74 Chief Restore

[bkilby]

More work! The DS frame seemed to move a bit excessive when turning the wheel so I built a steering gear brace. I ordered the M.O.R.E. clamp from Summit Racing and built the rest. The tube is 1" square, .120 wall tubing. The plate is 1/4" with 1/2" bolts. Can't get much better than that. I smashed the tube with the iron worker, drilled the hole cut to length. Worked out nice.

[bkilby]

Been working on getting the transmission and tcase shifters installed. What a PIA. I'm using a TJ center console with TJ shifters. I thought that by using the TJ floor plate to help locate the tranny and tcase shifters, things would go smooth. Not! Lol. I ended up bolting the TJ plate to the trans hump and started cutting holes in the floor. A little hammer massaging was in order because the FSJ trans cover is lumpy.

After cutting the basic holes.



This is the TJ plate bolted in with the tcase shifter sitting as we're still trying to find the final location.



The trans shifter uses a simple factory cable and it snaps in place real easy. One hole through the firewall with a factory grommet is all that was needed. The tcase shifter wasn't so easy. I ended up buying the TJ cable conversion from Novak to help with the install. Welp, that was a barrel of fun too being this isn't a TJ and certainly not TJ running gear. In the Novak kit, there's a bracket that's suppose to bolt to the side of the adapter and guide the cable towards the tcase lever. Since it didn't fit my adapter for the tcase lever, I moved it to the top, welded a second mounting tab and used it to guide the cable to the shifter itself. This is the bracket before paint as it sits on my spare transmission.




Now the bracket needed for the tcase lever we ended up making from scratch and bolted it to that big tab next to the output speed sensor in the pic above. It took 3 tries to get that bracket just right and make things work. Sorry, forgot to take pics of a lot of things.

Anyhow, this is how it sits right now. Both are in, connected and working good.



The plastic console is just sitting there for now. I ran out of time yesterday to finish so this upcoming week will be trimming plastic to get it mounted and looking proper.

[bkilby]

Btw, we had to remove the factory trans cover to tighten up the cables etc. And to do that, the under dash vents had to be removed and unbolt the heater ducting under the dash to get to that one bolt at the very front/top. What a pain. Let's just say the Jeep is minus one bolt today so I don't have to go through that again. Lol.

[bkilby]

Ok, don't laugh. This is an experiment to see what direction I want to go for the front tire clearance. Lol.



As I had shown earlier in this thread, NT fenders don't allow larger tires without collision. Collision isn't an option for this rig as it will get wheeled, not just dirt roads. A before and after with the tires straight forward.





As you can see, the WT fender gives a lot more room in front and behind the tire, not to mention the overall height and width. Yeah, I know. I should have started off with a wide track. Lol.

[bkilby]

More pics. Love the tire clearance. The tires don't rub the fenders at all at full flex and full turn. They do tag the inner fender just a bit behind both shocks. Simple trimming will fix that.

[toddthewelder]

I'm kinda liking that! Take the old fenders and the W/T fenders to a place that do the vinyl car wraps and get the to match the patina of the jeep and then wrap the W/T fenders. How will you do the back without doing major surgery though?

[bkilby]

Well that's the problem. The back doesn't need anything. WT front and NT rear. Lol.

[toddthewelder]

Well that's the problem. The back doesn't need anything. WT front and NT rear. Lol.

Well then I say roll with it, if you get the W/T fenders matched to the color of the jeep it will all blend. At the end of the day all that matters is what you think about it

[babywag]

Well that's the problem. The back doesn't need anything. WT front and NT rear. Lol.

I drove my ?88 like that for years lol.

[bkilby]

Well then I say roll with it, if you get the W/T fenders matched to the color of the jeep it will all blend. At the end of the day all that matters is what you think about it

Yeah, true. I just don't want it to look goofy. I'm kicking around the idea of modifying the NT fender for better tire clearance but I really don't want to mess up the paint. The plan was to open the fender up to the size of the WT fender but without the WT flare. Just keep the NT flare. I'd like to find another NT fender to experiment on first though. Wrapping the fenders is a good idea. Might look into that.

[bkilby]

I drove my ?88 like that for years lol.

Did you catch any grief from the FSJ crowd for doing that?

[babywag]

Did you catch any grief from the FSJ crowd for doing that?

Yeah, a buddy called my truck a narrowass LOL.

I have a junky NT passenger fender, the flare/opening is in good shape though.
Come grab the cherokee windows...hehe

I was @ one point going to remove the WT flair and attempt to graft a NT flare onto a junky pair of WT fenders.
But a guy from overseas was here buying parts and wanted the WT fenders.

[toddthewelder]

Yeah, true. I just don't want it to look goofy. I'm kicking around the idea of modifying the NT fender for better tire clearance but I really don't want to mess up the paint. The plan was to open the fender up to the size of the WT fender but without the WT flare. Just keep the NT flare. I'd like to find another NT fender to experiment on first though. Wrapping the fenders is a good idea. Might look into that.

They can do some amazing stuff with the vinyl wrap. How the heck are you getting the fenders on and off so easy, mine were a pain with the doors on.

[bkilby]

They can do some amazing stuff with the vinyl wrap. How the heck are you getting the fenders on and off so easy, mine were a pain with the doors on.

Two people helps a lot. That triangle shaped piece that's part of the core support is the biggest hurdle. We slid the fender as far forward as possible, used a small screw driver to pry that triangle piece up and just maneuvered it a bit to get the fender to pop off. Oh, and the bumper ends had to come off to get the WT fender on. We then moved them out one hole (the only other set of holes) to accommodate the WT fenders. Installing is the reverse, with the fender in place behind the door first.

[bkilby]

Yeah, a buddy called my truck a narrowass LOL.

I have a junky NT passenger fender, the flare/opening is in good shape though.
Come grab the cherokee windows...hehe

I was @ one point going to remove the WT flair and attempt to graft a NT flare onto a junky pair of WT fenders.
But a guy from overseas was here buying parts and wanted the WT fenders.

Too bad you're not closer. I could use both the windows and the fender. Lol.