custom long arm/engine swap

[stikboy13]

All of the wiring took me into day 4. Once it was completed though, I started in on all of the "litte" stuff.

Fuel line: I disconnected the Jeep line at the frame rail under the drivers side firewall. The Dodge line snapped right into place.

Power steering lines: After straightening the bends in the Jeep pressure line it screwed right into the Dodge pump and the return line fit like a glove. I did have to bend the metal line at the steering box for better clearance.

I reused the Jeep evap canister and control valve and ran the Dodge line from the passenger side of the intake to the Jeep line from the canister and joined them with a piece of vacuume line. The small line that feeds the HVAC/vacuume resevoir was reused and plugged into the passenger side intake. A longer hose was used to connect to the brake booster.

Tranny cooler lines: I reused the Dodge lines and used Transmission hose to connect to my Jeep radiator. I had replaced my radiator with an aluminum piece but it is a factory style unmodified 4.0 unit.

Hoses: upper is a Dakota 5.2 and lower is the factory 4.0 with a piece of pipe in the middle to aquire the correct spacing. A piece of 5/8 hose and a 5/8 to 3/4 adapter and 3/4 90 degree bend hose connects the pipe to one heater core connection while a 5/8 90 degree bend and a 5/8 splice connect the other.

Shifter: I couldn't locate a factory TJ shifter in time so I used a B&M Pro Stick I had. I made a plate to seal off the 5 speed shifter hole and mounted it to it. I could have left the shifter mounted far enough forward to not modify the console, but that would have left it tight to the dash, so I moved it back and cut the console. I used B&M tranny bracket kit #10497 made for the earlier 904 and 727 3 speed auto. Worked perfectly! I drilled a couple of holes in the console for the JK overdrive off button and an amber LED.

Air cleaner: I wanted to use the factory Dodge air box as I dont like the looks of the Dakota air plenum most use. FAIL! The factory box sits about an inch too tall. Plan b. Spectra performance makes a reusable element/element lid set up that works. I had to use a 1" spacer to clear all the cables and junk.

Exhaust: I had already made a 3" tail pipe when I made my long arms so that was easy. I had to do some creative cutting and adding of pipe to make the factory Dodge down pipes work. I welded them to a collector off of a 2000 Dodge I had. Then that flows int a 3" Magnaflo stainless steal muffler. It is WAY quieter than the 2.5" turbo muffler that was on my 4.0 to begin with.

Because I raised the transfer case up, I had a -18 degree pinion angle. I adjusted my upper control arms and now have an ok 3 degrees. A slip yoke eliminator is in my near future.

I'll get a completed pic of everything as soon as I re-loom all of the wires. I didn't want to finish it all before driving it some and make sure I didnt have any problems.

So the My four days were up before I could complete all of this. Working two hours a night for the next 8 days adds up to 16 hours or 2 8 hour days. I'm calling the actual swap 6 days, not to bad in my book. Now, to sort out what I'm gonna do about the A/C...

[mrfast]

Great info and write up Rich, looking forward to checking it out

[stikboy13]

Wow I'm slow at this updating stuff...

The a/c was a simple fix. I used a dryer from a Ford somethin-or-other. I just looked through Murray a/c book until I found one the right size with the correct ends to attach to the Jeep condensor and the factory Dodge compressor hose. On the hose from the compressor to the evaporator I cut the Jeep fitting out of its hose and crimped it onto the Dodge hard line using a piece of new hose:


charged it up and now I have cold a/c again.

Also had some new decals made:

Now, tme to drive and work out any bugs that may come up.

[stikboy13]

Well, had some problems. Jeep has been running great and I've been really pleased... until 9-6-2011. That is the day the automatic ate itself! What to do what to do? Lucky for me I still have the NV3550 I took out of the Jeep in the first place. After a little research I found out that a bell housing from a 94 - 99 Dakota 3.9 V6 5 speed has the same bolt pattern as ALL 5.2/5.9, has the relief for the crank sensor, the same bolt pattern for the slave cylinder, and the same tranny pattern as the NV3550. After a lot of phone calls, I located the bell housing in Georga. 5.2 and 5.9 have different balance and therefor different flywheels. Several calls later I had a flywheel coming from Michigan.

