Project "Mud Bandit" dedicated mud bogger

Elva said "not so funny when he is going to put something in your garage with it now huh"

Rockn93YJ wrote:

Elva said "not so funny when he is going to put something in your garage with it now huh"

I guess Elva is not having as much fun with this as we are. Does she not trust us

Tell her not to worry - we won't start drinking until we get to at lest Frederick on the way out there on Sat morning

I keep telling her that is when we do our best work... then she points out the images above and says very nice work, til you had to do it over.

man, she is a women of little faith. Tell her not to worry i am a certified professional.

Update:
1. Obtain 1/2" center pin for xj springs and assemble new pack with add a leaf
-DONE, used grade 8 and used a grider on the corners, worked perfect. Thanks for the tip Nester.

2. install XJ springs and fabricate mounts for rear hangers
- DONE

3.set pinion angles with rear stretched and weld perches on.
-DONE

4 weld perches in front axle
-DONE

5. notch housing for Ubolt
-DONE

14. torque body mounts (missing one puck 1")
-DONE, sacrificed a poly YJ bushing to make a body mount

11. Install winch
-winch mounting plate has been cut, looks like I'll need to shim it up a little to match the bumper and clear the steering bolts.

6. Attach drag link
-Received a Reamer in the mail thursday so the pitman will accept a chevy TRE.

To move the CJ out of the basement I still need the winch mounted, need a new battery and possibly cables. Also need to hook up at least the front brakes.

11. Install winch
-winch mounting plate has been cut, looks like I'll need to shim it up a little to match the bumper and clear the steering bolts.
DONE

6. Attach drag link
-Received a Reamer in the mail thursday so the pitman will accept a chevy TRE.
DONE

NO BRAKES though.

any updates bill?

Grason, no real updates. CJ has been on hold since I bought a new house, needed a bigger garage to finish it. New garage is 1330 sq ft and plenty of room to finish the project. I'm still working on the old house to sell it but hope to have that done by mid april. Then the CJ project will resume. Until then i posted a couple pics of the move.

Man that thing is huge haha, its looking good bill and i want to see it out on the trails.

Did a little work today. Used the plasma cutter to cut off the front shackle mounts and moved them back about 3" to correct the shackle angle. Welded them on and it looks much better. I would take a picture but Casey has become attached to my camera and is out in the yard laying in the grass with the camera pointed down at him "filming a music video". Decided to stick with Chevy drivetrain so I need to make some changes. The 700r4 tranny needs to go and so does the chevy 231 transfer case. Original plan was to run 39" tires at most and since I blew that plan out of the water I don't believe a chain driven transfer case will survive behind a 454 and 44" tires. I only want to build this once and since I know I won't be able to resist taking it on a trail or two its gotta be built strong. New plan is to find a Chevy TH400 tranny. Behind that will be an Atlas transfer case flipped to match the drivers side drop front ford pumpkin. Keep your eyes open for the tranny for me please.

This keeps getting BIGGER,BETTER,and more BULLET PROFF every time we see the post. A big block, Th400 trans and atlas WOW.

Rockn93YJ wrote:

Behind that will be an Atlas transfer case flipped to match the drivers side drop front ford pumpkin.

why would you have to flip the atlas? Just order the atlas with driverside drop, or do you already have the atlas?

md4wheelin wrote:

Rockn93YJ wrote:

Behind that will be an Atlas transfer case flipped to match the drivers side drop front ford pumpkin.

why would you have to flip the atlas? Just order the atlas with driverside drop, or do you already have the atlas?

Well what I meant by flipped was that I would have to order an atlas that is made to mate with chevy tranny but have drivers side drop so essentially they would have to build it backwards from stock chevy configuration to match the ford axles.

