Here’s the body all on.

 

4.8 LS fits nicely.

 

Painted the body and fenders rattle can to “match”

 

custom bumper and my warn 10k on there. Had it out for a test ride, needs some steering adjustments still and top off of fluids.

 

I've been working on this project in bursts. Then it sits for a few weeks before I build up the ambition to get going again.

The motor swap went well. I had to travel out to the west coast for family matters, and when I got back I discovered that my buddies had dropped the engine and transmission in while I was away. 😎

We got the 4L60 mated to the Dana 300, super easy thanks to the innovations at advance adapters. Their customer service department is excellent also.

A drop crossmember had to be fabricated due to the driveline changes. Since I ended up ditching the clutch fan to scoot the engine almost 5" closer to the grille the extra space gave me a nice driveshaft angle and acceptable length.

The 4.8 requires 50 psi of fuel pressure so I picked up an inline fuel pump from summit and a new YJ sending unit. I'm using a steel CJ tank, so I had to rotate it 180 degrees for the filler neck to line up with the YJ body, no big deal.

I'm using the YJ master Cylinder/booster and ran all new lines. The 14 bolt is drum brake now, will be converting to disc later on.

I'm still fighting with factory wiring and gauges, mostly because I want to save as much of the YJ dash for nostalgia purposes. I have a Bluetooth OBD port that shows all my readings on my iPad.

Most recent is a final exhaust system. I had the local muffler shop assemble everything. All custom bends, held up tight to the body for maximum clearance. 2.5" from both headers back to a 3" round FlowFX by flowmaster. Its obnoxiously loud, but it all goes straight out the back.

 

Today I will be working on my steering. I have a 1 ton chevy steering box, wishbone on the drivers side. I just got my 4" drop pitman arm via UPS. Thanks boys in brown!

When steering left the body droops a bit before the wheels move, and I'm guessing it is because of the steep angle on the drag link. I don't want sway bars or a track bar. The suspension movement is stiff enough due to the leaf springs.

 

This should do the job

 

At a standstill for the moment. The drop pitman arm is great, but the distance to the knuckle is shorter than before.. I’ll need to cut 1” off each of my ends to make up for it. Unfortunately I’m out of grinding wheels, and out of steam today.

 

That is looking great. How tall is it sitting right now with the 37s? Probably close to 24" height at the crossmember?

 

Thanks! I only have 20” below the transfer case. 26” to the frame.

 

New parts had to be modified. That’s what jeeps are about, right?
Even the steering wheel is straight!

 

I'm looking at doing a similar build once my 4 cylinder dies. I've got a chevy 5.3 and a set of super duty axles sitting in my shed. How does it drive? is there anything you'd do differently?

 

It has a lot of power. It’ll be a huge difference from the 4 banger. You’ll just have to get used to that.

You can buy mounts that set the engine left or right to give the driveshaft some extra space. I don’t know how the factory gm t case will work, it’s big and has a long tail shaft. Advance Adapters hooked me up with the 4L60 to Dana 300 kit. They have one for the NP231 too since you’ve got a drivers drop axle.

Overall it drives ok. My steering was pretty loose, but I think I have that solved with my new parts. I was using mostly junk yard parts, and that saved me money but caused other headaches. Next time I build something it’ll be four linked with coil overs all around, I think my fabrication skills are good enough now. I’m not a hard core off-roader, but the ride quality will be a lot better than 4 leaf springs. Plus I could stretch out the wheelbase a bit more that way.

 

I have a np231 that was recently rebuilt with a SYE, so that is what I plan on using for a tcase. I'll use the advanced adapter kit with a new input shaft.

I know it will never ride like a caddy with leafs, but I am just worried about large tires on such a short wheelbase. I've got 37s of my ford pickup, but that has an additional 40" on the wheelbase, so it feels a lot more stable. Motobuilt has a stretch kit that uses an xj leaf, but I think I'll try it out with the stock wheelbase first.

I'm in the same boat, I don't plan on doing hardcore wheeling with it. I just see a lot of mud and snow.

Did you take the runflats out of the tires?

 

Did you take the runflats out of the tires?

I have the the PVC inserts from trail worthy fab. I’m sure that these tires attribute to the poor ride quality because the rubber is so hard.

 

Here’s some interior shots. It’s not perfect, and someone stole the radio faceplate before I acquired the tub. Can’t hear it over the exhaust and tire noise anyway 😅

JBCustom Fab twin sticks, American Shifter on the trans. Gas pedal from a 90s Chevy. The YJ pedal had short linkage and that was an easy grab from my parts truck graveyard.

I’m going to weld the old clutch pedal to the brake pedal. I’m a left foot braker, a bad habit I know.

 

Struggled all weekend with the steering arm. Guess I’ll let it soak for another day before I have to start beating again after work.
I’m still having issues with angle even after the pitman arm upgrade. I have a 4” lift arm coming, assuming I can get this thing off.

I also have a sway bar and disconnects on order. I didn’t want to go that route but the body roll is just a bit more than I like while driving, especially on crowned frost heave roads.

 

success. All it needed was a good soak, heat and the BFH

 

Had good progress last week/weekend. I went back to the flat pitman arm and used the 4” steering arm. Nice, flat drag link now. I’ll be returning the $117 drop pitman arm. 😬

I did a tape measurer alignment and I took it out for the first real road test. DEATH WOBBLE occurs at 25-30 mph, unprovoked, on any surface. I also have a brake issue. The drivers side front must not be grabbing because the rig pulls hard right when the brakes are applied.

I know the causes and remedies of death wobble. I’ve been there many times before on my old XJ and my YJ. Everything is new so it has to be something stupid. I’m getting a real allignment at my buddy’s shop this week, and I hope that cures it.

