More Junk Mail DJ5 Episodes
Carcass Featured Projects
Carcass Builds
Want more content like this?
Join the PowerNation Email NewsletterParts Used In This Episode
Matco Tools
MATCO Tools are the Official Tool Supplier to PowerNation
The Industrial Depot
Tools, Hardware, Shop Supplies
Video Transcript
(Jeremy)>> You're watching Powernation!
(Jeremy)>> Today on Carcass our DJ-5 Jeep has made a drastic change from its days delivering the mail with a four link suspension and coil over shocks.
(Jimmy)>> We take it another step further with new gears and lockers for our one ton axles to help us conquer the trails. Plus get the drivetrain in and mounted.
(Jeremy)>> Then we'll tackle our steering to get Junk Mail rolling once again. [ MUSIC ] [ tires squealing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome to Carcass. Our 1978 Jeep DJ-5 has made quite a big transformation from the two wheel drive ex-postal Jeep that it was into this four wheel drive fully functional off road rig.
(Jimmy)>> And we've done a ton of work so far. With our Jeep in the shop we stripped it down all the way to the bare chassis and removed all of the old suspension brackets. Then we went to a junkyard and picked up a set of one ton axles form a Ford Superduty. We cleaned those up, added a set of axle trusses, and then we threw them under the Jeep so we could fabricate our custom four link suspension.
(Jeremy)>> So the plan today is to build the complete front and rear axle and set the drivetrain in the chassis.
(Jimmy)>> We also want to put the body on it to make this thing a roller. So the first thing we have to do is get the axles back out from under it.
(Jeremy)>> Now we're building our Jeep on a budget. That's why we're spending the money where we want to and saving the money where we can. That's also why we built our own four link suspension and went out and got a set of junkyard axles. Well to build out those axles we went to Summit Racing dot com and picked up a whole bunch of good parts, and that starts with Richmond Gear 4.88 ring and pinion gears. Now these are a huge upgrade over our original setup. These get bolted to a Yukon Grizzly fully mechanical locker. Now this provides 100 percent power to our tires when we need it. We also picked up a set of stock replacement 35 spline axle shafts. Now we don't know how many miles are on our original axle shafts but they'll be a good back up set for us when we're out on the trails. We also got a set of mile marker premium locking hubs and a Summit Racing aluminum diff cover. Now all these parts should make our Dana 60 pretty much bulletproof. The first thing I've got to do to get this whole build started is put the ring gear on our locker. [ MUSIC ] With our ring gear on we can add a few bolts to hold it in place. We'll add a little thread locker to the rest of the fasteners and tighten them down. Finally we can torque them down to 110 pound feet. With our ring gear on our carrier and torqued down the next step is to install the races for the pinion bearings. Then I'll go ahead and install the pinion, drop the carrier in, and we'll start taking some measurements. We'll give it a few whacks with our hammer and we should be good. That seated! With our axle flipped over we'll knock in the race for our inner bearing. Now that our races are installed it's time to setup our pinion. We're using some setup bearings. Now these bearings are made to slide on and off our pinion shaft without using a press. The reason why we're doing that is there's a shim down here at the bottom that sets our pinion depth. Now you can either buy or make these, and we just chose to make ours out of our old set. Now to get started all I've got to do is slide these on and check our pinion. [ MUSIC ] With our pinion in we can now check our backlash. I already installed some setup bearings and some shims on the carrier. So now all I've got to do is drop this in and see how close we are. Jimmy can you give me a hand here?
(Jimmy)>> Yeah let's do it.
