davidson
Jeeper
Steering Committee - North Nova
Posts: 1,118
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Post by davidson on Feb 16, 2011 16:04:01 GMT -4
Well I thought I would post up my new project plans to get some people's opinions. I want to build a capable trail machine that is still friendly to drive on road. I now have an 83 CJ7 that already has been modified some. It has a chevy smallblock/th350/np203 with stock dana30/amc20 axles spring over. Has a bad whine at speed (no noise on coast) which i believe to be from the 203. It seems to have had a 2wd conversion on it so it is common to burn up the bearings on them. I have not looked at the gears in the amc20 yet though either. I can't get 4 low loc working. its probably just out of adjustment. Anyways I plan to soon change in a sm465 with a dana300. This should take care of the above issues and give me a much lower crawl ratio even with the stock axle gears and allow a better rear driveshaft length.(lengths are a rough estimate not including adapter) Even might end up a few pounds lighter. Any idea what axle gears it may have? I'd like to see how it looks in a calculator. th 350 length 21.75 inches weight 120 pounds np203 21.5 inches 165 pounds 2:1 low 43.25 285 sm465 12 inches 175 pounds dana 300 11.5 inches 85 pounds 2.62:1 low 23.5 260 TH 350 Chevy 1st 2nd 3rd 2.52 1.52 1.00 SM 465 (MUNCIE) GM, Chevy 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 6.55 3.58 1.57 1.00 Swapped on my old 33 inch skinny swampers instead of the 35s with a new set of procomp rims. Body lift will be coming out and hoping to get rid of the horrible t-case drop. Going to add power brakes, manual brakes suck. Just need to wait for some snow to melt now. Have all the parts, it's just too buried in the backyard.
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smith
Jeeper
Posts: 2,125
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Post by smith on Feb 16, 2011 21:55:25 GMT -4
Looks like a good starting point. Hard to say on the axle gear ratio... could have been changed over the years. Here is a link to help identify what set you have if they are stock... www.jeeptech.com/axle/amc20.htmlAre you sticking with 33's? and how much BL does it have?
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davidson
Jeeper
Steering Committee - North Nova
Posts: 1,118
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Post by davidson on Feb 17, 2011 11:29:44 GMT -4
Keeping 33s for now. I'd guess 2 or 3 inch body lift on it now. I have a daystar mount kit I'm going to put on with only a 1 inch lift built in. It won't fit into the garage now unless i take the softtop down. The only other problems I can see with this tranny and tcase swap is the exhaust might have to be reworked. It has full length headers on it that come down lower than the frame.
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badwithcomputer
Jeeper
You have DC2's? You just made a new best friend.
Posts: 2,863
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Post by badwithcomputer on Feb 17, 2011 13:44:28 GMT -4
what a beautiful beast.
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Creepy
Administrator
Dartmouth
Posts: 18,718
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Post by Creepy on Feb 17, 2011 14:45:04 GMT -4
My CJ has 360/T18/D20, and when running the D30/M20, it had 3.55's in the axles which I swapped over from 2.73.
The 6.32 1st in the T18 and the V8 could overpower the crappyish axle gears and it wasn't really a problem in the woods.
That was with 33" TSL (34"high) and 38.5" Swampers.
Could rockcrawl or power thru obstacles, it didn't want to stall a lot. you will not 'need' to upgrade you axle ratio until you want to. The 2.73 to 3.55 have nice big pinions, pretty tough for what it is. I never hurt ring gears in that setup....not once.
ps: ditch the headers, nothing but trouble.
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davidson
Jeeper
Steering Committee - North Nova
Posts: 1,118
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Post by davidson on Feb 17, 2011 16:36:51 GMT -4
Yes, I think your right. I won't really need to change the axle gears right away with that transmission and this motor runs really strong. In my yj with 4:11's it was very low geared. Almost too low for highway speeds. Would I be best off to run regular manifolds (which I already have) or should I get a set of shorter headers? Probably won't hurt power too much. I do not want to run a full dual exhaust on this rig. It takes up a lot of space.
