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Lill Mule 89 BII


shawn.m

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mitis 5 speed pulled and m50d is right next to it. only broke 1 bolt on the cat.
Did break a T30 bit inside the front bolt for the U Joint strap. That really made be unhappy:annoyed:. broke right at the bolt face so I can not get the bit out. Might have to drop the whole D35 pig out. The D35 looks like it needs to come out as it is leaking from the gasket area. good steady drip. Might as well do it all at once.

Looks like I am also going to pull motor and swap it with the one from the explorer. The lifters are having problems staying pumped up plus if it sits for a while it starts blowing white smoke.

Only thing would have to do is swap the top end electrical harness. the harness are really close - only thing different is that the explorer has 1 O2 sensor compared to the 2 O2 sensors from the Ranger.
Their is oil coming down the backside of the motor from the intake manifold. I can also see the rebuild stickers on the heads.
the biggest thing I am going to regret is that the AC system is filled up and going to release all that r12.

went looking at the manual 1350 transfer case at the junkyard for $125. Really not sure I want to go to the slip yoke front. I know that several people have said that they had no problems going to the 1350 slip yoke from the fixed of the 1354E. Just not sure I want to go that route if I am thinking of a D44 in the future.
 


shawn.m

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pics of transmission and the 4 studs that moved



Only thing preventing the bellhousing from moving more was the throwout bearing.


Old and new Transmission. I have already taken the bell housing off and put the studs back in tight to the tranny. Tighten everything up and throw it on Craigs list plus here to get rid of it.
 

shawn.m

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Alright popped motor out - it looks like it has a leaking head gasket. Can see water on the passenger side of the block between the head and block.

can also see lots of oil coming from the intake manifold and heads


and a empty engine bay!
 

smash9002

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Glad I finally caught up to your build! It looks like my old BII has gone to the right person. Really interesting and cool that your using it for search and rescue, I am a wilderness first responder.. If you ever need someone to tag along on a trip let me know!

I cant believe the transmission separated like that.. when I first bought the bronco the trans was howling, so I swapped it with a trans from a parts BII I had. So the rivets must have come loose because of the 4.0 power.. +1 for not using the mitsu trans behind the 4.0!

The rear leaf springs should be Skyjacker 6"

Nice work- keep it up and keep the updates and pics coming!
 

shawn.m

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picked up jeep front coils that are supposed to be 4" lift with 2 inch blocks today for $45 may have to pull coil buckets and weld on the new shock towers. will post a pic - dont look long enough.

smash9002 do you remember what locker was in front?
 

smash9002

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stock ford trac-loc is what I was told.
 

shawn.m

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thanks - should have pics of it inards as need to drop it to redo the gaskets
 

shawn.m

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ok measured the new springs
they are .400 wider on outside
same amounts of coils
diameter of coils is .725 on SkyJacker springs , .655 on new ones

Put one of them in to test. sag is 1 inch more, also wheel goes into wheel well almost 3 inchs more just by jacking up side of arm.

Looks like about 16 inches of travel at the outside edge of the wheel with another 2 inches before I hit the bump stop.

I will need to find a way to hold the spring in the upper pocket. Perhaps with a simple piece of strap steel. Has me thinking of a bucket on the bottom to let the arm travel down more past the spring. I would have to run limiter straps to make sure it does not travel past the shocks. Fairly cheap. kinda like a upside down Zimmerman bucket mod

That is about what I want - little more stuff in the front to make it more compliant. The real test will be once I put the motor and tranny back in. For the moment it looks like I will gain 3 more inches of up travel with a more supple ride.

Also I can keep the same length shocks with this setup. If the front comes down a inch or so I dont mind. That will keep it all level. I might swap in the Rancho 9000 adjustable shocks that I picked up couple of months ago as they are the same length compressed and extended. Would really like to use the air adjustable feature.

Will post all the pictures tomorrow.
 
