Build 1989 Jeep Cherokee 1 ton swap

How the hell are you wheelin 40s with no hydro? My MJ on 35s was almost impossible to turn with a stock box.


Im guessing you look something like this:flipoff2:
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Nah he looks more like this.
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If anyone knows what the wire is running down the transmission tunnel on the driver side let me know.

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I need shifters, and if I had some help I could get this pulled out so I could install the foot mount on it. This is annoyingly long, heavy and awkwardly shaped.

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Ecobox installed. No fluids in it, I need to figure out shifters and linkage, plus I need different length driveshafts…but it’s physically in. Looks cool in photos I guess. It was a toss up between this and hydro assist. I guess I’ll go do some curls now.
 

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Northwest fan eco box with 6 gear planetary, and a 231 with wide chain and 6 gear planetary.
7.39:1 reduction.
106.27:1 in lo-lo.

I’ve been wheeling in 39:1.
 
E brake light/ trigger.
What??


Edit: OOOOOOOOHHHHH :lmao:
You answered my question. It’s the emergency brake light. Well I don’t have to worry about THAT anymore. I thought it was maybe a fuel pump line or something.
 
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Since I cut out the seat brace the transmission tunnel likes to fold in and rest on the transfer case. I went overkill on the bracing I had on hand. It was a front frame stiffener/steering box support I was given.

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I cut of more of the transfer case. Hopefully this isn’t crucial to the strength of the aluminum. This will get covered in some thin sheet metal before I have to figure out putting the seat back in.
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Welded to the factory seat bracket support. I’m think it will add back some strength to the unibody, but maybe not as much as I think.
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The front yoke clears. Not by much, but it spins freely.
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I clearanced the area around the front yoke more. It’s closer to finger width spacing now. I also have space above the transfer case where I cut it. I wanted to make sure removing this and putting it in wasn’t completely impossible. I was once told to build it thinking of taking it apart. It seems to help today.


18 gauge coverup on my 3/16 or 1/4” reinforcement. I’ll end up going over the whole thing to cover the holes, and maybe some type of seam sealer to keep water out.

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Yes I burned the insulation. I don’t know why, but I’m actively avoiding removing the center console to make removing carpet easier. Just cut what I think I need to. The orange and black wires are a light for the shifter from what I remember.

I might be able to lengthen the connecting rod between the 231 and the stock shifting mechanism everyone replaces.
I’m still trying to figure out how to make a shifter for the EcoBox. The tab coming off the box is at about a 45 degree angle and it’s maybe 6 inches behind the factory shifter. Its travels sort of horizontally if pointed up, and the only other option just reverses the shifting direction.
 
New seat bracket made using an existing hole in the bottom of the Jeep. The studs are square (14 1/8 x 14 1/8) so maybe I can reuse these brackets for future seats.
There is a non-threaded tab under the Jeep I welded the seat stud to.

Al this was done so I could figure out exactly where shifters are going. I’m pretty sure it’s where the emergency brake lever is. The EcoBox shift lever sits at about a 45 degree angle so I’ll need to account for that when fabricobbling a shifter



It can be removed. It took many pieces coming off to remove it but it comes out. I clearanced the hole some more on the driver rear side to hopefully make this easier.


I’m still torn between a carrier bearing, or a single driveshaft. I should wait until I can flex it out to see if a 1 piece will work.

I also added the foot mount. It should be used to support everything, and I’ll need to make sure the mounts are all in line with each other as best I can.


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Seat mount is square. 14 1/8 x 14 1/8
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Seat stud mounting location. I had to drill a hole through this to locate it inside then make it bigger. I have no idea why it is here or what it is for.
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Tack welded in its final location.
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Stock bracket vs my fabrication skills.
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Final bolt pattern on the clocking ring.

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EcoBox bolts. Rough sketch of where the shift lever ends up.
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I would clearance that yoke a little more with a hammer on the sheet metal.

Looking good. You are going to love the doubler!
 
I would clearance that yoke a little more with a hammer on the sheet metal.

Looking good. You are going to love the doubler!
I did. Now I need to cut open the hole I just covered so the whole drivetrain can go up. The transmission crossmember I’ve had forever won’t fit. :homer:
 
You take a lot of closeup photos, do you have any wider frame photos of what the front coil over tower you built looks like?

I need inspiration :flipoff2:
 
You take a lot of closeup photos, do you have any wider frame photos of what the front coil over tower you built looks like?

I need inspiration :flipoff2:


Ruffstuff shock towers. I notched them to skip over the unibody. Page 2.


I think it would be smarter to do shock hoops. Mine are too high up and I pretty much ride the bump stops all the time. Smaller coilovers and shock hoops would have been a better setup. Id like the top mount further out so the shock is more vertical, and more uptravel. I don’t have a tube bender so making the REMOVABLE crossbrace support bar for towers was beyond my abilities.

