supermotard's 74 Jimmy "Magdalena" Build Thread

[supermotard750]

So I picked up the jimmy about a year ago after selling my Camaro, and needing a new project to start. I've been slowing wheeling and building as i go, and hi-jacking other peoples threads with my build pictures so i figured i'd start my own build thread and back date a little bit to bring it up to date. I'm kind of hoping that this motivates me to take more pictures of my work and progress.


So i'll start where it all started this is the Camaro that i sold

I found my jimmy on Craigslist, the guy said it had carb problems, and it kept had a broken rear u joint blew 3 in the last 100 miles he drove it then it sat for 3 years because he couldn't figure it out.

and the wife

Did i mention it was ****ing purple.

I pulled the top off to see what kind of rust was around the window frame.

turned out the problem with the piece of **** 2 barrel carb was that it had been sitting for so long, exactly what i expected. Little carb choke cleaner and it ran, like a 350 with a 2 barrel... the U joint issue as far as i can tell when it broke the first time from being worn out, who ever changed it reclocked the driveshaft wrong and cause it too eat up the rest of them. fixed it didn't break one for over a year.

time for better power and smoother running. In the form of a Edelbrock performer intake and after alot of research and previous experiences with holleys and edlebrocks while wheeling i decided on a brand new worked quadrajet.

I also swapped out the mechanical clutchless fan for acouple of electric pusher fans with an adjustable thermastat.

the purple finally had to go so what better way then the free labor of my wife.

 

[Deuling]

Looks like some good progress! Subscribed!

 

[supermotard750]

got the whole truck in primer, and put a pickup tool box in the back to aid in lockable storage, removed the tailgate since it was rotted and falling off.

Finally got to go wheeling.
met up with chickenrammit and PBlaze.
the truck did pretty well for being mostly stock on 33's a 4" lift with blocks in the rear and open from and gov loc rear with 3.08's.

I did find out that the hi-capacity cast aluminum rear diff cover was just waiting to be smashed on a rock.

so i knew it was time for a few mods/upgrades
started with getting rid of that massive diff cover and replaced it with a BTF weld up cover, painted it with some duplicolor anodized red. damn that thing is stout.

I had an old Nitrous bottle laying around from the camaro, so for about 60 bucks airgas converted it too a 20lb Co2 bottle. and a $20 Co2 regulator. Still needs to be upgraded to a no freeze up version because i can't run air tools off it.

Then i got some angle iron and an ebay deal on some 1" thick shackle mounts and shackles and welded up a little bumper.

did i mention these shackles were beef!!!

came out pretty good. I also cut off the fangs, they were getting in the way

for those wondering about the hole in the middle of the bumper it's for the front hitch i will eventually put in. . . .

 

[blazinzuk]

Nice.

One thing I might recommend though, brace the angle iron in the back. I can't really see if you have done that or not, but pulling on those shackles with just 2 pieces of angle welded together will eventually cause failure of the main structure. Not soon but it will.

Just a couple of pieces to brace up the area behind the hitch and behind the shackle points should be fine.

 

[scottishdave]

Cool Build so far, Been curious about your Truck since it was probably the only one without a thread on it.

 

[supermotard750]

Nice.

One thing I might recommend though, brace the angle iron in the back. I can't really see if you have done that or not, but pulling on those shackles with just 2 pieces of angle welded together will eventually cause failure of the main structure. Not soon but it will.

Just a couple of pieces to brace up the area behind the hitch and behind the shackle points should be fine.

The Shackle points are actually welded to another piece of angle that also makes up the bumper mount to the frame so that the shackles pull directly off that and the bumper is just in the middle. but i do like that idea because eventually i want to do a hitch mounted winch and then the hitch will take alot of abuse.

Cool Build so far, Been curious about your Truck since it was probably the only one without a thread on it.

Yea it's been a long time coming but i always forget to take in process pictures. but i think this will help, i still have to update a ton of stuff i just called it a night, so im back to it now.

