89 MJ Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Is that a run? Just kidding, looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 18 Author Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, Comanche SS said: Looks great, did you get behind those engine mounts?? Also, don't forget to do your first scratch, so it can be over with and you can move on mentally lol Of course! The body color starts at the lower control arm mounts. That’s where it transitions to raptor liner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 18 Author Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, fiatslug87 said: Beautiful! Which winch mount are you using? I think it’s a boostwerks kit. Bought it new off of another club member a few years back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 18 Author Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, 89 MJ said: Is that a run? Just kidding, looks great! Made me go back out to double check Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 1 hour ago, ghetdjc320 said: Made me go back out to double check Hahaha, sorry about that! That color really pops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 Front axle completely disassembled. Managed to completely clean out the axle tubes, weld on new upper control arm mount and HD track bar mount. The brackets are from stinkyfab off-road and are very well made. Sanded the entire housing, primed and painted. Regear up next with arb then back under the truck. Moog control arm bushing and spicer ball joints installed. Sprayed the inside of the tubes with Eastwood internal frame coating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche SS Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 2 hours ago, ghetdjc320 said: Front axle completely disassembled. Managed to completely clean out the axle tubes, weld on new upper control arm mount and HD track bar mount. The brackets are from stinkyfab off-road and are very well made. Sanded the entire housing, primed and painted. Regear up next with arb then back under the truck. Moog control arm bushing and spicer ball joints installed. Sprayed the inside of the tubes with Eastwood internal frame coating. Looks great, how did you clean the tubes so well? Should sleeve the axle while its at this point, will be as robust as can be at that point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 40 minutes ago, Comanche SS said: Looks great, how did you clean the tubes so well? Should sleeve the axle while its at this point, will be as robust as can be at that point I made a tool that I could attach to the drill and run a scotch bright pad on. Then used a 2.25 wire wheel on an extension. Finished with mineral spirits soaked rags I’d push through with more pipe. Turned out great. I’d prefer not to add any extra weight from sleeving. Trying to keep unsprung weight to a minimum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 Dana 30’s are quick but finicky to setup gears on. Got the pinion depth acceptable on the second try but took 7 attempts to get the bearing preload correct. Anyways, here are the specs: carrier backlash .009, carrier prepoad .015 (added .015 to the shims after getting to zero play), pinion rotating torque 15inlbs with no carrier installed, pinion depth shim stack .070 including the oil slinger. I could have gone maybe .001-.002 deeper on the pinion but the pattern is within spec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watchamakalit Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 19 minutes ago, ghetdjc320 said: Dana 30’s are quick but finicky to setup gears on. Got the pinion depth acceptable on the second try but took 7 attempts to get the bearing preload correct. Anyways, here are the specs: carrier preload 9 thousandths, 15 thousandths preload, pinion rotating torque 15inlbs with no carrier installed, pinion depth shim stack 70 thousandths including the oil slinger. Kinda glad to read this. I thought it was just my inexperience with gears that made my d30 difficult. Took me twice as long as the 44, which I did first. Not looking forward to the one I have left to do yet in the cj. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 This differential had been rebuilt at some point and it was done very poorly. It’s unfortunate since I didn’t have reliable numbers to start from. I suspect many people get away with less than ideal settings in the front axle as they see less torque and use than the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 Some picture updates: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 Np242 gate swapped. There’s no difference in throw, it’s just the placement of the “gate” that makes the difference. Also added some tube seals. Need to get creative with the grease zert as I have inner C braces but I packed them with green grease already. The tubes were so full of scale, rust and mud that I really wanted a better solution. The plastic dust caps help but not as much as I’d like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 Back on its own weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche SS Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 Will be curious of your take on those tube seals, more often than not its been found they just trap moisture and dirt inside without a way for it to escape. But...those people arent as meticulous and caring as you are with this build, so your results may be better. All in all, it looks to really be coming together. Whats next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 36 minutes ago, Comanche SS said: Will be curious of your take on those tube seals, more often than not its been found