The Polar Bear - NP241 Upgrade

[chadjans]

You can get a drop pitman arm and trackbar bracket from Clayton's.
Both are rather beefy items as per Clayton's normal overbuilt products.

The ones Clayton sells are probably Skyjacker units. A XJ or another model jeep arm would probably work.

[downtowncb]

Johnny Joints work just fine for a PANHARD bar. Track bars are used for controlling leaf springs. Heims would be better to control laterall movement. D44 out of a rubicon are cast tubes. Read: weak.

Poly Performance is a couple of blocks away, I'll go take a look at what they have in stock for johnny joints and heims and go from there.

Excuse the nomenclature but every one that I've ever seen that sells an aftermarket track/panhard bar refers to it as a track bar. Either way for the sake of this conversation we both know what we mean.

Cast tubes? There are weaknesses with the axle: like the C's are a carry over from the dana 30 and the fact that it's a low pinion make the ring and pinion weaker and that the tubes are thin, but it does not have cast tubes, I assure you. I may build a truss for it after I finish this round of building. I originally planned on building one at the same time but for the sake of getting it back on the road sooner rather than later I postponed it.

Thanks for the suggestion on the pitman arm, I'll see what I can find at the junk yards tomorrow.

[IndyZJ]

Johnny Joints work just fine for a PANHARD bar. Track bars are used for controlling leaf springs. Heims would be better to control laterall movement. D44 out of a rubicon are cast tubes. Read: weak.

Panhard bar = track bar, which is different from a tracTION bar, which you are refering to. Some people started calling a tracTION bar a trac' bar, which is where your confusion is coming from. JJs would soak up some vibration while being rebuildable, and won't be as bothered by a little dirt.

Early rubicon 44s used thin tubing, which broke in a few cases and was fixed with thicker tubing after the first couple of years. Either way, a truss wouldn't hurt. AFAIK, no axle has come with completely cast tubes...

[downtowncb]

Little more done. Got the driver's side coil over and over the engine support done. Tomorrow I'm going to make a bracket to tie the over engine bar into the firewall.


Mocked up the steering and track bar how it was before the swap, no wonder I had bump steer before haha.

[chadjans]

Cast tubes? There are weaknesses with the axle: like the C's are a carry over from the dana 30 and the fact that it's a low pinion make the ring and pinion weaker and that the tubes are thin, but it does not have cast tubes, I assure you. I may build a truss for it after I finish this round of building. I originally planned on building one at the same time but for the sake of getting it back on the road sooner rather than later I postponed it.

They are cast steel not cast iron. They weld normally but they are cast.

[downtowncb]

Learn something new every day.

[Fish1200]

sick build. props

[downtowncb]

sick build. props

Thanks.

I've been working on a lot of little things. I don't have a four bolt steering box yet, but in the interest of future proofing my Jeep as much as possible I used Dave's measurements in his waggy swap thread to measure where to add the 4th bolt. Thanks Dave.

[ATL ZJ]

What headers are you going to run? or are you reusing the stock manifolds? looks like it's going to be a squeeze.

[downtowncb]

What headers are you going to run? or are you reusing the stock manifolds? looks like it's going to be a squeeze.

There is no way the stock truck manifolds would work without MAJOR surgery. They kick out at such an angle that you would have to butcher the frame rails like Rhinozj did on his hemi swap. I'm still looking for some factory ones like from a Camaro or maybe their Trail Blazer, just for the sake of passing California smog after the swap. They have to hug the block pretty well. After I get that sticker I'm planning on making my own to fit in there from this kit:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Small-...Kits,3843.html

[IndyZJ]

I've got the speedway block huggers and they are about as tight to the block as you can get. The only issue with them is that they are center dump and run almost right in front of where the motor mounts would go, so I'm making some offset mounts to take care of it.

From what I've seen, the tightest fitting factory manifolds are the c5 ones, which are center dump. The camaro manifolds are rear dump and stay fairly close to the block, too. It all depends on how you want to run the exhaust, or what will fit. FWIW, in some/ most cases with these newer manifolds, headers won't give a drastic increase in power.

If you haven't looked through the 5.3 jeeps thread on pirate, I'd definitely suggest it to get a good idea of what's available.

[ATL ZJ]

Yeah,

Do you think these would squeeze under the firewall? http://www.sandersonheaders.com/prod...roducts_id=191
I like your motor mounts, but my plan is to rebuild my front framerails, so I should be able to make the headers clear whatever motor mounts I use. I have also looked at speedway and hooker headers, like these, http://www.speedwaymotors.com/LS1-Ti...ders,4614.html. You think the "straight down" style like the speedway ones would clear the firewall easier?

I need to pass emissions too, but I have a feeling GA isn't as strict as CA haha.

