Topless cherokee, 1tons swap, progress pics..

[ashmanjeepXJ]

Progress Index:
1. Bought a 1976 F350 Special delux camper with motor $500, sold motor $500 scraped the truck FREE dana 70. Rebuilt the dana 70. Page 1
2. Bought some 37-1250R16.5 Good year wrangler MT hummer tires at local mil-yard 90% tread $60 each Page 1
3. Bought a 79 F350 Dana 60 in Forsale forum, Wisconsin, $1000 shipped. Then Re built the dana 60, brakes, seals... Page 1
4. Bought High steer arm from Scott,@ Rockstomper. Page 1 5. Steve on the board built me some DOM links for the steering Page 1
STARTED THE BUILD
5. The rear section of roof was chopped off the 2dr cherokee and taken off the road. 04/2003 Page 1
6. Gass tank was re-located through the floor. 19.25X32in hole. Page 1
7. Made 1/4in skid for dana 60 diff cover. Page 2
8. The 4.5in box tube sub-frame is welded on the cherokee.Page 2
9. Got the Tube bender PROtools105, Rockbuggy supply $560 Page 2
10. The Dana 60 and dana 70 I welded (spooled)
11.The Dana 60 leaf mounts, shackle hangers, shackles, Ubolts, plates are complete.Front leafs are XJ rears with a Pro comp YJ 4in lift main leaf, 3in lift over the stock XJ pack. 08/18/03
Page 3 Page 4
12. Drilled XJ Pittman arm with 5/8in Masonry bit, then reamed to fit the 1ton tierod ends. 08/18/03 Page 4
13. installed the JB SYE kit
14. Flat cross member/skid done 09/23/03 Page 4 Page 5
15. Shortened front drive shaft 1.5in used a 1310 to 1330(small cap) U-joint adaptor for the dana 60.
16. Made the rear drive shaft, welded on a new 1350 slipspline and 1350 Ujoint at the dana 70. Modified a 1310 double carden (CV) with a flange end, total drive shaft costs about $300 with junk yard donors. 09/23/03
17. Bought 36in steel braded brake lines for the front with 3/16in adaptors on the ends to fit the hard lines. Did a 12in long extension on the rear brake lines. about $67 in parts. 09/23/03
18. Installed 1980 E350 Brake MC.
19. Street tested, no vibes at 75MPH, the rear is stiff with a high unsprun to sprung weight ratio. (the cage weight will help) Page 5
20. trimmed... rear fenders. Page 5
22. Painted body with italian olive color (olive drag green), Oil based rust stop paint $23 Some Trail testing PICS Page 5
23. Sliders are built 11/29/03 Page 6
24. Dove tailed the back 12in with tube hoop around back, CAGE Pics. 01/05/03 Page 7
Second shake down trial run, semi cagedVideo 1, The notch, steering wont trun left Video 2 Video 3
Video 4 Video 5 Video 6 Video 7 Video 8
25. Hydraulic ram 1.5in bore 8in stroke, 3/4in shaft from www.surplusscenter.com $94 shipped. 02/18/04 Page 8 Tech Writeup 1
26. Steering box rebuild kit and Hydraulic lines from www.westtexasoffroad.com $100 shipped. Steering done 02/23/04 Page 8 Tech Writeup 2
27. 14bolt traded for d70 Page 9
28. 42in TSLs arrived. Page 9
29. 5.13 gears front and rear, 14bolt disk brake swap,14bolt welded Page 10
30. Rear 4link and Zj rear coils 09/27/04Page 10 Page 11
31. Air over Hydraulic Rear Suspension research Page 11
32. Pictures: Toyota leafs, new mounts on front, ready for AZ4wd MarathonPage 12
Rear 4link Model calculated Anti squat "Triaged " 4link model(Excel 4-link calculator ) page12
33.Rock sliding and pinning me on AshCanyon 11/27/04 VIDEO Page 13
34. 1996 AW4 Cherokee Automatic, and Np205 case purchased
35. AW4 to 203 to 205 doubler research And Pic of my rig from MagazinePage 14
36. Some last Wheelin pics and Video with the 4.0, Started the V8 350 swap. Page 15
37. Chevy 203 to For 205 doubler Page 16-17
38. Hydraulic Steering, Custom Hummer double beadlocks, Propane injection, Coil overs (spring rate calculator) 2.5in ADS 16in coil overs with 100#/200# for rear 650-677 Per corner rear weight, but now plans to use on front with different coilsPage 18
39. Shackle in front leafs SUCK Video of carnage VIDEO UP KISSING ROCK VIDEO DOWN KISSING ROCK, BENDS THE LEAF VIDEO UP "local" DUMP BUMP WITH BENT LEAF Page 19
40. Front 4link build, parts from www.ballisticfabrication.com
Dana 60 truss, Coilover Hoops Page 19-21
41. PICS and VIDEO from 2006 AZ marathon VIDEO Part1 VIDEO Part2 Page 21
42. 2007 Chili Challenge, Extremely broke d60 shaft, Then alloys and broke warn 35spline hubsPage 22
43. Alloy USA D60 shafts do not fit Ford 78-79 Dana 60, clearanced shafts
2007 Az Undertaker Marathon 11 of the 16 trails.Page 23
44. Modify a d70 35spline spicer drive slug to work with a warn hub cover
2008 Chili Challenge
Removed the Air RAMS for some 2in Fox Air shocksPage 25
45. Old 350 pulled due to over ehating issues Page 26
46. Second Motor Swap progress, 383, flat top pistons. 260H cam, Edelbrock heads, 10.9:1 compression estimated 400-440 HP. Page 28


