The Carcass - Alaska Juggy build

[gwilliamson]

This build is inspired from a couple different rigs up here in southcentral alaska.

Here is the run down
-89 yj tub (Comp cut)
-cj hood, grill, tailgate
-cj 10a frame
-tj roll bar
-
plant
-89 tbi 350
-champion 3 core conversion aluminum radiator with 16'' fan
-th350 b&m unimatic shifter
-np205 with jkw twin stick, 1410 strap yoke rear
-remote oil filter

axles
-2.5 ton rockwells
-detroit in front
-welded rear
-u joint front shafts
-hubs flipped out
-all drum brakes removed
-diy 4x pinion brakes
-ruff stuff specialties rockwell 4 link brackets
-all new seals from rockwellparts.com
-coilover tabs from cycoticfabrication (affiliate of rockwell parts)
-psc 3.0 rockwell full hydro kit

wheels and tires
-20x12 stazworks nova double beadlock with 4'' backspacing
-14.00 r20 46'' michelin xl with v bar cut

brakes
-diy4x pinion brakes as formentioned
-tilton firewall mount pedal assembly with dual master cylinder
-balance bar with dash mounted adjusting dial (one pedal controls both mc's)
-87 chevy 3/4 ton left front brake calipers (i'm mounting both brakes on the driveline side)

suspension
-14'' foa coilovers with 350 over 300 front and 300 over 250 rear (medium valving)
-4'' air bump stops
-1.25'' heims, jams, bungs on all links from ruffstuff specialties
-1.5'' schedule 80 pipe for links
-axle brackets from ruffstuff as forementioned(upper links are straight and lowers are triangulated.

custom dash
-equuis and auto meter guages
-waterproof stereo
-2-12 volt plugs
-balance bar adjuster for brake proportioning
-switches include 3 duckbill off/on, 2 safety switches (fuel and ign), on/off/on for head lights, pushbutton start, and an on/off for fan.
-mojave heater

winches
-8274 front with contactor, 6.0 motor and 125' of 3/8'' amsteel orange or blue
-vr8000 (5.5hp motor) contactor 90 ft of amsteel whatever color 3/8''
-wireless contols on both

[gwilliamson]

This is kind of a rushed thread to get you guys up to speed, but i work on a boat with a 14 day on/ off schedule so its not getting done as quickly as possible. heres an assload of pics to get you guys up to speed. I'm shooting for a mid april completion date. The post above is also subject to change, so theres the outline.

[gwilliamson]

brand new house and garage, watch how fast it gets filthy



before floor paint






Working on it outside til my house and garage got rebuilt after the fire

on the new frame

[gwilliamson]

brand new house and garage, watch how fast it gets filthy



before floor paint






Working on it outside til my house and garage got rebuilt after the fire

on the new frame

[gwilliamson]

the next set goes through getting the jeep into the garage, showing off the garage a little bit, comp cut, various axle stuff, mocking up the engine and such, the ram plate, and what my suspension is shaping up to be. As we all know foa had a fire so i am expecting the coilover to show up soon along with my wheels from stazworks. in the mean time i have been mocking up the body, the powerplant, getting the tbi harness all set up, building seat brackets, and just little odds and ends until i can mock up suspension.

[gwilliamson]

[gwilliamson]

[gwilliamson]

[gwilliamson]

The project started out in the field in late september 2011, and my house was completed on november 24th. since that date i have been home about 50 days out of the possible 120, so i like to think i have been getting quite abit done on it. especially considering i have to keep ordering parts and the 2 of my crutial parts haven't even shown up yet. i have made calls to both foa and stazworks and they were both slated to ship out last wednesday but haven't yet received any kind of shipping info. anyways, i know this thread lack explanation up to this point but will be happy to give any kind of measurements or details on thinks i have done up to this point. I'm stuck on a boat for 2 weeks so that gives me plenty of time for web wheeling.

[RWC]

Gabe, I'm psyched to see you do this thread on Pirate. I know a certain former U.S. Senator who will be interested in this, along with a bunch of my friends from Off Camber Crawlers. In on page one.

[jeepbeater]

The Great Pumpkin lives!

Looking forward to seeing where you go with this.

[gwilliamson]

so i take it your the original owner of the tub. Interesting to see whos back yard stuff ends up years later huh? Its been a fun build so far, its killing me being at work right now and not able to work on it for 8 more days.

I got a hold of stazworks today as well as FOA. Stazworks is working on getting the shipping details ironed out, its a bitch finding a decent rate getting palletized loads up here.

FOA shipped my shocks today so they will be there when i get home.

[oldtimingman]

Those are quite the colors for the engine and trans!

[RWC]

Originally Posted by gwilliamson

so i take it your the original owner of the tub. Interesting to see whos back yard stuff ends up years later huh? Its been a fun build so far, its killing me being at work right now and not able to work on it for 8 more days.

No, jeepbeater is a buddy of mine from the east coast. I bought that tub from ATS Used Jeep Parts just outside of Boston (which is also where I got that windshield frame and those seatbelts). Jeepbeater was on the run to Paragon when it got nicknamed The Great Pumpkin.