The bell housing came without the throwout arm. The 4.0 arm is the right length and snaps in correctly so into the bell housing it went along with a new throughout bearing for the used clutch. It had less than 50,000 miles on it, no hot spots, and very little wear. I wasn't sure if the 11" clutch/flywheel could be used where a 10.5" had been but no problemo! This is where I found my first snag. The crank position sensor is shorter for the standard than the automatic. I spaced it away from the block and it now clears the flywheel, problem solved. Next problem; the 5 speed is 2" shorter than the auto. I'll deal with that later...

[stikboy13]

Now that it is bolted up in place, the little stuff is popping up. When I did my long arms, I moved both axles out an inch. This leaves me with about 3/4" of spline engagement on the rear. I still have a slip yoke planned in the future so I dont wanna spend much to fix this. Looking arond I found a rear shaft from an old Cherokee. Shortened the shaft myself, moving on. The front shaft is iffy. I'm gonna cycle the suspension to see where I'm at there. I believe I will be shortening it some too. Redrilled the skidplate mounting holes, good to go. Shifter obviously has moved forward also but I don't know what to do with it yet as I cant remember to bring my floor plate for the standard.

[stikboy13]

Things came to a hault for a while. I had a bus for a Branson show I had to diagnose/repair. Ford Econoline with a 6.0 are a nightmare to work on btw.

So when I finally got back on my Jeep and finished the little stuff, I hit the key. It started so my spaced crank sensor is going to work. I hit the clutch and put it in first. I said I put it in first. I put it in... it won't go. Reverse? Nothing. I tried to start it in gear, no go. Pressure plate will not release. I decided to lengthen the slave cylinder push rod because I had a lot of free play. Still nothing. I made sure the slave and master were working corectly. Double checked to make sure the throwout bearing was correct. all 3.9, 5.8, 5.9, and 4.0 use the same throwout and cllutch fork so that's out of the question. Since I couldn't physically see the throwout action I decided to add a, ahem, "speed hole".

Now I can see what is going on inside.

Maybe I didn't get the pilot bearing driven all the way in? Out came the tranny. The pilot was a little crooked so maybe it is preloading the shaft? I drove it in all the way and reassembled. It still won't release. Out came the tranny again. I removed the disc/pressure plate and reinstalled the tranny. With the tranny in gear, the input shaft turns so it isn't binding up. Reinstalled disc/pressure plate and measured the throwout distance. 3/8". Maybe I have the fork backward? Remove tranny and flip the fork and remeasured. 1/4" That's not it either. The Dodge Ram uses a larger bore master cylinder and smaller bore slave cylinder than the Jeep so maybe this is the problem, not enough volume? Before I got I chance to test that theory my dad decided to remove the tranny,again, and take the flywheel, disc, pressure plate, throwout fork and bearing to Best Built and have them bench test it. According to their info, 3/16"-1/4" is all that is needed to release the pressure plate. On the bench one side wouldn't release all the way. He remounted and checked again, and again, and again. In moving it around, this

fell out. It was lodged in the plate and not letting one side lift to release all the way.

I reassemble and reattached everything and tested it. I can shift forward and backward! What a headache! Now I can check that front driveshaft andfigure out what to do about my shifter... If anyone has any ideas on how to move the shifter back 2 inches, let me know!

[stikboy13]

Problem solved. I just disassembled the shifter, cut it on the horizontal run, welded in 1 3/4" rod, and reassembled.


I think I'm gonna like having a V8 powered 5 speed Wrangler!!! Now, on to tube fenders and upgrading the cage...

