1982 J10 390FE build

[JDeBlois]

Many of y'all from FSJ Enthusiasts and Texas Full Size Jeeps Facebook page already know.. but for those who want to read and follow, here ya go. My apologies, the first post is gonna be longggg.

Background..

January 31, 2016, my (great) Uncle and I drove down to Beasley, Texas (we live in Waco) and I bought a mostly rust free 82 J10 with 93k, 360/727/np219. Was told "it runs, just rough and it has a bit of rust." Well, it wouldn't start, but it tried. Good enough for me.. $1200 and I loaded it up. Truck came with 2 extra hoods, Cherokee bucket seats (original bench seat was close to 100%), extra Waggy doors, new carpet, NOS tonneau cover, extra tailgate, extra grille shell.. just tons of stuff. Long story short, I sold more parts out of the truck than I paid for the vehicle.

Pulled the truck into the shop, cleaned it out, put in new plugs and wires and got it to fire with some gas in the carb. There was so much slap in the timing chain I thought we were gonna destroy the timing cover. Decided to pull and rebuild.

My Uncle and I have built a lot of 73-79 Ford trucks since I moved to Texas in October 2015. He is a Ford Fanatic in the purist of forms. I am a JeepFreek, always have been and always will be. I'm 26 now and have owned 8 myself, including my 2000 Grand Cherokee v8 4x4 daily driver. We got to talking one night and I decided we would try something new. I did some research and could not find anything on anybody putting an FE engine in a Jeep truck. That's all I needed to know. The build plans started to take shape

The Beginning of the Build..

Tore the J10 down to bare frame. Sold engine, trans, tcase and everything I wasn't gonna use. Sold more from the truck than I paid for it.

My initial intention was to use the stock running gear, totally rebuilt with deeper gears than the factory 2.73. I am a big fan of the HD 4-spd NP435 with the granny 6.72 first gear and NP205 transfer case. That was the easiest decision to make. In the search for a 435/205, I came across a 79 Bronco with 435/205, HP44 and D60 rear, 8x6.5. Decided that buying the Bronco for $1300 was the way to go. Sold the Bronco 400 engine and stock J10 axles, as well as bellhousing and some miscellaneous stuff for just about what I paid for the Bronco. Now I had my J10, 3/4 ton axles and drivetrain for next to nothing. After some discussion and measuring, I decided to use the Bronco radius arm, coil spring and dual front shock design and rear Ford 2 inch lift, 3 inch wide leaf springs for my suspension. I don't intend to really rock crawl or do anything that rough, but I will definitely be on moderate trails with the J10.

Found a good, complete 390FE in Magnolia, Tx, for $250. Surprisingly enough, it is a standard bore block with D0VE heads! Better flow and some of the better factory, non-CJ/SCJ heads. Had the heart for the project.

So, there's the basis for the build. 4.10 gears, posi-track 60 rear and locked HP44. 390FE/NP435/NP205. 78/79 Bronco radius arm and leaf spring suspension.

Going to try to make posts of the things I've done individually to prepare the body and drivetrain.

I cannot upload photos, they are all too large. So here is a link to my J10 Album in Google Photos. I will update the pictures as I go. You can comment on this album:

https://goo.gl/photos/4DVcKGdykjJweE5U7

Will update as I go. I'm on the FB groups "Jared DeBlois" if you wanna chat.

Thanks y'all!

[SJTD]

I like it. Not another SB Chevy swap.

[JDeBlois]

Framework

As I said, tore the body down, drivetrain out and axles/suspension out for the swap. I cut the factory motor mounts out since they will not be used. I was surprised to find the factory crossmember in good shape, so I kept it and cleaned it up, primered and painted it. As always, pictures of the pieces are throughout the Google Photos link: https://goo.gl/photos/4DVcKGdykjJweE5U7

The frame was stripped down, sandblasted and the rear shackle mounts were cut off and ground down. Since I am moving the leafs under the frame, these were not needed. Chris Thompson at Thompson Offroad plasma cut my shackle mounts, leaf spring pads for the D60 and shock mounts. He made triangle plates to add to the strength of the shackle mounts as well. After being blasted, any rust spots I found were sprayed with Rust Cure and sanded before the frame was primered and then a layer of paint. I'm waiting to get the suspension welded in before I throw a couple more layers of paint on.