(Jeremy)>> Nice and easy, I like my fingers. I'm gonna let go now! Now we'll just set our bearing caps in place making sure that we line up our reference marks, and then I'll just snug them down. [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> Now with everything snugged up we can check our backlash. It shows about 11, which is pretty close. I think we can move forward from here. Well now that everything checks out we can disassemble the case, pull out our pinion, and press on our real bearings. [ MUSIC ] Once disassembled we'll head over to the press, add our new bearings to the pinion... [ mechanical humming ]
(Jeremy)>> ...and then re-install it in our axle. [ MUSIC ] Alright that should do it. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> Check the pre-load, and it looks pretty good. Now that we have our pinion bearings in place we can add our new bearings to our diff. The press makes quick work of this and we're ready to install it back in our axle. [ MUSIC ] We'll snug down our caps, and then torque them down. That is exactly 10. To check out contact pattern we'll add a little gear marking compound to the ring gear and give it a few turns. Yep that right there, that's a good pattern. Then we'll slap on a fresh gasket, bolt on our new diff cover... [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> ...and slide in our new axles that we got from Summit Racing. With our axles in now we can start working on our hubs, and our old bearings were worn out. So we went to AutoZone and picked up a set of Duralast hub assemblies. Duralast has a full line of steering, drivetrain, and chassis parts. All of which are designed, manufactured, and tested to meet or exceed o-e-m specifications. These wheel bearing assemblies eliminate noise with lubricated maintenance free bearings and come with a two year warranty, and to wrap up our hub assembly we'll install a set of manual lockouts. [ MUSIC ] With our front axle pretty much wrapped up now I've got to transfer over to the rear and finish that one up too.
(Jimmy)>> We have to make some quick adjustments and fabricate some brackets.
(Jeremy)>> Then we can mount our drivetrain in our chassis.
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome back. Now we got our axles pretty much buttoned up, but before we can slide them underneath the chassis we've got one more thing that we want to take care of here on the front end. We're gonna be doing a brake system upgrade using EBC Brake pads and their rotors. For our rotors we're going with their GD Sport series. They have wide slots that draw in cool air between their pad and rotor surface and that keeps temps down. They have a thermic black coating to help with corrosion, and another advantage is their ability to maintain a flat pad surface throughout the lifetime of their brake pad setup. Speaking of brake pads we're also gonna be using their yellow stuff pads. Now these have a high friction formula that helps improve braking by up to 30 percent. They're available for light truck, Jeep, and s-u-v's, and now all I've got to do is set thee on our front axle and then we can slide those underneath our Jeep. [ MUSIC ] While we're freshening up our brake system we went to Rock Auto dot com and got a new set of caliper mounting brackets and calipers to go along with our new EBC brake pads and rotors. With our axles all buttoned up and slid underneath our chassis we went ahead and dropped in the engine and the transmission but we're running into a little bit of an issue.
(Jimmy)>> I was gonna put in one of the upper four link bars and it's already hitting the starter without the suspension even being cycled. So this is a great example of why you mock things up because you can always go back and change them later.
(Jeremy)>> And by changing the position of the upper link mount, well that's gonna change the geometry of our suspension but this is just one of those instances where we're gonna have to change some stuff to make everything work out.
(Jimmy)>> So the first thing we've got to do is just cut out the mounts. We'll use a cutoff wheel to make quick work of our tacks. [ MUSIC ] Now that we have our brackets cut out I found a pretty simple solution. All we're gonna do is tilt the bracket down a little bit. That way we get the vertical clearance on the starter and our links won't change length that much. Now all we've got to do is tack this back in, hook up our links, and cycle the suspension. [ MUSIC ] [ welder crackling ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright, I think that's gonna work. With our suspension dialed in now we can finally move on to mounting the engine, and if you guys remember we had to take a crossmember out of here. So we have to make some standalone engine mounts, and Jeremy actually had a pretty good idea on how to do that.
(Jeremy)>> The motor mounts that bolted to our six cylinder engine were two different styles. On the driver's side it went away from the oil pan, but on the passenger side it actually went underneath the oil pan, and that's not gonna work for us because of our suspension but there was a solution to this. I went out to our parts Jeeps and I grabbed another driver's side motor mount. So now I have two motor mounts that bolt directly to our engine and go away from the oil pan. I also went to Summit Racing and picked up some polyurethane mounts so now what I've got to do is assemble these, put them on the engine, and then we'll start working on the chassis. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright Jimmy, we're all set.