I'll dig up some of the pics I have from before I painted it orange.

[gwilliamson]

back at work means time for another update. the parts rolled in these days off...so i'm just gonna spout off a list of parts i got and and installed.

msd cap and rotor

8mm plug wires

mr gasket oil filter adapter (not going to run the remote filter anymore but mounted it anyway and might run it into the tranny, or power steering)

engine accessory bracket

coilovers (not yet mocked up as my wheels showed up after i went back to work.)

air filter

my remaining needed parts for the 8274

got my hubs back from six states and installed them

reinstalled battery tray and got a battery

mouted tbi wiring harness on firewall, still working on adaptors for the fuse panel

plumbed in oil pressure and water temp guages without interfering with tbi harness sensors

pulled engine to put in front chunk, install touque converter and reinstalled engine(all within 4 hours here)

bolted up power inverter

installed twin sticks with tcase in rig, than lost a pin so i got pissed and pulled the 205, uninstalled the twin sticks, tore most of the gears out, put the twin sticks back in and everything shifted fine, than put the tcase back in the rig and now the front won't shift so have to tear it back out of the rig and overhaul it again.

drilled out the rest of the holes for my guages and tail lights and installed those bad boys.

and did some other crap like installed rear pinion brake and ran all my hoses for the full hydro and mounted all the components except for the orbital valve because i don't like how high it was going to put the column.


its going to be a huge push but i put in 12 hour days for 2 weeks straight next days off i will have it wrapped up and test and tune time. april 4th is my go home day so i pretty much have to order the rest of my parts in the next couple days if i have any chance of april wheeling. i'm down to wiring, hoses, brakelines, and a rollbar as far as ordering parts goes.

pics to follow

[gwilliamson]

this one is a pic of the firewall where i had to make the flat part bigger for my brake pedal and master cylinders. this is the same area where the old pedal and clutch mounted but it was too recessed for the new set up. a couple cuts, grinds, welds and some seam sealant for good measure... we have a flatter firewall to mount more junk.





and i got the hubs back so i packed the rear bearings (one tube per side on these big boys) and the rear axle is now fully assembled. the new seals are better too.





heres a couple of the midframe crossmembers, i'm gonna cap, gusset and weld the rear one because it ain't too bad getting the tcase out with it in... the forward one of course removeable. it is held on by 5 - 3/8''x 3.5'' grade 5 bolts per side right now, 3/8 plate welded to 2x4'' rec tube 5/16''. thats triple what the old jeep had holding per side not to mention its set up in double sheer due to the boxed frame at that point. i may upgrade them to 1/2'' fasteners upon first test drive. **** me for not taking more pics but heres some of me setting it up.





the next couple are how i mounted steering stuff, i'm still debating on how to mount the orbital valve so i just ran all the hoses though the fire wall, for those wondering i mounted the heat sync over there where the fenders would bolt up on the fire wall, i will be building a shield off the bottom so it doesn't get all caked with mud.








and of course my wheels. they showed up the day after i went back to work but my buddy picked them up from carlile. he is pretty sure he wants rockwells and dueces on his mud truck now.
John at stazworks had a pretty slow turn around on this set of wheels, i think he waits for a number of orders to build up before he starts making them because i ordered em about 3 months ago. it only took 2 weeks for the ride up here and for those wondering shipping was about 400. all my griping aside i'm really happy how they turned out and can't wait to see how they hold up.

they are stazworks 20''x 12'' double beadlocks with pressed centers, nova pattern, 6 on 8.75 bolt pattern in gloss black with flat black accent. don't think i have ever been so excited about a set of wheels, can't wait to see them



and thats all i have for now folks, to see all photos of the carcass go here

[gwilliamson]

back at work means time for another update. the parts rolled in these days off...so i'm just gonna spout off a list of parts i got and and installed.

msd cap and rotor

8mm plug wires

mr gasket oil filter adapter (not going to run the remote filter anymore but mounted it anyway and might run it into the tranny, or power steering)

engine accessory bracket

coilovers (not yet mocked up as my wheels showed up after i went back to work.)

air filter

my remaining needed parts for the 8274

got my hubs back from six states and installed them

reinstalled battery tray and got a battery

mouted tbi wiring harness on firewall, still working on adaptors for the fuse panel

plumbed in oil pressure and water temp guages without interfering with tbi harness sensors

pulled engine to put in front chunk, install touque converter and reinstalled engine(all within 4 hours here)

bolted up power inverter

installed twin sticks with tcase in rig, than lost a pin so i got pissed and pulled the 205, uninstalled the twin sticks, tore most of the gears out, put the twin sticks back in and everything shifted fine, than put the tcase back in the rig and now the front won't shift so have to tear it back out of the rig and overhaul it again.

drilled out the rest of the holes for my guages and tail lights and installed those bad boys.

and did some other crap like installed rear pinion brake and ran all my hoses for the full hydro and mounted all the components except for the orbital valve because i don't like how high it was going to put the column.


its going to be a huge push but i put in 12 hour days for 2 weeks straight next days off i will have it wrapped up and test and tune time. april 4th is my go home day so i pretty much have to order the rest of my parts in the next couple days if i have any chance of april wheeling. i'm down to wiring, hoses, brakelines, and a rollbar as far as ordering parts goes.

