It's An OCD Thing, You Wouldn't Understand

[inVERt'D]

Alright, a couple of you have asked to see some pics of what I've been up to, so for you and all of my silent masses of adoring fans, here it is: my new build thread. If you don't understand the title now, hang in there. I think you will eventually.

I welcome criticism, even if I argue. Smart-ass comments are welcome too, as I will no doubt be making plenty of my own. Taking oneself too seriously is very bad for the soul and mental health.

First, some background. When I bought my 2000 TJ Sport back in late '05, it was lifted and pretty. Factory Dana 44 w/ 3.73s and Trac-Lok, NV3550 5spd (I like manuals), a strong 4.0, tilt steering, and AC. P.O. put in a Teraflex 4” short arm lift (flexy lower links, front swaybar quick discos, rear shock relocators, rear trac bar relocator, drop pitman arm, and bigger shocks), a good SYE, Tom Woods CV rear DS, 33” BGF KMs, and Eagle Alloys, a steering skid, and a nice CB. I got it out of state cheaper than I could find a stocker on the West Coast, but I would learn the cost of even a pretty clean, 5-year-old used vehicle from the Rustbelt: broken bolts and studs everywhere. Shock install turning into a late-nighter with the fuel tank dropped, the body jacked up off of the frame, and a Dremel. Stuff like that.

I caught it up on maintenance, cleaned up the surface rust on the frame and axles, and did some minor upgrades. Wheeled it, drifted it down dirt roads. Detailed it.


Rolled it.


Fixed and Upgraded it. Bilstein 5100s, rollcage (Poison Spyder kit), flexy upper links, front Aussie locker, wheelbase to 95-1/2” (woot!), longer, braided brake lines, blah, blah.






Did some trail maintenance.


The Jeep was a lot of fun, but by this time, due to a manufactures defect, 1st gear was almost unusable. More on that later. Got a new bumper, new tailgate, new homemade steering, fixed tweaked parking brake bracket, and other stuff.

Too much flex for this parking brake bracket.


Add dash of angle iron. Would lock 'em up after this.


This little mod brought my front bumper 1-1/2” closer to the frame for a little better approach angle, but I could no longer fit a larger-bodied winch like the Warn 8274 or M12000 on there without it hanging over.




Caught a bass.


Rolled it again, racing a buddy in the desert late at night. The cage, imperfect as it was, held up without visible deformation. The driver's door got a little wonked on the window frame, and the driver side mirror was destroyed. The windshield got a single, long crack along the top, and the windshield frame was a little tweaked. Had a lot more wheeling fun the next day, after I got all the rocks out of my tire beads. Drove and wheeled it with that same windshield for about 6 months, until it started to fall out.

The morning after:


Showed some MJR guys how it's almost done. Predicably, my trans kept popping out of first, and second was just too high. Still, a rear locker and I think I might have had it. That constipated look on my face was me trying to baby the clutch. Was talking about getting a new NV3550, when Art (aw12345) suggested an NV4500. I'd read about them, but I don't think I'd thought seriously about it. About a month later to the day I had bought one eBay. More on that shortly.


Showed some MJR guys how its...Oops.


Got a new rear bumper. Got a winch that fit my front bumper. Jeep flexed very well for having short arms. The old-style TeraFlex control arms were threaded together in the middle, and had unlimited flex, but the bushings wore out too quickly.
More fun with MJR folks.




By now I'd been through about 5 or 6 windshields and 2 windshield frames. I made a heavy-duty frame that doesn't depend on mastic glue to hold the glass in. That crap is for passenger cars, IMO. Wheeled some more.



Tie-ins came a few months later.


New AGR steering gear (got it cheap). It's kinda pretty, so here's a pic.



Put in a rear Aussie Locker. Wheeled a little more.

So that covers about 4 years and brings us up to 2010, except I glossed over the part where I bought a new transmission in early 2009. My Jeep was the first year with the NV3550 5-spd, and it was a really cool little tranny, except that one year had a defect in the internal shift linkage. The parts were about 450 times more expensive than they should have been, and the tranny required an expensive jig to reassemble (they are much cheaper now). I thought about buying or making the jig. I thought about buying a new 3550, and came pretty close. But I'd heard about this super, duper, ultimate 4x4 5-spd called the NV4500. In fact, a couple of MJR folks (Art) suggested I throw one in, which was something like telling Kim Jong Un that he's Napolean: highly irrational, yet a very appealing thought, nonetheless.

[Materdaddy]

More fun with MJR folks.

