Supertrooper's CJ5 build

Wow, great thread. I love what you have done with your Jeep. Do you have an AA part# for those headers? I looked at their site and couldn't find them.
Those are what I have been thinking of running on mine. I just don't like the idea of my exhaust hanging out there with fenderwell headers. That or I'm going to build my own once I have everything else done.

 

For the inframe headers, I dont have the part # but if you search on AA's site for headers for a buick 225 it should show up for a toyota application. I think the novak inframe headers would be the way to go over the AA

 

This weeks update. I got the steering box mount welded in. I assumed the tab on it was for indexing but when i taked on the mount i noticed the frame blocked 3 of the mounting bolts. WTF. So i ended up cutting the tab off and raising the mount up slightly. I also ran the fuel and brake lines on the inside of the frame. I made a reinforcement plate for the rear crossmember out of 3/16 plate and relocated the back up light. When going through some other members build page , bkd i think, i found a design for speaker boxes that i liked and made a couple out of 1/8 steel i had laying around.

 

havent gotten much done lately because of work but today i was able to finish welding in the rear crossmember reinforcement plate and setup the front shock mounts. i wanted to figure out the steering first because i didnt want the shock mount in the way. i ended up having to modify the power steering pump to raise it for steering shaft clearance. last week i made rear tow points out of some 3/8 plate and weld in 9100 lb shackles.

 

after doing alot of reading on hydrolic cluches and pedal ratios if think i have figured out why i have had so much trouble with the clutch and pedals on my jeep. the YJ pedal assembly was the wrong ratio to work with manual brakes. the clutch fork was also the wrong ratio for a hydrolic setup. i order a longer fork from novak and will probably get a push slave cylinder and mount from parts mike. a couple months ago i bought a pedal assembly from speedway installed it today. the speedway pedals have the correct ratio for manual brakes and are at a more comfortable angle than the YJ pedals. they dont come with pedal pads so i cut off the pads off the YJ pedals and welded them on the speedway pedals. today i welded up the old pedal/master cylinder holes on the firewall and drilled holes for the new setup, made new hard fuel line from the fuel pump to carb, finished welding the front shock towers, and painted the rock sliders with bedliner and bolted them on.

 

Hey ST,

Just discovered your thread and read the whole thing to this point. I think it's awesome that you are still plugging away at getting this thing back on the road. I'm sure you will find in the end that it was worth it!

I will be referring to it often as I start my build ('66 CJ5).

Looking forward to seeing some pics of your Jeep out on the trail someday!

 

thanks.

 

Hey ST,

Maybe I missed it in the thread someplace, but do you have details available on the hardware you used for the disc brake swap?

A couple more close-up pics from different angles would be neat too, if you get a chance next time you have the wheels off.

 

the calipers and caliper brackets are from a chevy k10 and the hubs are for an drum brake dana 30. i dont remember what application the rotors are from. jp magazine has a good how to article with a parts list.

Early Jeep Disk Brake Conversion - Timeless Tech Drum to Disc - Jp Magazine

its on jack stands with the wheels off right now so its easier to work on so let me know what you would like pictures of.

 

Thanks for the link. That helps.

There are a couple of angles that would help me, if you could. One looking through the "window" in the caliper at the pads and the edge of the rotor from a couple feet back would be good, and one from the back, looking at the caliper from the side where the brake line connects. I actually have a similar setup sitting on the shelf to be installed when I get that far. As I try to brainstorm some bracketry, line routing around everything, and clearances, I'm having some trouble visualizing all of the variables at once. I would appreciate being able to look at your assembled example.

I do plan to do a "mock up" assembly of all this hardware before final installation, but I tend to be kind of a perfectionist when it comes to planning things out. If you don't mind being an enabler for someone who is excessively anal about planning, the pics would help a lot, if it's not too much trouble.

 

You may want to also look at the thread started by Focker when he put disc brakes on his Dana 27. Lots of pictures. There is also info on a couple of issues I found when doing my Dana 30.

Front Disc Brake Tutorial

 

greyskies, i sent a pm with those brake pictures you asked for

 

Thank you!

