Build ‘68 M715, AKA "Smokey" (Can I post this Jeep on MUD?)

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My apologies for that. I can't even count how many times I had those cases in and out of the 40 and missed loctite on the plate.

Lol, no need to apologize! I should have checked before I put it in. They've been killer, thanks again!
 
LONG shot…….

Any chance that someone might have an SM465 4WD output shaft nut available? They look like this:

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For a transmission that was produced from ‘68-‘91 these nuts are very hard to find. Looked around and everyone is sold out. I’m missing mine because the transmission was originally 2WD.

Maybe you’ve got one bouncing around in your shop, I can pay 💰
 
After weeks of searching, two cancelled orders due to the nut not being in stock, called Mudrak and Novak and still struck out.
Finally found a nut on EBay attached to what appears to be a damaged main shaft. Offered him $25 for JUST the nut and made a deal. With what I suspect to be millions of 4WD SM465’s produced between ‘68-‘91 it absolutely boggles my mind that sourcing this silly nut was so difficult

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Did you check with a stealership?
No, that actually didn’t occur to me. Part of me wonders if you’d get laughed at trying to source a part for an outdated trans that’s at LEAST 35 years old 😂
 
Got a little more fuel tank work done yesterday, had my cousin out here to assist with getting the two halves together.

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Friday = Fuel Tank Day

Completed all the final outside corner joint welding, added bolt down tabs and one final 3/8” NPT bung

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Could not TIG at ALL when I started this project. 7 years of TIG practice on steel really pays off 😂


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Got to play with the shear at my neighbors fabrication shop today also. The thing is terrifying and awesome, it’s capable of shearing a 6’ wide, 1/4” thick piece of steel clean off.

Sheared two extra mounts for the tank and walked away with 10 fingers.

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The weather has turned and I got back into this today since it’s too cold, wet and miserable to work outside

New Melling oil pump. Installed a new pickup tube, upgrade driveshaft with a metal retention collar, new pan gasket and bolted it back in

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Using an Aeromotive Phantom for the fuel pump. Had to extend the pump mount with a chunk of stainless since the tank is so deep.

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Got after the clutch and flywheel

I don’t think that GM ever intended to bolt a manual trans behind the 8.1

Did some careful measurements of the bellhousing, crank and input shaft depths. It’s QUITE possible to drive the input bearing so far into the crank that only the tip of the transmission input shaft would be supported by the bearing. Not good. With the bearing essentially “centered” on the input shaft, it’s 6” from the rear face of the bellhousing to the front face of the input bearing

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Installed the flywheel with ARP bolts. The old chunk of flex plate is merely temporarily wedged in place to keep the flywheel from turning while torquing the bolts to 85 ft/lbs. Works REALLY well

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Centerforce dual friction clutch is in…

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Played some more rounds of “JUST FITS” with the AA clutch slave cylinder. Had to grind just a touch off the bellhousing and it’s definitely going to need heat shielding wrap to avoid boiling the fluid next to the exhaust. Just clears the oil filter also

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Put the Centerforce throw out bearing on a new GM pivot arm, installed an adjustable pivot ball then slid the AA Ranger into place and bolted it in

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When it comes time to pull the 8.1 (soon) this’ll come out as a complete assembly

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Ok….. where were we? Getting back into this as time and crummy weather permits

Started mounting some aircraft style tie downs in the bed. This is stuff from Mac’s Custom Tie Downs, very nice with the removable rings

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Started plumbing the fuel system now that the tank is in

Aeromotive regulator and Aeromotive 10 micron filter. Tucked up nice and high out of the way

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Started working on the PSC ram and double sheer steering attachment. Had another piece of 7075 machined to incorporate a TMR joint (rebuildable) into the driver side tie rod connection. Also had the Reid knuckle machined out to 3/4” ID in order to pass a Grade 8 bolt through both the knuckle and high steer arm

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Mocked up the ram to determine where I ideally wanted it to go…


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Started making an axle bracket out of 2”x3” .25 wall tubing. The ram has to mount above the axle centerline in order to clear the bump stop bracket and tie rod as it cycles

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Cut out new, longer brackets to make this all work. Much bigger than the ones PSC provides and hopefully they can carry the extra load of being longer/ram further away from the axle mount.

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Glad to see more progress done.
Thx! Been so busy working on the shop that this has definitely fallen by the wayside. Enjoy working with metal SO much better 😂
 
You gave me some good ideas for mine. I was going to clamp something to the tie rod but tying into the double sheer is way better. Thanks!
Yeah, I bounced a lot of ideas around, a tubing clamp on the tie rod was one of them. With the Reid knuckles and the 5 stud high steer arms, this is the strongest mounting point by FAR. Just had to have the arm bolted to the knuckle so it could all be bored straight for the 3/4” bolt
 
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