Saggy swap under way!

Welp, got to get started in earnest on the Saginaw swap today. Got the rest of the front clip off, and the right frame horn boxed and strapped. Moved over to the left side and got the frame rail box plate tacked on and the Commando mount bolted up before I ran out of time. Won't get to touch it again until Thursday or Friday.

 

I really Like your Jeep!

Tire nubbies...........

 

Nice Steve! That'a the first I've seen the Swampers, too..........

 

Ok, got the front end basically back together. It all fits, and seems to work pretty well, although I still can't drive it yet. Seems that the "minor" notching of the left side engine mount turned out to be not-so-minor after all. I had to cut far more away than I was comfortable with, so I just decided to remove it and build a new mount from scratch that worked around the steering shaft. I won't have any time to work on it until later this week. Pheh.

I'm thinking about *NOT* removing the old bellcrank pivot pin, and using it to mount a brace for the left frame horn. It seems to be in a good position to do this, and the triangulation should beef things up considerably.

Here's a pic of the box and the Commando mount, but you have to promise not to laugh at my boogered welds....

 

Here's a pic of the teeny-tiny steering shaft joints that I found at Speedway motors, shown alongside the stock joint from the DJ-5 donor Jeep. The smaller joints sure do make it LOTS easier to fab up a shaft that works, without having to put a third steering joint and a support bearing in there.

 

Thanks Mark. I know the photo doesn't show it bvery well, but the shackles are nowhere near the box mount. I intentionally mounted the box as far forward as I could on the frame, even notching the lower bumper gusset plates for clearance. The reason for wanting o mount it so far forward was twofold; First of all the pitman arm from the intermediate CJ-5 box was pretty long, and I wanted the drag link to be as close to parallel with the tierod as I could get it. Secondly, mounting the box way forward would decrease the angle of the steering shaft so as to minimize the interference with the engine mount & the exhaust. That turned out to be wishful thinking.

 

OMG Look at those welds

R) R) R) R)

 

"Nick the Neck" has a plane ticket to Phansyville....


Wiseacre....

 

On second thought, just wait until you see the "Bubbafied" motor mount. Strong as he**, just not real pretty.

 

Heck, that one's easy. All the tie rod ends are the stock units from my flattie! All you do is disassemble the stock right-side tie rod and swap the ends so the one with the hole in it is moved out to the knuckle. You use these two ends with the long cross-tube from Herm to form the new tie rod, running from knuckle to knuckle. The ends from the stock left-side tie rod are used along with Herm's other tube to make the new drag link, which then goes from the pitman arm down to the hole in the right-side tie rod end. Cool, huh?