1986 J20 LS Swap

[SJohn]

So the road trip went well but definitely found some much needed improvements on the trip.
1. Exhaust was way too loud - while fine at cruising speeds and steady RPM (mostly because the tires are louder, get to that in a sec) as soon as the torque converter locked up or the transmission downshifted the entire zip code new I was climbing a hill. I guess 650 mile road trips seemed so far away when I put the exhaust on and was only driving the truck down rural roads that I didn't think about having to listen to it for 4+ hours. Besides that, I'm surprised my neighbors hadn't kicked me out! So anyway a new magnaflow muffler and tailpipe out the rear has been installed. I love this setup much more; the tone is a deep rumble rather than raspy and it's quiet unless I really put my foot into it.




2. The tires are even louder - no surprise here, the mud terrains howl like a wild animal at highway speeds and droned out the exhaust to the point of barely hearing it while cruising. But they were practically free wheels and tires I took off one of the donor trucks so I ran with them. So I picked up a set of lightly used 265/75/R16 all terrain tires and alloy wheels that I will be swapping to. As much as I love the 16x10s and mud terrains I will be letting them go to recover the cost of the replacements. in the mean time, I started polishing the 16x10s and it is only making it harder to have to put them up for sale. They look so good shined up! I am excited to see how the truck handles with the smaller tires however.



3. I should probably fix the fuel gauge(s?) - Intentionally running out of gas isn't a great plan so it's probably a good idea to fix the fuel gauge right? Yeah, and all I had to do was toggle through the dakotah digital gauge menu and change the fuel sender resistance. But what about the other tank? It would probably be a good idea to know how much gas is in the backup tank too so I installed a cheap 0-90 Ohm auxiliary gauge on the center console to show aux tank fuel level. Not 100% sure its accurate but I'll check that next time I'm at the pump.

[Yeller]

Nothing like a good road trip to shake things out. I’ve made a few in mine and have a lot more planned. Your mileage is in the same ballpark as mine. Don’t discount wind positively and negatively affecting mileage, these trucks have aero dynamics worse than a brick. Head wind will severely negatively hit mileage but a stiff tailwind will significantly improve it.

[Chubbinius]

Very nice, glad the transfer pump was a simple fix and the road trip/shakedown successful!

[SJohn]

Finally tackled the vent window seals and divider bar felt! I used the original style rivets and pivot rivet sourced from one of the classic GM parts sites. They sell a punch used to mushroom the rivets out and after watching some youtube videos I was feeling confident it would be a quick and easy job. Of course it wasn't; trying to crush the rivets down by hitting the punch with a hammer as shown in the video was almost impossible. An hour of hammering resulted in 2 loosely crimped rivets. Tricked by TV magic again and reliving the vent window nightmare all over again! Solution - a cheap vice and a grinder with cut-off wheel. I went and picked up a cheap vice as that is one of the few tools I still did not have in the garage. I cut the punch in half to fit inside the vice jaws with the divider bar. With the punch on the window side of the divider bar and a nut inside the channel as a backstop for the rivet I was able to correctly crimp the rivets tight. I used the original style rivets in all the locations that the vent window would contact a pop rivet and used pop rivets in all other locations. After the drivers side was done I was able to complete the passenger side in a couple hours. Along with vent window seals, the door handle, door lock, and rain seals were replaced as well. Finishing up the doors I installed new vapor barriers from a shower curtain and butyl tape. Doors are now completely sealed! Only one issue is the support between the inner and outer door skins cracked as many do and seems to have made the gap wider allowing the vent window seal to slide into the outer door skin. I don't have a welder in my garage so unfortunately I couldn't fix it so for now I put some sticky back foam on the inside of the outer lip to support the vent window seal and try to keep it from falling into the door. Almost forgot to mention I snapped off the vent window post on the drivers side door while removing the nut with my cordless 1/4" impact. My fix was threading the post higher up and cutting the spring in half.

