About us
Ben Olson
Suzuki LJ80
LJ80 story
Chris Olson
Jeep Willys
Willys Story
Rick Gammie
Suzuki Samurai
Samurai Story
Product
GEARING
Gearing
SM465 SM420 to Toyota T-case
Toyota 22R/22RE SM kit
Suzuki Kicker T-case
Divorced Toyota T-case
STEERING
Steering Arms/Toyota
Steering Arms/Dana44
Steering Arms/Dana50
Steering Arm/Dana60
Tech Tips
Driveshaft repairs
Driveshaft fun
| WILLYS STORY |
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| Chris Olson having some fun at Moab |
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All we ended up keeping (besides the idea of having a flattie) was a section of the cowl, the grille , the gears from the rear D44 and the transfer case. Oh yeah, the other thing that made the jeep worth buying in it's condition was the ginormous ramsey PTO winch crammed between the rusted and sagging framerails this was accompanied by the ramsey PTO drive on the Spicer 18 . So the flatfender project went into limbo for probably a good two years I'm sure a few of you know how these things can go... Thursday afternoons scanning the buy+sell the odd thing or two catches your eye you make a few calls and such. So gradually the backyard fills up with crap and you think " I really should bolt all this stuff together just to get it out of the yard" . What ended up happening in my case was that a mutual friend of Ben and I had heard of another flattie percolating in a backyard in Langley (thanks Steve) and thus a deal was made to bring another old relic into the yard except this one was a damn sight better than the first one. The thing that sold me on this one was the body even though it was dented and the dash was hacked for a giant bus heater, there was still floors and under the many layers of brush job house paint there was still a recognizable body .Probably the weirdest thing about it was the rollbar which was made up of old driveshaft tubing including the yokes! So the new flattie was cleaned up and once again stock was taken over what was usable and what was crap. It was decided that seeing as how the flathead 4 in this one was also seized and the front axle was completely screwed (we had to rebuild one side just to winch the thing onto the truck) we would not use the original frame or axles (we later horse traded the engine/rear axle and frame for a dana300 for the LJ) . The body and remaining parts languished in the backyard for a while until a few months later a screaming good deal on a dana60/14 bolt came into the yard, now I had the axles that I always wanted for my FJ55 project and the full floating FJ45 rearend that had formerly been slated for the 55 was without a home. The plan started to congeal ,I would use the 8" toyota front axle and the FJ 45FF rear. A deal on an old CJ5 frame was struck and a set of stock yj springs we had lying around were pressed into service. It was a humble beginning but at least the thing could be rolled around the backyard to get it out of the way. Sandblasting the body revealed no giant surprises there was only a small amount of rust perforation and the floors were pitted pretty badly, but they were getting cut out anyway. So the body was primered and new floors were welded in under the driverand passenger footwells and the body was set on the CJ5 frame. It stayed in this state of suspended animation for almost another year and I would occasionally trial fit different things like steering columns and the gas tank(under the driver's seat) ,swinging pedals and the like... but even with the thinnest seat I could find(for free) it just wasn't comfortable for me to sit in (I know that willys guys will say that "you're not supposed to be comfortable it's a willys jeep thing....") but I wasn't willing to compromise, If I'm going to go through all the effort to build this thing from the garage floor up I want to be able to drive long distances without needing the jaws of life to extract me from the seat at every stop. So I decided to stretch out the body. A lot of thought was given on how to accomplish this as I didn't want to lose the proportional look that is so in keeping with what a flattie is all about. I cut the door openings out of the body and then I cut down through the seam that divides the body panels then the two separate halves were set on the frame again with wood blocks and channel iron to support the experiment . The bits were moved around a lot until It seemed to find a balanced look.