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smith
Jeeper
Posts: 2,125
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Post by smith on Feb 17, 2011 17:54:15 GMT -4
First thing I did when buying 'wilma' (old m38 with a 360) was ditch the headers... manifolds are fine, there is no need for headers imo. It had an AMC20 with one piece axles and a D30. 3.55 gears and 33's. The gears were plenty with all the power of the 360... in fact it had ridiculous power for the weight/size of the vehicle.
I still have headers on my CJ5 just b/c they were there and working fine... plus it does not see the road and never will.
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Creepy
Administrator
Dartmouth
Posts: 18,718
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Post by Creepy on Feb 17, 2011 20:56:55 GMT -4
If you have nice hugger header, sure keep 'em, but if the ones you have hang down, and you don't need/want to run duals, and you have manifolds.....I'd ditch 'em!
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The Garagemahal
Moderator
Build Thread King
Resident Army Ranger , Navy Seal , Super-Warrior , Ninja !!
Posts: 11,518
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Post by The Garagemahal on Feb 18, 2011 11:04:07 GMT -4
The 2.73 to 3.55 have nice big pinions, pretty tough for what it is. I never hurt ring gears in that setup....not once. I have , twice , in my old 305 CJ
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davidson
Jeeper
Steering Committee - North Nova
Posts: 1,118
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Post by davidson on Feb 18, 2011 13:55:59 GMT -4
Anyone have any experience with edelbrock carbs offroad? It has one on it now and it runs good but i haven't had it on an angle. I see they do make an offroad needle kit that has a spring built in for offroad applications. I have a recently rebuilt q-jet that worked pretty good if the edelbrocks suck.
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davidson
Jeeper
Steering Committee - North Nova
Posts: 1,118
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Post by davidson on Feb 21, 2011 14:49:19 GMT -4
Here is how she sits with the skinny 33 inch swampers on it. Should be plenty of room to drop the body and raise the drivetrain up. I also have a spare tire with this set which is good. The way the rear bumper is setup it looks like it will be fairly easy to mount a spare. I don't need it to swing out as this body has no tailgate. The crossmember and driveshaft setup on this thing is pretty bad. It has no more ground clearance than a stock one currently I'd guess. Can't wait to change that but the snow is still piling up higher.
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Creepy
Administrator
Dartmouth
Posts: 18,718
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Post by Creepy on Feb 21, 2011 15:43:17 GMT -4
She's got her high heels on. it looks like its in pretty good shape tho, should be fun to work on.
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davidson
Jeeper
Steering Committee - North Nova
Posts: 1,118
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Post by davidson on Mar 29, 2011 19:11:14 GMT -4
Quick update on this thing. Been gathering everything I need to do the transmission swap out of my old yj and swap in the d300. I did a bit of rewiring to get all the signal lights working. And got these bling parts ready to go in that I had to show off.
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Aaron NN
Jeeper
Vice Prez - North Nova
2003 Grand Cherokee Limited - Never stock for long...
Posts: 856
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Post by Aaron NN on Mar 29, 2011 19:58:56 GMT -4
Anyone have any experience with edelbrock carbs offroad? It has one on it now and it runs good but i haven't had it on an angle. I see they do make an offroad needle kit that has a spring built in for offroad applications. I have a recently rebuilt q-jet that worked pretty good if the edelbrocks suck. I don't have much experience with the edelbrock carbs on severe angles (lots of BFG racers use them) but I had a q-jet rebuilt for my old chev truck that Adam and I punished and had on pretty good off camber angles without even a hesitation. If it is setup properly there shouldn't be any issues. Just my 2 cents.
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skinypedalmasher
Jeeper
Secretary - North Nova
YJ..stock axles 35"Pitbull Rockers..305H.O motor...700R4..What will break first?
Posts: 1,164
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Post by skinypedalmasher on Mar 29, 2011 21:58:00 GMT -4
Was your YJ a HP 30 by anychance..i'm looking to get rid of the 3.07 gears i have now..grrrrrrrr...its never gonna get out of Lowrange..lol
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