[gwilliamson]

I'm officially stoked



well i managed to sneak home for 6 hours while we had some stand by time at work to "check my mail'' and gawk at the new wheels. i called BIGDAVE cuz he has been wanting to barrow my tubing bender. so i picked him up, picked up my air bumps, and we talked shop for 4 hours before i realized i had to be back to work for shift at midnight. The hot topic was my veritcal seperation on the frame end of my links. The bottom brackets i was just going to weld to the bottom of the 2x4 box tube x members, but after our discussion, and crunching some numbers were going to notch out the 2x4 box tube and fab the brackets into the crossmembers. i was strapped for time so i didn't mount all four or even put the inserts for the beadlocks in, but did throw a tire on a wheel and bolt it up really quick....it blew my mind for a moment. bare in mind the tire isn't mounted on the rim, so its temperary.







upon return and the slow work load this hitch i decided i would grab a little time waster. i grabbed my fuse box, buss bar and some wiring stuff and decided to try tackling this fuse panel area. i feel a little better about getting in there now and just getting the wiring done. its really straight forward and pretty much figured out whats 12 v constant and whats ign circut just by looking at the back of the fuse panel (the used panel had wires cut off from the harness it came off of that matches my truck) now all i have left to do is figure out those pin outs, which shouldn't be hard because color coding really is the best thing since sliced bread. i took a couple circuts out of the fuse panel that i just won't be using. i didn't have any 16ga or 18 guage wire so i just did the ignition and 12 v side of the fuse panel. in short, i buit half of my harness for the one thats going to tie back into the tbi wiring.
the only thing that is going to be stand alone at this point is going to be my fan, maybe the mojave heater(crap still gotta order that). so, again pics



this one is the layout of the fuse panel and what i will be actually using.


quick and dirty version


quick and dirty wiring diagram.

[Off-tracker]

Oh yeah! Subscribed! Looking fw to result

[gwilliamson]

i got a few updates, so i'll update soon. my igloo caved in on me and i had to wait for it to melt

[gwilliamson]

Only had a few days to work on it, got called back into work early so i get back in 5/2 and have til 5/15 to get it done if i wanna get a full wheeling season in. anyways, i got the brake pedal assembly hung, master cylinders mounted, and the start of my brake lines bent up and ran. brakes would have been a done deal had parts store had all my couplers.



got the tires all mounted up, there 32 bolt centers and it took about an hour to do each tire by myself.





than i decided to finish my 4 link which involved notching out both crossmembers for the brackets. ended up using the plasma cutter on one and a cut off wheel for the other. than just weld it in.







than i moved the link brackets on the front axle out 3'' torward the inner c to make room for the air bumps. i also moved the upper link brackets on the frame end to match up a little closer with the rear setup. my front lower arms ended up about 2.5'' longer than the rear lowers.

before on axle


after on axle


before i moved the upper frame end


and after

[gwilliamson]

i also got some cool new parts, again. this time my order from summit came in. I decided to bite the bullet because its turning into a time crunch, ordered up a whole fuel line kit, 16 gal jaz fuel cell, guage, sending unit, and there oversized bigger better version of the mojave heater. it throws out more btus and has 3 different heat outlets for better heat direction.









and here is the jeep sitting at full bump on the front as i go back to work. it is sitting on the air bumps up front. i may try to squeeze another inch out of it but the pinion brake its really screwing with any plans of that

[gwilliamson]

been too busy, i'm at that point now where theres alot of town trips to get stuff.

just a little update,

the front coilovers are mocked up and the front end is sitting on its own weight. fuel lines are all ran, front and rear bumpers are all welded up, winch plate mounted (welded) and winch installed with a test bump


and

Here is some of the last of the body work, not a ton of prep invested because its a buggy.







stereo components installed. 4'' schoche mids and a dual mp3 deck (everything but cds)



got the doors, pretty straight forward. there yj doors and slide in. i used a 1/2'' bolt for a striker pin because i'm not driving to town for a striker pin.




winch installed, used a piece of 2x4 box, the old winch plate, and a couple pieces that survived the fire off the winch that came from the rockers on the burnt xj so i guess in a way its symbolic. and got a receiver tube from six states for tow points.... i will be using a warn receiver shackle in there as the rear has one too.

[gwilliamson]

dropped off my driveline measurements



so my front coilover are on, used the 12'' ruff stuff coilover towers. got them off pirate for half price in the misc classifieds section.



they ended up pretty close to the arms but i had to inboard them this far so i could get full range of steering, and they dont' touch the lower arms even at compression. that might change on the field but i would have my coils rub the arms a tiny bit than have wheel rubbing issues. like i said i'm aware the tolerences are close but its all fully functional.












did some articulation testing

[gwilliamson]

now i'm back to wiring....