Putting An AX15 In My 82' CJ7 - Page 5

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 04-17-2010, 01:14 AM

Joe you may be right. I just chose that position because it worked without editing the pedal. Your way sounds like it was much better. I measure from inside the cab and that "knock out" isn't visable from that side so never occurred to me.

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 04-21-2010, 04:17 PM

I reclocked the TC today... It made such a huge difference being able to do this on a solid peice of concrete instead of the spongy ground at the property in Il. I found that AA is wrong in their instructions again. I clocked it at the lowest position, the position that their install instructions say that you will have to edit the shifter assembly to clear the tranny case. This was not an issue the assembly cleared the tranny just fine. It was like a hair off the case but Who cares.

I am not reinstalling the single shifter assembly for the D300 as I splurged and got a twin stick off ebay and it will mount a tad different than original so if you are doing this and do not go that route you may want to make sure you install the retaining bolt for the shifter as you will not be able to stick it through the assembly without cutting a hole in the floor.

Un fortunately, although reclocking brought the yoke downward, I still do not have an awful lot of clearence on the bell below the BH. I think I am going to call AA and see what they say about that.

**mtbtweety** · 04-21-2010, 04:26 PM

So you're a little farther ahead of me on this. I'm planning on using my original shifter on my D300. Since you're not, wanna sell me yours so I can cut it up and have it re-welded? I'm a bit worried about not having two of them, because I'm thinking I may mess the first one up a bit....

Thanks!
Brandon

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 04-24-2010, 02:59 PM

Yeah I can sell u my lever no big deal just pm me with an offer. Are u sure u don't want to just go twin stick there is an outfit on eBay selling them for about 90 sometheing after shipping and this includes knobs and the boot. I thought it was a good deal.

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 04-28-2010, 04:49 PM

Well for all who are still interested I got my Twin stick today. The one I bought can be found here: Jeep Dana 300 Stainless twin-stick shifter with boot,CJ : eBay Motors (item 150437042163 end time May-04-10 12:00:18 PDT) It was a pretty good deal and the craftsmanship seems pretty sturdy. Its a very simple set up so I am sure if you are creative you can make your own at home. The first problem I ran into was that this was made specifically for a stock CJ Drive train which have a lot lower clocking than I was able to get from AA clocking kit so the rear yolk control lever (or whatever you want to call it) was jamming into the tranny shifter. After a closer inspection I decided I was going to go Crazy and just mount it opposite of the way the manufacturer intended. It seemed to fit so Problem solved. This brought me directly to my second problem which was the the adapter that mounts the stick on the left side had a weld to retain a bolt that interfered with the shifter for the front drive shaft(it will be a little clearer in the pics. Basically as it was if you tried to move the right stick(front driveshaft) it would bring the left one along for the ride. The base of these are really thick metal and since the welded bolt seems incredibly important I decide to take metal off the bottom of the shifter instead of the weld. Once that was done everything fit together nicely and shifts without interference. It was hard to measure where exactly the sticks were going to come out so Opted to just cut a nice ugly hole in the tub(so glad it isnt a glass tub

) which ended up being about the same size as the hole in the Tranny acces plate. Of course instead of being a hole in the access plate now its a huge hole in the tub but I am ok with it, I am sure the next owner is going to curse my name tho lol. I cut a peice that I am just going to rivet over the old TC shifter hole and I need to get some ruber gasket material so I can make the weather lock to go under the shift boots as the old one fell apart. I found that I could not get the bolt through the shifter housing because it was too long to get around the tub. If you know you are going twin stick then I suggest going ahead and cutting the left arm of the shift tower off while the tranny is on the ground because it was an ugly job trying to do it in that little space I had. once I cut it off I still found the bolt was impacting the side of the tub and therefore not going through all the way. So i further abused my jeep by grabbing a one inch hole saw, measureing and cutting a hole in the floor so that the bolt can be accessed from inside the tub. I have an extra drain plug that will fit right into this spot so I think wilkl be just fine from now on.

The last issue I had was that it looks like the shifters are taking up a lot of space where the passenger seat needs to slide back and forth and lift up. I need to have the shift levers bent a little, which isnt surprising and I wouldn't mind them a tad closer to the driver anyhow. Just need to find a decent shop for that in Mobile if anyone knows one?? Also while I am asking I still need to find a shaft shop if anyone has any suggestions. I am happy with it over all its pretty cool. In retrospect because I had to flip it around it turned out to be a little more PITA than I had been expecting. But these jeeps always have a way to kick ya when you least expect it. PICS: Twin stick kit:

I love this, these are the instructions that came with it. Seven words and just a pic of what it should look like, "Make it So!" Notice that the pic shows the elbows on the shifters facing toward the tranny. I installed my setup with them facing the passenger to avoid hitting the tranny shifter. If you have the sticks bent before installation i think that you can intall them the correct way but this seemed easier for me.

Shot of well before cutting

The ugly hole I ended up with

I decided that I needed to put a support across the top of the hole to prevent the lip from bending, Notice my welding skills are far worse than my cutting skills.

This is what the right shifter looked like after My angle grinder got done with it.

Mocked up with the access plate.

Mocked up with the interior, I ordered a rattle can that is supposed to be colormatched to the brown copper mettalic my jeep is so I decided to try painting the shifters, I think they dont look too bad.

