Did the yard paint pen the parts? Always a low-buck sign! Of course if they match the underside, it might look like it's all OE junk...
Got the front end swapped in today, and the old rear out, and both old axles on fb marketplace for sale. So far I've sold about $600 or so of stuff locally and on ebay, amazing what a few thing sell for...I got $95 for the valve cover off the 4 cyl, and the dipstick and tube from it sold for $62. Weird.
I used the original 2 wheel drive front axle from a 1989 Cherokee. These things were made both 2 and 4 wheel drive. The 2wd are pretty rare, but I found one at a junkyard. I wanted to move it forward, but that's time and money that I don't need to spend...they sell all different length control arms for guys who lift them, so that part isn't too hard. The vertical coil springs and shocks will kind of limit how far you can go.
My son yesterday for giggles ran his stock Yukon down the track. Is “Cheep” coming out to LS Fest next year?
I haven't planned that far ahead, but I'd like to go to Drag Week...which is two weeks later...so probably not gonna happen.
set the new rear in place...still some work to do on shock brackets, and finalizing the pinion angle, and making the traction bars. I also did an experiment with the parking brake cables, to see if it works. Welded a washer to the button, so it can pull the lever. Sold the old axles today...and ordered a whole bunch more parts. They sure add up, maybe I'll make the $9k goal, maybe not, but if I don't do the accounting properly, it won't really matter, eh?
Speaking of adding up. Are you going to leave the skid plate on the gas tank? All those unnecessary parts add up and I think you have a weight goal.
This one seems to just have a plastic cover under the gas tank. I just glanced at it. If it's not much work, or I have to pull the tank for some other reason, I'll take it out, but if it only weighs a pound I probably won't bother. There are a bunch of other things I've taken off to save weight. I do think about every part I look at, if it's really necessary or not. And there's a tradeoff of work for weight, I'm also lazy!
As a person that had a history with a couple of cool checker marathons, I still miss them and the short time period that @squirrel had his adventure with the Black and Blue warrior. I have to admit, now with the birth of "CHEEP" I am indeed a big fan of Jim's latest project ! Thanks from Dennis.
thanks! I ordered a bunch more parts over the weekend. now I'm off camping for several days, but there's good phone connection, so I get emails about all the stuff being delivered, that my kid is bringing into the house for me, and I don't get to play with it till Friday.
Did Zephyr or Aardvark miss their signs? What did you do with the rest of the alphabet? Great thread and like all your threads, following along.
I got back from camping, there was a big pile of boxes waiting for me. I've been going through all the parts and figuring out what else I need...put in another order today from summit...it never ends? Took one of the heads apart, they need stiffer springs for the new cam. I decided to do a little lapping on the exhaust seats to take away the carbon, just because. But I probably won't do much else to them, just some more cleaning, and probably new valve stem seals.
They did a really good job building these engines, there's nothing to be gained by doing all that fun work. And this is the non-traditional forum
A before and after the 320 grit ball hone. There are still a few rusty areas, but they're down low and minimal depth. I think it'll be fine. Ring gap check says they're right where they want to be after 147k miles.
Yeah, I saw the ports and thought, hmm. Then remembered forced induction. Other gains elsewhere. Glad the project seems to be going well for you, Jim.
Saw LT motor aluminum heads. Looked like machined for steel value seats 1” into ports left huge ridge up into ports. I always did my own porting to at least smooth out ports. Will have to check iron LS 5.3 see what I think
Older chevy heads needed a lot of smoothing work! but the LS engines were designed after Chevy figured out how flow works, and that it's important to build in good flow from the start.
The Jalopy Journal
