Cheap Chief

[ross80truck]

Here are a few pics of the steps I built. They are rock sliders as well. I uses 2" x 2" square tubing 3/16" wall for the main piece under the body and also used this same tube to tie them into the frame. I then used some 1-1/2" round tubing and bent it for my steps. Thankfully I own a machine shop and it allows me to have access to some nice tools I would not be able to afford if it where not for the business needing them. Unfortunately though, because owning a business if very demanding of my time, I do not always get everything documented on my jeep build like I would like. But I will be honest, making money is more important. So, I have no pics of the fabrication process of these steps. Only the final product.

[ross80truck]

At this point, I thought I was done. The plan was to drive this jeep and enjoy it while finishing up my Diesel Wagoneer. I should have known better. At thanksgiving we went to the beach like we had planned. Had a great time Jeep ran perfectly........................ Except the transfer case chain started slipping! You got to be kidding me! It only slipped under heavy loads again. Just regular driving there was no issue. Even if I hammered it really hard from a dead stop it would not slip. Only if I tried to do a burnout holding the brake would it slip. I know it is all wheel drive and will not do a burnout, but it still launches pretty good this way.

Here are some pics from the beach trip at Thanksgiving.



My wife is a photographer, as well as the greatest wife ever. She took this picture.



The Suburban in the pic below is a really good friend of mine's truck. We put a 4BT in it mated to a 4L80E. It is a 1991 3/4 ton 4x4 with 4" of lift, 35" tires and 3.73 gears. He gets about 22MPG on the highway with it. That really sucks when you compare it to my Cheif, which gets about 8 MPG.

[ross80truck]

Once I got back from the coast I called BJs and talked to them about the Quadratrac chain. They were quick to say that these chains have a tendency to stretch and sent me another chain right away under warranty. They are such a nice and easy company to deal with. I have not had a chance to install the chain yet, but I was still driving it daily, just keeping my foot out of it. One of my employees was having vehicle issues and was without a transportation. So, I loaned him the jeep. First mistake, he is only 21. It rained that weekend and he lives out in the country. He called me and asked if he could take it out in the mud. I said yes, but if you break it you fix it and to not be to ruff on it because the chain is already stretched. Well, now the jeep is no longer drive able and yes there was alcohol involved. So, obviously his version of "not to ruff" and mine where two different things. He still has a job, but he is working on my jeep after hours now to help get it fixed.

I have been doing some research and it sounds like if I go back with a new chain in the Quadratrac I am most likely going to have this problem again. It may be a couple of months, it may be a couple of years, but it sounds like the chains coming from China are not that high of quality. So, much to my wife's displeasure I am back working on the Chief. I have located and bought a Dana 300 transfer case and I have the TF727 out of my 85 Wagoneer that is getting the diesel. The TF727 will mate up to my 401 without any issues and the Dana 300 will mate to the TF727 with out any adapters. Looks like I will have a little bit of driveshaft work, exhaust work, and possibly transmission cross member work to do. So, if anyone is looking for a TH400 and a quadrtrac I have them both for sale.

Here are pics of the TF727 and the Dana 300. I will end up twin sticking the Dana 300. Not that I need it, but just for the cool factor. I hope my wife is not reading this!

[serehill]

Good read Ross. Good move to get away form the quadrajunk the 300 is a rocks.

[surfwagoneer]

I needed some gas for the chainsaw at home, so I put a gas can in the back of the jeep. I should have known better and spilled gas on the carpet. I tried cleaning it out, but could not get rid of the smell. So, out came the back seat and all the rear carpet. Then I thought, which was my first problem, why I have the carpet out, why not Rhino Line the back instead of putting different carpet in. Then, I thought, why not Rhino line the sides as well since all the fabricate is coming off. So, after one thing lead to another, I pulled all the interior and side windows. Rhino lined the entire back half of the jeep. Painted the headliner and re-installed it. A quick get the smell out of my jeep job turned into a 2 week pain in the rear, but it turned out awesome. The only problem is, with the carpet out, it is noticeable louder in the jeep. So, I am eventually going to get another piece of carpet put back in it, and just pull it out when I go to the beach or have to haul something nasty in the back.










I used the Rock-IT Liner from Summit Racing ( http://www.summitracing.com/parts/smm-42260/overview/ ). It is good and I liked it a lot. I bought the one that you can add color too and made it tan. The only problem is that I wish I would have bought twice as much if not 3 times. I barely got everything covered with one coat with what came in the kit. I could have ordered another kit and shot it again, but you are suppose to put the second layer on while the first is still tacky. I have afraid trying to add another coat several days latter would have not bonded.