Read more: Doing an AX15 Swap - Page 4 - Jeep-CJ Forums

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 05-01-2010, 12:22 AM

Got the driveshafts from the shop today, it drives!

I decided I am going to turn the twin sticks around the right way and just have a machinist bend them slightly so I can clear reverse and 5th. Instead of welding up that ugly hole I cut to clear the shifters I am going to make a access plate to allow access to the shifter base for later removal if need be.

I am almost done with this project!

I wonder how long this will stay this good looking silver color?!

here I tried to snap a shoft of the belhousing clearence. I will get a better pic of it and the rear shaft installed tomorrow

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 05-04-2010, 11:11 PM

I burned my hydraulic clutch hose up on the exhaust the other day so I picked up the hose that runs from MC to the SC from Local Cj guy (I mean CJ guy, he had 1 white CJ laredo, 1 Cj 6, 1 CJ8, another cj7 with the front clip removed, a CJ8 tub 3 cj tubs, 2 YJ tubs, axles galore, D300s everywhere, pretty much every tranny ran in a cj ever all laying around) Mopar says you aren't supposed to be able to replace just the hydraulic line, but they also tried to make it so you couldn't bleed the linkages as well, but the thing had to of been put together somehow in the factory, the companents didn't just go in a cauldron and magically fuse together. SO I am going to try to cheat mopar tonight and see if I can't get it all in.

I finished the floor panels today. I couldn't find any decent rubber gasket material so I went to the store and picked up some little kids arm floaties and decided to make do.Its not pretty but the carpet will be going over it and I think it will keep 90 % of the elements out. As far as the floor panel goes I am done. Just got to put the carpet down and then screw in the boots whenever the T-5 boot I ordered gets here.

Once I get the clutch working and away from the Exhaust all I got to do is take it to my mechanic and have him tune the carb and get the timing right(I tried and failed miserably) and I should be on the road!

Shifters after having the local 4wd shop rebend them. they charged me 20 bucks a shifter! I think that is a little steep but we didn't discuss price when I dropped it off so thats on me.

My Make shift weather gasket

First Attempt/Failure at making a plate/gasket for the access plate I made so that the shifters can be easily removed. With my clocking part of the shifter's arm is poking through the floor so i had to make room for its throw.

My revised access plate.

Installed

Tranny Access Plate in

skclark · 06-03-2010, 01:59 PM

Way to go man, I hope to follow in your footsteps in another month or so. 20 bucks a shifter to bend them!? That's just BS man.

**mtbtweety** · 06-03-2010, 02:28 PM

Finally got mine completed, but I suck at photo documentation.

Things I struggled with:
1) the pilot bearing. My crank was non-standard ID. Had it been standard, I could've gotten the pilot bearing at OReilly. Novak helped me greatly here, but it wasn't a quick process (shipping, return, shipping return, shipping, return)
2) $20 to bend is cheaper than buying a torch and a welder....Trust me on this one....
3) That Dana300 is one heavy ***** - especially for one person.
4) check the seal of the output shaft of the xfer case. See point 3....
5) get the entire Mastercylinder / slave cylinder / clutch hose at once. It's probably easier and cheaper than a SS braided hose and a new slave cylinder...

Overall, the swap wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I just hope the D300 holds up. It seems to be whining a bit...

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 06-04-2010, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skclark

Way to go man, I hope to follow in your footsteps in another month or so. 20 bucks a shifter to bend them!? That's just BS man.

Well I went twin stick so they charged me 20 a shifter to bend them so 40 tgether. I was thinking it would be alot less

**ThisGuyUKnow** · 06-04-2010, 01:08 AM

I too had an issue with the pilot bearing. It kept falling out of the crank but I Becker it and t was the same size as the one I removed. It must have gone in right because before I had idling issues and decided to go 4.0 mpfi the road tests seemed smooth and good. I am told that if you pilot were installed incorrectly there would be no question.

I did have to move the clutch mc upward to the lung out like another member pointed out. While I was at that I pulled the dash and installed a whole yj clutch/brake pedal assembly as well as a yj brake booster. I did this with the recomendation from onlyinajeepcj because, as he pointed out, this puts all components together that were originally designed by jeep to work with one another in harmony. The yj brake pedal assembly requires a new hole to be drilled near the fender to hold a support bracket and was almost a direct swap.

Also once I finish my 4.0 head/injection I will be pulling the access plate for my shifters and rethinking it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtbtweety

Finally got mine completed, but I suck at photo documentation.

Things I struggled with:
1) the pilot bearing. My crank was non-standard ID. Had it been standard, I could've gotten the pilot bearing at OReilly. Novak helped me greatly here, but it wasn't a quick process (shipping, return, shipping return, shipping, return)
2) $20 to bend is cheaper than buying a torch and a welder....Trust me on this one....
3) That Dana300 is one heavy ***** - especially for one person.
4) check the seal of the output shaft of the xfer case. See point 3....
5) get the entire Mastercylinder / slave cylinder / clutch hose at once. It's probably easier and cheaper than a SS braided hose and a new slave cylinder...

Overall, the swap wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I just hope the D300 holds up. It seems to be whining a bit...