Old Iron 2.0

[handloader90]

Pulled the old pitman arm on the 2wd box and cleaned things up a little bit. It was a pain in the dick getting that nut off of the sector shaft...

Pulled all of the fuel lines from the passenger side frame rail, pulled the brake lines too since I'm gonna be making new ones I guess.

 

[handloader90]

Called RuffStuff today about my washers, they said they won't have them until next week and I wouldn't receive them until 2017...

I'm just gonna go to the fastener store and find some thick washers and weld them on the inside of the frame.

 

[skunked]

Whats the point of these washers?

 

[handloader90]

To add a little more meat on the inside of the frame where the bolts pass through.

I had two small cracks around two of the holes, when I welded one of them up if blew the bolt hole out a little bit (crack was right next to the hole).

So I filled it back in a little with some weld but I'd feel more comfortable with a little extra metal back there, I feel like it would help spread the load out a little more.

 

[Capt Ron]

I believe what you are looking for are called "Williams Washers"

 

[Deuling]

Kickass build man!

 

[handloader90]

I believe what you are looking for are called "Williams Washers"

I've attached a photo of the kind of washer that I mentioned (Courtesy of RuffStuff).

That may be another term from them. I've seen the advertised as step weld washers, stepped weld washers and RuffStuff's fix it weld washer.

I had some lying around but the ID is 9/16", I canceled my order with RuffStuff earlier due to the delay and me needing to get this project done.

For the 1/2" and 9/16" fix it weld washers you have to drill whatever hole you want to use them in out to 3/4"... I did that and I just used the 9/16" ones that I had.

The steering box mounting bolts are 7/16", I figure 1/8" difference wont hurt anything, would have been happier with 1/16" but it is what it is.

Got the washers fully welded in, didn't take pics cause all I have is flux core and my welds are not pretty but those things are melted in there real good.

Started on the weld-in frame repair kit from ORD and I messed up the liner in my mig gun so I'll be picking up another one tomorrow (if TSC or Rural King have it in stock) and finishing up the weld-in stuff. I plan on getting the steering box on tomorrow and the bolt-in brace from ORD.

 

[handloader90]

Kickass build man!

Thanks! Trying to get it all put together lol.

 

[handloader90]

Got lucky, TSC had 1 liner in stock.

Got it installed and I'm back in business.

 

[handloader90]

Pics.

Few hours of daylight left, gonna try to finish everything up!

 

[handloader90]

Got everything on.

I had to beat the f**king snot out of the weld-in brace to get it tight to the frame...

With it all together everything seems pretty stout.

 

[handloader90]

Got the crossover steering on.

Pitman arm and TRE's are lightly installed, need a steering shaft to line everything up before it's all finalized.

Pretty cool stuff though.

 

[handloader90]

Threw the 6.0 in. What better place to store an engine than the engine bay?

 

[handloader90]

Did a few things today.

Chopped my fenders up a little more than they were before, cut the inner fender wells to match kinda... mostly cutting out the cancer which didn't leave me with a whole lot.

Replaced some bolts in the suspension.

Decided to mess with the 4 speed. Got the top cover off and spent the next 2-3 hours trying to get it back on... got it figured out, took it off again just to make sure I knew how to get it back on.

The fluid in the tranny was redish but smelled of gear oil so I'm guessing someone had mixed ATF and gear oil, I'm just gonna leave it in there, worked fine when the truck was driveable.

Front bearing retainer had a deep wear mark so I robbed one from one of my spare 4 speeds.

Sealed everything back up.

Slapped the driver side exhaust manifold onto the 6.0 and found out that the mechanical linkage for the trans will clear! Stoked about that!

 

[handloader90]

Today I went to a junkyard about 45 mins. away from me and spent $30. They had 40% off of everything in the yard.

I got a water pump with fan and fan clutch, steering shaft from an Express 2500, oil cooler block off plate, oil filler neck and a handful of bolts that I needed.

Only thing I paid for was the water pump.

I know used water pumps are kind off frowned upon but a parts store one with a fan clutch costs $150.

The bolt in my hand pictured below cost $7 new by itself and I needed 10 of them... free99.

 

[handloader90]

Got new valve cover gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets and exhaust manifold bolts, SM465 gasket kit and a NP205 figure 8 seal for the adapter.

Found out that my alternator is a 160 Amp model so that's a plus.

Pulled both knock sensors and was glad to find out there was so corrosion on them... lucked out on that I guess. Still gonna do the rtv trick on the knock sensor plugs to keep water out of them.

Been bolting up some of my junkyard goodies and I feel like firing this thing up is not that far away, I just need to get this wiring harness cleaned up as a standalone harness.

 

[handloader90]

Pics of what the engine should look like when it's in the engine bay.

I know I've gotta take some of the stuff back off but I just wanted to get everything put together to see what it looks like.

 

[handloader90]

Bolted the steering shaft up. I got the steering wheel straightened out and lined up with the knuckles pointing straight forward. Made sure that both sides went to full lock both ways.

 

[Tony Vickers]

Bolted the steering shaft up. I got the steering wheel straightened out and lined up with the knuckles pointing straight forward. Made sure that both sides went to full lock both ways.

View attachment 221951

View attachment 221952

What parts, from what, are those on the steering shaft, Jeep? Do you have a write up about how you did that? Thanks.

 

[handloader90]

What parts, from what, are those on the steering shaft, Jeep? Do you have a write up about how you did that? Thanks.

The steering shaft came from a Chevy Express 2500 van, it was a early 2000's model.

It was a huge pain in the ass to pull out of the van... I didn't bring the right tools to get it out, a box cutter and a crow bar is needed. There is a thick rubber sleeve housing the steering shaft from the steering box all the way up to the column and it has to be cut, all I had to cut it with was a flat tip screw driver lol, once the sleeve is off both ends of the shaft are secured with 3/8" bolts, once those are removed the ends are still on attached extremely tight, that'swhen you need the crow bar. Took me about 2.5 hours with none of the right tools, would probably take 30 mins. with the right stuff, still a pain in the ass though.

It fit perfectly onto the lower steering column of my '79 K5 and the input shaft of my '88 steering box.

It took light persuasion with a punch and a hammer to get both ends of the shaft full seated.

I got this one vs. the Jeep XJ shaft because it doesn't have plastic in the shaft that you have to heat up to collapse and I had read that with the XJ shaft some people were having problems with the lower steering column bearing would walk out. The express shaft is seated all the way up on the lower column just a hair away from the bearing so I don't see any problems there.

@cwn anwyn is how I found out about the express steering shaft and he might have more info about it but it's a straight forward install and seems to be a solid upgrade.