Project Florida Crawler 2

N20Jeep

N20Jeep

NAXJA Forum User
Location
J-Ville,FL
so, i decided to start a new project.

originally was going to be a new body with all my old running gear, but a few things have changed.

first up, the new chassis. i probably paid a little to much for it. but i liked it.

it is a 2000 limited, 2wd with an Aw4. motor ended up having a cracked piston.



overall in decent condition, just needs some cleanup.



a big goal for this jeep will be to keep the interior clean and comfortable for my family to wheel with and for it to be enjoyable to drive to and from the trails(leather,AC, music, all that fancy stuff). along with performing daily driver duties.
 
stripped out the motor and trans.

This jeep will be converted to a AX-15, so all the auto parts need to go!
 
I sold my NP231 with an SYE, and worked out a deal to buy a new case


it is a NP231/ dana 300 doubler . it used the D&D machine kit.

For those not familiar with a doubler. here are some advantages to it.
First, gear choices.

normal NP231 only has one low range (2.72:1)

this doubler offers
-2.62 low range
-2.72 low range
-7.13 in double low range
so i can put it in normal low range for obstacles where i need some wheel speed, or in Low low for the slower more technical climbs.


other advantages are that the d300 is twinsticked , so 2wd low and front digs are also possible now. there will be 3 case shifters in the cab. 1 for the 231 and 2 for the d300


i tore the cases down to clean and inspect.
 
so. the original plan was for me to re-use my built 44/8.8 combo. but, a deal was made with a buddy and I'm the proud owner of these.

93 Ford HP60. has 35spline inners and 30 spline outers, WFO truss, 5.38's, and a spool


rear FF 14b, has a truss and will get 5.38's and a grizzly locker, and one day down the road it will get a full shave.
 
also picked up some new wheels. just some 17x9 pro comp steelies. will get weld on beadlocks a little down the road.



got some frame stiffeners from ruffstuff, still need to get the front and rear.


tore into the motor from the other jeep. replaced the head with a freshly gone through head along with all the lifters and pushrods, and cleaned all the debris from the block.



stripped the interior out to check out the floors and start making room of the cases.


cut out a big section of the passenger side, and still need to cut out some of the driver side.
 
and thats pretty much caught up for now.
I need to finish a blue xj truggy thing thats taking up my spot in the shop, and wait for the ORI's to finally show up
 
Spool for daily driver duties?
 
been tinkering with it here and there. only have tiny bits of time during the week at the moment to make progress.

slowly piecing the engine together. still need to make some little brackets to hold the coil rail to the valve cover. but its coming along.

my wheels showed up. nothing special just 17x9 pro comp steelies with 4" BS. down the road ill do some weld on deadlocks. but they'll do for now

and the spool showed up for the 60.

and since I'm converting this thing to an AX15, it means i needed to swap out the pedal assembly. for some crazy reason i figured that the older pedal assemblies would work in the 97+ jeep. so i bought the first one i came across.

i was wrong. while the fire wall mounting holes are the same, the upper dash mounting is completely different.

so instead of just tracking down a late model one (which is turning out to be pretty rare) i decided to make it work. plan is to splice the two together. i cut the early model one up to get the clutch assembly piece and welded it to the late model one. and i swapped over the brake and clutch pedals to the new assembly


still need to add a couple small plates so i can weld the two together in a couple other spots that don't quite line up right. like the top since i cut a little bit to far. and i need to modify the brake switch mount since the 5 speed brake pedal doesn't line up like the auto brake pedal to the switch. but the way it is now will be good enough to mock up and make sure everything works.
 
finished mounting up all the clutch stuff, ended up being more of a pain in the ass than i thought. there were no mounting holes in the fire wall so i needed to drill those. and it was a pain to get the new modified pedal assembly back in the jeep.
 
and i pulled out the tcase, completely sealed it up and finished cutting the floorboard for it to all fit with my crossmember. everything fits up nice and tight above the frame rails. i "may" have to pull it back out and clock the case down slightly. i won't know until i have the axle and front suspension in the jeep.

also, my original plan was to just run some stick shifters for all 3 shifters. but now I've been considering cable shifters so i can have all 3 shifters in the factory location and make it look a little cleaner. so well see
 
finished a buddies jeep project, so now i finally am able to park my jeep in the shop and really start to work on it. got a few things done recently.sold off the rear 8.25 so i temporarily tossed in the 14bolt and some junk 35s to keep it a roller
 
cut off the upper control arm mounts the PO had welded to the truss.


along with mocking up a tie rod to see the clearence issues ill have with that riddler cover


and tossed some roller 35's on it so i could pull the 2wd beam axle out and slide the 60 under the jeep


pulled off the front bumper and flares so it would fit
 
i set the front of the jeep up at the ride height it will be at.

theres just over 6" between the top of that pankiller truss and my oilpan. so ill have to make sure I'm pretty precise on setting up full bump. lol


started mocking up the control arms in my crossmember to see what I'm working with.

since the crossmember and arms were designed around a almost center LP EB44 front axle it puts the lower control arm pretty close to the driveshaft. i still need to run the axle through its range of travel to see if this will be an issue or not. worse case scenario i will need to cut off and relocate my crossmember side control arm mounts.

 
and a heavily anticipated arrival has shown.

my shocks are here! so now the build will be moving a little faster
16" rear, 14" front

 
started mocking up my steering.

this is with running a small drop pitman arm to help out the angle some. I'm going to angle the axle side track bar mount a little more to help match the drag link angle and buy me a little more truss clearance.

the eventual goal will be to have a local guy machine the knuckle and cut me a keyed highsteer arm so i can flatten out my angles . but i think I'm just going to run it as is at first.


and it looks like ill be doing a little diff cover grinding.
 
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