boys got his first jeep

[hillbilly]

as most of you have met my son (BOY), he has purchased his project vehicle to be ready when he is ready to drive. after a summer full of lawn mowing and a winter of shoveling snow. he saved enough and got his jeep, a 1979 cj7. we have pre pics of it and the frame he got for parts,







more will be posted as we get it.

[Rick_Bear]

Well, sned the "Boy" my congrats....I'm sure we'll be in many of discussions going forward. Bring em' on.
Oh the parts laying around here...guess I better start digging.

[hillbilly]

all right question 1 is pretty much an opinion question, the cj7 has the quadratrac in it.    what is the value of having the quadratrac system?     would it be better just to get a regular dana 30 and swap it out?    i have a dana 30 from the 79 cj7 rolling chassis we had gotten.

[kmfm313]

Tell the boy congrats on getting it.

[Rick_Bear]

I never have been a fan of the Quadratrac system myself, although said to be strong...opinions are debatable.
Here's a link with a good bit of information on it: http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/quadratrac.htm

Many swap it out for the Dana 20 but a Dana 300 is a better transfer case option needing adapters.

[Joe Giglio]

Adam, tell Boy congratulations. It reminds me of my first Jeep. I hope he has better luck getting that on the road then I had. I ended up with a job that required me to actually secure company equipment. Had to sell it as soon as I got it running. I assume it has the pleasant smell of gas coming from a leaking tank. Oh the memories. I am still surprised I never blew the thing up as I disposed of my cigarettes through the floor boards.

I would vote to scrap the quadratrac and put in a Dana 300. I assume you have the Dana 20 on the other chassis since the 300 arrived in 80 or 81. I am in process of building a 300 for my YJ. I bought a front D44 from a 78 Wagoneer with a passenger side drop. I put the LoMax 4:1 kit in the 300 and plan to put 4:30 gears from an Isuzu Rodeo in the axles. The TruTrak should be a good transition carrier. I will double my crawl ratio. You can build a 300 to be almost equivalent to a Atlas II with twin sticks and low gearing.

The D20 doesn't have the gearing options the D300 does. The stock gearing is 2:1. Advanced Adapters sells a 3.15:1 gear set, but the 2.62:1 stock gearing of the D300 is decent. I picked mine off of e-bay for $250 + $85 shipping. There is a D300 for sale on ebay every day. I recommend the Advanced Adapter parts whenever possible. My case came with a twin stick for a flipped case which I believe is from Novak. I planned on modifying it, but ended up buying the AA kit and it is head and shoulders above.

The EVOR should have good opinions and possibly some parts. There should be a great campfire build happening next weekend. You won't be able to afford the build, but it will be kickass.

Boy needs to get a account and start posting the specs of this thing. also, Boy better be part of his user name because I can't remember is real name.

Joe

[Jeremy]

OK,  missed this thread and added a long post in the other one>   http://www.pajeeps.org/forum/index.php?topic=4356.new#new

This one answered some questions that the other one did not.

1979 CJ7,  Great,  advantage is you have front disc brakes and not NEARLY as much emissions crap to deal with on the motor.

I am not a huge fan of quadratrack but its not a bad TC for full time.  Make sure you have a low range, it was a OPTION in the cj with quadratrack,  look in the glovebox for the dial.  I however like levers.    This however does NOT mean that you should ditch the quadratrack just yet,  it is not a bad system.  My good friend Jason had one that averaged around 22mpg, it was just sent down to Tom Kiger in Texas a little while ago.   beware that your rear axle will be a AMC20 with a offset rear end.  Most jeeps the diff is centered so swaping out the quadratrack can complicated due to the off set rear end.  What Tom did is cut down full size jeep Dana 44s from and rear leaving a offset rear diff.  From his diesel engine went through either T19 of NP465 (forgot which as he ran several of each) to a jeep DANA18 with a 3.5:1 low range and a WARN over drive,  The Dana 18 uses a offset drop as well.  adapting to a Dana 18 is one option. 

