RamCharger.net

Newer HD D44 in the front. 360 Magnum till the 383 is built.

Have some other ideas but down the road.

I will need a step side bed before too long.

The home made Jeep will be going but I'm gonna graft the front clip onto the 88 XJ.

I looked at a bunch of Eaton pictures and quite a few Timken but I haven't found ths e right one yet.  Still looking.  With it being so low mileage I think I can get by with replacing a couple of gaskets and the pinon shaft seal.

One thing that looks odd related to the Eaton axles is that the fill plug is usually on the back cover but this one is on the third member case.

The older 2x 3/4 ton truck that is out at Nick's house has one of the split Timken axles in it.  Anybody want one?

Not being able to restore the truck, I plan to put a modern axle in the front and modify the rear axle to use 8 lug wheels.  I have a HD D44 to go in the front.  I'm pretty sure I have to change the axle ratio in it though.  The truck came with a closed knuckle Dana 44 (Spicer) and 409 gears. 

The rear axle is listed in a couple of places as a Mopar 8 3/4" full floater.  Even Rock Auto lists parts for it under that designation.  Only problem is there are way too many bolts.  1957 was the first year for the 8 3/4 axle and this one does have a removable third member but it has 12 bolts instead of 10.  Also the rear cover on the differential should be welded and it is a bolt on, again with 12 bolts.

Here are some pics.  If anyone knows what it is, speak up.  I have checked a bunch of axle identification charts and haven't found anything to match.  I'll clean up the casting numbers and check them this weekend but I'm out of state beginning early in the morning till Friday.

It has a bunch of springs, I don't know if I want to update the spring packs or not.

Well, I finally got Aaron paid and picked up the 57 truck.  It needs a lot of work but there is potential.

It will become my only project, outside of lifting the Grand Cherokee so the tires stop rubbing.

Here is a picture that Aaron took a year or two back.  It still looks the same except there are more flats now.  The license plate on the front says 1965!  I guess this truck has been sitting in some pasture, somewhere, for almost 50 years.  It shows less than 30k miles on the odometer.

Where to start?

Here's the fix for this problem:

Lots of people have had this problem.  Nearly all were solved with the replacement of either the crank position sensor or the cam position sensor.  It appears that a lot of folks don't' know the difference between the two.

Anyway, I replaced the crank position sensor.  Not really a hard fix but year dependent.  I bought a new one from NAPA.  I drove the Jeep for a couple of days with no issues.  Gave it back to the grand-daughter and it started dying again after a couple of days. 

I replaced the cam position sensor (in the distributor) with the one out of the parts Jeep.  NAPA said that there were 4 different sensors and made me wonder so I pulled the used one and the Jeep has been running great since.  I have come to the conclusion that there are 4 different suppliers but that the Hall Effect sensors are all the same.  Might not be right but a used one from a 97 Jeep worked good in a 96 Jeep.

Cam position sensor is a real easy fix, two screws on the distributor cap, pull the rotor, pull the sensor and unplug from the harness.  A true 5 minute replacement.

So, apparently they can both cause the problem.  Book says the Crank Position sensor runs the ignition and the Cam Position Sensor runs the injectors.

It's a little early for me to tell if I can go or not.  We may be very busy then.  We need to be cause we aren't doing much now.  4 boats, all in port....

I'll try to go.

His wife wants it gone, I told him he might get $200 across the scales.  He might go that low.  He has close to $500 in it though.

A guy working on one of our freezers at work has a 56 Jeep Pickup he needs to sell.  I will post pics when I can get them on the right computer. 

It has a decent cab, no bed.  It has factory axles, transmission, transfer and a PTO.  However, the engine in it is a cheby straight 6.  It has had some frame repair that might need to be cleaned up.

It also has a clean title.  It is located in Bryan or College Station, TX. and he will want $1000 but probably take a considerably lesser amount.

Anyone interested in further information?

I don't have a scan tool.  Ernest does and I might get a chance to borrow it but the problem is that this is so random a problem that we don't seem to have tools or be in a place to do much testing while it is acting up.  It is not likely to play while we are watching...