This is exactly what I plan on doing to my wagon. Perfect timing too, santa just left a case of upol raptor tintable liner. I live near the beach also and need the durability to throw the kids stuff, dog and 10 lbs of sand in the back and be able to clean things out easily. Hopefully in the next month I'll get out to my buddies so I can use his compressor and if it comes out as good as yours I'm going to be super stoked.

[ross80truck]

This is exactly what I plan on doing to my wagon. Perfect timing too, santa just left a case of upol raptor tintable liner. I live near the beach also and need the durability to throw the kids stuff, dog and 10 lbs of sand in the back and be able to clean things out easily. Hopefully in the next month I'll get out to my buddies so I can use his compressor and if it comes out as good as yours I'm going to be super stoked.

surfwagoneer,
I see you have a Wagoneer not a Cherokee, so I am not for sure how far you plan on going with your liner, but for the part I did I used 1 gallon. I wish I had 2 gallons. I was only able to put one coat on. I would have preferred it to be thicker. Also, I used a Nylon cup brush on a 4" grinder to prep with. It worked great. Google "Nylon Bed Brush" and you will find several places that sells them. Prepping the surface properly is the most important part to a long lasting strong liner. If you have any questions PM me.

[surfwagoneer]

This is exactly what I plan on doing to my wagon. Perfect timing too, santa just left a case of upol raptor tintable liner. I live near the beach also and need the durability to throw the kids stuff, dog and 10 lbs of sand in the back and be able to clean things out easily. Hopefully in the next month I'll get out to my buddies so I can use his compressor and if it comes out as good as yours I'm going to be super stoked.

surfwagoneer,
I see you have a Wagoneer not a Cherokee, so I am not for sure how far you plan on going with your liner, but for the part I did I used 1 gallon. I wish I had 2 gallons. I was only able to put one coat on. I would have preferred it to be thicker. Also, I used a Nylon cup brush on a 4" grinder to prep with. It worked great. Google "Nylon Bed Brush" and you will find several places that sells them. Prepping the surface properly is the most important part to a long lasting strong liner. If you have any questions PM me.

Thanks ross80truck, hopefully I'll be getting to it in a few weeks. Also in the middle of a wide track axle swap and some body armor additions so busy times! Thanks for the advice. The upol raptor kits comes with 3 750 ml bottles that are supposed to cover a full size truck bed. Mine will cover tail gate to were the floor drops to the rear bench seat foot area and up to the roof. I should have enough for 2 coats. I'll let you know how it comes out

[surfwagoneer]

by the way its funny that you have the rear diamond plate panels b/c i purchased mine from MIB prob over a year ago and plan bed lining them also. Maybe even tuck in an on board air compressor behind one of them one day!

[ross80truck]

by the way its funny that you have the rear diamond plate panels b/c i purchased mine from MIB prob over a year ago and plan bed lining them also. Maybe even tuck in an on board air compressor behind one of them one day!

If you have the aluminum diamond plate panels make sure you scuff them really well before you add the liner. You might want to scuff them and then prime them and then put the liner on. Ask me how I know? The Rhino liner did not stick to the aluminum diamond plate and I did not have any extra liner to go back and reapply. I did not scuff the panels first, I just cleaned them and then applied the liner. A couple of days later, it all come off in one sheet on the diamond plate. So, I just pulled the panels out and painted them black and put them back in. It still looks good, but not as good as it did before like the pictures above show. Everywhere else the liner is sticking great. I love it.

[jaber]

Here are pics of the TF727 and the Dana 300. I will end up twin sticking the Dana 300.

There is another thread running about doing this swap. When Jeep used the 300 behind an auto, it was the 999. The front drive shaft will hit the corner of the tranny. Might want to mock it up before throwing it in.

Love the bed liner, makes cleaning the inside out easier...

[ross80truck]

Here are pics of the TF727 and the Dana 300. I will end up twin sticking the Dana 300.

There is another thread running about doing this swap. When Jeep used the 300 behind an auto, it was the 999. The front drive shaft will hit the corner of the tranny. Might want to mock it up before throwing it in.

Love the bed liner, makes cleaning the inside out easier...

I will check it out before I put it up in. But I have been doing a lot of research on this and the guys in the baby jeeps do it all the time. They like this setup because it is short. From what I read it works in the CJs as long as you have a minimum of 4" of lift. I am assuming the same will hold true for me. But, I will definitely check it out before I dump to much more money in the setup.

[jaber]

Heres the other thread...

http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtop ... =11&t=4532

[ross80truck]

Here is a picture of what the back looks like now. As I said earlier, I did not scuff the aluminum diamond plate before I Rhino Lined it and the coating did not stick. So, I pulled it out and cleaned them up and just painted them black to match the rest of the door panels. So, I would recommend if you have these aluminum ones to definitely scuff them really well and possibly prime them before you add the bed liner.