(Jimmy)>> Awesome, with the mounts on the engine it's now time to focus on the chassis side of things. So I'll take a couple of measurements so we can cut them out on the c-n-c plasma table. [ MUSIC ] We'll call that three quarter. Chassis' about four and a half tall. [ MUSIC ] Once we have our measurements we can start cutting out our new engine mounts on our Premiere plasma table. [ torch hissing ]
(Jimmy)>> Then we'll add a couple of quick tacks and mount them onto our chassis. [ welder crackling ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> With the engine mounts tacked in it's time to move on to our transmission crossmember. Now we already know from taking a couple measurements that the transmission won't sit directly in between the frame rails with the transfer case attached, but there's a simple solution to this. What we're gonna do is actually clock our transfer case down about 13 degrees, and that's gonna help with two different things. That will allow us to center our transmission and it's actually gonna help with our front driveshaft angle. Now they do make a tool to do this. It's called a clocking ring. You guys can go out and buy these but since we have a plasma table we took a couple of measurements and made up our own. So what I have to do now is bolt this to the back of the transmission, punch out, and a drill a series of holes. We'll bolt up the transfer case, center our transmission, and then we can get on to building that crossmember. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> You've got the heavy end though. Need to make sure to go in the holes. There we go! That slid right in there.
(Jimmy)>> How's it over there?
(Jeremy)>> Perfect, we gained at least two inches of clearance. We're pretty good on this side.
(Jimmy)>> I'm gonna start making the trans crossmember, but we'll actually take this back out and I'll take some measurements and cut it out.
(Jeremy)>> Right you'll go around the driveshaft on this side. Let's get it out of here. You want to bring it my way? I'll put it on the table. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> That's about eight. With our measurements we can start cutting out our transmission mount. Then start piecing it together on our welding table. [ welder crackling ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright this thing looks like it fits perfectly. So all I've got to do now is finish weld it and then we can move on to the transfer case.
(Jeremy)>> Coming up, we'll tackle our steering and get Junk Mail ready to roll.
(Jeremy)>> Now we're making really good headway on the drivetrain install of Project Junk Mail, and it's time to move on to the transfer case. Now we're running a 32-RH transmission but we opted to go with a 241 Rubicon series transfer case. Now these two bolt up but they don't seal, but we do have a solution. I went to Summit Racing and picked up a Terra-flex seal extension. So all I have to do is pop out the old seal, pop in this new extension piece. We'll throw the transfer case on and then we're moving up front to work on some steering. [ MUSIC ] Well there it goes! [ MUSIC ] Alright well the transfer case is in. Now let's move on to the steering.
(Jimmy)>> For our steering system we're going with the PSC hydro assist setup that we got from Summit Racing. This kit includes everything from the steering box, the reservoir, the pump, the hydraulic ram, and all the fittings and hoses needed to complete the kit. On our Jeep we're going with crossover steering and 37 inch tall tires, and this kit is designed to handle the higher steering forces, and even if we went with a bigger tire this kit would still handle it no problem. So the first thing we're gonna do is mount this pump. Then move on to the rest of the steering. We'll mount up our pump using a bracket I fabricated on the plasma table. Then I'll take a few measurements. Five and five-eighths. Make a few marks on our frame, and then drill some holes so we can install our steering box. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> I've got our steering gearbox in its final resting place but there's a few reinforcements I want to do to make it stronger. In the meantime we can move on to some other components and finish up our steering.
(Jeremy)>> The next step in the process is our tie rod bar. Now I've already taken a couple measurements. So I know the length of tube that I need to cut, and then from here we'll head over to the bench and I'll weld in a couple of tube inserts, and then we'll keep moving on our steering. [ saw buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> With our tube cut I want to make a few bends so that our tie rod bar will clear our new diff cover. We'll add a 20 degree bend to each end of our steering linkage to help with clearance. That should work. [ MUSIC ] We'll hold it all together with the tig. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright let's see it.
(Jeremy)>> You take that side. I'll wait for you to get yours before I start mine. That's it. We'll just hand tighten this for now. Let's cycle this once and see how much room we have on the diff cover.
(Jimmy)>> We've got plenty.
