The 435 has arrived!

Today Nick showed up with my NP435. I want to throw a big thank you out to him for picking it up for me. Hes cool as hell and I definitely enjoyed kicking it, sharing wheeling stories, and having a beer with him. Things seem to spin well in the trans. I'm going to clean it up, paint it, and then rebuild it. I need to find the factory Dodge NP435 to NP205 case adapter. I know that you can make D300 bolt up with that adapter, which tells me a 231 will bolt up with a little work. I also need to find a bell housing, clutch, pressure plate, ect. to make it bolt up to my 5.9L Magnum. I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Small update... Good and Bad News.

I've got a small update with some good and bad news. First the bad news. The kid that had the D300 that I wanted to buy didn't know what he really had. Please people, if you're selling something, know what you have and save every body involved time, money, and headaches. It took me 10 minutes to look up how to identify every t-case that ever came in a CJ as well as the history behind them. Its interesting stuff and stuff you should know if you plan on buying a D300, D20, or D18. The T-case was really a D18 and not a D300. Very easy to distinguish the two of them from one another. Right away I knew what it was and I was pretty disappointed. Back on the hunt for a D300 I guess.....

Now for the good news. My NP435 is on its way home. I found a guy on a local ish forum that makes the drive back and forth periodically. We met up and he was cool as hell. He went and picked the trans up for me and brought it back. Its not in my hands yet because of my schedule, but it will be by the end of this week. I definitely owe him some beer. I'm very excited about this transmission. Pictures will get posted soon.

More changes.

It appears that winter weather is upon us here, or its at least starting to get noticeably more cold. I've been thinking about what would make a good winter project. I realized that I already basically had one. My dad and I have been working on his shop. We're in the process of finishing up hanging the ceiling and insulating the walls. I managed to score my dad a 5 year old Lennox 80% gas furnace that we're going to use to keep the temperatures at least bearable. We just need it to keep it above freezing and keep the machinery at a reasonable operating temperature to help prevent things from rusting. I have no doubt that the furnace would keep the shop at a decent temperature though as its a big furnace. We still need to finish the insulation in the walls, put up OSB (not using sheet rock) on the walls, wrap up the ceiling, hang the furnace, reroute the gas piping, run the electrical for the furnace, convert the furnace to propane, hang the furnace, vent the furnace, take care of the duct work, blow insulation into the attic, and make a little shelving. It sounds like a ton of work and it really is, but it shouldn't take as long as it sounds.

That's one of my winter projects. Help my dad finish out his shop. It will be far too cold to do any major work on the Jeep very shortly. There's no room for my Jeep in the shop as my dad's 1955 T-bird is in the shop. Thus I must work on the majority of the Jeep stuff outside. I got to thinking about my recent decision to change up the drive train and a light bulb clicked on. I can make a little room to work on the drive train. I can rebuild my trans, t-cases, get all my adapters in order, rebuild my 5.9L, and try to get my drive train bolted together and in working shape. I could also work on the axles too if I can manage to get around to it and/or afford it. What does this leave me with? A running Jeep for the winter. That means with a bit of maintenance and a little extra work I can hit some snow this winter while I work on my drive train.

I still want to try to at least pick up a set of corner guards so that I can do the body work ASAP once it starts to warm up again or if conditions become favorable due to freak weather. If I can swing the fuel cell and what not as well, then that would be an added bonus, but from what I've read, the drive train will probably nickle and dime me to death for the winter any way. I've also got a go kart engine to rebuild, but I've already got all the stuff to do it. So if I hit a snag on the big stuff, then I may switch over to that to hold me over.

Any way, this is how I hope my winter goes. I really hope that its productive and I get in some really good snow wheeling this year.

I couldn't help myself.

A little update. I know I said I had a plan I was sticking to, but with much deliberation and some inspiration from GTXRacer, I've decided that the AX-15 might just be too much of a weak link with a 5.9L for me to keep around. I could probably sell the AX-15 and break even once its out of the Jeep, so its not much of a big deal to me. You might wonder what I plan swapping in the AX-15's place. Well, my plan is to drop in an NP435. It should laugh at what the 5.9L has to throw at it. That also means I can make a bit more power. I have a lead on a Dodge 435 for a good price and with any luck it will be mine soon

Now, I also have a lead on a D300 for cheap as well. The 300 is more up in the air. I need to go take a look at it and make sure there's nothing horribly wrong with it or that its not really a D20. I don't mind a case that needs a rebuild though. This all subtracts from my corner guard money, but who could turn all this down for $200 total? If this all works out for me, only one thing comes to mind.... WINNING!

More Parts.

Just a little update. More parts rolled in. I've now got my boat side rockers from Dave's Customs  Unlimited. While they aren't installed yet, I can say that Dave kept me up to date on my order and was great to deal with. The rockers were packaged well, too well in fact. I spent so much time unwrapping them that I hardly got to admire them. That's a good thing though. My over all first impression was that they are certainly quality pieces. They came with everything needed to install them and I cant wait to do just that, install them. A big thanks goes out to Dave.

These pics don't really do them justice. They are nice pieces for sure. Certainly stout, they weighed in at just under 60 lbs. I just want to give you an idea of what they look like and the amount of clearance gained from using them. One thing is for sure, lots of cutting is in my future.