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shawn.m

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spring install and shock issues

Pics of new jeep grand cherokee 4 inch lift coils
side by side


Wire diameter of SkyJacker 6 inch coils


Wire diameter of Jeep Grand Cherkokee coils


Shot of coil retainer washer on Jeep Coils - probably going to have to get a new bottom washer


Outside diameter of SkyJacker Coils


Outside diameter of Jeep Coils


Pic of cycling suspension on drivers side through travel - hitting top of fender and rear. The travel up is limited by the shock hitting the bump stop at this point


16inches of travel up at the shock bump stop


Coil compressed at Shock bump stop


About 3 inches till the arm hits the bump stop. This might be why the impact is so harsh when the suspension bottoms out. Looks like I need 6 inch bump stops in the current configuration or put in the Ford F250 shock towers.


one Pic of passenger side showing it stuff also and hitting the shock bump stop.


another thing that I noticed on the passenger side was that at full stuff and full turn left that the tire was hitting the brake line at the bracket- might have to go bend that bracket just a little bit for safety. I have had a brake line blow while driving and prefer to never have that happen again
 
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shawn.m

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Fenders Massaged

While I was checking stuff I was having a hard time turning the steering wheel as the wheels were hitting the rear of the fenderwell and the top. I used the baseball bat trick to roll the fenders on the top and back. Or should I say I TRIED to. The fender is pretty loose in there. Since the fender was already bent in the back from hitting the tire I grabbed a hammer and started hammering away. Bent the rear of the fenderwell over by about 2 inches at the bottom and then pushed the top of the fender out by about a inch or so.

I still need to collapse the top part of the fender rim to get more space for when I am aired down. For now it is not bad for 45 minutes of wailing away with a hammer

passenger side








 

shawn.m

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grinding away at beam

while I was cycling the suspension I noticed on the passenger side that the axle was hitting the beam window. In fact I had what looked like 2 inches less of travel on the passenger side. I had shock travel so this means that up travel was being limited by the axle hitting the beam. REALLY NOT GOOD.

I know that this has been mentioned for Jeep coil springs - however I thought it was only for the long Jeep coils. I am replacing a existing coil with a same length coil - just softer.

so this means that possibly on all B2 with the SkyJacker 6 inch lift suspension the arm is hitting the axle and preventing up travel.

I didn't get a before shot just the after shot. I just started grinding away until the axle was not hitting the beam. Gave it a nice chamfer on the outside and also on the inside of the to remove any stress points. Not a lot of clearance between the two but their is about 1/16 their.

I am about 2.5 inches from the bump stop at this point. So I need to go find about 5.5 or 6 inch bumps stops to replace the stock one. That should lessen the impact of those big bumps. When I did my last snow run their were two holes where I bottomed out the suspension and it was a real hard hit.

 

shawn.m

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forgot - was able to use stock spring tab on passenger side to hold spring in. Think can do the same for drivers side.
 

shawn.m

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small stuff

ground down the front middle u joint as it was getting hit hard by its mate. will try and get a picture of the messed up u joint on the diff side.
decided to put the jeep 1 3/4spacers on instead of the washer stack from the skyjacker springs. The washer stack was 1 inch tall so only gained 3/4 of total length. the springs were moving around on the washer stack and I did not like it. Put the spacer down, spring and then the cup that the skyjacker spring was sitting on to locate it. moved it around so it was bowing a little in to the frame instead of out.
Put that together. It sits a little higher than before but it is bouncy now. Instead of stiff. Will have to see where it all sits onces the motor and trans get in.

cleaned all the oil off the front diff to see if it is really leaking or not. the oil is still at the fill line when I remove the plug. All this oil is coming from someplace. :icon_idea:

Pulled the intake top off and the wiring harness off the original engine. Used a dental pick to loosen the fuel injector harness clips off the fuel injectors.
It will get rolled out of the garage tomorrow and the new motor rolled in.

real busy next three days - hope to have engine in truck by Sunday night. One of my friends offered me a dual electric fan for the radiator. Would really like to get rid of stock heavy fan.:icon_thumby:

Might also have a 1354 manual transfer case as a trade for the 92 explorer sport that I still have. :yahoo::headbang::icon_hornsup:
 
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