OK i've been convinced that the TH400 was not a good idea. I knew that it really ate up the HP(estimated 75 extra HP just to turn the internals of the th400 compared to the th350 or 700r4). So I'm keeping the current 700R4 and will adapt a ford 205 to that. Advance adaptors has the kit to do this but costs like $600. It requires replacing the shaft inside the transmission which is said to be a 3hr bench job? Still a lot cheaper than an atlas. thoughts anyone?

The 700R4 adaptor for the Atlas is $220 on top of the cost of the Atlas. I'm leaning towards the 700R4 to the Ford NP205 with the $600 kit because I need to rebuild the tranny anyway. For now I'll run whats in there and start collecting parts. Von I'll buy a Ford 205 off ya if you still have it.

no problem. does $50.00 sound fair. its in my garage. it is pretty easy to make it a twin stick if you wanted to there are allot of threads online on how to do it yourself

thinga'ma'rig wrote:

no problem. does $50.00 sound fair. its in my garage. it is pretty easy to make it a twin stick if you wanted to there are allot of threads online on how to do it yourself

that sounds fair von. not sure I'll go through the trouble of a twin stick though

Ok suspension is done, front shackle angles look good, near verticle. Front pinion angle is looking good as well. Installed the headers, there was no way to turn them upside down so it looks like I'll be running it under the jeep with cherry bomb mufflers and sidepipes(tucked under best i can. Rebuilt the rear shackles to make them stronger and put some gussets on the front spring pad mounts since they are outboarded. Measured for driveshafts 23" in rear and 38 3/4 in front. Cant build the tie rod until my high steer arm comes in so I'll wait to rebuild the kingpins until then too.
Next on the list:
1. have driveshafts modified to fit(I have extras laying around)
2. order fuel cell and fuel lines.
3. buy DOM tubing for cage.
4. Obtain high steer arm.
5. buy racing seats.(just in case i decide to run the RCROCS amateur rock race this fall.

In the mean time I can finish a few other things:

1. Finish building exhaust.
2. install axle vents.
3. build a tranny linkage for shifting
4. build antiwrap bars for front and rear axles.
5.mount fenders, hood and windshield.
6. lots of miscelaneous stuff to fix clearances etc.

I was told I was supposed to be taking it easy by Elva so I took a break from the CJ today and went golfing. Then I came home and picked up elva and Casey and went to the drag strip. Was a nice day. Tomorrow we plant a small garden with tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers and some other healthy crap. Aaron will have a lot of digging to do while I'm in the garage.

you know you can get a much better deal on Advanced Adapters kits if you let me know what you need
There are kits available also for the different trannys you want to run also .
I am glad you are at least taking it easy some what

thanks Randy. I will be running it as is for now and over the winter convert to the 205 and rebuild the 700R4.

Just got my Fuel cell in! now waiting for the connectors.

Spent some time in the garage today. Ran fuel lines from the fuel cell all the way to the carb. No pics of that yet. Instead of placing the fuel pump under the jeep i decided to mount it on the fuel cell frame (hasn't been built yet) to keep it protected from the mud. Installed a filter before the pump and installed a fuel pressure guage at the carburator. Also replaced the thermostat gasket since there was a leak onto the intake manifold. Tried to take care of some clearance issues where the steering shaft hits the header and power steering pump. relocated the mount a little higer and at a wider angle and it misses both by about 1/4". Had to build a new mount pictured below. Also got some pics of the front shackle angles since moving the mount back. Also the lower radiator hose was hitting the main drive belt so I bent that down to a better angle. ALso created a new transmission liinkage since the old one was crap and had too much slop. Also installed a front axle vent, still need a rear vent fitting, I know I have one somewhere. Discovered I need windshield hinges for the CJ, I think YJ mounts will work but not sure.

Picture of steering shaft removed from frame and hanging.


Created a mount for the steering bracket.


Positioning the mount.


Welded in place


Rear shackle reinforced with square tube.


New front shackle angle

damn bill you work fast. it wasn't like that a few hours ago. thanks again for the tubing and covers.