(Jeremy)>> Yeah that should work good.
(Jimmy)>> Nicely done! Let me get the cylinder and we'll get that on here too.
(Jeremy)>> Sounds good!
(Jimmy)>> Can you hold this while I tack it?
(Jeremy)>> Yeah you know where you're gonna put it?
(Jimmy)>> Just as far over to the passenger side as I can just to avoid the pumpkin over there.
(Jeremy)>> That'll work.
(Jimmy)>> Ready?
(Jeremy)>> Yep.
(Jimmy)>> We made sure our tow angle was relatively close before burning it in.
(Jeremy)>> With the cylinder installed we can finally add some hoses and finish plumbing up the system. Then we can set the body back on the chassis and see what this thing looks like.
(Jimmy)>> We'll have to make a few more body mods before we get Junk Mail rolling.
(Jeremy)>> We're making really good headway on Project Junk Mail. We've pretty much buttoned up the suspension. We threw in the drivetrain, bolted our shocks back up, and we even mounted a set of wheels and tires.
(Jimmy)>> But before we final weld all the suspension we want to throw the body on it to do some final checks, and we do know we're gonna have to cut some holes in it so we can clear the rear shock hoops, and the easiest way to do that is to roll this thing over to the lift and see what we're working with. [ MUSIC ] [ tires squeaking ]
(Jeremy)>> Turn a little bit here. It's hard to tell where we're at.
(Jimmy)>> It's pretty close.
(Jeremy)>> Let's grab some plumb bobs and we'll drop them down from the rear mount just to see how close we are. [ MUSIC ] Straight off the ground. That's probably enough. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> That's a nice piece right there.
(Jeremy)>> Okay I'm gonna go down slow. You let me know when we get close cause the hoist arm's gonna block me. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Stop right there. Yeah that's good. We'll mark out the area that needs to be removed. Our lines don't have to be super precise, just straight enough to give us a guide. Something like that. [ grinder buzzing ]
(Jimmy)>> We're using cutoff wheels for our application but you could use a plasma cutter as well. Either way makes quick work of our floor. [ saw buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> We'll yank off the wheels and tires and remove our shocks so we can lower the body down onto our chassis. [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> Full speed, let's see what happens.
(Jimmy)>> Keep going. Stop!
(Jeremy)>> Like that! It looks close. I'm gonna look inside.
(Jimmy)>> I think we should be able to get the shocks in there.
(Jeremy)>> That totally fits. I think the shocks will fit. We'll throw in some new body mounts and drop our shocks back in before setting the body back down. [ MUSIC ] Here we go.
(Jimmy)>> A lot of room between the firewall and valve cover.
(Jeremy)>> Come down in the back. Hoist arms are coming off.
(Jimmy)>> Getting close.
(Jeremy)>> Keep going?
(Jimmy)>> Yep. Transfer case is clear and everything, yeah.
(Jeremy)>> How much room do we have between the firewall?
(Jimmy)>> An inch.
(Jeremy)>> There's some wiring there but we're good. Let's get the front clip on it. Then the fenders and the grille shell.
(Jimmy)>> Make it look like a Jeep again.
(Jeremy)>> That's a good idea. I'll go grab them. [ MUSIC ] Alright let's see how these fenders fit. We had a pretty good idea that we were gonna have to do some trimming here. I think if we just cut out this indent right here on the inner fender that should allow the fender to slide in and match up with the grille shell. To cut out our fender I'll use a cutoff wheel. It makes it easy to follow the desired shape we're looking for to make room for our shocks. Jimmy you want to grab the back side and bolt that in.
(Jimmy)>> That should be good for now. [ MUSIC ] This thing's looking so good, and the parts are really coming together.
(Jeremy)>> Yeah but now we've got the big order of tearing this thing all back apart cause we still have to finish weld the chassis. We want to paint the stuff underneath. We've got to get inside, and there's a laundry list of stuff to do before we go wheeling.
(Jimmy)>> All that's for another day. If you guys saw anything you liked on the show go to Powernation TV dot com.