PIC Feb 2008:
Trip Video WAZ at Chile Challenge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8qODvnkr0I
Slide show WAZ CC 08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LpAIGnTxQI


Older 2005 Air ram Pics:

[ashmanjeepXJ]

Baby pictures:

First "rock crawl"


1 Ton REV I


1 Ton REV II

[ashmanjeepXJ]

Notched the housing to fit normal leaf sprign u-bolts


Here is the diff cover Im making for the d60 front..
I used a 12ton press to bend the 1/4in plate. Its jsut spotwelded cause I ran out of wire for my mig...
It should look good when its all done..

1979 F350 D60



1976 F350 D70

rear with d70 65in WMS,
its not too wide..

[ashmanjeepXJ]

The d60 is all clean, all the old parts and new parts are in bags waiting to be assembled...

[ashmanjeepXJ]

I chose to do Tierod ends over spherical bearings..

The arm is from scott at rockstomper, and Ebsteve tapped the tube for me.

[ashmanjeepXJ]

The outers are all cleaned and ready to be put back on...

I chose to swap out the factory 1/2in studs with some 9/16in studs..

Ill just run the facory dana 60 shafts with the 30 spline outers for now. They should hold up to these 37s with the gearing I dont have...

The dana 70 has 35 spline shafts with non neckdown so that needs no upgrades, unless I went to rear disks...ill try these HUGE drums first..

[Ken Carter / BRUISER]

Not bad.

Can't wait to see it when you get further along.

So you doing half exo, half internal cage or all one way?

Ken C

[Xenodank]

Looking sweet! I wish I had a 2 door, would make trimming and hacking to top off way easier. With the two door converted into the "cheromanche" there is really only room for a raised gas tank and a spare. Looks like your XJ is gonna have some beef to it, I like it ;}. Only thing I have to say is watch out for tearing your unibody to pieces, but I am sure you got something planned out for that My 9" is going in this week so hopefully my XJ will be back rolling on 37's again soon too.

[ashmanjeepXJ]

Originally posted by BRUISER
Not bad.

Can't wait to see it when you get further along.

So you doing half exo, half internal cage or all one way?

Ken C

Ill have tube to protect and hold the flimsy fender on the front and rear. moslty tube..so it it exo or tube fenders?

kinda both..

The front cabin will be exo to protect the front windshield, but the C-hoop for the rear bucket seats will be internal and tie into the rear tube fenders I havent cut yet..

[Otto Man]

Looks awesome, keep us posted!

[Po' riggity]

Looks good... Motivates me to get a job and finish my 44/60 axle project!
Scott

[JS-Economos]

Looks real good Dave, makes me wanna work on my crap.

[SOCALXJ]

Looks good man, makes me want to keep the one i just bought.


Good Luck, keep us posted.

[Po' riggity]

Dave,
Are you selling that cherokee you just bought?? WHY?????
Scott

[papastoy]

Originally posted by ashmanjeepXJ
rear shot,

its not too wide..

