truss to mount my coil spring mounts and upper control arm mount to. The lower control arm mounts might get a little tricky but I will have to see how things line up under the truck.

 

I will be pulling the truck in for tear down after we get the drywall up on the ceiling in the garage. Hopefully we can get that done on Saturday. Once the truck is in the garage it isn't coming out until it is swapped over :)

 

I will try and get current pics up tomorrow when I have some time.

[mgbeatlefan]

Oh man! Totally forgot about this thread! I'll get an update when I get home.  :doh:

[Dillithium]

Please do! I'm curious to see another 360 project MJ.

[mgbeatlefan]

Will do man. Life got in the way so I ended up starting on it a lot later than I was hoping to.

[mgbeatlefan]

So, since I keep forgetting I have actual build threads started, there will basically be a giant photo dump to try and catch up to current progress.

 

Ready...

...

...

...

GO!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test fit #1

 

 

Test fit #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started the frame plating using 1/8"steel:

 

 

 

 

 

In again on it's own mounts!

 

 

 

Trying to figure out where the front axle is going to sit:

 

 

Patched some floor rust so my feet don't fall off from the cold :)

 

And that's where she is sitting right now. I'll be tackling a new transmission crossmember since the one I was planning on using won't work with my transfer case. Followed by the front axle truss and link mounts.

 

[Dillithium]

Tight fit, but looking good! Keep us posted, curious to see how you'll deal with steering and cooling.

[mgbeatlefan]

Progress update will be posted later tonight. 

[BlackBeast]

Nice job!

[mgbeatlefan]

Here comes another progress update.

 

 

I've got the truck sitting on it's own again.

 

Dana 44 front axle is trussed and all new mounts were made.

 

Rear Dana 60 had new leaf spring perches and shock mounts welded on. (Thinking about trussing it later on down the road)

 

Built a new transmission/long arm crossmember.

 

Built a front 3 link.

 

Test fit the 96 XJ brake booster/M.C. and pedal assembly.

 

Built a transmission tunnel to clear the transfer case.

 

Started work on a dash template.

 

Got the preliminary engine wiring done.

 

Built a mount for the rear radiator.

 

Started to run some cooling lines to the rear radiator.

 

Modified the power steering bracket to move the pump above the steering gearbox. (Also the Dodge Ram Power steering hoses fit the Jeep steering gearbox without any modifications :thumbsup: )

 

Pictures to accompany the list above:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm hoping to have the coolant lines run by the end of the weekend so I can pull the engine and transmission to do some final work to them before they are put in for hopefully the last time  :banana:

 

Not going to make my goal for Winterfest this year but money is tight and you gotta get a few parts when you can. New goal is to have it running and moving under it's own power by the end of March at the latest.

 

 

[mgbeatlefan]

Got some work done this morning.

 

Got the 1.5" lines done and most of the 1.75" lines done. I was short a 90° bend. Also ran out of hose clamps.

 

 

I am going to build a shield covering the lines to protect the passenger and the possibility of getting sprayed with hot coolant.

 

 

 

 

Here you can see where I ran out of bends/hose clamps.

 

 

I also tacked the ends of the pipes since I don't have a bead roller and didn't feel like making one. Clamped a hose on one and tried pulling it off and it wasn't going to happen. I think it'll work for what I'm doing.