Besides you, I think the only Jeep still owned by an MJR member in that picture is George (TDS SD). I sold that TJ and Scott sold his YJ. I move on to a much bigger/better Jeep. Scott moved on to being Jeepless.

[inVERt'D]

I fixed the link to show my (ahem) planned hi-lift jack demonstration.

Besides you, I think the only Jeep still owned by an MJR member in that picture is George (TDS SD). I sold that TJ and Scott sold his YJ. I move on to a much bigger/better Jeep. Scott moved on to being Jeepless.

Would be great to go wheeling with you all again sometime. How's Scott's truck coming along?

[Materdaddy]

Would be great to go wheeling with you all again sometime. How's Scott's truck coming along?

I'd love to get out there again!

Scott's truck just sits in his friend's garage. (Luckily not mine... that's where my Jeep sits).

[aw12345]

yeah some hooting hollering rednecking good time. We still got to drive over constipated rock

[inVERt'D]

yeah some hooting hollering rednecking good time. We still got to drive over constipated rock

You know, now that I recall, I part of my straining was due to not being able to reach the pedal so well as I sank back into the seat. Constipation Rock, look out, you got a bullseye on your a$$ . I know I gots a way with words.

[inVERt'D]

NV4500 Adapter

So I got me a rebuilt Dodge 4X4 NV4500 with a 5th gear retainer fix (doesn't matter in a Jeep, anyway). A few months thereafter I got unexpectedly laid off, so I tried for few weeks to sell the NV4500 so I could get another NV3550. That proved to be an aggravation, so I decided to keep it, but I didn't want to spend another $1000 just to bolt it in. I got a notion that I could buy a Chinese plasma cutter and make an adapter plate, and once so inspired, I couldn't shake it. This will be a common theme in this build. I wasn't absolutely sure that it would work, but even if it didn't, I'd be stuck with a plasma cutter. Now what could I do with that? So I bought me a $600 Chinese plasma cutter with a 3-year (bogus) warranty, a $400 Dewalt compressor, did a bunch of thinking, a bunch of praying, drank a lot beer, and made me an adapter plate. I already did a thread about that, but the picture links are broken and won't be getting fixed. Besides, I'm going to give more juicy details here.

Here it is on the seller's bench. Got to talk with him a few times--smart and likeable fellow. Into Classic Broncos, he is.


Why not an automatic? They have their advantages, but I like manuals better. I like to choose my shift points as I go, and I like the feel and efficiency of manuals compared to slush boxes. Even with my 3550 popping out of gear, I have never wished it was an auto, not even burning my clutch up in a pile of boulders. So there.

The NV4500 isn't for every Jeep. It is big and heavy: 195lbs dry compared to the NV3550's 90 lbs. Even with aluminum cover and tailhousing, it's about 20lbs heavier than an SM465. As you'll see later, the sheer size of the thing made getting a flat belly skid challenging, to say the least.

Gear ratios
5.61
3.04
1.67
1.00
0.73
R5.04

Compared to the NV3550
4.01
2.33
1.39
1.00
.78
R3.57

The one obstacle to bolting the Dodge gasoline NV4500 up to a Jeep 4.0 is the bellhousing to transmission bolt pattern and indexing method. The input shaft is just a little longer (a good thing), but otherwise the same 1-1/8”, 10 spline as the stock 4.0 clutch; the pilot bearing diameter is even the same. The output shaft on the one I had was 23 splines (same as the 4.0 NP231 t-case) and had a compatible amount of stickout, and the transmission to t-case bolt pattern was of course, the same. Even the throwout bearing snout O.D. matches the I.D. of the stock 4.0/ NV3550 throwout bearing.

Now Advance Adapters makes a nice, short bellhousing solution to this for about $400, but it requires numerous other modifications that add another $600 or so. It requires a GM input shaft (possible (probable) re-shimming), a custom-machined GM input shaft bearing retainer, custom pilot bushing, GM shift fork and slave cylinder, and hydraulic lines to go with that, and perhaps a thing or two I'm forgetting. Yeah, it's shorter, which is good in a Jeep, but it's a lot of otherwise unnecessary stuff to change if you don't care about 1-1/2” to 2” difference.

They also have an adapter plate solution they market for an AX-15 bellhousing, but it requires an internal slave cylinder/ release bearing, which is a serious downgrade in my book. I needed to make the stock bellhousing work if at all possible.

The NV3550 bolt pattern. I call it the unlucky horseshoe pattern. It seems to have originated with Japanese Aisin transmissions (I could easily be wrong on this). Its introduction to the West: innocent cultural faux pas, or passive-aggressive gesture?

