The Build of Wanda

[Savage90]

let’s get the rear coilovers swapped and get the rear swaybar in the correct location and out of the way of destroying it in the ricks. 

[Savage90]

Long day when you don’t have nitrogen so you have to do all this with pressurized Coilovers.

 

got the Coilovers swapped from one side to the other so I can mount the reservoirs in new locations. 
 

this might have been the second hardest part. Can’t get up into a space with a welding helmet on to really see what I was doing. Hell it was hard enough getting the welder into a position where I could lay a bead. 
 

but it ended up being a successful day. However my swaybar links are too short now. So I only Have the bar mounted and now arms. 
 

I’ll include a before photo of why I had to move the reservoirs to get the swaybar in the correct location. 

 

 

[Savage90]

Guess I was Just tired yesterday. The swaybar links will work. Couldnt hurt to be a little longer but they are long enough to where it won’t invert at full droop. 

 

[riskitforthebiskit]

Much better!!! 

[Savage90]

Todays project was rebuilding the drag link. 
Before today I bought All the materials I needed To get this done: tube, weld bungs. That’s about it. Felt confident.

went to my buddies house to do the work since he had a good set up and the proper tools to cut material precisely. He also tig welds these kind of parts. 
 

anyways…. I bought the wrong size weld bungs. .
luckily he has a lot of extra parts. He had a LH threaded bung but unluckily he did not have a RH thread bung. 
 

so he ended up building me one with material in his shop. 
 

he turned down the material to the correct thickness to fit in the tube and bore out the middle so we could tap it. 
 

long story short we were able to complete the drag link

[Jdofmemi]

Pretty cool having a friend with that kind of capabilities in his shop! 

[Savage90]

No new stuff for me but found out today that my front passanger bypass is leaking

hopefully the guy I paid to rebuild them can help me out. 

 

[Jdofmemi]

It's always something, isn't it

[Savage90]

Finally got around to getting my leaky bypass serviced. Very happy to say this was the easiest time I have Had pulling off a bypass for the DTD set up. 
 

out one day and back in the next. Wanda is good to go now! 
 

still need to figure out the PS growling noise tho.

 

also added some new stickers to the coilover reservoirs. 

 

 

 

[Savage90]

Also forgot I chucked The wheels when pulling the bypass. Thought something felt weird when backing up. oops

[Savage90]

When my jeep was being built I knew I was Going to be adding a roll cage. 
 

Unfortunately that’s not this update:( 

 

but because of that I didnt Want to drill anymore holes than the previous owner already did in the dash just to temporarily mount the switch pro. so I picked a spot on the dash that already had a 1” hole drilled and was just going to use double sided tap to hold it until I got a cage to mount it to. 
well the double sided tape has failed time and time again so I eventually Just gave up and let it dangle in the air. 
 

anyways it got annoying and was time to fix it. But how without drilling more holes. 
 

I came up with the idea of drilling and slotting the middle out of a 3/4” bolt. Welding it to a plate that mounts to the switch pro. And using a nut to thread into the bolt and pinch the dash.  Here is the end result. 

 

[Weebz]

Nice.  Love thinking outside the box. 

[AJK]

Nice. That came out good. 

[Jdofmemi]

On 4/9/2024 at 6:47 PM, Savage90 said:

When my jeep was being built I knew I was Going to be adding a roll cage. 
 

Unfortunately that’s not this update:( 

 

but because of that I didnt Want to drill anymore holes than the previous owner already did in the dash just to temporarily mount the switch pro. so I picked a spot on the dash that already had a 1” hole drilled and was just going to use double sided tap to hold it until I got a cage to mount it to. 
well the double sided tape has failed time and time again so I eventually Just gave up and let it dangle in the air. 
 

anyways it got annoying and was time to fix it. But how without drilling more holes. 
 

I came up with the idea of drilling and slotting the middle out of a 3/4” bolt. Welding it to a plate that mounts to the switch pro. And using a nut to thread into the bolt and pinch the dash.  Here is the end result. 

 

I like it!  Simple, and it is also a clean look.

[fiend]

Pretty slick, Mike!

[Savage90]

Dang blink fluid maintenance escalated quickly!

 

just kidding. It’s been on my calendar for almost a month . Today is day 1 of the motor swap time. 

 

it was all going well until it wasn’t. 
 

taking the radiator support bracket off turned out to be a whole ordeal. 
 

It previous owners gifts just keep on giving . 
 

simply removing the headlights and pulling the 8 bolts that hold it on turned into removing half the front wiring harness. All because the previous owner decided to cut and splice the headlights in. 
since electrical is not my thing I didnt want to cut any of the headlight wiring:/ so now I have this mess to deal with. 

 

hard to tell but I have A large harness now attached to the support bracket. 

also, Not sure these are rated for automotive… fittings for my transmission cooler 

 

day 2 tomorrow!