[SJohn]

Bye bye big tires! I made another little road trip a couple weeks ago to go fishing and had my brother deliver my new to me tires and wheels that my dad picked up for me. With the quieter exhaust it was very evident where most of the road noise was coming from. The new wheels and tires are 265/75R16 BFG K02s on wheels from a 2008 Chevy 2500. I installed them before making the trip home and am very amused by the new look. The chevy wheels have a very positive offset compared to the 16x10s resulting in the wheels being sunk deep into the fender wells. Oh well, 1.5" wheel spacers on the way. The drive back was great with the new tires being almost silent. The difference in road noise is insanely dramatic and I'm very pleased with how the road noise is now aside from one aspect... With no more noise from tires to drown it out I now notice the exhaust isn't as quiet as I thought. I'm looking into solutions to quieten it more without redoing the exhaust a third time.

[devildog80]

Nice looking truck

[SJohn]

Nice looking truck

Thank you!

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[SJohn]

Custom CNC milled aluminum parking brake caliper spacers have arrived!

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[SJohn]

Looks like I forgot to post an update since May! It's been a crazy summer with all of the preparation leading up to Ouray FSJ Invasion and going to the invasion and now back and being lazy! As stated above, we made it to Ouray and back! Just over 2300 miles total driven in the truck with no breakdowns or issues and now at almost 5000 miles on the swap. I will spare posting a ton of pics from the trip as I have posted them in the invasion pics thread. Since I left off on the emergency brake progress I will pick up from there.

Once the caliper spacers were in all that was left to do was bolt it up and run the Wilwood universal parking brake cable to the front. I connected the universal cable system to the factor front cable that originally hooked onto the middle cable via the threaded bar. Originally the front cable runs diagonally in the transmission crossmember but I ran driver and passenger side parking brake cables to the driver side so I drilled a hole parallel with the driver side frame rail for the rod to pass straight back. Then all that was needed was to drill the universal cable block up a couple sizes to slide freely on the rod for adjustment and mount the cable end piece. The jam nuts on the threaded rod are used to adjust the parking brake tension. I ran the driver side cable the same route as original but ran the passenger side back and across the truck. The parking brakes are also adjusted at the caliper and was pretty easy to do but it took a while adjusting the slack out. At first I was concerned they weren't going to hold the truck still as it can definitely move with little struggle when put in gear with the brakes engaged but after testing on some hills it proved to be plenty strong for a parking brake. Definitely not an emergency brake but works well for parking. I think if I got some custom larger pads that provide more surface area contact on the rotor it would improve greatly. They proved themselves in CO and I was one of a few people not hunting around for a large rock every time I parked .








A downside of this setup is that the calipers stick out quite a bit to the inside of the truck making them susceptible to getting hit from rocks or debris if doing alot of heavy wheeling. The spacers and backspacing on the chevy wheels also don't help with this. Since I won't be doing too much heavy wheeling I'm not too worried about it.


Parking brake functioning perfectly on Imogene Pass:


1.5" wheel spacers pushed the wheels out to flush with the fenders and I installed the hubcaps. Cut a 3.25" hole in the fronts for the manual hubs.



Installed new rancho shocks all around and what an amazing difference! With the half ton springs and new shocks this truck rides and handles like a Cadillac (relatively). Not pictured is the hefty bill for a new eaton tracloc limited slip differential in the rear end, new front ball joints, front axle seals, bearings and steering components inspected. I didn't have time to tackle this stuff and wanted to make sure the front end was solid for the trip so I had a reputable shop do the work and it turned out great.



Next was window tint, the AC system struggles in the Texas heat (more on that later) so I had the windows tinted with 20% on the sides and back. I should have done the front but my understanding was that tinting the front any amount is illegal but I need to get at least some form of UV blocking on the front as you can feel heat radiating through the glass.



This is chronologically out of order but around the same time I redid the door panels with hardboard adding in more foam on the fabric side and closed cell foam on the door side for sound deadening. New 5.25" door speakers installed with boommat insulators and I sadly swap the factory radio for a modern single din. I went with a marine unit that is more lowkey than the fugly neon walmart head units. We just werent gonna make it to CO on cassettes and staticy FM radio.




