Well, now that the belt stuff was roughed in, it was time to get back to some heavy items. Time to pull the 205 t-case back out, and install the missing items in the 203 doubler



So now the 203 is now a complete unit..



Since this wasn't a complete 203 doubler kit, I had to modify the side plate so the case could be filled.



We had talked about modifieng the 205 so it can be twin sticked(front dig). So dale sent me a link, and I found a couple others on the web and dug into it. It was pretty easy and kinda resembled the procedure of a dana 20 t-case. So once the shift rail was modified, I bench tested it, and seems to work like it should... So I plucked that heavy thing back into place with a temp cross member..

 

SInce the rig was a manual trany, it was time to remove the old clutch pedal hardware..
The first thing I did was cap the hole for the clutch master..



Next thing, was to remove the old clutch pedal.. I will bypass the safety start switch here soon..



Here is the shiney inspection cover(I know, bad picture) for the torque converter. For some reason I had to trim it to clear the starter(figured it was just a crappy form).



Look at the chrome starter (gear reduction style)

 

Since I am waiting for more parts to arive, I figured it was time to get some of the ground cables done. I generally ground the engine to the frame, then the frame to the body so there is zero chance of any voltage drops in the system.



I will also be doing a dual battery setup, with a master switch. The system will be explained later. To get the system started (waiting for the switch) I mounted the main junction block/stud. I found a nice spot right below the underhood fuse/relay center. Here you can see the cable that goes to the starter and the other main cable is from the winch(the small bacl one feeds the fuse block and breaks off from there and goes to the rest of the vehicle)

 

Today I got a small load of parts from summit.

Here is the passenger battery tray (had to cut it to fit)



And here is the battery with the new ground cable I made.



Here is the drivers side.. It too had to be cut to fit



Here is the same battery with the new ground cable I made

 

That doubler has me drooling over here, i want one for my rig.

Looks awesome so far, keep up the good work!

 

Man, great work! Couple of quick questions- what were the donor vehicle(s) for the engine and tranny? Going carbed off the bat, with TBI conversion later? What carb are you planning to run?

 

Where it came from originally, I'm not sure. I purchased the motor from Travis (Medic on the SNORT board). He had the engine built by a race engine builder in Everett and put about 8k - 10k miles on it. He had it an a very nicely rebuilt TLC. The motor was built for offroad use, meaning low end torque vs high RPM speed. When I got it, Travis estimated that it was about a 300Hp engine. From the research that I've done, it appears that the motor was off a truck from '78 or '79. With the changes that I've made (electric fan, electric water pump, headers, MSD6a), I think it may have added an extra 20 or 30 HP compared to when I bought it.

The carb is a quadrajet, which Travis said was modified for offroad use. There were some modifications to the jets so that they could easily be adjusted for altitude changes. I've also read up on the quadrajet modifications. There are some changes that can be made to the floats and float bowl that will allow for more severe angles before starving the vehicle for fuel. The quadrajet is known to be a better offroad carb than most - other than the new Avenger that can run upside down.

TBI? Maybe. If it has trouble passing smog I will for sure - but that's a year or so down the road. My 65 Mustang is in bad need of a carb. I might do a TBI on this motor and put the quadrajet on the Mustang if it will work.

I also have no idea where the tranny came from originally. I bought it off another guy on the SNORT board. He'd done a ton of work to build up a Jeep but at the last minute decided to go into quads and was parting everything out instead. The tranny was complete rebuilt for an offroad vehicle (new racing spragues and a stage 1 shift kit). He didn't know the convertor specs but the torque convertor looks almost new so it may have been replaced. I'm not even sure what an ideal torque convertor setup would be in an offroad situation since I've always run manual transmissions in every vehicle I've ever owned. OK except for my wife's car/van. The transmission was filled with fluid, installed and then removed. It's never actually been run yet since the rebuild.

 

The parts look pretty new and well taken care of, thats for sure. I put an Edelbrock Q-jet on my (formally Chrisco's) land cruiser, and its been running like a champ ever since. The previous Edelbrock carb was giving me a ton of trouble. I went with the Q-jet for the same reasons, heard they were one of the best carbs for offroading, though I haven't had a chance to try the LC off-road yet to know for myself.

Why the switch to an auto?