 

well, today was frustrating. i removed the transmission and tried to get the clutch working. i swapped out the clutch fork for the chevy fork from novak. i measured two different ways novak listed on their website to see what T/O bearing i need. i came up with 2.12'' overall and the LUK bearing was 1.56''. i didn't see that length in the novak guide so i don't know if i need to order the next size smaller bearing or a longer fork pivot. the pivot i have now is 1 1/2'' long. i'm hesitant to get an adjustable T/O bearing since alleycat3677 had one self destruct in less than a day. another thing i'm not sure about is the clutch kit itself, i'm using a LUK brand kit and it has the flat diaphragm fingers. i'm not sure if it's better to use this style or get a pressure plate with raised fingers or not.

another problem is with the slave cyl bracket from parts mike. first issue was just ordering it and the lack of communication and following through with what they told me they were going to do. the biggest issue with the bracket was fitment. it spaces the slave cylinder too far down, too far away from the bell housing, and too far towards the engine. i definitely won't be buying anything from parts mike again.

now i need to decide if i want to try fabbing my own bracket or spending over $200 for the novak setup. i'm leaning towards making my own coping the older bracket that novak used to sell that uses a early 80s cj slave before they switched to the expensive billet slave. fortunately i already bought that slave from rockauto for $8 to use with the part mike bracket.

i would appreciate any advise on what i should do.

 

Don't know what to say about the TO bearing. I am not that far on my project yet so my knowledge is limited in that particular area.

Regarding the slave cylinder mounting... sometimes it sucks to think about having to fab your own, but in my experience you are almost always happiest with the end result if you do. You will almost certainly learn a lot along the way, and if it's not perfect at the end, you can always take a second shot with the lessons you learned, and still end up costing less than anything you could buy, even if you do it twice. TIME is the only negative to that whole equation. It depends on how much of a hurry you are in.

When I embark on fabbing something I've never tried before, one of the things I do is give myself a budget, based on some percentage of what it would cost to buy the parts (usually about 80%), and I use that as my guideline on what I'm willing to spend for materials AND new tools. Many times, achieving the best results is partially being creative and trying new things, and partially being willing to invest in the right tools. I usually come in well below that percentage on the total cost of projects like this, and I've gotten a lot of neat shop equipment along the way that way

Also, in my experience, it only sucks to think about it before you do it. It can greatly enhance your enjoyment and pride of ownership after you have done it.

Edit: Just FYI, if you need something machined up and you can draw it, it's often not too expensive to have a local mom & pop machine shop do the work for you. There are also folks on this forum (myself included) who could machine something up for you from your napkin sketch if you need it. Keep that in mind.

 

i made a quick CAD (cardboard aided design) template of a slave cylinder bracket. the slave has to be really close to the bell housing for the push rod to move back and forth as straight as possible. looks like i would need to do some grinding on the bell housing to get some clearance.

 

Nice job, ST. Making a template like that is halfway there already.

Do you have access to a plasma cutter?

If you wanted more rigidity, there is also the possibility of welding on a small raised tab and picking up the hole in between as well.

 

i wish. i mostly use a cutoff wheel on an angle grinder or reciprocating saw to cut steel. i also have jigsaw that works good for tight spots on plate with a thin metal cutting blade.

the hole in the middle is for the engine block to bellhousing alignment dowels. there is a unused threaded 1/2" hole on the side of the block about half way between the dowel hole and upper mounting bolt location. if there is alot of flex i was planning on running a tab from the outside edge of the bracket to the threaded hole for more support.

 

this weeks update, i talked to the tech support guy at novak. after talking about my cutch setup for awhile he recommended using either an adjustable T/O bearing or using a pressure plate with raised release fingers which would work better for my application so ill be ordering a new clutch kit. i was planning on making the slave cylinder bracket but i dont have any steel thicker than 3/16" thats big enough. i want to use at least 3/8" but due to my work schedule i wont be able to go to the steel yard until next weekend.

since im waiting on parts and materials i decided to find out where the leak in the the transfer case rear output area was coming from. it looks like i just forgot to put sealant on the out side of the output seal. luckily its an easy fix so ill get a new national or Timken double lip seal. the problem now is after seeing how bad the parking brake drum and shoes get coated with gear oil with such a small leak i have been thinking about moving the parking brake to the rear axle with 11" drums or disks w/ eldorado calipers.