(Jeremy)>> Falling in love with this thing more and more.
(Jimmy)>> It's awesome!
Show Full Transcript
(Jeremy)>> Today on Carcass our DJ-5 Jeep has made a drastic change from its days delivering the mail with a four link suspension and coil over shocks.
(Jimmy)>> We take it another step further with new gears and lockers for our one ton axles to help us conquer the trails. Plus get the drivetrain in and mounted.
(Jeremy)>> Then we'll tackle our steering to get Junk Mail rolling once again. [ MUSIC ] [ tires squealing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome to Carcass. Our 1978 Jeep DJ-5 has made quite a big transformation from the two wheel drive ex-postal Jeep that it was into this four wheel drive fully functional off road rig.
(Jimmy)>> And we've done a ton of work so far. With our Jeep in the shop we stripped it down all the way to the bare chassis and removed all of the old suspension brackets. Then we went to a junkyard and picked up a set of one ton axles form a Ford Superduty. We cleaned those up, added a set of axle trusses, and then we threw them under the Jeep so we could fabricate our custom four link suspension.
(Jeremy)>> So the plan today is to build the complete front and rear axle and set the drivetrain in the chassis.
(Jimmy)>> We also want to put the body on it to make this thing a roller. So the first thing we have to do is get the axles back out from under it.
(Jeremy)>> Now we're building our Jeep on a budget. That's why we're spending the money where we want to and saving the money where we can. That's also why we built our own four link suspension and went out and got a set of junkyard axles. Well to build out those axles we went to Summit Racing dot com and picked up a whole bunch of good parts, and that starts with Richmond Gear 4.88 ring and pinion gears. Now these are a huge upgrade over our original setup. These get bolted to a Yukon Grizzly fully mechanical locker. Now this provides 100 percent power to our tires when we need it. We also picked up a set of stock replacement 35 spline axle shafts. Now we don't know how many miles are on our original axle shafts but they'll be a good back up set for us when we're out on the trails. We also got a set of mile marker premium locking hubs and a Summit Racing aluminum diff cover. Now all these parts should make our Dana 60 pretty much bulletproof. The first thing I've got to do to get this whole build started is put the ring gear on our locker. [ MUSIC ] With our ring gear on we can add a few bolts to hold it in place. We'll add a little thread locker to the rest of the fasteners and tighten them down. Finally we can torque them down to 110 pound feet. With our ring gear on our carrier and torqued down the next step is to install the races for the pinion bearings. Then I'll go ahead and install the pinion, drop the carrier in, and we'll start taking some measurements. We'll give it a few whacks with our hammer and we should be good. That seated! With our axle flipped over we'll knock in the race for our inner bearing. Now that our races are installed it's time to setup our pinion. We're using some setup bearings. Now these bearings are made to slide on and off our pinion shaft without using a press. The reason why we're doing that is there's a shim down here at the bottom that sets our pinion depth. Now you can either buy or make these, and we just chose to make ours out of our old set. Now to get started all I've got to do is slide these on and check our pinion. [ MUSIC ] With our pinion in we can now check our backlash. I already installed some setup bearings and some shims on the carrier. So now all I've got to do is drop this in and see how close we are. Jimmy can you give me a hand here?
(Jimmy)>> Yeah let's do it.