Here is a link on information on the transfer case.   http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/quadratrac.htm

The good news is this jeep has a TH 400 automatic transmission, it is about as indestructible as slush boxes come. 

http://advanceadapters.com/resources/1641/GM-TH400.html

http://advanceadapters.com/index.php?p=view_category&search_text=jeep+th400+to+jeep+dana  careful which adapter you buy as you have a JEEP th400. 

from AA,  "The Jeep TH400 was also used in the late 70’s mated up to the chain driven Quadratrac transfer case. This version of TH400 was used exclusively behind AMC Engines. The output shaft of the TH400 was a long coarse 10 spline shaft that was unique to this application. Although Advance Adapters offers adapters to change the Quadratrac, A new output shaft will be required for pretty much any conversion. The Qudratrac was designed for vehicles with an offset rear end which complicates transfer case conversions unless an axle swap is performed.
 Another oddity of the JEEP TH400 was the rear bolt pattern and the engine ring adapter. The rear of the AMC TH400 has a 4% clocking of the bolt pattern. The clocked TH400 was probably used for front driveshaft clearance issues and apparently used exclusively during the AMC years. Advance Adapters offers an extra clocking pattern on many of our adapters to counter this rotation. We do recommend contacting Advance Adapters directly when dealing with this version to verify your adapter needs." 


Now, IF you decide to keep the TH400 but swap out the Q track TC.  I have a used dana300 that came out of Tom Kiger's 1985 jeep. ( think I paid around $250 for it) It will need a new input since the spines look a little hashed to my eye but that may need swapped out anyway as part of the adapter.  The real cost of this is in the adapters.  and it may be better to find a whole drive train.

[hillbilly]

thanks for the info guys.   i should have listed a little more in the project. we had also purchased a 1979 rolling chassis before the actual 1979 cj7, the rolling chassis has the amc 20 and a dana 30 with the 6 bolt warn lockouts. from what im reading i can, if needed/wanted, i can swap the axles from the rolling chassis in place and swap out the quadratrac setup for a dana 300 or equivalent.
he wants to build it up as a one off restoration, with a small lift, so well try and get the original equipment to work first. and yes it has the low range switch along the drivers seat (little tiny lever), and the turn knob in the glove box. since we couldnt figure out how it worked i removed the rear driveshaft for the 4 mile trip home.

[hillbilly]

well we put the steering column back together yesterday, all the glass is cleaned up from the broken windshield. the seats are bolted back in, all except the rear one we didnt get  . got some new parts for it today soft doors a tailgate and tire carrier. the boys knuckles and fingers are a little rougher than normal bu the insists on doing everything he can himself.   

[arclight]

Congrats, Billy & Boy!  If you guys decide on a D20 drop me a line, I've got a couple around here (somewhere).  Is it a wide trac or narrow trac axle?  If you can wait 'til next spring I should have my waggy axles in and have a amc 20 to give ya also, if ya want it.   Keep up the great work, and take lots of pics for us!

[Colli]

Sounds like Boy is a chip off the old block. Good for him!! You must be so proud! 

[Rick_Bear]

I've got plenty of Corp. 20 parts...Axles shafts, drums, backing plates, hardware springs, lines....all in usable condition...The shafts are MINT $$$

[hillbilly]

well not much work recently because of hunting season but we did score a very nice hood so its looking more like a jeep.

[hillbilly]

its a sunday no hunting today so it was a honey do day but we still got a few hours in on the jeep. got the headlights figured out so they come on. and we got the motor to fire up there is no fuel line hooked to it so it only ran for as much fuel as i dumped down the carb. i had tad pull all the plugs and the distributor and mark everything before just ripping it apart. had him prime the system with a drill first to get the oil moving, after we removed the plugs and slow turned it just to make sure it wasnt locked up. cleaned the plugs and checked the gap reinstalled the distributor and put a capful of gas down the carb and a couple cranks and i hear a vroom from the engine and a wahoo from the front seat. time to rebuild the carb as soon as i can figure out what it is. good day today ,better than most, another jeep lives.

heres a pic of the rolling chassis before we made unrolling

[Joe Giglio]

Adam and Tad,
Where are the updates?

Joe