Leaf Spring Conversion Question

Hey guys,

I was very fortunate this weekend to pick up two Jeep rolling chassis's (no bodies) for next to nothing from a good friend of mine. Both have D30's w/ disc brakes on the front, not sure on rear axles, but one is a straight six with manual trans and transfer and the other is a 304 w/ manual trans and transfer. What transmissions did they use and would they fit my Dauntless 225? If so would they be better to use than my T-14? Ok back to the original question that I had, I want to do a SOA lift first off,,,,but I know the later CJ5 springs were wider hence the reason why I'm considering an SOA. The question I have is how do you mount them to the frame? Since they are wider. Do I have to cut off the spring mounts off of the old frame or does someone sell new ones? Also any tips on centering them? Are they longer and wider or just wider? Thanks guys.

 

The straight 6 used a t14 if it is a 3 speed, I think the 304 v8 used a t15. The t14 won't fit because the input shaft is to long for the gm bellhousing the t15 the same, it might be adaptable if you really want it but it wouldn't be worth it.

 

If the disks are stock, these chassis are 1976 or later. You can also ID a '76 or later frame by the boxing of the frame and that the distance between the frame rails widens from front to back.

After 1975, Jeep used the T150 three-speed in both I6 and V8 CJs until 1980. The T150 is a Ford passenger car 3-spd with a top shifter. In 1980, Jeep switched to either the SR4, T4, T5, or T176 transmissions in all CJs. Not sure what the year breakdown is after 1980, but all these transmissions except the T176 are light duty, and the T176 is medium duty ... not as strong as the earlier transmissions. The T176 is also a Ford passenger car transmission.

The change in 1980 is easiest to identofy by the change in transfer case. Before 1980 will use the Dana 20 with a Texas pattern, after will use the Dana 300 with a New Process pattern.

None of these would be easy to adapt to the V6.

There are some articles and pictures at http://www.jeeptech.com/wiki/index.php/Transmission/Factory that may help ID the drivetrain.

Can't help you with the spring-over.

 

I have done several springovers on my other jeeps and like Dan said it stinks to reuse the old hangers. Lots of time involved. I put Wagoneer axles under mine but I had to move my hangers to the outside of the frame to compensate for the axle width.

 

I'm not a big fan of '76-'86 CJ spring hangers since I broke one into 4 pieces on the Mn Challenge last Summer. photo1 photo2 The hanger literally fell off when I removed the bolt - except for one little piece. Kind of made me think of the end of the chase scene in Blues Brothers

I like YJ hangers a lot better. They fit the same spring width as the '76-'86 hangers do and I think they are stronger. They certainly slide over rocks better, especually if you tuck the eye up as close to the frame as possible. The only catch is that the YJ frame is wider than the front of a '76-'86 frame and I had to space the front hangers out. I split a piece of 2.5" x .25" square tubing into 2 U shaped pieces and welded them to the bottom of the frame. It was a nice re-inforcement. I know you'd have to do this at all 4 corners of a flat fender and I suspect the same is true for an early 5 but I don't have one to measure. I got the YJ hangers from 4wd hardware.

For the shackle end hangers, I'd get stock replacement rear '76-'86 pieces. Use a band saw to cut the width down on 2 of them to match the front springs. This a better idea than getting front replacements becuase the stock fronts have a big hole in them to clear a rivet on the '76-'86 frame and this really weakens the hangers. You don't have that rivet on the early frames. This is way cheaper than any heavy duty replacements that I've seen.