'52 m38a1 v6 sm465

I have a brace that runs from the box to the opposite frame rail. Picked it up at a 4wd shop in Redwood City.

 

The Astro drivers side manifold dumps closer to the middle, leaves about 8 +/- inches for a slave.

 

That's exactly what i pictured warloch. Glad to see it and know it's gonna work. Add that to the list of things to do...
That's a good tip on the exhaust manifold Hawkes. I was hoping to find something like that for the buick V6, but it doesn't sound like it's gonna happen.

Progress has ground to a halt on the jeep due to a long time water leak and mold growing in the bathroom and the kids being sick for the last 6 weeks. Hopefully i can sneak out of the house for a day and get the jeep road worthy. We'll see. Thanks for all the info guys.

 

Thanks Hawkes, appreciate it.

 

Hey guys. Just now getting back at the jeep and i've run into a little snag i need some help with. I hooked up the hydraulic line from the clutch master cylinder to the slave and i'm only getting about .700 of movement at the release arm. It doesn't seem like enough and Novaks web site says for a 10 1/2 inch clutch with my release arm i need about 1.6 inches of movement which seems like too much. Especially due to the fact the 3/4 wilwood master cylinder can only move 1.4 inches. What are some actual numbers that you guys are running in your rigs that work? Thanks for you time. I'll update more as i work out some of these bugs.

 

Thank you Warloch. I appreciate it.

 

Another question. We're setting up a dana 25 for my buddies M38. The backlash we have now is .045 and we need to be around .005 to .008. So the question is how much closer to the pinion do i need to move the ring gear? If i move it .040 closer to the pinion will i end up at .005? I can't remember how it works and i love to only have to do it one more time. Thanks again for the help.

 

Just a quick update. It turns out it is a one to one ratio. We moved the ring gear .040 closer and ended up at about .007. Just need to pull it apart again and put in all the seals and this project is done then i can get back to my jeep. Any one have any luck with a measurement of how far i need my clutch release fork to move for it all to work right??

 

Great lookin build thus far. I have also decided to go with a yj brake booster/master since I have to redue all my brakes anyways to compinsate for the toy axles. I am going to get a booster, mc , and valve off of a yj from ebay and was wondering how difficult it was to install (read an article on it but sometimes its made to look easier then it really is) and will the yj valve be sufficiant for the toy axles? Thank you.

 

I'm glad your enjoying the build 72CJ5! I am too. I'm not super familiar with how a 72 firewall is set up, but i can tell you how my conversion is going on the 52. I started with the YJ booster/mc and figured out where it would best fit under the hood. At this point i decided the YJ mc was not the best choice for my build, mostly because the brake lines exited the mc on the motor side of the cylinder and the end was very close to my ps pump. So i replaced the YJ mc with napa part #M1929. Before i did any drilling, i used existing holes in the firewall and laid out the four pedal assembly mounting holes under the dash. I had to be careful as the YJ brake pedal was pretty close to the steering column when it is fully depressed. Also, it seemed like the higher i could mount the pedals, the better it would all work. It was kind of a back and forth game to try to get the pedals and the booster to sit in the right spot. After i drilled the holes and mounted everything, i found out my firewall was too weak for the hanging pedals, so i re enforced it with a plate. I'm not sure if you'll have to do that with yours. You can see those pics earlier in the thread. I decided not to use the proportioning valve off the YJ because i wanted the option of being able to make adjustments if the balance was off between the front and rear. Instead, i used a wilwod valve the i got from summit for about 40 bucks.

So that's about as far as i got two days ago. I bleed the air from the system but the pedal was still to the floor. There is a small push rod between the booster and mc that is threaded so i lengthened it and now i have a good hard pedal but the front brakes are just barely dragging. I think with some fine tuning it is gonna work. I have not road tested this yet, or used it under power, but it seems to be working. It's not too terribly hard just takes a little time to get it right. I should be testing it on the road soon and i will let you know how it stops.

 

Thank you for the reply. I have never tested or checked my firewall for strength but I have heard that a couple times before and will prob grab the old mc and yank on it back and fourth and see what the firewall does. Im keeping my original pedals (since I aint that tall and I like where they sit already). As for the prop valve, the unit im looking to buy comes with the yj valve already. I checked the brake dimentions between a yj and my toyota axles and they are fairly similar. Yj drum is a 12.x by 3 and the front caliper is just a single large piston. My toyota rear drum is a 13 by 2.5 and the front calipers have duel pistons but only about half the size of the yj single piston. So with that in mind (and since my funds are runnin on fumes) im going to run the yj valve and see what happens. If it dont work out, i can always switch to another valve. I'll be keepin an eye on your progress. Again, thanks for the pictures and the reply.

 

Sounds like the stock YJ valve should work for you. If you want, i got the stock YJ mc and the proportioning valve you can have, then all you need to find is the YJ booster with bracket. I'm in Sonoma, ca so i'm not sure how far you are from me. Let me know if your interested.

Thank you Warloch. That's exactly what i needed to know. What master cylinder are you running with your novak setup?

 

Thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it. I just mapquested sonoma and you are 2.5 hours North of my town in Hilmar. Calculated fuel cost is right around 60 bucks for the round trip which aint too bad. I had my eye on a complete unit for $50 but not sure if its still available. If not, I will let you know. Thanks again.

 

Just wondering if you got your exhaust and had a chance to road test yet?

 

Well, i got the exhaust tackled. I had to start off with correcting the angle of the drivers side exhaust manifold as the pipe would hit my clutch slave cylinder if i left it the way it was.

So with some advise from here, i got to work re shaping the manifold. I had nothing to loose, so in i went. I started by sawing the flange off, but left myself enough room so i didn't have to weld right on the shoulder of the flange.

I put both pieces on the belt sander until i came to an angle that looked like it was going to work. I think i moved it about 15 to 20 degrees. I preheated the whole manifold with a torch and started welding with some rod with a high nickel content. i took my time and tried to keep the heat as even as possible, but i still got one crack in the weld. So i heated again, then welded and this time i tried using the torch to get a more even, controlled cooling of the piece, and this time it worked.


Then it was off to the muffler shop to get some 1 3/4 tubing and the quietest muffler i could get. I am happy with the way it came out. Just how i pictured it.



Here comes the major set back i didn't see coming. When i went down to pick it up, i fired her right up, and the exhaust was so quiet, all i could hear was a terrible rod knock coming from the motor. I guess that's what i get for buying a used motor. Anyway, i hooked her up and towed it back to the shop where it is still sitting until i figure out what direction i want to go now. All i want to do is get it up to 40 or 50 mph and see how everything work that i ave done so far. How bad do you think it would be if i still did that with the rod knock? I know i'm gonna have to rebuild the whole thing anyway so will i damage the parts beyond repair? The whole jeep is gonna get a frame off anyway, but i wanted to make sure all the mechanics of it are working correctly before i do that. What do you guys think? So tonys, i guess that is the ong way of saying i have not road tested yet. We'll see...

 

Well...is it a FOR SURE rod knock or a top end? Worst case would be that rod snapping at a higher RPM (anything above idle) and causing a grip of other damage to the inside and lower end of your engine.