The Dodge NV4500 bolt pattern. Deceptively similar to those of many old-school truck 4spds.


So I found me a suitable piece of steel. Looked to be an old trench plate: rusty, pitted, a little warped, even some dried concrete on it. If spending a week or two making this into an adapter plate sounds more interesting and sensible to you than spending $1000 on a shiny new kit, you might have a couch on your front porch and time on your hands.


It had those holes in it, so I just cut a rough pattern from hole to hole. Obviously I had to clean that thing up quite a bit. Aside from some mars and pitting, it's nice steel, and I'm using scraps of it to build the Jeep even now.

To make an accurate adapter plate using hand tools and no machine tools more advanced than a Harbor Freight drill press, I had to come up with an algorithm. That's right, an algorithm: a solution to a problem consisting of a combination of steps in a certain order. Learned that in the Redneck Academy. Fact is, we all use algorithms every day. The algorithm for making this adapter plate using what I had readily available turned out to require several dozen discrete steps, some of which can and/or should be done grouped together in a certain order of about two dozen groups. Some of these I planned, and some I figured out as I went along. Fortunately I had plenty of beer on-hand.

The NV4500 bellhousing indexes (is located precisely) to the NV4500 using the NV4500's round input bearing retainer. In contrast, the NV3550 bellhousing indexes to the NV3550 transmission using two precision dowel pins. Bolts just hold it all together.

After cutting my adapter plate to a manageable size, I used a compass to draw a circle in the center, then plasma cut a round hole just to the inside of that (without going over the lines). Accuracy was crucial here, so I spent about a day grinding it out using die grinders and even a dremel until it just barely allowed the adapter plate to rest flat against the 4500's face (~5.60”).

Adapter plate indexed on NV4500 retainer to transfer bolt pattern and face shape:


With the adapter plate indexed on the 4500 and clamped down, the next order of business was to transfer the 4500 bolt pattern to the adapter plate using transfer punches.


Now the key to making this thing work was the throwout/ release bearing snout (the part of the input bearing retainer that the throwout bearing rides on). They are exactly the same diameter between the 3550 and 4500 (1.43”). To make the 3550 bellhousing index to the 4500, I needed the bellhousing to index to that release bearing snout. I needed a throwout snout indexing adapter, if you would. So, I cut a round hole in a piece of aluminum sheet and ground it out until it just barely slide onto the throwout bearing snout.

Next, the 3550 bellhousing was installed onto the 3550 transmission, and the indexing adapter was placed on the 3550 throwout snout. The two now needed to be joined. Now the “right” way to do this would have been to weld or braze the throwout snout indexing adapter to the bellhousing, and I am usually a stickler for doing things the best possible way I can. I didn't have any pure argon at the time, so welding was out. I could have easily used aluminum brazing rod, and I at first planned to do just that. Then I had another idea: an idea so redneck and unorthodox I just had to try it.


That's right, canned foam insulation. I put some cardboard in there as well to help reinforce things, then I covered it with even more foam, spraying it with water to help it cure. This needs to be done incrementally so the stuff will actually cure all the way through. Once I was satisfied that it was fully cured, I carefully drilled out access holes so I could spin the bolts out and remove the bellhousing. I carefully test-fitted the bellhousing on the 3550 and found that the throwout snout indexing plate lined up the bellhousing perfectly with the 3550's indexing dowel pins. I showed my non-mechanical but always-supportive sweetheart of a girlfriend who I can always count on to be impressed by the crap I make. She busted out laughing and said “That looks like a piece of garbage!” Yep, she's a keeper.

I had added foam below the throwout snout indexing adapter, because, although it rested on the input bearing retainer, the face of the 3550 transmission is quite hollow. As a result, foam was bulging out the bottom, which needed to be clearanced before placement on the 4500 transmission and adapter plate. A wire wheel may be the perfect tool for this.

NV3550 bellhousing with throwout snout indexing adapter.


Now I could carefully place the bellhousing onto the 4500 transmission's throwout bearing snout. From the beginning I had hope to index it so that the slave cylinder would fit between the 4500's bolt hole ears. I had also hoped the throwout pivot ball stud and nut would clear the other side. This, serendipitously, it did, but the heads of the two upper 4500 bolts interfered with the bellhousing. The bellhousing needed to be clearanced adjacent to these bolt heads. The transmission ears also needed some minor grinding to clear the slave cylinder and throwout pivot stud nut. After everything had been lined up optimally, the 4500 had been clocked ~7* clockwise (as viewed from the front) or counter-clockwise (as viewed from the rear).





