DJ5, Tons, Fodees.

[Byro]

3 years ago I was bored of my Cherokee buggy (will post some pics of her later) Friend of mine has a line on newer 14b and Snowfighter 60 for $1500. I let the guy sit on them for a while. I ended up scoring the axles already cleaned up with some links for $1000.

Few weeks later stumble upon a set of 42” Iroks and Stazworks wheels for $1200.

Has them laying around for a few weeks, tossed around the idea of just gluing them under my Cherokee but had the itch to do a full new build.

Scoured CL for a cheap CJ7 or YJ, ended up finding a 74 DJ5 for $400 with title.
Brought it home and started eyeing everything up.

Tossed the factory frame and running gear. Built a copyish frame of the factory out of 2x3 3/16.

The plan was to keep it low as possible. The grille was too tall and would have hit the ram mount at what I wanted to be full bump.

I ended up sectioning 5” out of the grille and it got me to where I wanted to be.

 

[Byro]

After getting wheelbase and ride height about where I wanted it I started on setting up the links.

The old lady for comparison on the sweet poser flex and a broken engine hoist cycling everything. Everything worked out and I was happy with it.

Sourced up a newer non vortec SBC 350 for $400. After about 10 times of the tub on and off the motor was set where it was happy.

I officially had a roller.

Later sourced up a TH400 and D300 on the cheap. Weather started getting cold and pulled her into the garage at my dads place. Started working on getting the ORIs mounted.

After hitting a building block and a few nights of staring at it. I decided I wanted to chop the windshield. My old man being the old school body guy he is suggested I don’t chop the frame itself and lose visibility. Instead section the frame where it meets the cowl/top of the dash. I was able to keep it he full size window frame but drop it down 4”.

Happy with that it was time to start the cage.

 

[Byro]

Got most of the cage work and heavy fab finished and up around spring time and the old lady found a place that had a garage. We loaded up the Jeep and within the last half mile of the transport I had a strap break.

]

That was exciting to say the least, got her back on the trailer and finally home.


Got to the sheet metal work, floors dash and center console.

Finished sheet metal and pulled the trigger on a set of rear ORIs, waited 8 months for them to show up an piddled around with some little shit on the Jeep. It was pretty much on the back burner.

ORIs finally showed up and got to mocking them.

First mounting attempt was a no go. I thought I had way less backspace on my Stazworks. Tires got into them pretty quick.

I ended up moving the lower mount from the axle tube back and down onto the truss, that gave me enough room to drop the tops closer to the tub and gave me my proper clearance.

 

[Byro]

Pushed her outside to have a look, this was the first time it was supporting its own weight on all four corners.

 

[Byro]

Wrapped up the center console shifters and cutter brake. Still need to add gauges and switch panels.

Once the interior was done I fiddled with the bay. Mounting MC and pedals, propane regulator battery box and the like.

The inner fenders were a nightmare. I scrapped quite a bit of oil board before my old lady decided to step in and help out. Got the template figured out and threw the ally sheet in the brake.

Sourced a H.D. rear output for the D300 only to find out its for a short tail after getting it back together.

 

[Byro]

That brings it to now. Waiting for parts for the front axle. I ordered up some 35spl outers from a made in China eBay gear supply store. They look decent in the machine and finish department, however I doubt they are as strong as advertised. We will see, they were cheap and RCVs are in the plan later on down the road.

Started to work on my flat belly, or almost flat, trans pan hangs about 1/2” lower than the frame rail. Hindsight I should have made the drop in the center of the frame a bit longer. I’ll post updates as I get it going and as more parts start to show up.

 

[Byro]

Fiddled around today. Got some spicer joints partial KP rebuilds, (lower bearing and race upper and lower seals) and stub/spindle seals from ECGS.

The made in China 35spl stubs took the joints 100% better than I expected them to.

 

[Byro]

Spent the last few days balls deep in old grease doing new king pins, bearings and seals. Pain in the ass. Minus brake lines the front axle is finally done.

 

[Byro]

Knocked out brake lines today. One fucking line nut short of finishing the whole system. :rolleyes:

 

[Byro]

Got my D300 output and a few other misc parts.

Decided to pull the motor and clean up and prep the bay.

Gonna drop the block off at the machine shop and my D300 bearing retainer at the other machine shop this week.

 

[Byro]

So while my block is at the machine shop getting freshened up I got a Sterling 10.25 and D50 dropped off at my place for a gear install.

A Jeep chassis 8 42s and 4 one tons sure takes up a lot of space in a 1 1/2 car garage.

 

[Byro]

Got my block back from the machine shop, finally got to get all the parts I’ve had laying around into one spot haha.

Really hoping that my propane regulator isn’t a choke point for this motor. I’d really not like having to go to a Sniper system.

 

[Byro]

So got the motor the rest of the way together and tucked into the bay.

Hooked up the pane and fired it up and ran her at 2500rpms as per comp cams recommendation. No major issues other than running on 7 cylinders due to a piss poor HEI cap.

 

[Byro]

After having broke in the motor I came up with a crude drawing for my hydro plumbing.

Graphic design is not one of my strong points.


Picked up my front D300 output from the machine shop. Had to be opened up for the larger OD bearing. Still waiting on Novak to send me my rear output so I can hook up the TC and run the trans.

 

[Byro]

So after 2 days of tweaking and tuning, propane is out. My mixer just won’t flow enough for the worked over 5.7.

Summit EFI, the Holley Sniper knock-off, is replacing the pane.

And $1000 later hopefully she’ll bark now.

 

[Byro]

Cut out the rear floor and propane brackets to move my rad and make room for the 15g fuel cell. I wanted the radiator up and out from under my seatbelt bar because I don’t have a B pillar X. I had to tuck my rad down low originally to have room for two LP tanks and my fans.

The cell is as big as one tank so I figure why not move the radiator so I can put my B pillar X in as well as make circulation a little better. Most of the rad was lower than the water pump, which I knew at first was gonna be a bitch to fill and get all the air out of but I had no choice.

 

[Byro]

I Had my hydro lines made this morning. One of the last big pieces. I’d like to drive this thing around the farm this weekend.

 

[Byro]

So the Sunmit EFI kicks ass after initial setup and it’s “self learning” process timing and everything is dialed in and all I can say is she sounds healthy and is a riper!

I’ve been fighting a reverse issue with the trans, pulled it yesterday evening and broke it apart. Found the bushing installed wrong in the center support. Just finished getting the trans and all the related parts back in. I really hope that was my issue, since everything in the trans looked brand new still, considering it has less than a mile on it maybe.

The TH400 center support bushing installed too deep and blocking the center passage.

Bushing pressed back in at correct height and feed holes lined up.

 

[Byro]

Trans is good to go, got a little test rip in this morning. Almost ready for MDW.

https://youtu.be/EDTlGImcwn0


Got her out for a shakedown run at Wellsville this weekend. Fuel pump took a shit a few miles from camp, my own fault for using a used pump I had laying around. Ran to the parts store and picked up a pump and she was back at it.

Then fought cooling issues. It creeps up to 240, thinking I have a big air pocket somewhere.


The only pics from the weekend.

 

[Byro]

So the past few months I’ve been fighting cooling issues. I was only running two 9” e-fans mounted right to the XJ rad. Tried vacuum filling it, tried a coolant bypass setup that runs two -6AN lines from the rear coolant ports on the intake back into the thermostat housing. It got better but would still boiled over after a while.

Picked up a Flow Kooler waterpump and made a shroud with another fan.

The Flow Kooler pump has a pretty trick billet impeller and works for either clockwise or counter clockwise rotation.

I think that most of my cooling issue was from a cheap China “high flow” pump. The FK the will squeeze my lower hose when I rev it up so it’s definitely pulling way harder than the other pump. Hard-lining the lower line is in order.

 

[Byro]

Got a trip planned this weekend and finally sourced some 1/4” plate to make a belly pan. Picked up a 5’x8’ piece for $120.

Had to cut it into a manageable piece in the bed of the truck.

Nothing like having a piece of steel that’s worth more than the beater that’s hauling it.


Got a template whipped up and got to widdlin on it.

After making some brakes in it and struggling it in and out 3 times without dropping it and busting my teeth out it’s pretty close to where it needs to be.

Calling it a night and gonna hopefully have it finished up and mounted tomorrow evening.