[ross80truck]

Heres the other thread...

http://www.fsjnetwork.com/forum/viewtop ... =11&t=4532

Thanks Jaber! I will post up the pics and things I come across as I do the install. Thank fully I have my 85 Wagoneer to source parts from as I need them. You can see below in my signature, I yanked all the drivetrain out of an 85 Wagoneer in order to stuff a 6BT in it. So I have the TF727 and all the shift linkage from it as well as that cross member and driveshafts. I will make sure I post pics and notes as this progresses. I am really excited. Everything I have read and heard about both the TF727 and the Dana 300 make me believe this is going to be a bullet proof setup.

[ross80truck]

I guess I can go ahead and start by listing the parts I already have.

- TFT727 out of a 1985 Jeep Wagoneer
- Flexplate and torque converter out of an 1985 Wagoneer
- Dana 300 out of a 1982 CJ7, Passenger side drop
- Advance Adapters Twin Stick Kit
- Lokar KD-2727HT Kickdown kit
- OMIX-ADA Dana 300 trasfer case gasket kit
- TCI-Auto TFT 727 pan gasket and filter kit.

I have already test fitted the TF727 and the Dana 300 together. They fit together without any adapters or modifications. I am a little concerned about drive shaft clearance, but once I have it up in the jeep I will have a better idea what I will be up against. Also, one thing to note. The Dana 300 is a passenger side drop. My 1976 Cherokee Chief has a passenger side drop Dana 44 up front. So there are no problems here. But, if you are doing this in a later model wagoneer with a drivers side drop, you will have to get a flip kit for the Dana 300.

[suttonlive]

I am wanting to hear the results of your 401 to TF727 conversion. I have the same original setup and came to the same conclusion that you did. I have a TF727 and D300 waiting to be put into my 78 chief. I did end up buying a flexplate to connect the TF to the 401 since it never as offered that way. This is the one I purchased. http://www.bjsoffroad.com/prod-1116.htm

Sutton

[ross80truck]

I am wanting to hear the results of your 401 to TF727 conversion. I have the same original setup and came to the same conclusion that you did. I have a TF727 and D300 waiting to be put into my 78 chief. I did end up buying a flexplate to connect the TF to the 401 since it never as offered that way. This is the one I purchased. http://www.bjsoffroad.com/prod-1116.htm

Sutton

Sutton,
I did not realize that I needed a different flexplate. I figured that the one from my 360 would work on my 401. I will find out shortly once I get the TH400 and quadrajunk out. At least if I have to buy one the price is not that bad at $55.25 from BJs.

[jaber]

I did not realize that I needed a different flexplate. I figured that the one from my 360 would work on my 401. I will find out shortly once I get the TH400 and quadrajunk out. At least if I have to buy one the price is not that bad at $55.25 from BJs.

The 360 flexplate is balanced different then the 401's. You will want a 401 specific, and one for a TF727 will be different then the one for a TH400. The 400 has 3 converter bolts and the 727 has 4.

[ross80truck]

After doing some more research I confirmed what everyone was telling me, that I needed a new flex plate for this conversion. Here are some pics of 3 different flex plates. The top flex plate is off a 360 with a TF727. The middle flex plate is off a 401 with a TH400. The bottom one is for a 401 with a TF727. Some of the main differences are that the flex plates for the TF727 have 4 torque converter bolts and the flexplate for the TH400 has 3. I weighed the 2 TF727 flexplates and here are the weights.

401 flexplate = 5.56 lbs
360 flexplate = 5.7 lbs.

Yes, that is correct, the 401 flexplate weighs less. Also, both flex plates for the TF727 have the same # of teeth. How many teeth they have I do not know.I just laid them on top of each other and they matched up all the way around.

I ordered my 401 to TF727 flexplate from Rock Auto. They were the cheapest at $36.79. Part # was z102. The vehicle I used to find this flex plate was a 1972 AMC Ambassador with the 6.6L.



Here is a pic of the 2 TF727 flexplates next to each other. The one on the left is for the 360 to TF727 while the one on the right is for the 401 to TF727.

[ross80truck]

One thing that you have to make sure that you do is to get the sleeve out of the back of the crank. The TF727 torque converter has a larger pilot than the TH400 torque converter. I read about this trick to get the sleeve out somewhere and tried it here and it worked great. I machined a piece of aluminum that was a nice slip fit into the back of the crank with the sleeve in place. I then packed the hole full of grease. Then I installed my machined piece of aluminum and hit it with a hammer. The grease does not have anywhere to go so it pushes on the sleeve like hydraulic oil in a piston. Drove the sleeve right out without any problems. Cool trick. Here is a pic of my turned driver and the sleeve.