Project 5.0 progress

I finally got organised enough to get some pics up for you all to enjoy and see how the project is progressing.



this is how it looked following roll-over repair in 2000


this is my car after it was totalled by a hit & run. seemed a good idea to salvage the engine and swap it into the Jeep as the 151 4 cylinder had recently given up.


this is a good view of the very stout MORE BombProof motor mounts, they made bolting the 5.0 EFI Ford V-8 pretty darn easy.


all bolted into it's new home



another good view of the fit.


then came the fun of rewiring the chassis harness and wiring the fuel injection ECM


but the Painless chassis wiring kit and the wiring kit from The Detail Zone were easy to install and they went in over one weekend


and this is the finished install




out on it's first shake-down run, hadent figured out any type of fenders yet.

Stats at this point:
Ford 5.0 EFI V-8
Centerforce 2 clutch & disc
MSD Ignition parts
Optima Deep Cycle Battery
Painless Wiring chassis wiring
ECM computer wiring fron the Detail Zone
1" Phenolic upper manifold spacer
Super Duty Radiator with 3 x 3/4 inch rows (as opposed to the usual 1/2 inch rows) and stainless Flex Fan
Auto Meter Auto Guage fuel, temp, oil pressure,amps and tach guages
Race style seats with nice big bolsters on mounts I fabbed together
Seatbelts out of an old Huey MEDEVAC helicopter
and Im sure Im forgetting lots of other stuff,,,,,,

I finally got fenders rigged up, got it insured and registered and even drove it to work a few times till it got way too cold. It was going well, so I thought I'd continue the project,,,,,,,

 

So,, I decided to start with a full roll-cage. I got a "kit" from a local Jeep shop for 175$, it had a pre-bent main hoop and 4 spreader bars and foot plates as well as the hardware.


I git it all mocked up and tack welded while in the Jeep






I also added these reinforcing tubes to help make the cage more rigid



I also added this tube to again add rigidity and give the wife an "Oh-S**t!" handle to hang on to.


I pulled it out fo final welding,, looks wild & fun as a convertable






I made sure it was all square and welded it all up, I also added some 1/4" X 2" gussets to most of the joints as well,,,I believe in being thorough when it comes to keepung my head from coming into contact with the terrain.


After painting it was back in and ready for installing the seats, etc. I dont have any pics of the frame tie-in's, but will post them once I find them.You can see the gussets from this angle.

here is a shot of the outboard seatbelt mounts


with the seatbelt bracket bolted in and,,,

with the Huey seatbelts and race seats installed. Soon I will be mounting the Huey pilot shoulder harnesses with their way-cool ratcheting pully set-up.


Not too bad for my first cage. From the front it looks crooked, but after measuring it again it is square,,, then I remembered that the windshield frame (as well as the body) is slightly tweaked from the roll-over.



The WARNING decal my wife got for me! It seems fitting for this CJ-5

 

Next up was the wheel-spacers. I had to pick somthing simple due to lack of free time this week.
They are 2" spacers of 6061 aircraft aluminum, from Trail Sports Unlimited. Whole set was 148$


this is the "Before" shot.

the spacers are very beefy and high-quality. Yes, beer does indeed increase mechanical ability as well as creativity when it comes to fabrication.


Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so the saying goes, but it is a definate must in order to install the spacers properly and have good longevity. I used an assortment of wire brishes & wheels on my angle grinder to get everything nice & clean.


here is the spacer mounted and torqued.


this shows how much the wheels are pushed outboard,,, the hub mounting flange in now flush with the wheels mounting surface.


the rear was pretty much the same, clean, mount and torque to 80 ft-lbs. Again you can see how far out the wheel is moved.


this is the "After" shot, moved the wheels & tires out nicely, now just over half the tread sticks out from the body.

A test drive surprised me, it handled very nicely on the streets, feeling much more stable in the turns/curves. I did however notice that with the increased width and the locker, the rear wheels chirpped/barked more easily than before when making tight turns or hitting the throttle a bit too hard when coming out of a turn,,,,oh well.

 

I dont know how usefull I will be, I did take some notes and remember most of the things I had to get machined,,, which was minor, such as having the flywheel bolt-holes and pilot bushing hole enlarged.
Feel free to get in touch anyhow, I'll help however I can. I do know that the upper manifold can be installed with the throttle body facing the drivers side instead if to the passenger side, making fabbing up the throttle easier.

Next project for this Jeep is abig one,,, full power steering swap from manual. Everything is super-duty from PSC, mount is from MORE. Will probably take a while to get done, I wont be getting anything done on it next sunday,, will be watching my wifes beloved Steelers getting beaten like a rented mule dead horse.

After the PS install comes another big project,, the SRS shackle reversal. That'll probably take more than a weekend.

 

finally found some time to post the pics of the roll-cage to frame tie-in's.


Plus, I got it out today for a pretty good shake-down run, rides stiff, not enough flex in the springs and there is still some work to do getting the EFI running smoothly, but over all had a blast and it preformed well, especially compared to how the 2 Scramblers and 4-door JK on the run took to the ledges.



Power steering install comes next on the list and is it going to be a welcome change! Todays run really reminded me how manual steering and lockers can make for a serious workout. Here are most of the parts going in.

 

Ohh shiny! That will be a nice upgrade. Love the paint job too!

