I'm putting together a simple CJ7 on 33s to drive to work on nice days and take out of state once a year to do some four wheeling. Did a fair bit of searching and found some great threads with advice to others building similar Jeeps. I have several questions but the only one pressing is what transmission to run. I bought the CJ7 with the intention of swapping in a nv4500 out of a V8 4x4 Ram I have laying around in place of the t176. Seems like back in the day every other magazine article was swapping a nv4500 into a CJ. I figured it would go together pretty easy.
Once I got to searching it seems I may be mistaken. My concern is rear driveshaft length, and belly clearance. I want the belly as flat as reasonable and some pictures I found look anything but. I plan on clocking the dana 300 flat and I'm not worried about the floor being in the way as it's rusty and needs reworked anyway. The Jeep has about 3" of lift and if it goes higher down the road that would include a wheelbase stretch. I have no objections to a CV rear shaft.
How much lower than a clocked Dana 300 does an NV4500 hang and how does that compare to a Np435?
Will I hate my life trying to get a rear driveshaft into a stock wheelbase CJ7?
Any input is appreciated. Trying to get specifics on this swap ends up in a circle of dead links. I'm heading to the junkyard on my next day off to grab some axles and there's Ford np435 waiting for me if I elect to go that route instead. OD would be sweet but I'm kinda worried about running deeper gears with smaller pinions to take advantage of it. Np435 won't break my heart but if I had my druthers I'd go 5 speed.
Thanks,
Travis
Once I got to searching it seems I may be mistaken. My concern is rear driveshaft length, and belly clearance. I want the belly as flat as reasonable and some pictures I found look anything but. I plan on clocking the dana 300 flat and I'm not worried about the floor being in the way as it's rusty and needs reworked anyway. The Jeep has about 3" of lift and if it goes higher down the road that would include a wheelbase stretch. I have no objections to a CV rear shaft.
How much lower than a clocked Dana 300 does an NV4500 hang and how does that compare to a Np435?
Will I hate my life trying to get a rear driveshaft into a stock wheelbase CJ7?
Any input is appreciated. Trying to get specifics on this swap ends up in a circle of dead links. I'm heading to the junkyard on my next day off to grab some axles and there's Ford np435 waiting for me if I elect to go that route instead. OD would be sweet but I'm kinda worried about running deeper gears with smaller pinions to take advantage of it. Np435 won't break my heart but if I had my druthers I'd go 5 speed.
Thanks,
Travis