(Jeremy)>> Nice and easy, I like my fingers. I'm gonna let go now! Now we'll just set our bearing caps in place making sure that we line up our reference marks, and then I'll just snug them down. [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> Now with everything snugged up we can check our backlash. It shows about 11, which is pretty close. I think we can move forward from here. Well now that everything checks out we can disassemble the case, pull out our pinion, and press on our real bearings. [ MUSIC ] Once disassembled we'll head over to the press, add our new bearings to the pinion... [ mechanical humming ]
(Jeremy)>> ...and then re-install it in our axle. [ MUSIC ] Alright that should do it. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> Check the pre-load, and it looks pretty good. Now that we have our pinion bearings in place we can add our new bearings to our diff. The press makes quick work of this and we're ready to install it back in our axle. [ MUSIC ] We'll snug down our caps, and then torque them down. That is exactly 10. To check out contact pattern we'll add a little gear marking compound to the ring gear and give it a few turns. Yep that right there, that's a good pattern. Then we'll slap on a fresh gasket, bolt on our new diff cover... [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> ...and slide in our new axles that we got from Summit Racing. With our axles in now we can start working on our hubs, and our old bearings were worn out. So we went to AutoZone and picked up a set of Duralast hub assemblies. Duralast has a full line of steering, drivetrain, and chassis parts. All of which are designed, manufactured, and tested to meet or exceed o-e-m specifications. These wheel bearing assemblies eliminate noise with lubricated maintenance free bearings and come with a two year warranty, and to wrap up our hub assembly we'll install a set of manual lockouts. [ MUSIC ] With our front axle pretty much wrapped up now I've got to transfer over to the rear and finish that one up too.
(Jimmy)>> We have to make some quick adjustments and fabricate some brackets.
(Jeremy)>> Then we can mount our drivetrain in our chassis.
(Jeremy)>> Hey guys, welcome back. Now we got our axles pretty much buttoned up, but before we can slide them underneath the chassis we've got one more thing that we want to take care of here on the front end. We're gonna be doing a brake system upgrade using EBC Brake pads and their rotors. For our rotors we're going with their GD Sport series. They have wide slots that draw in cool air between their pad and rotor surface and that keeps temps down. They have a thermic black coating to help with corrosion, and another advantage is their ability to maintain a flat pad surface throughout the lifetime of their brake pad setup. Speaking of brake pads we're also gonna be using their yellow stuff pads. Now these have a high friction formula that helps improve braking by up to 30 percent. They're available for light truck, Jeep, and s-u-v's, and now all I've got to do is set thee on our front axle and then we can slide those underneath our Jeep. [ MUSIC ] While we're freshening up our brake system we went to Rock Auto dot com and got a new set of caliper mounting brackets and calipers to go along with our new EBC brake pads and rotors. With our axles all buttoned up and slid underneath our chassis we went ahead and dropped in the engine and the transmission but we're running into a little bit of an issue.
(Jimmy)>> I was gonna put in one of the upper four link bars and it's already hitting the starter without the suspension even being cycled. So this is a great example of why you mock things up because you can always go back and change them later.
(Jeremy)>> And by changing the position of the upper link mount, well that's gonna change the geometry of our suspension but this is just one of those instances where we're gonna have to change some stuff to make everything work out.
(Jimmy)>> So the first thing we've got to do is just cut out the mounts. We'll use a cutoff wheel to make quick work of our tacks. [ MUSIC ] Now that we have our brackets cut out I found a pretty simple solution. All we're gonna do is tilt the bracket down a little bit. That way we get the vertical clearance on the starter and our links won't change length that much. Now all we've got to do is tack this back in, hook up our links, and cycle the suspension. [ MUSIC ] [ welder crackling ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright, I think that's gonna work. With our suspension dialed in now we can finally move on to mounting the engine, and if you guys remember we had to take a crossmember out of here. So we have to make some standalone engine mounts, and Jeremy actually had a pretty good idea on how to do that.
(Jeremy)>> The motor mounts that bolted to our six cylinder engine were two different styles. On the driver's side it went away from the oil pan, but on the passenger side it actually went underneath the oil pan, and that's not gonna work for us because of our suspension but there was a solution to this. I went out to our parts Jeeps and I grabbed another driver's side motor mount. So now I have two motor mounts that bolt directly to our engine and go away from the oil pan. I also went to Summit Racing and picked up some polyurethane mounts so now what I've got to do is assemble these, put them on the engine, and then we'll start working on the chassis. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> Alright Jimmy, we're all set.