[Jdofmemi]

Prior shitty owners/builders are the gift that never seems to come to an end.

 

I feel your pain!

[Weebz]

Looking forward to this.   Good luck. 

[Savage90]

10 hours ago, Jdofmemi said:

Prior shitty owners/builders are the gift that never seems to come to an end.

 

I feel your pain!

Oh man if anyone does it’s you! Haha

[Savage90]

4 hours ago, Weebz said:

Looking forward to this.   Good luck. 

Makes 2 of us. Let’s just hope I know how to put it back together. 

[Savage90]

Day 2 of Wanda’s motor exchange. 
 

Im not going to lie. Going into day 2 I felt a little overwhelmed. 
What’s that saying? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.. 

 

As of today; I just did little by little to try and keep moving forward. 

I got all the electrical done with the exception of a few plugs that I have to get once I pull the intake tomorrow. 
 

after that, i think all that remains is mechanical; such as drive shafts, shifter cables, drop transfercase, remove tras crossmember and boom, motor comes out!:) 

 

photos don’t look like I did A lot. Lol. 

[Weebz]

Damn. Looks like a lot of progress to me.  Have to be honest that pulling an engine is something I have never done but always wanted to.   Seems daunting with electrical.   Mechanical stuff wouldn’t bother me so mech.  

[Jdofmemi]

1 hour ago, Weebz said:

Damn. Looks like a lot of progress to me.  Have to be honest that pulling an engine is something I have never done but always wanted to.   Seems daunting with electrical.   Mechanical stuff wouldn’t bother me so mech.  

The good thing about electrical is that most of it is specific plugs that only fit where they belong.

 

At least until you get into work that has been "customized". Then all bets are off.

 

Lots of "before" pictures help to avoid mistakes putting it back.

 

Getting all the ground straps on is an occasionally overlooked item that can cause problems.

 

 

[Savage90]

12 hours ago, Weebz said:

Damn. Looks like a lot of progress to me.  Have to be honest that pulling an engine is something I have never done but always wanted to.   Seems daunting with electrical.   Mechanical stuff wouldn’t bother me so mech.  

This isn’t something I would normally take on. Only doing it because there was a V8 already in the Jeep so as long as I can Reassemble everything it should work out.

electrical isn’t my thing so cutting and splicing and all that jazz is over my head. 

11 hours ago, Jdofmemi said:

The good thing about electrical is that most of it is specific plugs that only fit where they belong.

 

At least until you get into work that has been "customized". Then all bets are off.

 

Lots of "before" pictures help to avoid mistakes putting it back.

 

Getting all the ground straps on is an occasionally overlooked item that can cause problems.

 

 

I have Taken a bunch of photos and notes along the way. Ever plug I removed I labeled and noted where and what is is. 
 

grounds I was Worried about. I inly Found 2 grounds aside from the battery ground to the block. Part of which I think Was done incorrectly to begin with. the previous owner…. Well, not great work. 

[Savage90]

Part 1:

 

old motor is out and exchange motor is in. More on the impart later in part 2. lol

 

OHHHHH BOY!!!!! 

 

Day #3 of the motor exchange was tough and long!!

 

12 hours were put in today and I even had an extra set of hands. He isn’t familiar with jeeps but can hold a wrench and problem solve. 

ok let’s start. 

Unfortunately my lower control arms are attached to the transmission crossmember so I had to pull those to get the crossmember out.

boyyyy did I almost have a heart attack once the control arms were pulled!!! 
the front axle rolled a good 6-8” forward. Not only did I think the front axle was going to drop out but the shafts to my DTD front suspension was going to be destroyed. And I have 3.0 bypasses  I saw Money being burned in that moment. Lol

luckly everything was fine and I was able to move the axle back into position as well as secure it from moving again. 
 

The motor was relatively easy to pull compared to the last one I took out. Didn’t even touch the fire wall on the way out!! (very short lived. Later to come) 

then came swapping parts. The motor that came out had a few difference sensors as well as a different valley cover that didn’t have an AFM sensor I needed. 
here is a look at inside the motor and a peak at the cam shaft

I then had to swap exhaust manifolds and a few other odds and ends 
after that it was about time to get the motor on the hoist and get it back in the Jeep. That was until I realized the transmission to transfer case adapters were different and my stock JK transfercase I was going to reuse was not going to work.  Look at the adapter bolts. 
On the left they bolt into the bell housing. On the right. The bell housing had threads and you thread in a nut. Otherwise my solution was to swap them. 

the motor I’m putting in now came with a Hero 3 speed case. My plan was to always use it in the future but just not yet for several reasons. 
1. modifying the trans tunnel to accept the much larger and 185lb case 

2. Build a custom center console for the three transfer case shifters. 
3. I will need to get my drive shafts modified. 
4. it’s heavy and I wanted to build a crossmember to support it when the time came. 
 

I should add a photo of the size differences of them later. The weight difference is crazy enough.