66 CJ5 Rebuild

For my tie rod flip I made some stainless steel bungs that I will weld on the top side of each knuckle. I drilled out the holes on the knuckle to 3/4" and then I will weld them in. The I.D. of the bungs are tapered to match the taper of the tie rod ends. I'm also working on making heavy duty tie rods from 1" thick wall DOM tubing.

 

Are you a retired machinist? They look great.

 

Definitely not a professional machinist, but I've had some practice. These took a while to make because the taper is a pain to get just right and I used a solid piece of 1" stainless stock.
They are similar to the Goferit ones that you can buy, but I'm stubborn and I didn't want to pay 18 bucks a piece.

 

I hear ya. It's more fun (and educational) to fab your own stuff. You obviously have some nice machinery to work with if you can mill a taper like that.

 

@ John..I don't have a mill or lathe, but I have the next best thing...a friend that does R)

Next up is the transfer case. I've had a broken mount on this thing for a while and I decided now would be a good time since it was disassembled. This first pic shows what it looked like after I cut the broken section of the mount.


I decided to use a different style mount. This pic shows the parts I used. The metal piece in the middle is tapered on both sides to accept the tapered bushings. The smaller round piece is stainless steel and is called a crush tube. Once you put a bolt through the crush tube, the rubber squishes down to the length of the stainless steel piece. The aluminum piece in my hand goes on each side of the rubber and acts like a washer.


Assembled to the flat plate that I will weld to the front bearing cap.




I used a TIG welding rod called Hastelloy W Nickel Alloy. This stuff works great for welding cast iron. The trick to this stuff is the high nickel content. I also used this stuff to weld axle tubes to my buddys diff.

 

Wow. Nice work.

 

Finished up the transfer case a few days ago. I enjoyed the rebuild except for the cleaning part. What a pain in the butt. As far as the specs on the transfer case, I have a D18 with the large 4" hole and 1 1/4" intermediate shaft. I bought the rebuild kit from Herm. The only additional parts I needed was a shim kit and some anti-rattle clips for the shift rails. Ooh and lots of gasket sealant and Vaseline.











And for the finished product........I replaced all of the harware with new Grade 8 bolts, new washers and steel locking nuts for the yokes as well. Not keeping that silly e-brake setup either.

 

hellokittyBeautiful welds, nice paint, etc. You do extremely nice work! Attention to detail is appreciated!!!

 

It is a thing of beauty!

 

I am so jealous of your welds. Someday I will get the time to go down to the local community college and take some classes. Someday...

 

Thanks for the kind words fellas...Up next is the T-18 tranny, which is disassembled and being cleaned in a giant dishwasher.

 

T18 rebuild complete...Wha Hoo! This was an enjoyable build, but still a pain in the butt to move around. I snagged a rebuild kit from Herm and few small parts from other vendors. All new grade 8 hardware, steel locking nuts, and plenty of "The Right Stuff" gasket maker completed the build. And yes it shifts in all gears
The beginning




Top off


Ooh lord, so many parts!


Time for a wash


Bell housing adapter...Anyone know where this came from? It would be nice for a reference in the future. I had to weld a few cracks near the mounting holes. I matched up the correct seal for this part and bought one from Rock Auto. Timken part number 482208, it's the front bearing cap seal.


Dana 18 adapter. No gasket with the kit, so I made one. I also tracked down the correct seal for this at Rock Auto. Timken part 450308. I purchased a new output shaft nut from 4Wheelers Supply.
First with paper, then gasket material.




Quite the long shaft...


Before Dana 18 adapter

All pretty after some paint.

 

If you are going to do much of this type work, you might want to learn the ways of using a gasket hammer.



This could have been done in a couple minutes easy.

Good looking re-build, by the way.

 

So is that a T18 with a T98 top on it or what?

 

Yep, all T18 with a T98 top. I understand that was normal when the production of T18s rolled out. It confused me when I first bought the Jeep, but now I'm enlightened.

 

A buddy of mine had one of those T18/98 combos as well.

 

Hmmmm, I learn something every day, whether I want to or not. IMHO, the T18 is the best tamn dranny on the planet.

 

Alright fellas, time for the engine. The old girl was in decent condition, so I'm hoping the machine shop doesn't find too many problems. I found the left side timing chain damper broke at the lower attachment bolt. At least all of the parts were in the oil pan. On the brighter side, I learned recently that TA Performance is right around the corner from my work So I will be spending a lot of money over there I'm sure..




Broken parts