I started
Modifying/customizing/hack fabricating the passenger side shock tower. I started with the passenger side because with more electrical wires and relays it seemed like the hardest side of the two. Lots of cut, fit, grind, fit, mark, cut some more, and after probably 6 hours of work I have what I’m willing to settle with.
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Engine mount bracket to unibody had a weird step up/hump/bump I had to work with along with the tap at the top of the photo.
I put red loctite on those nuts. Both were loose. Like, ‘a little more snug than finger tight’ loose. I need to find another nut for the third stud/bolt. I’m honestly not sure if one was there when I started taking things apart. It’s a 15 mm flange nut according to my box wrench. I used red loctite because these will be wedged between the shock tower and the unibody. Not possible to get in there and check them as time goes on. Torqued to 45 ft lbs because it’s a number I saw for something somewhere. I didn’t want to do too much. No clue what proper torque for this actually is.
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Not the best welds. Not the easiest with the bolt in place. Obviously they’ll be the ones seen most often.
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After welding the shock mount ended up being a wide 1 1/2” at what I’m calling the top, and about 1/16” wider at the bottom (closest to the shock tower). I tightened the bolt with a nylock until the outer portion measured the correct width and left it here overnight to cool. My thoughts were the bolt and nylock would prevent the metal from warping and opening or closing the gap too much. I measured it using the coilover with spacers in place. I might have to grind a little for the top of the coilover to fit but I’ll find that out later.


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Obviously the hood welds were the first ones. I thought this would mean the rest would be beautiful. I did the best I could to move the tower to make welding easier. Sometimes that means welding left handed or backwards with the right hand.


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I cut some more of the hole I patched. I also cut a small amount of a rib on the passenger side for the seat belt. This was required to clear the top bolt on the 231 when I clocked it. I can now install the crossmember and life the transmission high enough to get the mount underneath it. I installed things stepwise to make sure I could get the transmission high enough to install/remove the crossmember. Now I need to patch the hole, make shifters (probably ghettofabbing a horrible version of Mike Honcho’s shifter setup), bolt those in somehow, and get a rear driveshaft. After that I might need a forklift to see if a one piece driveshaft will work with the drive side fully drooped out.

I don’t know how I could do a speedometer cable. I can’t just lengthen a Cherokee one, and I don’t know anything about the odometer side. I know the transfer case has a square pin in the gear, and I think the odometer side is similar. I would like to have a working odometer. I can use GPS for speed.
 
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I am going to use these for the rear seats. 2Big Bronco turn me on to the, I found one used, and they’re good quality. I’m actually small enough to fit inside it but I’d need belts to come over the seat instead of through the holes.


These have the added benefit of being usable in side by sides. The bottom is attached by Velcro and covers some tabs. I’ll need to fabricobble brackets from angle iron. I’ll probably want sliders, and I’ll look into what Mike crafted for his rear seats. I know he made a lot of tube work, and welded it to his stiffeners.
 
Mocking up some stuff I copied from Mike Honcho for fun. It’s slow going because I want to do this right the first time. It might become a template for later use.

1/8” plate I had sitting around. Some 0.090 wall box tubing (handrail?) scrap I had for side pieces.
Steep spacer with a 3/8 2” grade 8 bolt.
3/8 solid rod
One of a few tap handles.
TH350/400 shifter cable. Approximately 32” long. It’s a TIGHT bend over the transmission. Perhaps a 48” would be easier to work with.
brake line retainer spring/tab/holder thingies.
I welded a retainer tab I made onto the driver side of the transmission bracket holding the NP231 linkage. Since the shifter for my Ecobox is at a 45 degree angle it’s out of the way of any interference with the stock linkage. I have plans to extend the factory linkage rod for the 231.

Hopefully 3/8” rod is strong enough.
I think I could rotate the EcoBox shifter if I don’t like the in cab shift direction. I plan on putting the shifter in the pocket where the emergency brake lever sits. I’m trying to make the shifter removable from the top, but it might not work out. Just being removable would be impressive.

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Ironic for a guy who doesn’t drink to have a tap handle shifter. It’s crooked because I didn’t pay any attention when threading the rod.
 

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After breaking the tab on a shifter cable I decided to do one of three things.
1) get a shifter cable with threaded ends on both sides. This would make it easier to clock some heims.
2) make up some type of shift linkage that looked like a Z, W, X, N, P, S and E had a love child
3) tear everything apart, spill ATF on the floor, fix a leak on the slip yoke cover, and find some type of orientation allowing the shifter to be horizontal or vertical instead of at a 60 degree angle.

Obviously I chose option 3. I have this running problem of finding ways to make my life more complicated, and this time I thought things out.