 

The shiny has gone away, painted the parts Hammertone Black ( didnt seem to be anything to prevent them from rusting on them) plus, for this Jeep I just couldnt bring myself to put that much "bling" on it.

The Rustoleum Camoflage OD Green paint is super-easy to retouch after getting too close to a rock, etc.

This is the only trail damage suffered today, happened while coming down off of a ledge,


but the brunt of the damage was absorbed by the 2X4 X1/4 inch bumper. Gonna have to build one for the front once I get the winch & SRS on.

 

Great build . . .

Keep the pictures coming!

 

OK,, so I finally got the Powersteering, HD Tie-rod & drag links installed, tie rods flipped to the top of the knuckles and winch mounted.


I had to do some minor grinding to the factory bracket for the pump to fit.


But it fit great.






The PSC steering gear box mounted easily thanks to the MORE HD mounting bracket,,, the thing is made from 1/2 inch steel plate,, if I ever break it I have done somthing seriously wrong.





Here is the bracket and remote reservior for the steering set-up.




Plumbed and ready to go, you can also see the Flaming River steering shaft as well.


Here is the passengers side of the steering new linkage, thick-wall tubing with HD tie-rod ends, now flipped to the top of the knuckles thanks to the kit from OK four wheel drive.


You can see how much more sturdy it all looks, and I gained over 3 inches of ground clearance for the links as well. No more rock-contact for them (hopefully)


Then came the winch install. Yes,, I am going to have to remove it again to do the shackle-reversal, but I couldnt resist getting it bolted on and wired up.




Went on easily (compared to some things on this build) and looks great, should preform great as well.

Now,, unfortunately, the Jeep is coming apart again. I was driving it to work when the transfer case popped out of gear. I pulled over and whiletrying to get it shifted back into high range it made a loud bang and is now stuck in low range, shift lever moves freely snd the external linkages are intact, so it must be a broken shift fork or somthing internally. I started looking into the cost of a rebuild-upgrade project, but with the 4:1 LoMax gearset, rebuild kit, HD input & output shafts, etc,,, I was over 1700$ in parts,, plus the weekends of doing the rebuild.
So,,, I went with option #2,,, buy a HD transfer case that will bolt in during one weekend. The extra money is, in my opinion worth it as it will save me lots of headaches and I end up with a more versatile gearbox that is more durable than than even the modified D-300.
I chose this box http://www.stak4x4.com/3speed_mini.htm
as the best option. It is 3 speed, I went with the 1:1, 2.97:1 & 5.22:1 gears. This will give me gearing slightly lower than stock for trail running, etc, and the super low (overall low will be 90:1) for the more serious stuff. I should have the box in another couple weeks.

I am tearing out the D-300 now, as well as pulling the front suspension and will be installing the shackle reversal at the same time, as a new front drive shaft will be required anyway, so I figured I may as well make sure I only have to get one built.
I will let you all know how it goes.

 

Thanks Jim,
hows your 5.0 project going?

 

Jim,
I knew that modifing and using the factory harness was going to be a serious pain in the ---,
especially as I am not exactly an electronics expert,, more like one who is lucky to get the battery & alternator installed correctly. Thats why I went with the special harness to begin with. I applaud you for even attempting to use the factory harness, you are a braver man than I.

 

Well,,, CJ was running fine, then when driving to work about 6 weeks ago the t-case let go. I ordered a 3-speed case from STaK 4x4. It took a while but I finally took delivery Friday. I will be starting the install soon and willpost plenty of pics once I replace my digital cam (which also recently died).
I already know that I am going to need new driveshafts since the new case is larger and will be clocked flat, but I need to install the shackle reversal before taking the measurements for the front shaft. I also know I will have to modify the floorboards to make room fo rit,,,oh well.

Will keep you all posted,,,

 

just a quick note ,just in case. remember to move frontend out to make room for rearward travel.you'll be real happy with the stak box. I wheel with early broncos and those cases are the s&^%.Jim ,I have a line on sombody that can re work the 5.0 harness if you need him too.does them for the EBs.

 

cj5/442,
I figure getting the case and shackle reversal done before getting the new shaft will ensure I get the right length shaft ( I hope). I am using the MORE SRS kit and it moves the front axle out like 1 inch, so I will probably be ok.

Let yall know as it progersses,,,,,,,

 

psycho, what size tire ? lift? did my own SR using cj7 setups and 2.5 lift -33's front moved as much as I could .I can twistup pretty dam good and the 33's will bearly hit the back of the fenders . 35s would hit worse. it's a lot of work but you could just tack it all up, take apart the spring pack to main leaf ,no shocks and just cycle the suspension.if you can about the body damage at all.

 

Im running 33's (for now) with a 4.5" Rubicon Express lift. Im not worried about body damage, the rear wells are trimmed out pretty good and the front fenders are basically non-existant.

Right now I have it installed flat and it looks like I may have a clearance problem with the front shaft only 2.5 inches from the bellhousing & starter. I may have to rotate it down just a bit.

I did get the front shaft from a XJ CHerokee since it already has the 1310 series double-joints on it, it just needs to be shortened. Then time to fab the new skid plate and squeeze in the exhaust on the passengers side somehow.

Once I replace my digital cam which recently died I'll post some pics.

 

Great looking build and nice work.