Intermediate Frankenjeep Build

That would be the plan. The brakes are in what appears to be good condition; shoes are fairly new, drums are smooth with no ridges, cylinders aren’t leaking, etc. If stuff had to be replaced, I’d go with disc brakes right away, but that’s not the case.

I did put discs on the Willys wagon but those brakes - the whole system - were junk.

Jon B.

 

The TrueTrac is in! The only old parts in the differential are the carrier bearing caps & bolts and some of the shims.

Without a press and the new Vevor bearing puller, it would have been really tough. I bored out the old bearings to use as setup sets but they only got things close. Not close enough. Things were too tight with new bearings and cups.

I’m pleased with the gear contact!

‘Coast’ side:



‘Drive’ side:


The backlash is good but the pinion preload is a bit tight. Better that than too sloppy, though. I took out .006” when the new front (at the yoke end) bearing went in. It could/should have been .008 or maybe .010 instead. I’d have had to disassemble everything to get that bearing off to move shims, and that wasn’t gonna happen.

Now I hafta steal the passenger side axle and a spindle from one of the donor rigs. The u-joint on the short axle is junk, as is the spindle where the grease seal rides. Maybe next week; it’s cold in the pole shed!!

Jon B.

 

Hmmm…

It occurred to me a bit ago:

I should have *added* shims to the pinion. The shims hold the bearing cone away from the cup as the yoke gets torqued.

Oh well. It’s tight but not overly so.

Jon B.

 

The other day, I ordered hub (wheel bearing) seals from NAPA. Very ordinary seals. This afternoon, I had a meeting at church, so stopped to pick them up. Yup, they compared nicely to the old one I brought along.

The counter guy rang it up: $44 and change! “Are you s****ing me?” came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

I said nope. Can’t, won’t pay that for a pair of $6 seals.

They’re on order from The Jeepsterman for $4.76 each. Bought a set of hub gadgets (2 per hub) as long as I was there. With postage it’s under $24. Yeah, I hafta wait but…

Anyone know the best way to pull the rear output shaft bearing off an SM465 to install some Novak bits? It needs a big bearing separator, I think.

Jon B.

 

Dang, that's strange about the NAPA price. Usually, they are withing the realm of other parts stores.
I'm glad you found them for a reasonable price. I would have done the same.
I can't help you with the SM465. I most recently installed a T-18 with the Novak main shaft. A press was required.
I also have experience with the NP435, which was a very easy 4 speed to disassemble, modify and reassemble.

 

Hub GASKETS. Stupid autocorrect…

O’Reilly’s price was $12.99 per but they’d have to order, too. I suspect that Jeepsterman’s parts are Omix/Crown Chinesium, but they’ll keep grease in.

Jon B.

 

Grrrr!
I have all the SM465 parts from Novak, so am working on that today. Got it apart and cleaned up, gears pressed off, and started assembling things onto the nice new main shaft.

Put the shaft in the freezer for a couple of hours. Got the press all set, and bits to use for holding and pressing. Brought out the shaft, lubed and heated the new bushing and started pressing it on. About a third of the way, it gets tight, then a “Bang” and it goes easier. Much. Easier. Because the sintered metal bushing split! :-(

First gear bushing is the same, so I chiseled the cracked one off and the other went on nicely - no heat, even.

New bushing ordered.

Jon B.

 

Mic the shaft diameter from front to rear. Do the same with new bushing. I don't have the specs nearby, but there typically shouldn't be more than a .0005/.002 interference fit.
Normally, I'd say make sure there's a small chamfer on the starting ends, but it sounds like it was already well started.

 

The bushing is in place, so no bueno. Novak warns customers that second gear is the worst of the bushings, hence the freezing shaft and hot bushing. Why? I don’t know; maybe the first gear ‘hub’ is slightly smaller. The bushings are the same for this transmission (aluminum top cover; ‘88-91).

It’s possible/probable that I managed to start it out of square. Operator error? I’ll have a spare, just in case. $12.75 is cheap insurance.