As for the front of the frame, since I am using the Ford HP44, I was able to strip the brake lines and mount tabs off of the frame since Ford ran the brake lines along the axle. Based on dry mounting and some measuring, I believe I can leave the factory shackle mounts on the front of the frame. I plan to be modifying Ford 351M/400 engine mounts to fit inside of the frame for the 390FE. The J10 frame is about 5 inches wider at the mount, plus I will I have to cheat the engine back some to get the shift lever in a good place within the trans tunnel. I might be stuck with a 1 inch body lift to clear space for the valve covers on the AC box, we shall see!

[JDeBlois]

Axles

The axles I chose to use, HP44 and D60 were not original to the Bronco. Someone had swapped out the 9 inch and converted the 44 to 3/4 ton hubs. I assumed they used Ford hubs..made an ass out of myself. haha

The Dana 60 is a D5TE code (1975) with 2.5 inch drum pads and factory 4.10 gears. I tore down the hubs and sandblasted the axle with my Harbor Freight 110 lbs tank blaster. Worked like a charm. I also blasted the individual drums and backing plates, and all the drum brake parts I was reusing inside our blasting cabinet. Primer and paint, everything was ready to go. I had O'Reilly's turn my rotors and ordered all my bearings/brake parts from RockAuto. Assembled the bearings and brakes in an evening and ran new brake lines to the 7 inch extended braided brake line splitter that drops from the frame down to the axle. The extended line was ordered from Bronco Graveyard (about $36). All in all, I have about $150 invested in the rear axle and other than the differential, it is totally rebuilt.

The Dana 44 is a D8TE code (1978), original to the Bronco. When it was converted to 8-lug, the owner must have just used whatever he could get his hands on. I ordered factory Bronco brakes..just to find they are Chevy outters! Got those calipers and pads swapped.

The D44 originally came with 3.54 gears and to match the rear, I ordered factory replacement 4.10 gears and carrier. All new bearings, spindle bearings, carrier bearings and pinion bearings from National Bearings via RockAuto. Damn good deal in comparison to Advance and O'Reilly's. I have pricing info. on all of these parts if anyone is interested - I'm an accountant, so I keep all my receipts! Setting up gears is one thing I do not know how to do so West Automotive and Transmissions in West, Texas, is going to be setting these up with a lunchbox locker. The Warn lockouts that were on the axle were cleaned up and in 100% condition.

Just like the rear, the 44 was torn down and blasted, primered and painted. Everything is a nice coat of gloss black. Extended front brake line from Bronco Graveyard and all new brake lines just arrived last week. I like the fact they run along the topside of the axle, never have to worry about stretching lines except the main to the splitter and an extra 7 inches should alleviate any worries for my use.

[JDeBlois]

Current state...

So the build process speeds up and slows down, I mean, who has that much free time..especially with a German Shepherd and a girlfriend (and yes.. order intentional )

I got my bed back from getting the rust along the seams and all of the tonneau snap rivets removed and fixed. I immediately flipped it, scraped and sanded all of the old bedliner and any rust on the underside. It's remarkably clean! The whole bottom has been sprayed with Rust Cure and then sanded again. I'm waiting for a good weekend that I can spray the bottom of the bed with Raptor Liner.

I currently have the frame laid upside down and have the rear shackle mounts clamped in place to be welded. Using the Ford 3 inch, F250 leafs, I had to move the leafs under the frame due to the leafs hitting the drums on the axle at the factory mounts. Chris Thompson made all of my leaf spring plates, shackle mounts and control arm mounts.

This is kind of where I'm at for now. Process got delayed as I tore down 2 Dentside Fords to fund the build!