AW4 Ecobox Pairing Part 2


The EcoBox has 12 possible orientations for the two halves, the clocking ring has 4 annd can only go on the NP231 one way, and the face of the ecobox has 5 for a total of 240 possible combinations. I found 2 I could use. I found the second one to be slightly better than the first.

It gives me more room around the front output as well as the entire case so getting it in and out should be easier.

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According to NWF each of the 5 holes is approximately 1 1/2 rotated. My orientation is 3 inches rotated up.
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The clocking ring has the same center to center measurement as the Ecobox but only 4 holes with the bolt pattern I’m using clocking the transfer case up slightly more. I’ll just say 1 3/4 inch because I don’t feel like doing the math.

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I have the EcoBox almost in the Ford/Jeep to GM orientation. Instead of having the W line up between the two ridges surrounding the shifter I have the W lined up with the left edge of the upper ridge.

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Blue is how mine is. Red is NWF instructions.


When everything is installed the setup sits 1 1/2” above the crossmember.

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Rear of the EvoBox installed. I might need a 90 for the breather. It’s slightly bent from manipulating it. It might work or it might be too tight of a bend for the hose, and a 80 would probably make removing it smarter. I mean easier.
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Long distance photo from the front yoke.
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My next area of interest is the shifter. I’d been working on it and now with the new orientation I might be able to make it one solid lever with a slight curve. A straight shifter would hit the emergency brake lever and I’m not sure I’m ready to switch to Tesla calipers yet.

I’d been spending time fabricobbling a setup to hold the TH350 shift cable in place. A tab on the transmission bracket, and a custom tab to hold it near the stock NP231 shifter. It worked until it didn’t. It was a prototype anyways.


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With the new orientation of the EcoBox aslightly less complicated shifter is possible. The situation is length. Using a 9/16 wrench it was obvious a straight shifter wasn’t possible, and I could still use the opening I cut.


This shows the old orientation. If you look close you can see the shifter.
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New orientation. I believe this is engaged.

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A look from farther away.
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For the NP231 I’m going to attempt to extend the factory linkage with some 3/8 solid rod. I’ve never had problems with this, and I don’t feel like spending $200 on a cable shifter I’ll have to modify. The seem to be close to the same plane. Enough to give it a good attempt.
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At some point I’ll need to figure out a front carrier bearing. I don’t think I want to cut a lot of my crossmember just to run a 1 piece shaft. Even with the high pinion front and the transfer case practically flat it seems far fetched for the driveshaft to work as a 1 piece. Some quick measuring says I need it 8 3/16 longer at ride height. It would be 44” long. :eek:
 
Change of plans. Broke the shifter cable and bought a new one. The new one has about 3" of throw and I only need about 1" of travel.
New plan is to drill out the center of a piece of 3/8 rod then tap it for 1/4-20 and run a grade 8 bolt with lock washer through the shifter cable up into the rod.
 

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Much closer to being done.

Shift linkage made for the NP231, Ecobox tightened into place with lock washers, foot sitting level to match the transmission crossmember.


Edit: shifter cable broke so I modified it to be threaded on both ends.

B&M pet number 80735 (TH350/400)
FK rod end CF4/-3. 10-32 right hand female thread with a 1/4" eyelet. One will go on each end.

Harbor freight die set for the victory. Ended up costing about as much as the other shifter cables with threaded ends on both sides. The eyelet broke, just like the last one, when I was moving the shifter around.

EDIT:
Links for parts
B&M 80735 B&M Unimatic Shifter Cables | Summit Racing shift cable #2
FK Rod Ends CF4-3 FK CM/CF Series Rod Ends | Summit Racing FK Rod End
ATP Automotive Y-117 ATP Automatic Transmission Shifter Cables | Summit Racing Shift Cable #1 I broke.
 

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I extended the stock linkage about 9 inches. Fits great and all the gears work.
3/8" solid rod, and beveled the connection. Make sure to orient the ends 180 of each other.

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How much $ are you into figuring out shifters now

I’m leaning towards just getting the NWF setup to be done with it easy when the time comes.
 
  1. 1 3ft long 3/8 rod from Home Depot,
  2. Two steel spacers and some bolt/nut washer hardware from Ace for probably around $20. This is probably a generous estimate.
  3. a new tap and die kit for $22. I didn't have 10/32 and no one sold it individually.
  4. Shift cables. First was $23. Second was around $60.
  5. FK rod end is $4. I'll need one more.
Material is scrap I had. A 2ft by 2ft 1/8 plate would be enough to make a template and a final product for the shifter base.


Funny thing is my wife just asked 'can't you just buy this?' No because then I'd have to modify that to fit. No one else is doing this. I have to customize it.' I was looking at the $250 setup from NWF. You would need to mount the cables on the Ecobox or transmission like I did somehow and/or figure out the rear case shift linkage. I'd also have to cut up the center console more. For some reason I'm trying to keep this thing looking like a daily driver as much as possible, and do it for a smaller amount of money.
 