 

[supermotard750]

I almost forgot, I think my favorite best money spent on the rig so far has got to be the twin stick, since I'm running a SM465/205, i really wanted to have the full use of 2wd lo and front drive only. But I'm not exaggerating when i say that it f*cking sucks to remove and install a 205 on your back by yourself with a autozone jack.
as you can see in this picture the jack is still extended and 205 is on the ground, yes it fell as soon as i touched the jack handle(nothing broke it landed on the case) my garage floor is now missing a half dollar sized chunk, and my leg is happy to still be here since it landed inches from my left shin.

got the pin out and shaved it using other threads for reference. I don't have any after the shave pics.

ended up doing something along the lines of this and about 2 hours of wrestling to get it back up.

O yeah so i almost forgot i cut a hole in the floor where i attemped to knock the roll pin out through because i didn't want to drop the Tcase. (this hole has yet to be welded back in because the wife calls it her heater as its directly above an exhaust pipe and it puts off some heat in the cold mornings[sometimes i like it too.] )

Next on the agenda was dual batterys. i ordered all new mounts for the aux battery through LMC Truck, much cheaper then i expected but really good quality. only complaint was on the hold down it has the tab type that has a single bolt an grabs the bottom of the battery.(not a big fan) i wanted some type of isolation so i went cheap with a ford starter solenoid to disconnect the battery when the key was off. it burnt up after the first 30 min ride, the solenoid is still under the hood but the battery is just connected now.

 

[TheBeast_88K5]

Nice work, thus far....

 

[supermotard750]

GRRRR!!!! i just deleted a giant post that i was almost done with i'll redo it after lunch

 

[supermotard750]

So time for a good shake down. PBlaze and I decided to go down to corral canyon ( neither of us have a winch). We planned on hitting sidewinder and bronco peak.
Sidewinder first.

Lots of fun there.

PBlaze says he tries this every time. (didn't make it)

I tried taking this route up and found out that my hitch makes a really nice anchor.

Then I over popped a radiator hose.( quick fix)

.
Then I went up the easy side.

.
And finished out sidewinder.

 

[supermotard750]

Then we hit bronco peak.

Pretty smooth wheeling up to the peak.

it got a little tight in some area's between PBlaze and I we left a total of 3 tail lens on the trail. but did manage to break all 4.

i got pretty well hung up on this spot here and PBlaze had to come back through and yank me back.

Then we hit what we thought was the "V Notch" little did we know it was on a different trail that we would later find out was the bronco peak connector.

I had already decided that i was going to by-pass this with what i thought was the easier route. . . . NOT THE CASE!!

i ended up dropping off that little ledge pretty hard right in to a fairly sharp rock that would prove to much for my dry rotted 33's sidewall.

i used a little trick i had learned a while back using a chain with a choke hook to keep my suspension front dropping to keep from over extending my "farm jack" brand hi-lift

got the tire changed and we were back on our way, pretty easy sailing while following the so cal 4x4 guide, until we relized that some how we made a very wrong turn on to 3A bronco peak connector and not on to bronco flats. we relised this only because we hit a sign that said dirt bikes and atv's only and noticed that the trees were scraping both sides of our trucks and we made 3 point turns at every bend. so after coming down some good obstacles we tucked tail and heads back, till we remembered what we came from.
this nice little set of steps may have been the down fall of the night

i took yet another bad line. and broke a front u-joint

I know I know, who doesn't carry spare u joints, this guy. (I do Now)
so i used acouple of hose clamps and a few monster zip ties and rigged it up. . . that lasted till the next step then broke (who woulda guessed)
so like i said neither PBlaze or myself had a winch but i did have a come along, and with the help of the twin sticks for some 2wd lo we got it out, took about 45 mins. i moved to the side of the trail so PBlaze could lead and drag me up any where i needed to go, an low and behold i got my self wedged on the side of the trail, another 45mins later when it was pitch black we started moving again. no more picture because it was so dark.

 

[supermotard750]

so we were actually doing really well considering i was 2 wheeling it with a yank here and there we just kept the strap connected. then the wife goes it's really smokey, i said i think it's his exhaust, so we stopped and nope remember that battery hold down I'm not a huge fan of. it let go and the battery ended up upside down melting on the header.

since i had 2 batteries we took that one out and continued on, made it out almost went rubber up but made it no less. Now we started this trip at about 9am by the time we got out it was between 9-10pm and i live in riverside county and left at 630 to get there so i still had a 2 hour + plus ride home.
some of the carnage pictures from the next morning

if you didn't notice in this picture last time the bumper is tweeked up i used the wrong size bolts and the pass. side has some rash

But i did find out that the shackles were mounted very well and held up to all the abuse i think i could ever throw at them

 

[pblaze725]

Here's my morning after:





I want to make a correction in the story. When we finally got to the trail marker it said No Jeeps, No Quads, DIRTBIKES ONLY.