 

He's getting old and lazy

A couple trips up evans and he will be ready for TBI

 

The manual transmissions available were the SM420, SM465 and NV4500. The SM transmissions are known to be very stong, but extremely clunky and noisy, especially compared to a Toyota transmission. The NV4500 would have been a great choice, but the cost of the transmission along with the adaptors was astronomical. A good NV4500 was anywhere from $800 - $1200 plus shipping. The adaptor to the Chevy 350 was another $400-500 (unless you got lucky and found a used combination). Then it had to adapt up to an NP203 (I don't think many NV4500s came this way so it was aftermarket again) for several hundred more. The TH350 was a direct bolt up to the SBC 350 with no adaptors and the NP203 that I had already had the adaptor for the TH350 on it (since this was the most common installation). It also allowed me - or so they say, to not have to go as low in my gearing in the t-cases. With the NV4500 I was looking at needing or wanting a low range second t-case with 4:1 or taller gears. This sacraficed strength and cost a lot more money. With the auto tranny, it was recommend that I don't go any lower than I am or that the brakes wouldn't be able to stop the rig even at idle.
I still may go to an NV4500 and redo the t-case gears, but only if I don't like driving the auto transmission.

 

Gotcha, that makes sense!

 

You run IROK's, have a 350, and a 203/205 doubler and you are worried about the noise the SM465 makes?

 

Great looking work Crash! Hadn't checked in on it for a little bit and it's coming along VERY nicely. Dale, my drivability tech (Warren) is awesome with Q-jet's, we'll get that thing through emissions and he'll get the carb. dialed in perfect.

John

 

I'll bring it by when Crash is done with it. Not for the emissions but to make sure that this thing is running perfect. Have Warren do a little research on the float bowl modifications to made these quadrajets even better on the steep inclines.

 

I finally dug the Lokar(Man, I just dig the stuff this company makes) dipstick. SInce there was no way to make the stock steel one work, I decided to go with this unit.





Next step, was to put the new hardware on for the kickdown/accel cables. I found the oil pressure switch was in the way of the kickdown cable, so I had to relocate it. Once on, I adjusted the cable, and will hopefully have the new accel cable here in a few days. I also fought with where to put the ignition coil. I finally opted to mount it on the firewall, up and out of the way.



Wholey crap, it looks like it puked

 

Before I dug into the wiring mess, I decided to finish up the drive belt items.

I finally got the brackets for the alt painted so I fully installed the alternator bracket and alternator.



Before I removed the powersteering bracket, I decided to get a rough idea of the belt length, so I grabbed and old belt from work, and this is the method I use.



I removed the A/C compressor bracket, and prepped the block for the new water pump.

 

Before I mounted the water pump, I found a problem. The eldenbrock manifold only has one port for the heater hoses. Usually the water pump is the location for the other port, and this pump did not have one. I ran thru my choices, one being tig weld a nipple onto the radiator. The other was to build some kind of metal section in the lower radiator hose with a nipple. After some thought I came up with a conclusion. I decided to drill and tap the water pump for 1/2" NPT. Now, I hate to have to modify a new part, but it was the easiest option of the 3. So I carefully took measurements and laid into it. I nailed it perfectly.



Before I dug into the other main bracket (gotta love how my mind just jumps around) I picked up a new accel cable (aplication is a 91 full size chev pickup with a 5.7) and get it mounted. I figured this out when I did my 4.3 swap and it worked pretty slick.

Here is the origional hole in the firewall for the origional accel cable.



And here is all I had to do to the firewall.



The GM cable has a snap lock setup to retain it to the firewall.

And here is the finished product.



One thing you also have to do, is modify the gas pedal a bit, I will dig into that when I get into the dash for wiring.

 

Now it was time to modify the power steering pump. Why? Well a while back dale bought a hydro assist setup for the rig, and from experiance more fluid is needed due to the one sided ram. In the past I have capped the pump where the dipstick/cap goes, but since I had plenty of room to work with, I just extened the neck of the reservoir which should do the trick.



Now that the pump was done, I went and got a new power steering high pressure hose (aplication 91 full size chev 4x4 pickup with a 5.7). Since in origional form the hardline portion of the hose wrapped around the outer edge of the reservoir tank, so I had to do some bending. I then cut the hardline on the other side of the rubber portion and flaired a metric fitting for the steering box.

 

Now that was done, I was going to dig into building the x-member, but decided to continue in the engine compartment since I was on a roll.. One thing that bugged me, was the location of the box for the on-board welder (premier). Dale will eventually go with line locks for the brakes, and the location of the box was right where they need to go, so I decided to move it. Another thing was the fact the large guage wire from the alt to the box would have a long distance to go. Here is where I moved it to.



It actually fits better in this spot.

Another item we will be adding to the rig, is MSD ignition box. It took some head scratching to figure where to put it, since I wanted it close to the distributor. Here is where I put it.



One thing I was unsure, was if the hood would hit the box, so I used good old duct tape, stuck it in place and tossed the hood on to make sure it fit. Only issue I had was with the washer hose. That should be an easy fix, I just have to move the hose 3", piece of cake..

So, now I decided to just keep rolling with the wiring, and got this far with it before I ran outa steam.

 

Looking real nice Crash.. Congrats Gibby looks like you will have a few extra rodents under the hood... lol
z