3500V6 4X4 jimmy

[Mars]

Bam, look what I found from a local off-roader guy.

Exploder 8.8 with 4.10 and a locker. rear disk.



10 bolt gone to scrap.



The parts Grand Cherokee had a nice 2.5" tube hitch. i am going to cut and mod it out to make my front X-member.



Dakota rear leafs and an Astro steering box (the pitman arm faces fwd on the Astro, vs towards the rear on the S-truck. Helps with lifts and I will be trying to stretch the wheelbas as much as I can so this will also help with that.



My winter project is going to be complete in a month... lol.



Started cutting out some IFS junk... Slowly but surely.

[Fieroghini]

I ran 4.10's in my solid axle bravada with 35's. It'll move fine but will be 4 lo off road for sure. I ended up going 5.13's but didn't notice a big difference in power. Just higher rpms on the highway.

[Mars]

I will be using 4.88 gears unless something changes. Should be a good compromise.

Worked on the truck all day, I made some 1.5" lift shackels, 3/8 thick.



Cut all the useless perches off of the 8.8 I will be going spring over.



My perches :



U-bolts, I got them made at a local spring place. All I need for the 8.8 swap and a D30.



Front X-member, this took alot of time as I had to cut/grind off all the old crap off of it. But it's done.



Ran into a real world problem though, I was going to weld in the front X-member but my welding whip is too short, lol. I gotta get the rear done so I can move the truck back a few feet. It's just tacked on right now with my little 120V box.

[3400-95-Modified]

Put you welder on wheels

[Mars]

Put you welder on wheels

Oh it's on wheels but the welding receptacle doesn't allow me to wheel very far... lol. I just need a extension cord.

[3400-95-Modified]

I just need a extension cord.

That was the first thing I made sure I had... No way was I going to wire more than one 50 amp plug in my garage... that wire is a PAIN to get in place.

[Mars]

small update :

Got the 8.8 in there, obviously didn't weld in the spring perches yet, I want the front axle in there before I figure out the pinion angle..



conversion Ujoint required :



I need to get the front done so I can see if I need a rear lift block to keep it level..





High pinion D30 :



All cleaned up :



Front diff removed, rest of ifs crap cut off :



Liquid Iron Industries leaf spring sliders, mocked up. These replace conventional shackles, can't wait to see how they perform.

[pocket-rocket]

Those sliders are an interesting concept. I would be worried about the springs hanging and binding in high flex situations.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[Mars]

Factory stereo only had 2 lame speakers in the dash... Got these grills on THE EBAY... cheap.



JB4X4 Hi-Steer braket.



Got the sliders welded in there. Popped the axle in. I love the stance. I ended up with a 1.75" lift block in the rear. (it's hard to tell by the pics but the rear is about 3/4" higher then the front.)







Tons of work left but getting the thing on 4 wheels was nice. Need to do steering and set the pinion angles, ect. shocks, brakes, driveshafts...

most importantly 3500V6 TURBO swap.

[Mars]

more detailed pics of the sliders install.

What I did first this was weld 2 pipes in between the sliders, to assure they are square, and to assure I have the 31.5" center to center.

After that was done, I centered the whole thing under the truck..

You can see the 2 grey pipes that I used as my jig, here :





side profile :



Now, once everything was square, and welded in there, I cut my jig pipes off..





The driver's side slider is inside the frame roughly 2" and the pass side sits inside the frame a little over 3.5"

here is a pic of the JB4X4 braket crossover steering thing, with the stock S10 box and a YJ pitman arm. I am not sure I like the angle, I have a ZJ drop pitman arm that I may try on there, but it might hit the diff on uptravel, not sure I will have to flex it out and see if there is an issue.




Annnnd, of course with the 35's...





Now, I am going to start pulling the old 2.8 tomorrow...

My idea is to push the 3500 back about 2". couple reasons for this...

1. My front XJ Cherokee driveshaft is a little bit too long, if I can push the drivetrain back a little touch, I can get it to work, as is. $$ saving
2. the rear driveshaft is too short now because of the added lift, and the extra 2" would put me right back to where I need to be..

If I can push the motor back I will be very happy. I have to make cusom motor mounts anyways, as well as a new transmission Xmember... so if my idea works, I will be quite happy.

Just not sure about firewall clearance at this point, i will have a better look see when I am in there tomorrow.

[geldartb]

looks nice in the pic of it sitting outside in the snow.

[Guest]

I don't think you'll get 2" of movement backwards without serious modification to the firewall. It's particularly tight on the driver side.

Looks awesome. It makes me want to keep my Dakota and go through with the similar plans I had for it, though the engine wouldn't have spark plugs if I did.

[Mars]

I don't think you'll get 2" of movement backwards without serious modification to the firewall. It's particularly tight on the driver side.

DAMN, that would of been just soo convinient.

I didn't even look at the truck today, had other crap to do.

I don't really want to mod out the firewall, but I may look at it because the custom shafts will be $$$$.

I figured since I won't use a distributor, I may have been able to nudge it back a little.

[Guest]

Naw, it's not the dizzy that's an issue, it's the driver side firewall and the head on that side, they are only about 3/4 to 1" apart IIRC.

I would personally prefer getting shafts shortened, than screwing around with all new mounts for the engine and trans. I realize you need to make the engine mounts, but leaving the trans cross member alone saves that effort. I always find that when I try to modify something else to get an off the shelf part to fit I end up modifying that off the shelf part anyway, or I'm just not happy with the over all fit.

[Mars]

I need to make a new trans X-member to clear the front driveshaft anyways... I already cut my stock one in 3 pieces cause I couldn't remove it after i welded the slider blocks in... lol.