In other news, the wheel seals came today, so the front axle is completely assembled. Yay! Now I can start the rear…

Jon B.

 

Still waiting on the SM465 bushings from Novak, so am filling my days with miscellaneous stuff.

The new pitman arm arrived today but…. …the tapered hole for the drag link is too small. I’ll need a 7 degree tapered reamer to open it up, I think. They’re available on (as Dereck on Vice Grip Garage says) the jungle website for $49 and change but, for a one-time (probably) use, I’m hesitant. Is it likely that a machine shop or repair shop would have this, and do it for me?

I’ll call a couple of shops, I guess, and we’ll see.

Update: it seems as though the race car (dirt track) guys have them, ‘cuz they put bigger tie rods & ends on their race cars. I just hafta find the right guy. Swung and missed on the first call… :-(

Jon B.

 

If you’ve never disassembled, modified, and reassembled a GM 465 transmission, you don’t know the blood, sweat and tears that go into the job. What a complete pain in the posterior!

The instructions from Novak are very complete and accurate but…
I managed to find a shop that could pull off the rear mainshaft bearing with a “PosiLock” puller. He asked for only a ten-spot, which I readily handed over. During the assembly, I split one of the new bushings (mentioned in an earlier post) and had to wait for a replacement. If you don’t want to ruin another, order two new ones! All will go well if you do. The ‘spare’ will sit in your collection for years. After that, I pressed everything onto the new shaft, put it in the case and drove the rear bearing onto the shaft. I then discovered that I had misread the instructions and failed to install the 3-4 slider. Back to town to have the bearing pulled off. I handed over $20 this time, as $10 seemed too little.

Back at it, all went well until installing the input shaft. I had left the countershaft in place, since it didn’t need anything. The angles just wouldn’t work to get that damn thing in! I left a message for Novak’s transmission guy, hoping for hints. After (what seemed like) 25 attempts, it popped right in on the 26th!!! Hallelujah!

The rest was a walk in the park.

Then the D20 t-case needed to be disassembled, cleaned, and have new seals & gaskets. Another PITA. But, it’s now stripped down to the bare case, and mostly cleaned. New seals and assembly start tomorrow!

Assembled SM 465:



Bare D20 case:


T-case ‘guts’:


Jon B.

 

Reassembling a Dana 20 transfer case is much less difficult than an SM465 transmission! Paying attention to details and carefully reading the instructions is helpful, though.

Twice, I had to remove gears because I put them and the forks in backwards. Grrrrr! All it cost me was a few minutes of time, so no harm.

Except for the final tightening of the pan bolts and the installation of the front & rear yokes, it’s done. Yay!

I removed the ‘pills’ so that front & rear drives are independent. That may come to bite me in the posterior some day, but I’ll deal with that if/when it happens.

Soon - not tomorrow - I’ll bolt the engine, transmission and t-case together for the first time these three have ever been mated. A 2005 GM 5.3, a 1990(?) SM465 and a 1974 Dana 20. Cool!

Pics, just because:



Jon B.

 

You can make it unstealable by parking it with one axle in high and the other in low.
Edit: … if the hubs are locked in.

 

Does that lock up the t-case (as if a transmission was in, say, first & third) or just the axles/wheels? I’m sure I’ll find out…

Jon B.

 

Gosh that oil pan is sexy.

 

Spendy, too!

The PTO came off, so I needed an oil pan. Since I had a large order at Novak…

A nice looking addition that (I hope) no-one sees once it’s in place.

Jon B.

 

Nice work, Jon B. Feels good & ( scary) at the same time, Eh?
I am certainly no expert here, but don't those 'Pills" help keep it from jumping outta gear?

 

I think they don’t help with that, as there aren’t any springs behind them. They fall into notches in one rod so that the other rod is free to slide.
The ‘holder’ balls have springs that push the ball into detents on the rods to hold them at that position.

I’ve ordered a twin-stick from JB.


Jon B.

 

Oh you're gonna like JB's twin sticky.

 

Yep. Even if the transmission is in neutral. Also will function as a parking brake under extreme situations.