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The flipped 300 shift linkage I’ll be dealing with looks annoying to try and figure out

The NwF kit is complete for my application I believe.
 
I know BlondJon on Youtube/NAXJA just did a Dana 300/231 setup. He went with a long piece of flat metal stock for the 231 shifter.

EDIT: I don't know how easy/hard it would be to find replacement cables if you went with NWF stuff. The TH350/400 cables I could maybe find easier if broken on a trail. It might take a day for me to get it, but it's better than waiting on Canada mail.

Summit Racing had this in stock the day I bought the B&M one. I probably shouldn't have been cheap. It's what I'm ending up with after cutting and tapping what I have, and I need to make an extra trip to Summit for the rod end.


One thing I'm considering is moving the shifter up. When everything is in place it works well. The shifter sits down far enough it presents a challenge when I go to remove the transmission crossmember. If I move the pivot point (steel spacer) ABOVE the unibody it would probably keep the cable more horizontal (it currently slopes down at the shifter end) and give me an extra 2 1/2 inches of space.
The shifter portion where the cable connects is around 2 1/2 inches long I think. Maybe it's 1 1/2. Either way...it presents a challenge when trying to lift everything up to remove the transmission crossmember.

One slight annoyance is where I placed the mount for the lower cable mount. It's close to the stock 231 linkage, but it's a tight fit trying to wedge my hand between it, the stock linkage hump sticking down and my top cable mount. a stubby 11/16 wrench barley fits in there and tightening the upper cable nut requires I lay the wrench horizontal which doesn't provide much strength, but it works well enough to get it snug.


Also, for the Dana 300 flip ring studs....Kris at Northwest Fab suggest Grade 8 3/8 all thread to make longer studs. The studs sent from NWF are
papco part number 264-049
3/8 x 2"

I'd like maybe 2 1/2 or 2 3/8. There isn't enough thread with the extra foot I have in place to get a full nut of thread. Perhaps I could find some correctly sized engine studs to use.

Also, I've not done any sort of thread locker. There is nothing in the instructions about using it so I am only using the lock washers. I will report back about using lock washers and nuts on the studs coming from the NP231 into the EcoBox
 
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fl0w3n Check this guy out.
If I was willing to rip out my center console and "do it right the first time" I'd hire Mike Honcho . This would be my second choice. Since I haven't removed the parking brake lever (I don't have parking brakes), and I wanted to keep the console I couldn't run his setup. I'm sure if you reached out you could get a quote for the Dana 300/231 shift linkage.
 
Studs....even says so in the customer reviews...someone use it for a 231J to a 6L80.
I might have to trim them, but for $20 I get 10 studs, in stock, and I have to pick up a rod end already.

Ecobox np231 longer studs
Doorman part number 675-007
3/8-16 on one end and 3/8-24 on the other.
1 inch shoulder
2 3/4 overall length. This might need to be trimmed to 1/4, or it might allow me to use a lock washer. I predict I'll need to get the washer and nut on the stud before fully seating the 231.
 
Longer studs work. Since these are fine thread I needed nuts. There are probably studs with course threads on both sides. I didn't want to wait.

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Previously there was about 1/3-1/2 of the width of a 3/8 nut sticking through.


Something I find interesting is the studs from NWF have less threads to screw into the clocking ring. The Dorman ones have enough threads to seat the entire depth of the clocking ring.

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Edit: it's in its final resting place. I had to cut a hole because the breather for the EcoBox smashes into the passenger side of the transmission hump. I don't know the torque spec but lock washers and Armstrong torque will hopefully keep it in place.


I need to finish up the EcoBox shifter, install the cable, fill everything with fluid (spilled a lot of ATF in this process), have a rear driveshaft shortened, then have a front made. Maybe I'll ask my neighbor to borrow his forklift to see if I need a carrier bearing at full flex. Maybe I'll use my hoist. If only I had my old set of 35s.
 
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Tracked down a few leaks. Apparently the fill plug on my 231 leaks, as well as a plug I put on the slip yoke eliminator. I had to cut the shaft, I bought a used kit, and never knew it wasn’t sealed up. I also had to RTV the Dana 300 clocking ring onto the. 231. I probably need to replace the rear main seal because I’ve had a drop of oil on the bottom of the transmission ever since I’ve owned it, and I first thought it was the rear freeze plug.

Currently working on adding a hydr assist cooler. I bought 3 foot long premade lines from surplus center and a Hayden plate cooler from summit last October. Last night I found out I needed to adapt JIC (-6AN) to hose barb. I picked up two fittings from summit racing (SUM-220186 and SUM-220765).

My winch is too tall to remove the front grill. I had to remove the rear bolts and loose the front so I could lean it forward enough to remove the grill.
 
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