78 Cherokee Chief Levi Edition Build

[Hooby]

Hello everyone, this past fall of 2023 I started building up my 78 Cherokee Chief project that I bought back in 2017. Some unfortunate circumstances kicked this project off, my fully driving 79 Cherokee Chief was totaled by a falling tree during a tornado that went about a mile from my home. This was a big bummer, but it also forced me into starting this new project, which has been fun thus far.
The basic plan was to use the engine, suspension, wheels/tires, and any other good things that I could salvage from the damaged 79 Chief and put them into the new 78 Chief project. The new project did not come with an engine. Here's the progress so far:

Day I bought the project:


Building a structure to lift the body and store things underneath:



Cleaning out the body of the cherokee:


Building up the frame with the springs from the 79 Cherokee:



Engine installed and degreased:


Re-sealed engine intake, put on new valve covers, and replaced rear main seal while engine was easy to access:



I also wire brushed the bottom of the body and gave it a quick paint job. To my surprise, there were no rust holes in the floor of the body, it's completely solid, so I was super happy about that. My previous cherokee had several holes in the floor that I had to weld in patches for. Really happy I don't have to worry about that on this one!

I will try to keep this thread updated as much as I can throughout my build, hopefully it'll keep me motivated and I can keep making good progress! Next steps are to install the transmission and transfer case. Then moving onto new brake lines and installing a new fuel tank.

[rocklaurence]

Nice project and IMO the WT wagons are the best looking SUV ever built. I have an '81

[Laredo Matt]

Welcome to the build forum and congrats on finding what looks to be a fairly nice 78 Chief to start with.

I was looking for a 77-79 Chief for a long time and ended up buying an 83 Laredo that became the foundation for my project.

I have to agree with Rocklaurence on WT wagons. Will be fun to watch your project take shape.

[Hooby]

Next project up was is installing the transmission. I've planned on using my Dana 20 Tcase instead of the quadratrac Tcase and thought I just needed an adaptor for this to work. To my surprise, since my TH400 was originally mated with the quadratrac, I learned I need to swap out the transmission output shaft in addition to using an adaptor. I then learned in order to swap the output shaft, I needed to disassemble the entire transmission..... bummer haha.

So last weekend, I disassembled the TH400, which turned out to be kind of fun. The previous owner of this Jeep told me that he got the transmission rebuilt, so this was nice to confirm that. The inside was super clean and the clutches all look brand new, so that was great. Here's a few pictures of the progress. Next up is waiting for shipment of the output shaft kit from BJ's Offroad, which they get from Novak.