Discussion of built driveline

[The Dark Side of Will]

Per a recommendation on www.jeepstrokers.com I bought a Melling 81AS2 with the right part number for the application... I don't know what's going on, but it seems to fit. I haven't installed it yet, though.

Here are the new and previous next to each other:



You can see that with the ends of the tubes lined up, the attaching strap on the new one is shorter.



It's hard to see in the photo, but the previous strap has the same stiffening dimple pressed into it the same distance from the tube as the new one. The strap is welded to the tube at the same height. The previous just has about 1/4" more distance between the dimple and the hole. I have no idea why it's that way... but I have a way to move forward.

I have drill this weekend, but should be able to put it all together the weekend of the 2nd.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Finally got the pickup installed:





Comparison of Jeep and Eagle pans. You can see that the Eagle sump is shorter front to back than the Jeep sump.


In this one, the light makes it easier to see the channel or trough in the Eagle pan that makes clearance for the passenger side axle tube from the D30 IFS diff.


In trying to actually INSTALL the pan, I hit yet another snag. The pan wouldn't sit flat on the block unless I pushed it out of position a bit fore or aft. I removed the drain plug to try to see what the pickup was hitting, and the pan dropped right into place... The protrusion of the drain plug into the pan was hitting the pickup. <sigh>

Has anyone else encountered that? Does the stock drain plug protrude any into the pan?

[The Dark Side of Will]

So this is weird... This should be an OE Eagle pickup with an OE Eagle pan and AFAIK, an OE Eagle drain plug. Everything *should* go together perfectly.

I guess the Melling re-pro might not be dimensionally perfect.
I guess I might have some kind of aftermarket drain plug.

The "lip" at the edge of the pickup is pretty much immediately inside the drain plug hole in the pan. I'd have to cut the unthreaded "pilot" off the drain plug so that the end of the plug was flush with the inside of the boss on the pan in order for it to work.
If I bend the lip out of the way, then it should be deep enough that I only have to cut off about half the pilot in order for everything to clear.

Do I have a non-stock drainplug? The plug I have has about 1/2" of threaded length with an unthreaded pilot about 3/8" long.
Does the factory drain plug not have a threaded pilot? Should I get a plug without or cut the pilot off the one I have?
Should I just bend the pickup tube so that the drainplug I have screws in?

Thanks!

[The Dark Side of Will]

I've been slowly oozing along with this, despite the fact that it should be a very simple build... just have other things going on.

Oil pan fully torqued


Left engine mount bolt holes. The three unpainted ones are used by the Jeep bracket while the rear/painted hole is not. The Eagle bracket uses the two lower-in-photo holes (the engine is upside down, so those are actually the upper holes) as well as the painted hole, but does not use the upper-in photo hole.
The three unpainted holes are 3/8-16, while the painted hole is a loose 7/16-20, that was apparently drilled with a larger than standard tap drill. Neither 1/2-20 nor 12x1.25mm will thread in. I'll drill it out, tap it for 1/2-20 and install some 1/2-20 to 3/8-16 bushings that McMaster car has.


Mods to Eagle engine mount bracket necessary to bolt it to the 4.0 block. Only the through-thickness cutout is necessary. The partial depth gouge is not necessary.

[carnuck]

I didn't have that problem putting the 4.0L in my Jtruck which uses the same mounts (less the axle hanger)

[The Dark Side of Will]

I'm assuming at some point in the history of this block, someone drilled that hole out for an inexplicable reason. I can't see why ChryCo would have made it that way.

Just another thing to fix...

[The Dark Side of Will]

Got the aftermarket shock brackets welded to the Dana 44 axle last week.

I drilled and tapped the oddball hole and installed the 3/8-16 x 1/2-20 bushing last night. I left it torqued overnight so the red loctite could cure.

Now I've run into my first *REAL* parts incompatibility problem.

The passenger side mounting point for the disconnect ("disco") front diff assembly is approximately 1" further from the axle centerline than the same point on the non-disco axle.

My 3.54 front diff is a disco axle, while my bracket is from a non-disco axle. With my diff bolted up to the driver's side bracket which is bolted to the block, and my passenger side bracket bolted to the diff, the holes in the bracket and the holes in the block are off by about an inch.

So I need either to find a 6 cylinder disco bracket or to section my current bracket to work with the disco axle.

Anybody have one?

[The Dark Side of Will]

[The Dark Side of Will]

I have modified the strap bracket for the diff snout mounting to clear the rib on the side of the block.
With that, I could snug the bolts on 2 out of 3 brackets, which gave me good enough confidence in the position/orientation of the diff assembly that I could modify the non-disco bracket to work with the disco housing.
I cut the bracket down until it fit and drilled 1/8" pilot holes where the mounting bolt will have to go through.

Unfortunately, I cut the bracket down too far. Drilling the 1/8" holes out to 15/32" for clearance on a 7/16" bolt would overlap the edge of the bracket. The bracket is with a welder where my dad works to have a couple of heavy beads laid on the ends of those edges in order to give me enough material to drill through without breaking out the edge.
 

[The Dark Side of Will]

Finally got a coat of paint on the main brackets after the last round of mods. Since those were done, I bolted up the diff and turned the engine upright to get a better look at what the diff snout bracket will have to do to avoid the exhaust manifold..

Right bracket:


Left brackets and exhaust manifold:


Another view:


Looking up the manifold outlet at the interference with the diff snout bracket:


And I finally popped the cover off the diff... looks like it had some water in it. I'm not sure how that happened, as it's been sealed the entire time I've had it.


I guess I'll learn how to rebuild a Dana 30.

[eaglefreek]

Ouch, sorry about the front axle. Maybe they can be cleaned up. Does that say 46-18 on the ring gear, meaning a 2.55 ratio? I've heard of  a 2.54 ratio which I believe is 43-17 but never seen one.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Yeah, it's ugly. I may just buy another one anyway, since there are a couple listed in the surrounding states.

It's 46-13 or 3.54

[The Dark Side of Will]

Finally got around to snagging a Jeep exhaust pipe to test fit... it looks like it could work. The fit is snug to the diff U-joint, and quite tight to the new diff snout bracket I'm building, but looks like it will work.









Exhaust routing in a stock Eagle for comparison:





Both setups sneak over to the right side of the powertrain by going under/behind the bellhousing.
Eagle and Jeep exhaust pipes next to each other for comparison:



I'll put the bracket together like this, then gusset it heavily on the forward side and lightly on the rear side to stay clear of the exhaust pipe.

[The Dark Side of Will]

[carnuck]

You need to add an angle for strength