I have already swapped the relays and I have a bunch of relays that I can swap in but they seem to me to be working.  I can change out the sensors from a parts car and will try to do that tonight or tomorrow.  The parts car is a 97 but there should be no difference between the 96 and the 97.

I can swap out the PCM also but it appears to be aftermarket.  I guess it's worth a try.

I have two of these Grand Cherokees, and the parts car.  They all have 250k to 295k but they are solid, no rust and just a little lifter noise.  We like the way they drive.  I just need the grand daughters to start all the time so she doesn't borrow mine.

I have a 96 Jeep Grand Cherokee I have been building for my grand-daughter.  This is Courtney, not Georgia.  She's a high school senior.

The Jeep has a 4.0 engine with a Chrysler transmission.  This was bought from an impound auction.  It had enough radiator stop leak to stop a 2" crack in the plastic radiator.  Of course wasn't much room for water...

After all that was taken care of it takes spells of simply not starting after it has been sitting for a while.  Turns over but no start.  I thought it was the fuel pump but with a gauge on the fuel rail I get 40# with the 2 second prime and it runs consistently at 50#.

I thought it might be the coil and low and behold it had a coil identical to a Magnum coil attached.  It was spliced into the harness with scotch locks.  The terminal on the coil was so corroded I couldn't see how it fired at all.

Ran pretty good for a week or so with a real Jeep coil and now it is back to same old tricks.  A couple of times it would start immediately after I bled the pressure off the injector rail and other times it would start after a few minutes without doing anything.

It has cut out a couple of times and acted like it was trying to die, ending up with a backfire out the exhaust and starting running again.

To me, this is a decrease of battery power to the coil.  I had this happen once with a 318 in a small motor home when the alternator quit and it build up gasoline in the muffler.  In fact, it blew up the muffler.

Ernest had one acting similar.  It had some other issues and they decided to get rid of it.  There are NO codes.

Anyone got any suggestions?

My hope was to put this in the 57 PW.  I still plan to do this but I don't have the finances to build the motor now.  I will store it till I get rich again...

It looks like I may put the Magnum 360 from the yellow truck in the 57 for the time being, with a 727.

I plan to at least look at making a 203 into a gear reduction with an output shaft.  Then I could use it with the 202 transfer in the 57 and have the option of 2x reduction or 4x reduction, using the divorced transfer.  Probably won't work but who knows, we might be able to make a cover plate and design an output shaft...

I wouldn't push this so much but a lot of you have met Georgia, my grand-daughter.  She has been on a couple of rides with us, both at General Sam's and Hidden Falls.We just got back from Oklahoma City, where she placed 6th overall in the youth barrels and 3rd in the 13 and under age group.

This was the "world" show.  That makes her 3rd in the world, under 13.  And, her time was only 13/100 of a second below the fastest time.

Field started out with 86 riders.  Top 15 made the finals.  The two girls that beat her in the 13 and under class are daughters of professional barrel racers, riding their mothers' horses.  Georgia owns her horse.

Does anyone know if the fuel pump in the 97 Grand Cherokee fuel tank would put out enough to support a 360 Magnum engine?

I've given up on dealing with the state on this vehicle and a title.  I am looking now at moving the front end and part of the drive train to the 97 ZJ that we used as a parts car.  I have a clean title on that jeep.  That would be changing the rear suspension to a four link suspension, using part of the Grand Cherokee floor pan and ending up lower to the ground but probably more trail worthy vehicle.  There are also engine mounts for the 360 readily available to put it in the vehicle.

The 97 is a 2 wheel drive so I would have to move the axle from the yellow truck to the Grand Cherokee.  It's a straight axle (NO CAD) and has the same gears.  It would end up as an open car for the trail or good weather in a college town.

Sorry I haven't been on much but anyway, the wheels and tires were sold to a guy that works for me.  I'm sorry, but they will end up on a ferd.

I started with these wheels when my son got his first vehicle, a 64 ferd unibody 4x4.  The wheels had come from a Jeep originally, and when my son got ready to sell the unibody, I made him change tires and wheels with me.

The wheels that were on the red truck were all new, bought in 2009.  The remaining wheels from the 80s are still on the trailer many of you have seen at the off road parks.