Picked Up A 71 For A Buddy Of Mine......

Steve's wife came by Sunday afternoon, mostly to make sure he was really working on a jeep I think
She showed up right as we were test driving in the yard. I hopped out and told her to get it. She stopped her complaining about how much he had been working on it right then and there.


Steve will hopefully be getting the registration done this week so that road testing can begin.
We have a few odds and ends to get finished up before any real speed can be accomplished. Install front hubs, side marker lights, muffler hangers and repack the front wheel bearings. I could tell that both Steve and his wife were getting pretty burned out on the project. I figured that actually driving his project would be just the spark to get him motivated again!

 

Looks like the smile is also an approval..............carry on!

 

Don't underestimate the power of getting that little one in there too. Kids love Jeeps. Mothers love happy kids.

 

I didn't realize that the single stick transfer case linkage wouldn't work until I tried to install it. The single stick linkage does not clear the bulge on the left side of the Sm420 transmission. We decided to go ahead and build a twin stick setup for the transfer case. I just happened to have two long shift sticks left over from my project.
I heated and straightened out the lower tangs on each shift stick. I then drilled a 5/16" hole in the bottom of each one. These shift sticks are extremely hardened and I ended up drilling the holes on my milling machine. I used three mounting bosses on the side of the transmission for the pivot plate. The 4 rod ends are all 5/16". I Used a long shank bolt so that the shifter stick pivots would not be riding on the 1/2" bolt threads.
It works and shifts as good as the standard twin stick setup in my jeep.
Here is what I ended up with.

 

Cleaned up the bracket with a flap wheel and painted it. I assembled it with never seize on the shaft. If this was my project, I would source some bronze washers for each side of the shifter levers and a solid spacer from Mc master carr. It does work quite well, I just am not a fan of the stacked washers.
Steve has been pretty busy latley and I have been working on his project by myself so its all done for now. I need to get his project out of my shop so I can start on my swing out tire carrier.

 

Nice.........

 

Nice work.

 

We took the Steve's jeep on its first real trip over the weekend. About 80 miles round trip, everything worked as it should. We stuck to pavement and gravel roads so no 4wd was required. I think he's ready for his first camping trip.

 

More progress. We got the patch panels welded into the front rocker posts. A little pre mixed paint matches pretty good. This completes the safety, structural portion of his build. If you look at the previous pics in this thread you will see the rust at the front of the rockers. These were the worst spots on the whole jeep. This is a drive able build.





Steve purchased a brand new Md Juan transmission cover. We chopped it up to clear the SM420. The upper cover was widened 2" and a pop out was made on the left side.




After some welding, grinding and paint. The trans shifter boot is a cut down boot from a Kenworth T600. We still need to make some trim rings.

 

That looks factory. Nicely done. Did the new floor plate not come predrilled for the bolts?

 

The md Juan floor plate comes without the mounting holes drilled. We clamped the plate in place and used a fine point sharpie to mark the factory holes from underneath.

 

Looks good!

 

Slow progress but Steve's 71 is getting closer. Cage is done. We are building a backseat that will hold 3 car seats across the fenders.
Final plan is to have racecar style window nets to keep things contained on the sides.

 

Kid car seats?

 

Im a little late to this build. Just read the whole thread, that is an awesome find. And has all of the upgrades I hope to do to mine in the next few years. Do you think you could've managed to make the single stick tc lever work? or just too much of a hassle and easier to go twin stick

 

Yes, two booster type seats and a standard for now. Steve picked up some really nice 2" wide 4 point harnesses.
He had been using a standard type jeep seat, but it was too hard to get the car seats cinched down nice and tight with the padding.
I need to get a pic of the family cage. On the sides of the cage there will be https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rjs-10000701/overview/
We are hoping that these will keep the his kids from throwing things out of the jeep and in the event of a flop, they would not be able to get their hand outside the cage where it could get smashed.
Keep in mind, no hard wheeling will be taking place with kids in the back. This is mostly for Sunday afternoon kinda stuff.

 

We could have made it work, but the single stick setup is hard reach from the drivers seat.

 

Looks good.

 

Ok cool. Yeah I agree the single stick is a bit of a reach. Im planning to do a sm420 swap in mine in the next couple of months so just trying to gather up all the possible issues now so Im at least part way prepared lol

 

Its pretty easy to do if your comfortable with sheet metal work.
I'm a half hour north of you. Once Steve's jeep is complete in a couple weeks, we should meet up for a jeep trip out east of I5.