What have you done to the 70? Gears and locker wise? Just got one of those 70's, it's FF, 354's and 32 spline and for sale, the detroit for it is kinda pricey and what are doing for master cylinder? Will take a lot of fluid to get the brakes to work, good anyway. Jim

[ashmanjeepXJ]

Originally posted by papastoy
What have you done to the 70? Gears and locker wise? Just got one of those 70's, it's FF, 354's and 32 spline and for sale, the detroit for it is kinda pricey and what are doing for master cylinder? Will take a lot of fluid to get the brakes to work, good anyway. Jim

Well its not just like mine , mines 35 spline and has 4.10 factory gears..The front has 4.10 gears also. My cherokee came with 3.07 gears, I ran 32in tires on those 3.07s, these 37s will be about the same gearing as those 32s, not great but will work for now.

Those gears are keepers for now, later Ill upgrade the gears.
For lockers Im doing welded spidergears front and rear..
The d60 has lockouts so no problem there. I daily drove over 3000 miles on my dana35 with the gears welded so I see problem with it in a HUGE dana70.

For MC I bought the 84 E350 MC its was like $17 new with core trade in. I traded in a MC off a F350 truck, completely different..

I got adaptors so the factory lines will bolt up to this MC and all I need to do is drill the mounting holes out to 9/16in, there 1/2in right now..

[papastoy]

Originally posted by ashmanjeepXJ


Well its not just like mine, mines 35 spline and has 4.10 factory gears..Teh fornt has 4.10 gears also. My cherokee came with 3.07 gears, I ran 32in tires on those 3.07s, these 37s will be about the same gearing as those 32s, not great but will work for now.

Those gears are keepers for now, later Ill upgrade the gears.
For lockers Im doing welded spidergears front and rear..
The d60 has lockouts so no problem there. I daily drove over 3000 miles on my dana35 with the gears welded so I see problem with it in a HUGE dana70.

For MC I bought the 84 E350 MC its was like $17 new with core trade in. I traded in a MC off a F350 truck, completely different..

I got adaptors so the factory lines will bolt up to this MC and all I need to do is drill the mounting holes out to 9/16in, there 1/2in right now..

Thanks for the info, still haven't ruled the 70 out, just leaning a little more toward something lighter, a 9 inch or 60. Have had good luck with the hp 44 front, and if I go lighter can keep it and my beadlocks, damn decissions, and as always not enough $. Jim

[ashmanjeepXJ]

The Hummer 37s next to my old little 32s.


What do you guys think of my cage design?
lets see if this link works...
Click for larger pic

[HybridPOS]

Doesn't look like those rear shocks are going to do you much good at all. You might want to figure out a way to bring them a little further out on the body or out on both the body and axle. (latter probably better)

[scope]

How wide are you outside tire to outside tire in the rear? It looks like you have the hummer wheels with stock BS? And you are running them turned around, small offset towards the diff? I would think that would make for a pretty wide setup.

[Brad Smith]

Originally posted by HybridPOS
Doesn't look like those rear shocks are going to do you much good at all. You might want to figure out a way to bring them a little further out on the body or out on both the body and axle. (latter probably better)

I dont think he has the lower shock mounts welded on yet. There just hanging there on the stock upper mounts

[Brad Smith]

Awsome project. You might consider running your upper shock mounts all the way up to the cage, if you run out of room underneith ? Just a suggestion. Also I dont know how your tieing the front cab cage into the body, but you could always rebuild the rock rails with some 2" x 6" rectangular tube and come down with the cage into the top of the rock rails. again just a suggestion.

Good Luck

[HybridPOS]

LOL, nevermind. I was on my laptop when I saw that the first time. I can tell now on a 20 inch monitor that the shocks are just hanging there below the axle. Sorry bout that....

[ashmanjeepXJ]

Originally posted by Brad Smith
Awsome project. You might consider running your upper shock mounts all the way up to the cage, if you run out of room underneith ? Just a suggestion. Also I dont know how your tieing the front cab cage into the body, but you could always rebuild the rock rails with some 2" x 6" rectangular tube and come down with the cage into the top of the rock rails. again just a suggestion.

Good Luck

Yup...

After cutting the hole for the gass tank, and cuttign part of the shock moutns off, I need to make a new upper mount.

I do plan to do just as you said, Ill make a cross bar as part of the cage that the shocks will tie into..

Im ordering my JD2M3 tube bender today!

I also will re-build new slider, Im gonna just use some 250 walled 2in HREW tube for the slider then tie the 120 walled 2in HREW cage into that...

On the weekend I picked up 200lbs of box tube to sleve my frame with.. It will be 1/4in when Im done...

I have to weld all that on before the cage..

[Brad Smith]

Holly Crap thats alot of Steel. What will that do for your center of gravity? Lots of luck and keep us posted.