[downtowncb]

From what I've seen, the tightest fitting factory manifolds are the c5 ones, which are center dump. The camaro manifolds are rear dump and stay fairly close to the block, too. It all depends on how you want to run the exhaust, or what will fit. FWIW, in some/ most cases with these newer manifolds, headers won't give a drastic increase in power.
.

Thanks for the info. I'm just trying to find ones that look stock for the emissions ref haha.

Yeah,

Do you think these would squeeze under the firewall? http://www.sandersonheaders.com/prod...roducts_id=191
I like your motor mounts, but my plan is to rebuild my front framerails, so I should be able to make the headers clear whatever motor mounts I use. I have also looked at speedway and hooker headers, like these, http://www.speedwaymotors.com/LS1-Ti...ders,4614.html. You think the "straight down" style like the speedway ones would clear the firewall easier?

I need to pass emissions too, but I have a feeling GA isn't as strict as CA haha.

The first set I'm fairly certain would fit. The only issue with the truck ones was the outlet flange location, otherwise they would fit between the frame rails alright. The second pair would probably fit as well, the only issue is working them in with your motor mounts. Why do you want to rebuild the frame rails, sounds like even more work to me? haha I just plated mine with 1/8" for added strength.

[IndyZJ]

With the speedway headers, you'd pretty much have to make your motor mounts offset to the front of the motor, as they dump right in the center of the motor. The flange on the collector sides sits 1/4-1/2" from where the oil pan meets the block. The flanges also angle toward the block/ pan, and they include pieces that bolt to the flanges and turn the exhaust straight down by the oil pan. They're about as tight as center dumps are gonna get, but you'll have to plan your motor mounts accordingly.

Hope that makes sense...

Edit: this shows it pretty well
http://media.photobucket.com/image/s...1/100_4248.jpg

[Kraqa]

you might want to tie the plates you bolt to the fram into a cage of some sort. I ended up tearing the factoru nut certs out of the frame with my 350.

[downtowncb]

No shit. I didn't think that would be an issue. hmmm

[Kraqa]

i wheeled the SNOT out of it with a few endo's so that Definatly woudl weld. but i woudl be titening down those mounting bolts after every couple outings.

[chadjans]

The build I was looking for with a relocated steering box: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=790383

[downtowncb]

Cool idea but how would you actually build that? I imagine a custom sector shaft extension with support bearings on both ends.

Also I went to a bunch of different junk yards looking for a pitman arm. The XJ's is lower than the ZJ's. The ZJ's is a fairly big one stock so I just ended up ordering one from Clayton and am now waiting for it to arrive.

[chadjans]

Cool idea but how would you actually build that? I imagine a custom sector shaft extension with support bearings on both ends.

Also I went to a bunch of different junk yards looking for a pitman arm. The XJ's is lower than the ZJ's. The ZJ's is a fairly big one stock so I just ended up ordering one from Clayton and am now waiting for it to arrive.

Some sort of support shaft. Although I would rather run full hydro.

Did you think about making your own pitman arm?

[downtowncb]

Full hydro is down the road when I own a tow rig and this no longer sees DD use ... and when I have axles that could handle it haha. For now it has to remain street legal.

Did you think about making your own pitman arm?

I would have rather made it myself but I wasn't sure how to go about it... How would you make the splines for the sector shaft and would you make it out of solid bar stock?

[downtowncb]

Here is the power steering pump bracket I'm in the process of making. I say process because I have it all cut out but I have very little experience welding aluminum so I'm going to practice on some scraps a bit before I go to it on the final pieces.

[ATL ZJ]

Sweet, cool tech here. I'm assuming you're keeping the stock alt. mounting location since you went to the trouble to build the p/s pump bracket over the other bracket?

That looks like a YJ pump?

[downtowncb]

Sweet, cool tech here. I'm assuming you're keeping the stock alt. mounting location since you went to the trouble to build the p/s pump bracket over the other bracket?

That looks like a YJ pump?

Yeah, I'm keeping the stock alternator. I took the cast aluminum accessory bracket and milled it flat across the entire head bolting area. This gave me a flat surface for the bracket I made. The pump is out of a very low mileage totaled 4 cylinder cherokee I found in the wrecking yards. As far as I can tell it is the same as is in the I6 & V8 ZJ's just with a remote reservoir making it by itself a very small package.

[downtowncb]

Made brackets for the second battery tray, power distribution center, and A/C drier.



For the fuel system, I'm using the stock pump as a lift pump to raise the fuel to a Walbro that will boost it to the 60 psi the motor needs. To accomplish this, I removed the stock fuel pressure regulator from the top of the fuel pump unit and made an aluminum plate with an AN fitting to stick down to the fuel pump.