The Joopacabra build thread.

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I'm jealous of your progress. Wish you were my neighbor. What rear end do you have in the yj?
 
I'm jealous of your progress. Wish you were my neighbor. What rear end do you have in the yj?
I have a Dana 44 with an ARB air locker and 4.10 gears. With my 31 10.50 tires that is a good ratio
 
The yj auto trans is only a 3 speed non overdrive unit. So I need to compromise on the gearing and this is a good compromise for my purposes
 
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My Dad and my brother in law came over today, and so I got them to help me drop the engine in. we have it sitting in place anyway. still a lot to do, but the rest I can do by myself.
sRT3kMX.jpg
 
I haven't had much time the last few days, but I have the shift linkage installed, I put new ARP torque convertor bolts in with blue lock tite, and got the starter bolted back up. my new exhaust studs arrived today so tomorrow I will get my new Banks header bolted up. while I have it up on the lift I still need to get the crank position sensor installed. and then mock up the exhaust and make sure it is going to bolt up ok. lots of stuff yet to do, but I am on call this week. I have next wednesday evening off so maybe I can get some stuff done then. I really want to finish it up by memorial day.
 
I haven't had much time the last few days, but I have the shift linkage installed, I put new ARP torque convertor bolts in with blue lock tite, and got the starter bolted back up. my new exhaust studs arrived today so tomorrow I will get my new Banks header bolted up. while I have it up on the lift I still need to get the crank position sensor installed. and then mock up the exhaust and make sure it is going to bolt up ok. lots of stuff yet to do, but I am on call this week. I have next wednesday evening off so maybe I can get some stuff done then. I really want to finish it up by memorial day.
I'm curious what kind of gains you will get.
 
Man I forgot what a pain in the butt it is to install one of those banks headers. It took me an hour to get that one middle bolt tightened. But I did finally get it. I also got the crank position sensor in last night but that was about all I got accomplished
 
slowly but surely. I had to order the adapter fitting for the oil pressure sending unit, the 4.2 and 4.0 mount in different locations, and the stroker did not have the proper adapter attached. I could just use brass fittings, but I like the look of the stock piece better. I am also going to pull the power steering pump pulley off, and powdercoat it, it has multiple coats of old paint and lots of chips etc. I am going to try to make it purty before I put it back on.

zE8Xk8G.jpg
 
Looking good, can't wait til I can get back in my shop and get some work done
 
well, I made a stupid mistake last night. I am waiting on a few small parts, so I decided to do some detailing. the pulley for my power steering pump looked terrible. it was pitted and looked like it had 3 or 4 coats of paint and no one had ever stripped the paint off to repaint it, so I decided to pull it off and powder coat it. so no problem, I borrowed the puller installer from oreillys and pulled the pulley off, spent a few minutes with a wire wheel and 3 inch scotch bright pad and then powder coated it black. there are still a lot of pits that I am not going to be able to get out, but it looks better. then I go to put it back on and I find out the threads in the pump are stripped out and the installer will not thread in. so now I can't get the pully back on. I finally decided the pump looks like crap too, the return line is rusted etc. so I bought a reman version from summit. it will be here tuesday. another 40 bucks I should not have had to spend, but if it works, it should look better anyway. tonight I will finish up all the other minor details so all i will need to do is re install the powersteering pump, put the belt back on and put the grill back on then see if I can fire it up. after that, fix all the stuff I did not get right the first time, and clean up the wiring and do some more detailing and then get her out and drive. fingers crossed.
 
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