My limits were that there had to be room to stuff the rear tires, (with a springover and flat YJ springs the tires move forward under extreme compression) also the rear half the tub floor had to clear the "kick" in the frame rails. In the front I had to leave room for my winch of choice(8274 Warn) and still have room for the tires to stuff in the fenders. This left me with seven inches to stretch while still keeping within my parameters. Sitting in the jeep on a temporarily rigged seat and steering column I was pleased with the legroom available for such a still compact package. So the body was left in position and temporarily tacked together with bits of scrap steel and the engine was swung into place to check the fit with the firewall then the front fenders and grille were bolted on and the thing was starting to look a lot like what I had planned. (albeit still in five different colors of paint and primer). So everything was again taken apart and work began on mounting things to the frame properly, the engine and transmission mounts were still tacked in place and the rear and front axles were suspended from the frame on new spring hangers and shackle mounts then attention turned to the steering, The original intention was to use a now no longer available Fabtech double steering arm on the pass. side knuckle and use a four bolt Saginaw 76 series steering box on a YJ mounting bracket so the original CJ5 front crossmember was cut out and my new crossmember was welded in but when I cut the inner framerail away on the drivers side to beef up and plate in the new YJ box mount I was met with a disappointing sight the rust had taken hold much more seriously in the framerail than I ever would have guessed The thoughts of completely re-plating the outsides of the whole front frame did not make me feel confident in using this piece of metal as the basis for my Jeep, So a new path was taken. A deal was made with Rick at Garys Autowrecking in Maple Ridge for a 1992 Jeep YJ frame from a vandalism write-off this frame was straight and completely rust free a very good starting point in my books .The frame was brought home and the garage was cleared out to make room for the radical floor-up framectomy that was about to begin. Seeing as I was using Toyota axles for the truck and I didn't really want to muck around too much with the front axle and as the Yj frame was a little too wide I decided that I would narrow the frame by 1.5" to accommodate the factory Toyota spring perches also because I had set the body up to be used with the CJ frame I had to shorten the 93" wheelbase YJ frame down to the (post-1980) CJ wheelbase of 83". Not less than four hours after the frame was unloaded from the pickup truck it was spread out on the garage floor sectioned into four pieces . Before I did any cutting I measured everything very carefully
and made a kind of map of the punch-outs and holes that I was using for datum points so that all the layout for the cuts were perfectly equal side to side. Then with the frame basically cut into two pieces with 10" missing from the middle I very carefully ground out the welds around the front tubular crossmember then I fabbed up some braces to keep the rails parallel as I brought the front section 1.5" narrower to match the stock Toyota spacing then the braces were tack welded on and my focus turned to the rear half. As I had cut the YJ frame after the rearmost front spring hanger - where the frame starts to splay outwards I couldn't just weld the rails back on they also had to be narrowed so the rearmost crossmember was cut out and the wide flat one above the shock mounts was cut in half, then using pieces of angle iron and a S**tload of clamps the frame was held together and it was again checked for straightness and racking .With this done the whole thing was tack welded on every plane of contact and then the seams were fully welded but allowed to cool between passes as to not pull the frame out of line. Then fish plates were welded onto the outsides of the rails and my crossmember mounting angles were welded onto the inside. From this point onwards the buildup started to kick into high gear. With the frame assembled I could begin mounting the springs and axles and as I was using YJ springs they were a bolt in deal, for the front I wanted to do a U bolt flip so I fabbed up some new 3/8 spring plates and shaped my U bolts to fit the '85 long brace front diff. The rear axle was placed under the springs and was mounted with fabricated perches and my old FJ55 rear spring plates and new U bolts. Then the body was set on the new frame and I could see that everything was going to work OK except that the "kick" in the YJ frame starts to rise at a point further forward than the CJ one did , I decided that rather than re-doing all my measurements on the body I would change the way the body mounted, I had originally intended to mount the body on thin early CJ5 poly mounts but instead I used the stock YJ rubber mounts with an additional 1x2 steel tube spacer/body brace to get some additional height, this would later prove wise as I had very little clearance issues when I switched from 33"tires to 35's .So the body was sitting on the frame albeit only just a shell there was still the 7" of air between the front and back sections and there was no tranny tunnel to speak of , also there was no floor in the rear between the fenderwells, but it sure was good to have it rolling on tires again. So it was moved to the side and our attention turned towards the driveline, The intention from the beginning was to use a Toyota 22R motor mostly because we had one, it was in good running condition and it would fit in the engine bay of the diminutive flattie without having to change the sparkplugs through the front fenders!
