FSJ Rebuild

[Jevman]

The amount of stuff that goes into all the builds I have seen is something to appreciate for sure!

[Jevman]

Couple of more photos of the frame and drive line. When the body gets done and put on it will be fun getting it to the finish line to drive it!

[Yeller]

Looking really good. Excited to see this get finished, although I’m sure not near as excited as you

[Jevman]

Yea it's a good feeling to get it to this point, I'll never use it as a Rock Crawler of course but I think it will get me where I want to go with a smile!

[Yeller]

I don't consider mine a crawler either but I've been on the far extreme side of the sport so long I'll do things in my tow unit that most normal people would think twice about in a built rig. It's kind of like listening to mortar fire, at some point it lulls you to sleep

[Jevman]

I can definitely relate to that!

[sonoraed]

One more.

Dash is a work of art! love creations that are balanced and have symmetry

[Jevman]

Thanks, I kept it simple and as factory looking as possible and it was a day job putting it together to fit the console and dash, I'm happy with it so far, the nice thing about the console is it will hide all the Dakota Digital stuff, fuse box and some relays making it easy to get to anything without laying on your back under the dash.

[Jevman]

My valve covers finally came in after 11 months and had my son put them on, not much that's going to happen for awhile until I'm home again.............

[OldFarmTruck22]

Great build Jevman!!
I'm also doing an AMC to 700r4 swap.
Tell me something, how were you able to fit your starter in without cutting the 'ear' off the tranny on that side??
Advance Adapters tells me I have to cut the starter side ear off the transmission for the starter to fit ?!?!?

Did you use a factory AMC starter?

Thanks.

[Yeller]

For what its worth those ears often were removed in some applications for exhaust manifold clearance from the factory, so I've always considered them sacrificial.

[Jevman]

Great build Jevman!!
I'm also doing an AMC to 700r4 swap.
Tell me something, how were you able to fit your starter in without cutting the 'ear' off the tranny on that side??
Advance Adapters tells me I have to cut the starter side ear off the transmission for the starter to fit ?!?!?

Did you use a factory AMC starter?

Thanks.

Like Yeller says in his post, cutting the ear off is more for the exhaust depending on what exhaust you may have I think. The factory starter fits in there fine and is tight but what I did was change it out to the Powermaster XS High Torque starter, there is more room around the starter doing this and I wanted to put some heat shield around it, the other thing you will run into is the upper bolt holding the starter on needs to be put in from the back side of the adapter before you mount the bell housing or you won't get it in there, this also makes it hard mount the starter because now the bolt is almost up against the bell housing, there is no way to get it out if your threads where ever damaged unless you pull the bell housing back enough to get another bolt in. What I did with this is I took a 3/4" pipe nipple and drilled out the bell housing directly behind where the bolt goes in to mount the starter on the top, cut the inside part of the nipple at the angle of the bell housing and JB welded it in there so you have access from the outside of the bell housing to get to it, I also put a Allen Bolt in that has a smaller head and just easier to install, you will be able to access that bolt now from either the bottom or the back and replace it if you ever need to. I put a pipe cap on the end of the nipple and it all looks great and worked well! I'm not home to take a photo of what I did but will try to get my wife to do it sometime soon and post it for you. Another issue you will find is you will need to have someone fab up a dust cover for the torque converter which I have someone doing when they get time, it needs to be about 1 inch longer on the engine side, hope this helps......

[Jevman]

Here is a photo I found

[OldFarmTruck22]

Thanks Jevman, very cool how you did that starter access hole. I just cut the ear off on that side according to Advance Adapters instructions. I like what you did though, retains a lot more of the case integrity.
Hey, here's one for you ... what did you do about your transmission oil lines to the 700r4? I had the Turbo 400 in there and they are a larger fitting at the transmission. Did you totally replace your lines or adapt them?
Thanks

[Jevman]

Thanks Jevman, very cool how you did that started access hole. I just cut the ear off on that side according to Advance Adapters instructions. I like what you did though, retains a lot more of the case integrity.
Hey, here's one for you ... what did you do about your transmission oil lines to the 700r4? I had the Turbo 400 in there and they are a larger fitting at the transmission. Did you totally replace your lines or adapt them?
Thanks

I replaced them with solid SS lines up to the radiator then went with flexible SS.

[OldFarmTruck22]

Cool. What company stainless lines did you go with? I cant find a company that makes lines to fit a FSJ with the right size fittings for the 700r4.
Thanks

[Jevman]

Cool. What company stainless lines did you go with? I cant find a company that makes lines to fit a FSJ with the right size fittings for the 700r4.
Thanks

I bought a roll of SS line from Summit and bent my own lines..........

[Srdayflyer]

suggestion,
I'd suggest using a remote trans. oil cooler and not using the radiator oil cooler as you only cool the fluid to what ever the radiator is at . i tow a lot and under heavy loads i still reach 200 degrees and normally run 160 no load, IMO

[Yeller]

suggestion,
I'd suggest using a remote trans. oil cooler and not using the radiator oil cooler as you only cool the fluid to what ever the radiator is at . i tow a lot and under heavy loads i still reach 200 degrees and normally run 160 no load, IMO

I concur. Never understood how you cool to 160* with 200* water. Only exception would be if you live in the great white north and travel regularly at -0 temps, but even that is questionable.

[Srdayflyer]

i dont run the trans fluid thru the rad. only my 10 row dedicated cooler, 200 was the most i ever saw towing my 27' travel trailer going up mtn grades, normal temp is 160*