Here is the process of swaping out the standard Dana 53 and Dana 25. The axles that were swapped were out of a J-4000 Jeep pick-up. Now up-front is a closed knuckle 5 lug Dana 44 and out back is a 5 lug Dana 60 flanged axle.

 

Id Kill to have that service bed!

 

Your gonna cry when I tell you what happened to it... It went to that parts bin in the sky. About $200 in scrap. But dont worry it was rusted beyond repair

 

Here were the first set tires I had. found on craigslist set of (4) R1 9.5-24. After I adapted the stock tractor wheels to match the 5-5.5 lug pattern and offset I desired and they ran very true.

 

Here was the very first day I had driven the pickup under its own power around the neighborhood. I'm sure my fellow Willys guys can understand the feeling!

 

With the help of my father we constructed the replacement wooden bed complete with "fuel tank" holder.

 

The custom fuel tank with cradle...

 

Here was the finished product after about 6 months of work. The Willys stayed in this state for about 2-3 months

 

After taking out a few times at some local power-lines I soon realized that the sock gearing was not sufficient for my purposes. 4.88 ring & pinion, 2.79 first gear, and 2.46 low range in the dana 18 only gave me a ratio of 34 which was pathetic to say the least. After much deliberation of what route I should go to achieve more gearing I had 3 routes to go. 1) swap out my entire drive-train with a new one, (2. Find a T-98 and either adapt or find an uber rare one with the right input shaft for my "Super Hurricane", (3. put another transfer-case in behind the Dana 18.

Well I wanted to keep my drive-train original so number one was out. I looked for a while for a T-98 but was unsuccessful. So that left me with adding another transfer-case. I wanted to keep my PTO winches so I stuck with a Dana 18 with the help of Novak I purchased a kit to make any Dana 18 into a divorced one.

After I forked out the money for the kit I installed the adapter. The process was very easy. Took about 3 hrs to instal and mount .

Now my first gear has a handy 83 crawl ratio in sticky situations.

I really couldn't be happier with this set-up

 

As a side note I had a great friend who swapped out his twin stick, double output with my single output koenig pto. As of now I have the awesome combo of having front and rear King model 100's PTO winches!

 

Here is the best part of the project for me the day I mounted my R2 Rice Paddy 9.5-24 tractor tires. These are my brand "Superior Traction" tires. superiotraction.com

 

This is the finished product on the way down to RYC in Punta Gorda, FL

As the Jeep sits this is the drive-train

Super Hurricane 226 straight six
T-90 "J"
Dual Dana 18 transfercases
Front/rear PTO winches
5 lug Dana 44 front (Lock Right locker)
5 lug Dana 60 rear (Lock Right locker)
"Superior Traction" R2 Rice Paddy tractor tires 9.5-24. Measure 43" tall

 

And more...

 

Last few...

 

Very cool, nice to see something different

 

Thanks

 

Very nice

 

I like it, good job

 

How did you make sure that the wheels were centered when you changed the pattern?

 

Its a fairly detailed process and requires access to a lathe. First I cut the center out of a standard jeep wheel. Then you must find a big chunk of aluminum (or wood for cost) after this you must take measurements on the ID of the tractor wheel hole and the jeep wheel center ring with a caliper. You must turn down the material so that it will fit snug in both the jeep ring and the tractor wheel this will be your "plug". When you have the wheel centered on the jeep wheel ring you tack it in slow to avoid warping, then burn it in. This will make the jeep ring centered on the wheel.

This is an EXTREMELY brief version of what you have to do. This is just to give you an idea...

I was lucky and needed an offset of 0. If you need an off-set of any other degree there are other ways to do it on the cheap.

 

Very cool build, I like the bed and the tank is sick! This reminds me of a 4x4 lifted rat rod build. Those are unique tires, glad to see you out getting it dirty!

 

as gay as mud is, i'd totally pimp that around mud events :grinpimp::flipoff2:

 

love the look of your truck, makes me want to get some tires like that for my flatty--good job.....chris

 

I got some questions,
Steering, did you keep stock steering when you swapped in the Axles? Since the Willys is push pull what is the J4000 steering?

What springs are those? I have some flat 1.75" springs on mine with 10 leaves and it rides like a dump truck. I do have a full set of 2.5" wide springs and about 3" of lift in them.

Did the J4000 axles have 4.88's in them? I was told my axles have 4.88's now

 

Good questions,

1.) Every part of the steering is basically stock with the exception of the king-pin. I was lucky enough to just flip the kingpin upside down and added new grade 8 bolts to give me the added clearance I needed. Then I just reattached all my stock Willy's linkage up. I really lucked out on this as steering is usually the most pain to do.

2.) My springs were in a pretty sad state as is with most old jeeps. I rode around with the springs in a reverse "U" on the axle until I broke down one day and took the spring packs apart and made a new pack for the rears out of another donor spring pack I had laying around the shop. As of now the front springs are untouched but will need some attention soon as they do sag. The ride is actually very good and articulates very well in the rear. The great thing about these old trucks/jeeps is that they are basically tractors. You can usually fix/repair these vehicles with a little ingenuity and understanding of mechanics...

3.) Yes, the R&P ratio was 4.88 stock to my knowledge.

 

Do you have any pictures of the steering?
I have my willys on here and will post pics of the horrible spring pack. It doesn't move at all in the front. the rear is nice and soft. I am going to use some 2x4" square stock and move the spring mounts down 4".

I also need to redo the master cylinder as it sucks and started leaking where the line goes in for the rear brakes and all the fluid leaked out

 

I'll have to take some pictures in the morning of the steering for you.

Is your rig strictly off-road?

The master cylinder is notoriously unreliable... I spent numerous hours rebuilding the braking system all around and making sure my brakes work properly ( I converted my drums to samurai discs up front) and at the moment they don't work either.

 

As you can see in the pictures, everything is stock except for the kingpin...

 

Thats some scary stuff right there ....Talk about having tuff arms :flipoff2: