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"Tweety" the '45 MB

It's later style with a normal input seal. The reverse idler bump is why the Novak adapter is so long. Guys have built short adapters but you have to run a little PTO sized u joint to do it.

Meiser on the old board swapped to a T18 because of that bump. His MB "Rango" had a home built t case adapter that was 3/4" or so, lots of compromise in the pursuit of a longer rear driveshaft.
 
If you need to relocate the TC shifters due to it moving back there is a threaded boss on the SM420 that works great as a pivot point. I think the stock shifter tube put them too close to the passenger seat, you have a different jeep and transfer case but It may be an issue.

We used the JB twin stick kit for a J truck with a dana 20. I could not find any pictures to post of it, we modified it pretty heavily to get it to work.
 
Finally fixed that torque mount so I can finish rebuilding my t-case. Brazing rods apparently don't exist in any hardware store around here, especially 1/8" that I wanted ended up buying from McMaster just to get the right shit. Got out to mom's and drug the torches out, oxygen reg acted up right off the bat but it smoothed out about the time I got done pre-heating. Haven't brazed anything in ages, best to get reacquainted with a piece of greasy old cast iron and some 1/2" plate right?

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Back in my garage, cleaned up.
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My little piss-ant Snap-On cordless drill did not cope well with drilling bronze and cast at the same time on either side of the hole. Forgot to grab the bolt out from under the Jeep before I left so I could size the hole right but it's started anyhow.

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TrikeKid said:
Modded the scatter shield to mate up with the 420. Had to cut a hole for shift rail clearance and blend the top cover of the transmission back to be flush with the case. Need to go peel the indexing ring off the T10 to do the final fitting, bore in the bell is in between GM front retainer sizes

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Stupid question inbound:

What is the scatter shield? The bell housing looking thingy on the front of the transmission?
 
RunningProblem said:
Stupid question inbound:

What is the scatter shield? The bell housing looking thingy on the front of the transmission?
Click to expand...

Just a bell housing designed to keep all the clutch parts inside in the event of a failure. This old Ansen has the added bonus of being drilled for SBF and GM blocks and Ford or GM transmissions. The modern equivalent would be a Lakewood Blowproof/Safety bell housing.

It's unnecessary for safety in my application but it is much stouter than an OEM cast bell.
 
TrikeKid said:
Just a bell housing designed to keep all the clutch parts inside in the event of a failure. This old Ansen has the added bonus of being drilled for SBF and GM blocks and Ford or GM transmissions. The modern equivalent would be a Lakewood Blowproof/Safety bell housing.

It's unnecessary for safety in my application but it is much stouter than an OEM cast bell.
Click to expand...
I don't know, it's still cast and the mounting flange looks pretty thin. Stock cast have thicker flanges and ribs (for your pleasure). Is the bell part thicker?
 
bdkw1 said:
I don't know, it's still cast and the mounting flange looks pretty thin. Stock cast have thicker flanges and ribs (for your pleasure). Is the bell part thicker?
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Whole thing is 3/16-1/4ish steel plus it bolts full circle instead of just at the block mounting location. The piece in the bottom right of the pic bolts to the bottom of the bellhousing and the plate bolted to the back of the block. Massively overkill for a 90hp 4 banger but at least it's NHRA approved.

Here's one on eBay with some good pics of how it goes together,
www.ebay.com

Ansen Steel Scatter shield sbc sbf mopar bell housing vintage drag racing ump 2 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Ansen Steel Scatter shield sbc sbf mopar bell housing vintage drag racing ump 2 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
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TrikeKid said:
Looks like they still at least do the summer convention.

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Oh yeah we have 7-10 races every summer, mostly down south off of hwy 12. I have been cutting a bunch off of my family’s Jeep getting ready for coil overs and debating putting together a thread on it. If you give it a search on the face book there should be a list of the dates and we love to have spectators. Most racers are willing to give rides if you bring a decent helmet and know how to put 5 point harnesses on correctly.
 
Yup, they are good times, have a couple buddies that do it, and even my neighbor still does the jeep races.
 
For some reason I thought they stopped. I will have to try to make it out to watch some and maybe next year participate. I’ll have to figure out my Facebook login, I guess this is a good reason for it
 
Finally got a weekend over there when I wasn't trying to direct other people (repairs on the house, having tree work done etc...) and got the SM420 stabbed in this thing.

First, I have no transmission jack, and if I buy one, it'll be a high lift model so I can use it under the lift in the shop. Kicked through the drops under the bench and found this nice chunk of c-channel, zapped a semi truck inner lug nut on and drilled so I could bolt the transmission mount to the channel, lug nut sticks in the hole on the jack and we've got ourselves a perfectly sketchy transmission cradle. I want this to be fairly universal so I didn't bother making special bracketry, 2x4 works fine to stabilize this combo. The whole thing is suprisingly stable while allowing the wiggle needed to line the input shaft up.

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Short wheelbase problems, can't even swing the lower half of the jack handle under the rig, had to take it out of the jack so I could get it on top of the rear axle and lift the transmission up into place.
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Went in surprisingly smoothly, it is a big hunk of iron to put in one of these little jeeps, gonna be rubbing a hole in the shift boot with my foot on the gas. Need to bend the shifter way over to the passenger side, Low, 1st and reverse all put the shifter under the steering wheel where my right leg has to be.

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So I quit being a lazy POS and actually touched the Jeep today. Got the crossmember mocked up after some cutting, old transmission mount must have been taller because now the front of the transfer case is hitting. With that in place the top cover of the trans is about even with the floor so I'll definitely be clearancing instead of trying to shove it up even farther to resolve that. Also figured out the side mount will have to move in and back to meet the transfer case, starting to see why it was clamped instead of bolted. More good news, neither drive shaft is going to work.

I DID get the shifter sufficiently re-routed so that the shift knob is no longer under the steering wheel where my leg goes. Took a couple tries to get the bends right but it clears the dash and the driver's leg and I'm not punching the dash bar of the cage in low and 2nd. Also got the T-handle tapped and back in its home if only temporarily.

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Cut a nice big clearance window in the cross member so the transmission could set down flat. More importantly it created clearance on the front t-case yoke so I could work on a front drive shaft.
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Reusing the yoke and slip from the original shaft, these ends are real (old) Spicer but were about .020" big for the standard .095" wall tubing so I did the right thing and "machined" them with a flap wheel till they were a good press fit. I managed to add an extra inch of tube the first time around so I got to knock the end back off then fiddle fuck around getting things lined up again. Here it is on my surface plate making sure the yokes are phased properly.

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And mocked up. I didn't bring an indicator or the ambition to drag the welder out to the rig today. Next weekend I'll cut the rear apart and knock an inch or two out of it.

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Got the drivelines welded up, turned into a bit of an ordeal. Couldn't find the 120v adapter for the welder (after dragging it out to the carport) so I had to drag the Jeep out of the carport, down one hill, up the other and get it pushed/pulled into the back of the shop by myself. Managed to get that done without hurting myself or sending the Jeep through the neighbors fence. Attempted to straighten the front up and found that my tubing is rather oval, consistently high at the weld seam the whole way up the tube. I guess that's what I get for buying it from McMaster. Should be fine for the front shaft of a rig that at most is going to do 15-20mph in 4wd. Got the rear down to about .030" runout which is plenty good enough for used parts. Stuffed some oil in the transmission and case while I was under there.
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I was able to drive it back to the carport under its own power! The gearing with the sm420 is nicer even just moving around the property. Clutch linkage needs some work that will require getting the cross member back together.
 
Started on the cross member today. Snatched this chunk of plate out of the drop pile and chopped it down to size. Got it set up to weld and had a fawkin' heart attack when I went to turn the gas bottle on to find that I'd left it open since I did the drivelines, thankfully this Miller seals up tighter than my welder and it hadn't drained in the mean time. Struck an arc to find the welding helmet I inherited (Lincoln Viking) no longer working, and no spare lid in the shop. Soldiered on welding mostly by braille and it shows. Once I had the outer ends stuck to the plate I cut the middle section out to start fresh.

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Back in the rig I made use of my fancy new transfer point set and perfectly located my transmission mount bolt holes. Let the ol' Milwaukee Holeshooter alternate between trying to throw the cross member off the table and break my wrist to get them punched and bolted it back in the rig. I'll be adding onto this to stiffen it up and get low enough that I can put a nice flat skid across the trans, cross member and case. Threw it in low/low to drive back through the woods to the front of the shop and this little thing is comically slow now, exactly what I was after.

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Also picked up one of these Runva 9.5XS winches, normal electric winches don't fit in here, this things the only "truck" winch that fits in place of the narrowed Ramsey PTO currently in the rig that isn't a $2k+ Warn RC. Winch install is a project for another day but I wanted to get one before they're no longer available.

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Todays product of poorly planned, stream of consciousness fabrication, the powertrain is now fully mounted. Most of the way through I started seriously questioning why I didn't start from scratch, but it's done and in there now. Next weekend I'll get onto making the skid plate fit. Might just lose the section in front of the cross member entirely, I'm way more concerned with hurting the pan on the D18 than the SM420 case.

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The more I ran this thing the more tired I got of the glass pack noise and the hanger had broken anyway, threw this turbo muffler I had kicking around on today, little more mellow, should be perfect once it's kicked out the side.
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With the exhaust buttoned back up I got the pitman arm centered so this thing actually steers both ways. I think the drag link is for a CJ5, it's as short as I can make it and still a little too long. Being that the stock steering linkage is also about the diameter of my thumb I think we'll just plan on making a RuffStuff order. I went up the hill from the shop and ran through one of the rock piles kinda hoping to taco the steering but it's so controlled in low gear that I didn't manage that.
 
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Got the old seats ripped out and mocked up one of the new ones today. Tub floor is pretty haggard, and i'll have to notch the passenger side to let the seats sit in the same place front to back. I think I'm just going to build some mounts that go through the floor to the frame instead of trying to scratch build half a tub. That'll give me a more solid point to put harnesses too. Kinda funny race rules back in the day required a door bar (tabs on the cage) but not shoulder belts.

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Also started tearing down for the rear disk brake conversion since I conveniently blew a wheel cylinder out last weekend. I'm sure glad we moved away from the tapered axle thing, there was much fire and violence involved in getting this hub off and the hang time when it finally let loose was impressive. Once removed I found this hub has seen some shit, split right up the keyway. I'll have to rob one off my spare rear axle.

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Disk setup is Tracker parts and brackets from Brennan's Garage

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Ordered a heim joint steering kit from RuffStuff to replace the spindly stock stuff, hopefully have that and the parts to finish up the exhaust next week.
 
Did I say next week? I must've meant next month.

Raided the spare axle shelf for a hub, ruined a lug nut and some studs before it leapt off onto the floor of the trailer so still no real progress on the rear disk thing. I bolted the caliper bracket bracket/bearing retainer/hub/seal stack onto the tube at least.

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Got the exhaust kicked out the side and put a new collector gasket on.

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Welded up the steering, need to punch out the knuckles and pitman arm and get hardware now. Even the "small" RuffStuff kit looks bombproof compared to stock D30 linkage.

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Buttoned up one side of the rear brakes today aside from plumbing, need to make a tab for the brake hose but the mechanical end is assembled. Got to getting the other side torn apart and the driver's hub fought worse than the passenger. Launched the head of one lug nut (shank/mag style lugs) into orbit and ended up bending the hub pretty badly in the midst of all the fire and violence that it required for removal. Had to once again go rob a hub off the spare axle tree, the spare rear didn't put up much of a fight. Put new studs in that and got it prepped up to reinstall but it was starting to get warm out so I bailed for the day.

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Dead hub. Fire, 1/2" Milwaukee on the puller, fire, hammer, fire, PB, and more hammer to get this one off. Pretty sure the one lug breaking was what killed it though.

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Back on the seats, I'd like to get this thing able to be driven on the trailer and bring it home to do the wiring and plumbing portion of the show.

Mocked up both seats to figure out how much room I can make, initially I just notched the wheel tub on the passenger side to match the driver's
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The angle you can see poking through there is part of the previous mounting solution for the race seat on the driver's side and the lap belt only harness

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Rear mount for the seats and lower mounting point for the harnesses will be stood up off the frame in roughly the same place, this hole is a rough cut on the rotten floor and also access for fab work. There is ZERO stock floor in here anyway, to be honest I don't know how much of this tub even is Willys vs stuff my dad built.
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