so my boss has this crappy 63 nova that has been sitting in the back garage for some time now, only to occasionally be brought out to "work" on it. this usually consists of us picking it apart & discussing how crappy of a car it really is, then parking it out back. well, the nova some how got on his good side & is now being rebuilt as a nose high street freak. we got lotsa goon-hand to make right on this load. last friday we drove the nova in the shop & hacked the front suspension out of it to make room for a junkyard solid axle out of a 2 wheel drive jeep cherokee. obviously we cut all the brackets off ground it smooth & welded on new perches. this got us a nice disc brake upgrade and the track width is spot on. the axle is reversed keeping it rear steer allowing us to use the factory steering box and pitman arm. the pitman arm stud was removed, leaving a big hole to fill. to fill this hole we used the factory jeep pitman arm. we cut the hole where the stud goes through off the arm ground it down with an angle grinder to just fit in the factory nova arm. heated the nova arm & press fit the jeep nub in then welded it all up. this allowed us to use a parts store jeep drag link. of course now it has a few custom bends in it for oil pan clearance and to line up with the tie rod correctly. all this is suspended from the factory nova subframe with trailer springs & associated brackets & such from e-trailer.com so as of tonite this car has no drivetrain, no brakes, no wiring, no nothing really, but we got plenty of spare parts to thrash this thing together for our self imposed deadline of august 6th, the milltown returns 4 show in palmer mass. see you there.
wow you guys are really killing it..... what is the front axle out of...year and make..close up shots
That "piece of crap" looks nicer than most of the cars I've owned! The jeep axle is a good idea. more pics/details please.
Looks good from where I'm sittin'..... Crappy is when it's F.U.B.A.R. This one here looks like it can be saved....
here is some axle info I found on a google search: another option on a straight front axle is go find a 2wd 1987-2001 jeep cherokee and looky under the front.. you might like what you see.... ignore all of the non-factory stuff... that's a Jeepspeed series cherokee that's being built for desert racing. as you can see it's a nice straight beam axle that's about 60" wide wms-wms. grind all of the factory brackets off and fab up what you need. you get disk brakes, 5 on 4.5 lug pattern, and ball joints. the wheel bearings are unitized hub bearing assembly on 93 and later... 92 and earlier use and actual spindle with serviceable bearings.
yeah, ours is a 93+. once you cut all the brackets off it really is a nice useable & readily available axle. ours was $125 complete & delivered from a local junkyard. i think the total $ in the solid axle swap is right around $4 hundo.
glad to see someone found another axle to use beside the old 60's econoline there getting hard to find ....
shaved about another 50lbs off the nose by hacking out the inner fenders on this beautiful 80 degree day. tomorrow we're gonna clean up the frame rails "all purdy like" and brace the motor mounts up a lil better. we plan on getting some down tubes made up to connect the firewall to the front subframe. @ swade41, awesome pic
Holy crap! I work at a Dodge Jeep dealer and I've been thinking about that for many years. For those that don't know, the 2x4 Jeep Cherokees had a dummy straight axle so it would bolt up just like a 4x4 frt housing. It was just a straight empty tube instead of a complete frt end. Way to think outside of the box!
it's "Z"d to run as level & parallel as we could get it without totally re-engineering the the steering. so no it's not perfect & will prolly develop some bump steer, but i think it'll be ok. it's most likely gonna wind up with a steering dampener shock.
here's the small block we're using. it's a 400 out of a friend of a friends wrecked third gen camaro, we know the car and we know the motor's a strong runner.
man, that thing is really looking tough already....nice job!!! I used a Jeep DJ front axle (mail jeep) in an Austin I was building. nice and narrow. the only trouble was wheel choices, due to the fact that it required such a large center hole in the wheel to clear the big Jeep hub....does the cherokee axle have that problem??? I am collecting parts right now to straight axle my 65 Rambler, and may consider what you have done to save $$$$. the speedway kit is too much for me. keep the pics coming!!!
lil bit of progress on the 400, got a new timing chain installed as well as a new oil pan & gaskets. engine bays pretty much all set to drop the drivetrain back in this week.
well looks like my boss is wussing out on the dual quad tunnel ram, "due to time constraints", in favor of a very lame low rise single plane torker intake. let him know hoew you feel about this...
tell him the tunnel ram is like having a hot girl naked in front of you, and choosing the 80 year old hooker instead
the tunnel ram lives! for now... it's actually bolted on & i just finished up running the fuel lines. so glad we didn't just rubber line it
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