they just trap moisture and dirt inside without a way for it to escape. But...those people arent as meticulous and caring as you are with this build, so your results may be better. All in all, it looks to really be coming together. Whats next? Yeah I went back and forth on what to do with the axle tubes. My use case is probably a bit different than most who get these. This is mostly a street truck but due to the heavy weather we tend to get along with the salt spray, I thought they’d be a good idea. Plus having coated the inside of the tubes makes me feel better about running them. Next up is finishing the firewall accessories then move to engine/tranny/tcase install. Lots of little mods along the way. Of note, when using the WK2 calipers, they use a 10mm banjo bolt. The YJ lines I have use a 3/8 banjo bolt so I filed them out until the 10mm banjo bolt fit perfectly. Turned out very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche SS Posted February 3 Share Posted February 3 13 hours ago, ghetdjc320 said: Yeah I went back and forth on what to do with the axle tubes. My use case is probably a bit different than most who get these. This is mostly a street truck but due to the heavy weather we tend to get along with the salt spray, I thought they’d be a good idea. Plus having coated the inside of the tubes makes me feel better about running them. Next up is finishing the firewall accessories then move to engine/tranny/tcase install. Lots of little mods along the way. Of note, when using the WK2 calipers, they use a 10mm banjo bolt. The YJ lines I have use a 3/8 banjo bolt so I filed them out until the 10mm banjo bolt fit perfectly. Turned out very nice Very nice, so sounds like it should go together rather quickly, all parts acquired just the labor of the build left? Can't wait to see this truck on the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 2 hours ago, Comanche SS said: Very nice, so sounds like it should go together rather quickly, all parts acquired just the labor of the build left? Can't wait to see this truck on the road. Pretty much. Just need driveshafts, a battery, exhaust and some bunch list items. The final task will be body work. The next major project will be electrical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Is it too much to ask that the aftermarket spend an extra few minutes on engineering the products they think are worth their weight in gold?? Quick draw could have just made a small 45* flat slope on their ax15 bell housing just like the oem jeep ax15 bell housings have. That would have provided almost universal clearance. And maybe spend a few more pennys to upgrade the insta-rust bell housing bolts they send along to something coated in say… zinc? I had already marked where I’d like more clearance on the bell housing with the engine positioned. I cutout that area and made a small plate to cover it. Then I seam sealed the back and riveted it to the bell housing. It shaved off about 3/4” in the area that was interfering. Doesn’t look like much in the pictures but the hole is about 2x5”. I ground down the sourrounding areas to provide a more “flush” mating surface. Primed and painted the bell housing with VHT cast aluminum paint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 4 Author Share Posted February 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche SS Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 40 minutes ago, ghetdjc320 said: Wow, still pretty close even with the clearances made Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 41 minutes ago, Comanche SS said: Wow, still pretty close even with the clearances made Yeah, my transmission is just on a jack stand at the moment and is sitting a bit too high. But I also moved the engine back to the middle alignment hole. I think it’s going to be spot on with about 1/2” of clearance or a tad more when in final position Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 Just a few build notes on this swap so far: The LS2 (c6 corvette) water pump is a nice swap and saves a lot of room between the engine and radiator. I'm also quite pleased with the 3/8npt to 1/8npt reducer that allows me to run the stock jeep gauge sender for temp. The stock threads in the head are metric and about the size of an m10 bolt. There are adapters that fit the threads and give you a 1/8npt female side but do not allow the sensor probe to fit properly. Drilling and tapping to 3/8npt gives plenty of material for the jeep sensor to thread into and actually allows the probe to reach the coolant stream. Also upgraded to the LS2 ps puller which is a nice steel unit vs the plastic ls1 unit. the puller also has holes that allow you to access all the power steering pump bolts making removal much easier. I have noticed that the corvette parts do seem like top shelf components so ive tried to stick with all genuine GM corvette stuff as much as possible and tried to avoid as many custom parts under the hood as practical for easier servicing down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghetdjc320 Posted February 6 Author Share Posted February 6 Nice clearance all around here. The air intake is the tricky part Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche SS Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 1 hour ago, ghetdjc320 said: Nice clearance all around here. The air intake is the tricky part If you can rotate or replace that throttle body with a less intrusive style one, you can spin the PS resi, and run a 4'' intake tube around it like I did in my MJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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