(Jimmy)>> Awesome, with the mounts on the engine it's now time to focus on the chassis side of things. So I'll take a couple of measurements so we can cut them out on the c-n-c plasma table. [ MUSIC ] We'll call that three quarter. Chassis' about four and a half tall. [ MUSIC ] Once we have our measurements we can start cutting out our new engine mounts on our Premiere plasma table. [ torch hissing ]
(Jimmy)>> Then we'll add a couple of quick tacks and mount them onto our chassis. [ welder crackling ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> With the engine mounts tacked in it's time to move on to our transmission crossmember. Now we already know from taking a couple measurements that the transmission won't sit directly in between the frame rails with the transfer case attached, but there's a simple solution to this. What we're gonna do is actually clock our transfer case down about 13 degrees, and that's gonna help with two different things. That will allow us to center our transmission and it's actually gonna help with our front driveshaft angle. Now they do make a tool to do this. It's called a clocking ring. You guys can go out and buy these but since we have a plasma table we took a couple of measurements and made up our own. So what I have to do now is bolt this to the back of the transmission, punch out, and a drill a series of holes. We'll bolt up the transfer case, center our transmission, and then we can get on to building that crossmember. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> You've got the heavy end though. Need to make sure to go in the holes. There we go! That slid right in there.
(Jimmy)>> How's it over there?
(Jeremy)>> Perfect, we gained at least two inches of clearance. We're pretty good on this side.
(Jimmy)>> I'm gonna start making the trans crossmember, but we'll actually take this back out and I'll take some measurements and cut it out.
(Jeremy)>> Right you'll go around the driveshaft on this side. Let's get it out of here. You want to bring it my way? I'll put it on the table. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> That's about eight. With our measurements we can start cutting out our transmission mount. Then start piecing it together on our welding table. [ welder crackling ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright this thing looks like it fits perfectly. So all I've got to do now is finish weld it and then we can move on to the transfer case.
(Jeremy)>> Coming up, we'll tackle our steering and get Junk Mail ready to roll.
(Jeremy)>> Now we're making really good headway on the drivetrain install of Project Junk Mail, and it's time to move on to the transfer case. Now we're running a 32-RH transmission but we opted to go with a 241 Rubicon series transfer case. Now these two bolt up but they don't seal, but we do have a solution. I went to Summit Racing and picked up a Terra-flex seal extension. So all I have to do is pop out the old seal, pop in this new extension piece. We'll throw the transfer case on and then we're moving up front to work on some steering. [ MUSIC ] Well there it goes! [ MUSIC ] Alright well the transfer case is in. Now let's move on to the steering.
(Jimmy)>> For our steering system we're going with the PSC hydro assist setup that we got from Summit Racing. This kit includes everything from the steering box, the reservoir, the pump, the hydraulic ram, and all the fittings and hoses needed to complete the kit. On our Jeep we're going with crossover steering and 37 inch tall tires, and this kit is designed to handle the higher steering forces, and even if we went with a bigger tire this kit would still handle it no problem. So the first thing we're gonna do is mount this pump. Then move on to the rest of the steering. We'll mount up our pump using a bracket I fabricated on the plasma table. Then I'll take a few measurements. Five and five-eighths. Make a few marks on our frame, and then drill some holes so we can install our steering box. [ MUSIC ] [ drill buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> I've got our steering gearbox in its final resting place but there's a few reinforcements I want to do to make it stronger. In the meantime we can move on to some other components and finish up our steering.
(Jeremy)>> The next step in the process is our tie rod bar. Now I've already taken a couple measurements. So I know the length of tube that I need to cut, and then from here we'll head over to the bench and I'll weld in a couple of tube inserts, and then we'll keep moving on our steering. [ saw buzzing ]
(Jeremy)>> With our tube cut I want to make a few bends so that our tie rod bar will clear our new diff cover. We'll add a 20 degree bend to each end of our steering linkage to help with clearance. That should work. [ MUSIC ] We'll hold it all together with the tig. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Alright let's see it.
(Jeremy)>> You take that side. I'll wait for you to get yours before I start mine. That's it. We'll just hand tighten this for now. Let's cycle this once and see how much room we have on the diff cover.
(Jimmy)>> We've got plenty.
(Jeremy)>> Yeah that should work good.
(Jimmy)>> Nicely done! Let me get the cylinder and we'll get that on here too.
(Jeremy)>> Sounds good!
