malodin
01-24-2007, 07:03 PM
MY 14bff swap experiences.
First off a little back ground
1977 cheif with a th400/d300 swapped in and a new crossmember made.
1977 chevy k20 4x4 with hd44 and 14ff(parts)
ok so i was able to swap in the 14ff with relative ease. i have 3" blocks which might have made it easier, We started by bolting one end of the 14 down tight to the leaf(the pass side) then we used a combination of a come along a tow strap and grunt to pull the leafs together long enough to get the u-bolts into the plate, this took some beating on to get it but not that much we had to use some c-clamp vise grips to squeeze the u bolts after warping them out to fit over the larger size axle tube, yes i reused the ubolts that were in the jeep, as they were less than a year old and made longer for the 3" blocks, im pretty sure we used the chevy spring plates(but will have to check)
once it was bolted in we loosened both sides of the spring's just barely and bounced the jeep up and down then tightened everything down, this brought the springs almost square(they tilt in by no more than half inch)
then we bounced on it again, to see if there was any binding, there was none(though i havnt taken it on the road yet) the brakes were almost a strait swap with hoses, if you dont have a lift you could probably get away with using the stock rubber fsj line, or the chevy one for that matter. they have the same fittings the chevy one is longer.
I have a stainless steel brake line from skyjacker i used, i had to get a different T fitting for it in doing this i ended up having to use one of the d44 steel lines to move the location of the T to a better location.
For the drive line i am using the stock fsj, i dont know what it would be with a q/t but with the d300 the stock fsj drive line goes right into the d300 ubolt's and for the 14ff side i just got a conversion joint from napa (napa number 240-0358 or spicer 369 i think.) i plan on doing
a disk brake swap as well, but for the time being this will get it up and moving.
All in all it was relatively easy swap.
sorry no pictures of the swap, but i can post some pictures of it in and ready to go this weekend.
First off a little back ground
1977 cheif with a th400/d300 swapped in and a new crossmember made.
1977 chevy k20 4x4 with hd44 and 14ff(parts)
ok so i was able to swap in the 14ff with relative ease. i have 3" blocks which might have made it easier, We started by bolting one end of the 14 down tight to the leaf(the pass side) then we used a combination of a come along a tow strap and grunt to pull the leafs together long enough to get the u-bolts into the plate, this took some beating on to get it but not that much we had to use some c-clamp vise grips to squeeze the u bolts after warping them out to fit over the larger size axle tube, yes i reused the ubolts that were in the jeep, as they were less than a year old and made longer for the 3" blocks, im pretty sure we used the chevy spring plates(but will have to check)
once it was bolted in we loosened both sides of the spring's just barely and bounced the jeep up and down then tightened everything down, this brought the springs almost square(they tilt in by no more than half inch)
then we bounced on it again, to see if there was any binding, there was none(though i havnt taken it on the road yet) the brakes were almost a strait swap with hoses, if you dont have a lift you could probably get away with using the stock rubber fsj line, or the chevy one for that matter. they have the same fittings the chevy one is longer.
I have a stainless steel brake line from skyjacker i used, i had to get a different T fitting for it in doing this i ended up having to use one of the d44 steel lines to move the location of the T to a better location.
For the drive line i am using the stock fsj, i dont know what it would be with a q/t but with the d300 the stock fsj drive line goes right into the d300 ubolt's and for the 14ff side i just got a conversion joint from napa (napa number 240-0358 or spicer 369 i think.) i plan on doing
a disk brake swap as well, but for the time being this will get it up and moving.
All in all it was relatively easy swap.
sorry no pictures of the swap, but i can post some pictures of it in and ready to go this weekend.