 

[Byro]

Got out this past weekend for a friends bachelor party, had fuel pump issues again, came to the conclusion that my rad fans are heating up my pump and cell. Popped in my spare pump and used one of my door skins as a shield between the cell and radiator.

Some video from the weekend.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NBMhWwD5NmI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UwZJJdJ5Oec

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UODh9nDkgyA

 

[Byro]

So after a few runs she had some apparent issues,

1. It overheated, it took all day to do it but once it got warm it wouldn’t cool back off. Some Mishimoto 11” fans solved that.

2. My rear upper link mount on the axle tried to rip off. Added a Ruffstuff pinion bridge/guard to fix that issue. Did a little shave on just the lip of the 14b.

3. I had a 2500 stall converter in it, it was great for shooting hills but made it hard to drive slow in the rocks and on main trails cruising it was under the converter and I’m sure contributing to my heat issue. Put a 2000 stall tow converter in it and made a huge difference.

 

[Byro]

During the time I was making those changes she was stripped down for final paint. I’ve spent 3 years building this hog and I wanted it to look good.

Stripped.

Prepped and ready to go in the booth, taping this thing was an absolute chore to say the least.

However the results were worth it, paint is Honda Electric Blue Pearl, I’ve always been a bit of a Honda nerd since I was younger so I knew what blue I wanted on it.

Kept the mail Jeep livery. Thing turned out awesome, my dad restores museum quality antique cars for a living so I got a show quality crawler. I had to keep telling him “it doesn’t need to be this nice” his response usually being “you either do it or you don’t, there is no half-assing it”

 

[ScottRS]

Not sure if you plan on it being streetable or if you already have a hookup, but I have a takeout '75 DJ5 windshield and rubber from mine (I'm using a CJ cowl and frame to get a fold down windshield) if you want glass. I can't use it because those putzes used different glass in the DJ than the CJ. Also don't know where you are or what its chances of surviving shipping are, but if you want to try, I'm open to it.

 

[ScottRS]

Also digging the kick panel vents. I want to save those on mine, just not sure I have the room. I'm keeping them from the DJ cowl regardless in the hopes that I'll be able to use them. You got it low, looks good that way.

Hopefully the new water pump fixes your cooling issues permanently. When I had a rear radiator the only thing I found that fixed it longterm was an electric water pump and just running it a while with the engine not running to circulate and slow-purge the system. Run the engine, it gets steam pockets, overheats, blows all over, I had to be able to run the water pump without the engine to make things work. Once I could do that (I had a remote pump mounted back at the radiator) no more steam pocket problems and it cooled better overall. I gutted out a water pump into just a manifold at the engine end. But that's become an expensive solution lately.

 

[Byro]

NE Ohio, I’d like to tag it eventually just to cruise into town and get coffee on sundays. My plan was some lexan so it doesn’t shatter when I put it on its side. I still have the rubber gasket somewhere.

 

[Byro]

Also digging the kick panel vents. I want to save those on mine, just not sure I have the room. I'm keeping them from the DJ cowl regardless in the hopes that I'll be able to use them. You got it low, looks good that way.

Hopefully the new water pump fixes your cooling issues permanently. When I had a rear radiator the only thing I found that fixed it longterm was an electric water pump and just running it a while with the engine not running to circulate and slow-purge the system. Run the engine, it gets steam pockets, overheats, blows all over, I had to be able to run the water pump without the engine to make things work. Once I could do that (I had a remote pump mounted back at the radiator) no more steam pocket problems and it cooled better overall. I gutted out a water pump into just a manifold at the engine end. But that's become an expensive solution lately.

I’ve since had the cooling issues figured out, better fans and a sealed up shroud around the radiator. I’ve had this done for about a year now. This thread was copied over from another site.

 

[ScottRS]

I’ve since had the cooling issues figured out, better fans and a sealed up shroud around the radiator. I’ve had this done for about a year now. This thread was copied over from another site.

Sorry, I'm a little clueless there, my current Jeep is my first of any consequence (my wife had one back in college but that was more than a minute or two ago) and I didn't spend much/any time in the Jeep sections on that other site. Anyway, glad to hear the water pump fixed it up, I may be shopping for one like that myself if my newly front-radiator-ized system has issues, since I'm soon to be rid of my electric water pump.

 

['92 Vegas YJ]

I like it, badass build.