(Jimmy)>> Can you hold this while I tack it?
(Jeremy)>> Yeah you know where you're gonna put it?
(Jimmy)>> Just as far over to the passenger side as I can just to avoid the pumpkin over there.
(Jeremy)>> That'll work.
(Jimmy)>> Ready?
(Jeremy)>> Yep.
(Jimmy)>> We made sure our tow angle was relatively close before burning it in.
(Jeremy)>> With the cylinder installed we can finally add some hoses and finish plumbing up the system. Then we can set the body back on the chassis and see what this thing looks like.
(Jimmy)>> We'll have to make a few more body mods before we get Junk Mail rolling.
(Jeremy)>> We're making really good headway on Project Junk Mail. We've pretty much buttoned up the suspension. We threw in the drivetrain, bolted our shocks back up, and we even mounted a set of wheels and tires.
(Jimmy)>> But before we final weld all the suspension we want to throw the body on it to do some final checks, and we do know we're gonna have to cut some holes in it so we can clear the rear shock hoops, and the easiest way to do that is to roll this thing over to the lift and see what we're working with. [ MUSIC ] [ tires squeaking ]
(Jeremy)>> Turn a little bit here. It's hard to tell where we're at.
(Jimmy)>> It's pretty close.
(Jeremy)>> Let's grab some plumb bobs and we'll drop them down from the rear mount just to see how close we are. [ MUSIC ] Straight off the ground. That's probably enough. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> That's a nice piece right there.
(Jeremy)>> Okay I'm gonna go down slow. You let me know when we get close cause the hoist arm's gonna block me. [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> Stop right there. Yeah that's good. We'll mark out the area that needs to be removed. Our lines don't have to be super precise, just straight enough to give us a guide. Something like that. [ grinder buzzing ]
(Jimmy)>> We're using cutoff wheels for our application but you could use a plasma cutter as well. Either way makes quick work of our floor. [ saw buzzing ] [ MUSIC ]
(Jimmy)>> We'll yank off the wheels and tires and remove our shocks so we can lower the body down onto our chassis. [ MUSIC ]
(Jeremy)>> Full speed, let's see what happens.
(Jimmy)>> Keep going. Stop!
(Jeremy)>> Like that! It looks close. I'm gonna look inside.
(Jimmy)>> I think we should be able to get the shocks in there.
(Jeremy)>> That totally fits. I think the shocks will fit. We'll throw in some new body mounts and drop our shocks back in before setting the body back down. [ MUSIC ] Here we go.
(Jimmy)>> A lot of room between the firewall and valve cover.
(Jeremy)>> Come down in the back. Hoist arms are coming off.
(Jimmy)>> Getting close.
(Jeremy)>> Keep going?
(Jimmy)>> Yep. Transfer case is clear and everything, yeah.
(Jeremy)>> How much room do we have between the firewall?
(Jimmy)>> An inch.
(Jeremy)>> There's some wiring there but we're good. Let's get the front clip on it. Then the fenders and the grille shell.
(Jimmy)>> Make it look like a Jeep again.
(Jeremy)>> That's a good idea. I'll go grab them. [ MUSIC ] Alright let's see how these fenders fit. We had a pretty good idea that we were gonna have to do some trimming here. I think if we just cut out this indent right here on the inner fender that should allow the fender to slide in and match up with the grille shell. To cut out our fender I'll use a cutoff wheel. It makes it easy to follow the desired shape we're looking for to make room for our shocks. Jimmy you want to grab the back side and bolt that in.
(Jimmy)>> That should be good for now. [ MUSIC ] This thing's looking so good, and the parts are really coming together.
(Jeremy)>> Yeah but now we've got the big order of tearing this thing all back apart cause we still have to finish weld the chassis. We want to paint the stuff underneath. We've got to get inside, and there's a laundry list of stuff to do before we go wheeling.
(Jimmy)>> All that's for another day. If you guys saw anything you liked on the show go to Powernation TV dot com.
(Jeremy)>> Falling in love with this thing more and more.
(Jimmy)>> It's awesome!