 

[supermotard750]

Haha true I forgot about that

 

[supermotard750]

So I began buying up parts like the money tree was in full bloom. ( it wasn't by the way)
I started at the junkyard. Yanked a 14bff with 3.73's ( I have an sm465 I'm not short on low range). I also picked up a new front drive shaft because my cv was wasted and a front pinion yoke because I tore mine up when I broke the u joint. Off the same truck I snatched up some spare axles since I plan on running the 44 for a while.
I pick up a 2wd steering box and an already drilled an tapped passenger side knuckle. From a guy on pirate.
And some Craigslist 35" BFG A/Ts
Then I ordered new stuff like
DIY4X shackle flip w/ 6" shackles
Gears and install kit to match the rear and a spartan locker.
Ord weld in frame brace and a bolt in steering box brace.
Got some 1ton TREs and 1.5" x .250 Dom and inserts for my crossover. And I ordered sky's crossover hi steer arm( awesome).
PSC hydro ram only.
And a rebuild kit for my 2wd box and steering pump.
Out with the old axle and in with the shackle flip and poly bushings.

In with the new axle. I can't find the pictures but I rebuilt the drums with every thing new pads to slaves. ( I know I know. But the stop awesome and I have a bad ass e-brake). I also shaves the axle for better clearance, but I went a little deep an actually cut into the bottom bolt hole so you could see the threads when I installed the cover. I solved this by trimming the cover a bit an putting in an Allen bolt in that hole an grinding it flush to the case I didn't flush out the cover because I didn't want to lose sealing surface or bolt area( this would prove to be a bad idea)

Since I'm putting a spartan in the front and I was only running 35s and was now flat broke I decided to weld up the spiders. I through a couple of nuts an bolts in there to save on welding wire.

Behold the ORB of Traction. I was careful not to get any splatter on the thrush bearing surface because even tho it would no longer turn I wanted to put them back in to eliminate any movement.

For ****s and giggles I put the front and rear carrier together. For perspective of the difference. I wanted to puke.

Next was the 2wd steering box. Very easy to break down an soaked in in solvent over night and then scrubbed it clean.

I found a really good write up on the whole process if I find it again I'll update an post it. But It took maybe 2 hours to repack the whole thing and drill and tap it for hydro assist. It did take a while to get all the adjustments right I drove it for a week then readjusted the backlash. Works well so far.

 

[K5 Jess]

nice!

 

[supermotard750]

next i started on the front end

I've never done gears before but i'm fairly competent in the garage, so after i got quoted 900 bucks from 4 wheel parts for an install, I figured even after i bought a Mic, a dial indicator, and a press i could still screw the gears up twice before touching that price.

so i bought a 12 ton press from HF, and got a mic and D.I. from summit for less then 150bucks, thanks to a 20% HF coupon

and installed the new gears, bearings, seals, u-joints,balljoints, and did the 8 lug conversion.

it took me 6 tries over the course of 2 days working on it for 2 hours at a time after work to shim it to where i was happy with it.
.007 backlash

my final pattern im sure someone with chime in if this looks off(constructive criticism is encouraged)

i got this nice diff cover guard from Wild Horses (yea yea fords) it fit. and it's got some beef to it. i test fit my high steer using my stock tie rod. made for a nice fit i also messed around with some places to mount the assist ram.

got it back in and installed the new drag link, i used a straight drag link and high angle ball joints. only time will tell if this was a wise choice.

how the links sit a ride height.

then i flexed it out to see if i would have any clearance issues.

i didn't have to trim a thing i had a 1/4" minimum when turning lock to lock but i did this with the shocks disconected and raised it to the point where the tires would be about 2" thru my wheel wells.

 

[pblaze725]

Your gear pattern don't look as good as mine.

 

[supermotard750]

yea well we can't all roll on 10 bolts. . . .

 

[pblaze725]

yea well we can't all roll on 10 bolts. . . .

I've been lucky. Thanks for the help.

The little 10 bolts have pulled a few big boys off the trail a time or two.