The challenge that faced Ben and I was in the transmission department; I thought it looked feasible to use the old Jeep T90 three speed/Dana18 transfer case and mate it up to one of the Toyota L43 4-speed transmissions that we got with the truck that donated the engine. This would mean that the engine and first transmission would retain all their stock attributes like hydraulic clutch, full synchro transmission and I wouldn't have to crunch the engine right up against the firewall. The T-90 would end up being used mainly as a selectable underdrive, the factory twin stick Dana 18 was left alone except for a bearing freshening. The only real custom parts would be the modified Toyota factory extension housing and the cut down and resplined T90 input shaft. The aluminum Toyota housing was fully prepared for welding (baked,blasted etched) and then mounting tabs for the T90 bellhousing flanges were TIG welded on, then the housing was again baked to stress relieve it and the modified housing was milled and pocketed to fit the old Jeep tranny. The T90 input shaft was turned down,splined to fit the 21 spline Toyota coupler and then the spline surface was case hardened to give better wear characteristics to the face of the splines, Totally custom work like this is no problem for OTT Industries.The newly assembled driveline was swung into place and new engine mounts and a new transmission crossmember were fabricated to suit the new frame. It all fit in the 83" wheelbase Jeep but I wouldn't say it has the LONGEST rear driveshaft in the Jeep world. The next hurdle to overcome was fitting all the controls to the body, again the intent was to use all Toyota components as it was what we had. An additional feature was added that was purely for convenience and that was a tilt wheel out of an 85 4-runner. The brake and clutch pedal assembly was fitted under the dashboard and it became immediately apparent that there wasn't going to be enough room to swing the pedals enough to actuate the master cylinders. So the front of the drivers side floor was cut out and a new section of floor was welded in to allow even more leg room. With the pedal assemblies mocked up the firewall could be braced and then drilled so the master cylinders could be mounted. After this a custom steering driveshaft was fabricated using both Toyota and spicer universal joints. Once the steering was hooked up the geometry of the steering angles was worked out and a set of OTT Industries Billet High Steer Arms was fabricated to get the tie rod and drag link up and Over The Top of the springs while keeping the drag link angle very mild. Dodge W300 rod ends were used for both tie rod and drag link and these have worked out well. With the Jeep now steering and rolling on tires attention turned to stopping, wanting to do the job only once, no matter how much wheel travel the as yet untested suspension would provide I decided to spring for a set of DOT approved braided stainless brake lines (a really good move) as now the brakes react like standing on a brick! the Jeep stops better than any vehicle I have ever owned . Also with their extra length wheel travel is no problem. Another good move was plumbing the AFCO brake lock into the rear discs It works well for momentarily holding the Jeep on a hill or when anchoring the truck to winch others. With the brakes and clutch now fully plumbed in I decided to fully bolt on the front sheetmetal and the grille which had been modified to mount the re-cored Ford mustang radiator and electric fan. A custom tubular crossover pipe was made to allow the lower radiator outlet to line up with the Toyota water pump. Also the power steering reservoir was mounted and a custom hydraulic hose was made to connect the pump(metric ) to the Saginaw steering box(standard).With the mechanical hurdles nearly overcome attention could now turn to wiring the engine ignition and vehicle lighting. As before what I had was a toyota wiring harness from the donor truck this was basically spread out on the body tub and the lengths were checked , Everything in the engine bay was fine but obviously the wiring to the rear part of the truck had to be shortened, also any extraneous wiring was removed to reduce the bulk of the harness.(some things like the Willys windshield wipers for example only need one wire). The nice thing about using a stock harness was that all the stalk mounted turn signals and wipers/headlights all work like stock(toyota). Next (and nearly last) thing to finish was the final rear half of the body , up to this point I had been concentrating on the underhood and dashboard areas of the buildup and it was time to tackle the rear body. The first thing that was done was to weld in the floor metal, I had while all this was going on been collecting parts for the ongoing FJ55 project and a rust free section of FJ45 bed floor provided the correct (corrugated) look and strength. I had also found a rare set of recessed aluminum taillights and the rear tub was cut to mount these, also because the Toyota system uses a two-bulb tail/turn setup an additional set of Grote amber lamps was installed. With the body tub now more or less completed attention turned to the rollcage. An earlier Buy and Sell find was a factory Jeep CJ5 rollbar, This was retained as the main bar and rear stringers, a new front hoop was fabricated to fit with the new 1952 M38 windshield frame(taller than stock) , this was tied into a subframe that mounts my seats and was also tied into the main hoop with two round tubes and one rectangular tube. The seats were from a wrecked Toyota(of course) Tercel car and were selected for their rather beefy dual pivot locking recliners, and their price (free). The cage was then removed for a quick paint job and the rest of the body was fogged with a couple of coats of custom tinted General paint Industrial enamel which I have found to be a fairly cheap and durable alternative to "real" auto paint. The whole thing was bolted back together. The brakes were bled, the new Optima yellow top battery was mounted under the passenger seat, the fuel lines were plumbed through the firewall to the carb(no fuel injection yet) and the Jeep was pretty much ready to run
. The few remaining bugs were worked out and Ben and I drove it and his Suzuki down to the Rubicon Trail in California for the Willys's first trail. There were no problems and everything worked as planned except for some spring wrap in the rear axle. This was later solved with a track-bar made from a Ford F150 radius arm mated to a John-Deere three link hitch replacement heim joint. Some other additions to the truck have been to rebuild the 22R engine and add a complete fuel injection setup from a 1989 22RE. The transfer case has been upgraded to a late model(1960's) version 1¼" pin with a taper roller kit (after a catastrophic failure of the original case in Idaho on our way to Cruise Moab), also a full ¼" skid plate protects the vulnerable underpinnings. Also a complete soft top was created by modifying(only slightly) a factory Jeep YJ top and using Bestop window channel around the body tub edge. More recently custom bent rocker sliders have been added to protect the body , a swing away tire carrier and 2" receiver hitch has been added to the rear crossmember, and to keep the transfer case cool a finned aluminum cover was bolted to the Dana 18. What's next for this little Jeep? You'll have to check back and see|
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| British Columbia , | Canada |
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