[KURT Feely]

Day 3 continues with the wiring. I was going to town sorting out all of the fun stuff when I discovered the harness I had didn't match up to the transmission plugs and a few of the engine plugs. So, I scrapped it and started over. Before I started this endevor, I had contacted Evan at Backwoods Offroad since he has done many of these swaps. I had asked if the 98 Dodge pcm would communicate with the 2000 Jeep instrument cluster. This was before I had both shop manuals and determined that Yes they will talk just fine. He refused to give any "free" advice. So, for anyone searching for schematics or wondering what had to be done, here is all of my wiring changes. Altough these may be the same for more than the years of hardware I am using, use caution and double check all connections http://www.niceledlights.com!
 
C103 Black Firewall Connector
1  OR/DG O2 Sensor ----- Splice to OR/DG of Dodge Harness
2  DG/OR Alternator-PCM ----- Splice into DG/OR of Dodge Harness
3  RD/WT PDC-PCM Power ----- Splice to RD/WT of Dodge Harness PCM C1 22
4  Not Used
5  Not Used
6  DB/LG Fuel Level Sensor ----- Unchanged
7  DG/WT Fuel Pump Power Relay ----- Unchanged
8  BR/YL Speed Sensor Ground-PCM ----- Unchanged
9 RD/LG
10 BK/TN PCM-ADLD ----- Unchanged
11 BK/LB PCM-ADLD ----- Unchanged
12 WT/OR Speed Sensor ----- Splice to WT/OR of Dodge Harness PCM C2 27
13 BK/RD Transfer Case Indicator-Instrument Panel ----- Unchanged
14 DB/BK A/C Clutch-Compressor Clutch Relay in PDC ----- Splice to DB/BK (a/c clutch) of Dodge Harness
 
C104 Gray Firewall Connector
1 LG A/C High Pressure Switch -----LG/WT (a/c high pressure switch) of Dodge Harness
2 DB/WT A/C Low Pressure Switch
3 Not Used
4 Not Used
5 BR/LB PDC Starter Relay Ground-PCM ----- Splice to BK/WT of Dodge Harness PCM C1 6
6 Not Used
7 Not Used
8 Not Used
9 VT/BK
10 VT/WT Neutral Safety/Backup light Power ----- Splice to BR/LG of Dodge Transmission Harness
11 DG/LG Injector/coil Power
12 BR PDC Starter Relay-Starter ------- Spliced on Starter Wire From Dodge
13 DB PCM-Fuse Block ----- Splice to LG/BK of Dodge Harness PCM C1 2
14 Not Used
 
*VT/BK wire from Dodge transmission harness is for backup lights. I have added auxiliary backup lights so I spliced this into the relay for them.
 
C1 4 I had to y splice the BR/YL from the speed sensor into the BR/YL sensor ground of the Dodge harness since I made a stand alone speed sensor/fuel pump/transfer case harness
C1 31,32 BK/TN of Dodge harness must be y spliced into BK/TN of original Jeep harness.
C2 31 I had to y splice the VI/OR from the speed sensor into the OR 5v ref of the Dodge harness since I made a stand-alone speed sensor/fuel pump/transfer case harness.
 
Transmission control relay (Colors are for my relay plug reference only)
30 ----- BR/OR ----- Battery
85 ----- YL -----PK/BK PCM C2 30
86 ----- VI/OR ----- DG/LG from Alternator
87 ----- PI/WT ----- transmission plug pin 1
 
Cooling fan relay

 
A/C System
DB/BK from Dodge compressor to DB/BK C103 14 of Jeep
DB/OR from A/C low-pressure switch spliced to DB of Dodge high-pressure switch
LG/WT from Dodge high-pressure switch spliced LG C104 1 of Jeep
Overdrive
PCM C3 13 Transmission overdrive sense to momentary switch (added on) second terminal grounded
PCM C3 6 Overdrive lamp driver to amber led (added on) second terminal grounded

Sorry for the rotation of the diagram. I couldnt get it to rotate...

Can you show your luxury backing lights

[stikboy13]

Is this what you want? By the way, it will be at the Tri Lakes motors Jeep show October sixth