I also fought hard with my cooling system. The engine was overheating constantly despite ambient temperature less than 20°, a new radiator, thermostat, and water pump. Eventually after many cycles of purging the air from the system I got coolant flow and HEAT in my cab. That’s a necessity considering we have had 15° daytime highs here in Maine. 🥶

Yesterday, I was looking through my parts pile to see what could go back to the graveyard, and I tripped over an old driveshaft. Just for fun, I held it up in the Jeep and it was an exact fit for my front drive. It was meant to be. I threw some new ujoints on from the shelf and bolted it in. Of course I had to lock the hubs and go for a test!

 

Don't believe every thing you hear/read on the internet! That's good advice (as stated on an internet forum).

That said,
I've heard that death wobble starts from improperly balanced tires. Then the harmonic vibrations carry into the suspension. On a (unworn) stock front suspension with stock tires, the suspension can overcome these harmonic vibrations, up to a point. With taller than stock suspension and larger than stock tires, the harmonic vibrations are magnified. The larger tires have more leverage to pass their vibrations into the suspension and the taller springs have actually less leverage to resist the vibrations. Sometimes a stronger (or two) steering dampener(s) will be enough to overcome the vibrations, but why not try to cure the cause, rather than the effect?
I'd start by having the tires force balanced and then have my buddies shop do the "real" alignment. Let us know what you do and how it all works out.

Good Luck, L.M.

 

I've heard that death wobble starts from improperly balanced tires.

Good Luck, L.M.

Agreed. The old tires I’m running are pretty chopped up from wheeling years past on another rig. I did swap the “best” two around to the front and tried another run. No improvement. I’ll definitely get them balanced while it’s down for an alignment.

 

what radiator did you go with?

 

Aluminum 4 core. Built in trans cooler and a petcock for easy draining. Cools excellent.

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I did a lot of tinkering this weekend to get it safe to drive. I retorqued all the steering components, shimmed the leaf springs to adjust caster angle. While doing my adjustments I noticed some play in the drivers front wheel bearing, so I replaced that and it all seems to have reduced death wobble by 90%. I got up to 50mph cruising speed with no issues. I had a little shake on a bumpy section while decelerating but a huge improvement. Alignment should take care of that.

I wanted to go to the gas station to fill up the tank. That meant going on real roads with other cars. One click with progressive and the insurance kicked in, so off I went. The rig handled well, so I decided to drive it home after filling up. Made it no problem, but I had to get the wife to drop me off at the shop to get my truck.

It’s still not totally complete, are they ever? At least it’s useable. I have a small leak from my master cylinder which will need to be addressed soon. Rocker guards and some additional roll cage bracing before I wheel it too hard. I also have a clearance issue with my front drive shaft and transmission pan at full flex. Small potatoes considering the obstacles overcome so far.

 

Been driving it off an on since I posted last. A couple trips around town, short commutes in case I have to walk home.. Took it on a little wheeling adventure on the frozen tundra. Went alright on the hard pack and on the lake. Has a little axle hop in the soft snow drifts. I’ll be sourcing a good ARB locker for the rear but I’ll probably weld the front diff solid since I have manual hubs.
I’m slowly working out the kinks. Been so damn cold I haven’t gotten the alignment yet. Miserable chaining the old girl to the trailer when it’s 4°... but we’re on the up! False spring is here next week with temps in the forties so I’ll be able to get it down to the shop.

 

Alignment completed. Cost me fifty bucks and a thirty rack of beer, worth every penny! The tape measurer lineup I did was close, but still too far off to drive right. We used a nice computerized machine to get the job done. As I suspected the caster angle was ten degrees off. I brought some wedges along and we shimmed the underside of the leaf springs to the correct location. Test drive shows 110% improvement. I'm waiting now for my ecm to arrive from the tuner. I found a guy on eBay who tunes a refurbished ecm with your specs for $120, reasonable in my opinion. Option of sending your ecm back for a $60 core but I think I'll keep it as a spare. It does run off the unit I have now it just runs too rich without downstream O2 sensors and egr tuned out.

While its parked with the brain out I got the mirrors installed, seatbelts bolted in, transmission pan clearanced and started sketching out my rear bumper/junk carrier. I'm planning to mount a full size spare, rotopak and hi lift jack on a swingarm.

 

Looks pretty cool with the top off. Trying to find a bikini top in the parts graveyard but I haven’t seen one yet. I did put a TJ sound bar on. It fit nicely without modifying anything and is the same sun faded grey color as the factory padding.

Got the hi lift mounted on the hood. I made a simple rear bumper out of 3x3 square and I thought it looked good, so I didn’t want to clutter it up with accessories.

 

Summer Update:

I have racked up just over 1,000 miles on the build. There have been some critical failures that have all been fixed. I battled the same transmission line several times now. Twice for a clamp that wouldn’t stay put and one blowout. The return line is from a different spool and has had no issues.. This morning, a piece of hose in my fuel system, from the same spool as my hostile tranny line, popped like a balloon. this confirms my theory that the hose is just junk. New hoses installed and we’re back on the road. On the plus side, the leaking from the tranny lines has given the frame a nice coat of rust inhibitors.

I found a set of half doors for sale locally last weekend. I jumped on them because they were already black. I paid $300, which I thought was reasonable. They’re super clean, the panels aren’t faded too bad and the latches work.

I’ve been to a few local meets and car shows. No serious wheeling yet, just dirt roads and small trails. My wife has even come around to it. She enjoys feeling the breeze on a warm day.

 

 

Last night I made the leap to 40s. I was sick of the military wheels after having a flat and wasting hours getting the tire back on the bead. I explored other 37s and eventually found these for a couple hundred more. New wheels and tires $1850. If I can manage to get home before dark this week I’ll get some better photos.