Finally the weekend before the trip my dad helped me finally finish up the camper rear window glass. After two failed attempts at cutting the plexiglass with the scoring method my dad suggested a skillsaw which worked great. I installed a new lock and piece of aluminum angle to cover most of the gap between the tailgate and back glass. The camper is about 2 inches longer than the bed. And that finished up the must does for the Ouray list!




FSJ Reinvasion 2022!

[devildog80]

Very nice setup on park brakes but......looks like the adjustment cables are crossed and touching from the adjuster by the TC. Do you think this would be a point they would hold moisture and eventually compromise the cables at that point of contact?

Might take 30 years?

Just a thought

[SJohn]

Very nice setup on park brakes but......looks like the adjustment cables are crossed and touching from the adjuster by the TC. Do you think this would be a point they would hold moisture and eventually compromise the cables at that point of contact?

Might take 30 years?

Just a thought

The cables are stainless steel so I'm not really worried about any corrosion on them. Plus the lack of salt on texas roads so rust isn't much of a worry for me.

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[devildog80]

Good to go then.

Again, nice work

[SJohn]

Well...





Facebook marketplace strikes again! 81 Cherokee I picked up in Tulsa this past weekend.

[Yeller]

I was careful to not look too close at that one. Trying to clear out my garage ornaments, can’t be adding to them. Congrats

[SJohn]

I was careful to not look too close at that one. Trying to clear out my garage ornaments, can’t be adding to them. Congrats

Haha yeah it was in your neck of the woods. I've been itching for a Cherokee or Wagoneer for a while and couldnt stay off marketplace
Thinking street restomod like Greg H has done with his blue Cherokee. I have alot of learning to do on building suspensions now

[Yeller]

I was careful to not look too close at that one. Trying to clear out my garage ornaments, can’t be adding to them. Congrats

Haha yeah it was in your neck of the woods. I've been itching for a Cherokee or Wagoneer for a while and couldnt stay off marketplace
Thinking street restomod like Greg H has done with his blue Cherokee. I have alot of learning to do on building suspensions now

Suspensions is my specialty so don't be bashful

[devildog80]

He could bring it back up to your neck of the woods.......and you can help him at your place Yeller

[SJohn]

Not much to update on the J20 with the Cherokee now taking up alot of my wrenching time but there are a few changes I haven't posted from the past few months. First is the front tow hooks and crossmember from fylin iron fab has been installed - mostly. All the bolts are in except the long one that requires removing the steering box, which is now leaking so it looks like I will get to knock out two birds with one stone when I get around to the steering box. I am very pleased with this kit Sam put together, it's a square tube crossmember with some heavy duty frame braces to handle heavy pulling which will be great for my plans. I wanted to add a front receiver hitch for a winch on a 2" receiver mount and the new crossmember for the tow hooks will be an easy spot to weld in the front receiver.

Since I forgot to take pictures while installing, here are some pictures from flyin iron.


As mentioned, steering box leak


And speaking of receiver hitches, I finally got around to building one for the rear. I picked up a cheap bolt on expandable Reese hitch from Autozone and massaged it to fit. I drilled 3 holes for mounting the 1/4" mounting brackets and extended the wings with some scrap 1/4" plate. I was able to tuck the receiver right under the license plate and keep everything fairly hidden. Unfortunately in the process of making the initial tacks and loose fitment I forgot to check level from front to back and ended up with the receiver angled slightly down. But that's not a huge issue for me so I'll just live with it. Next is to add wiring for trailer lights/brakes.






And I hit over 5500 miles in the truck - currently about 5700 since the picture below! And that was all from this year! Very pleased with what this truck has become and is capable of.

[rocklaurence]

I really like those parking brakes. What did it cost ya and how long did it take to install. You almost have a New J20...

[Yeller]

Looking really good. I like putting miles on mine, at 12,000 on my swap since March 1st. Like seeing them getting used.