The next step was to transfer the bellhousing bolt hole and dowel pin locations to the adapter plate. This I did in several steps. The bolt holes didn't have to line up perfectly, but the dowel pins did. The bellhousing dowel pin holes were somewhat closed up on the inside, so I had to drill them out for transfer punching. Attempting to using my small HF drill press and hand drills, I bunged up the holes a little. I ended up ordering some even larger dowel pins and taking it to a friend's house, since he had a much larger Chinese drill press. Now in the interim of waiting for my second set of dowel pins to arrive, my friend pushed and pushed until he had persuaded me to let him locate some new dowel pin holes. That's how two small, round, odd notches round notches ended up on the inside of the bellhousing (see below). I had to weld up a couple of extra holes in the adapter plate. The good part was my friend let me use his drill press and stayed out of the way after that.

Here's the bellhousing showing the larger dowel pins and the bolt head clearancing locations. Since I had clearanced a little more than necessary, I alumi-brazed inside those areas to keep those areas as strong as possible. One dowel pin was ground on one side so as to not interfere with the countersunk bolts I was using. Note that part of the throwout pivot boss had an extra 1/8 or so of material to reinforce it. This was ground flat, since a much stronger and more durable steel extension of the adapter plate would take its place.


Moving right along...

Adapter plate being primed, showing bellhousing side. Notice the added material adjacent to the slave cylinder location. Also notice the added reinforcing tab for the throwout pivot boss.


Adapter plate bolted to bellhousing, showing transmission side. These bolts were countersunk with a countersink cutter that matched their head taper, which is important, especially in something like this. I did get carried away and partially counter-sunk one of the transmission bolt holes (lower left). Oops! I by now had a fully-functional adapter setup that required no additional aftermarket parts or modifications. Rather elegant, if I do say so myself.


The adapter plate reinforces the throwout pivot boss. This area needed to be no thicker than 3/16” because there were precious few threads to spare on the pivot ball stud. A big improvement over the cast aluminum.


Showing the stock slave cylinder landing. A little of the transmission bolt ears needed to be ground away for clearance.


NV3550 bellhousing bolted up to NV4500 with stock input shaft, throwout bearing, pivot ball, and fork:


Changing of the guard.


Bellhousing, adapter plate, and NV4500 bolted up to 4.0 I-6 with slave cylinder in-place. Yeah, those bolts look goofy. I eventually found the stock slave cylinder bolts and used those.


Stay tuned for more redneckedness!

[aw12345]

One big ole redneck heehaw for some A1 genuine redneck engineering. I am loving it. As long as you have the trans centered on the bellhousing within acceptable spec it will work well for a good long time. Time will tell, if the center breaks out of the clutchplate after awhile it needs more rednecking, if it stays together after say 20.000 miles you did some darn good redneck engineering

[inVERt'D]

Thanks a bunch, Art! I did my very best, and was very careful. Not even OEM trannies are indexed perfectly. Time will tell if it's good enough but my intuition tells me that as long as I'm not dumping the clutch at 10K RPMs I'll be just fine. Maybe I should have Curtis take it for a spin? Anyway, so far so good. Hopefully by the time I put 20K on it, redneckin' will be an option, not a necessity.

[curtis]

That is some very impressive work!!! GREAT JOB!!

[aw12345]

If anything most all you do David is pretty darn creative. If you are less that 0.005 of center it will live a long and happy life while scaling constipation rock

[inVERt'D]

That is some very impressive work!!! GREAT JOB!!

Thanks, Curtis!

If anything most all you do David is pretty darn creative. If you are less that 0.005 of center it will live a long and happy life while scaling constipation rock

Yeah, for all I know, the engine to bellhousing indexing could be a few thousandth's off (from what I've ready, anyway), and my adapter could be too (although I really don't think it is). I do understand your doubts, especially because your hands weren't on it. The reason the reader's digest version up above took several dozen of actual steps, some of which took a long time, is partly because of how meticulous I was about certain tolerances, and how often I re-checked things. I'm not a perfectionist, but I can be a bit obsessive at times.

The other side of that is that at the time I could have scraped up enough to buy AA's kit in less time than it took me to make it. Thing is, I just had to try it, give it my best shot. I guess it's that same creative compulsion that makes so many of us want to build our own junk, and why your garage is too small .

Besides the reward of solving the problem and overcoming the challenges (I think I did, anyway). If I had spent the money on the adapter, there would have been no way I could have swooped in on my Atlas when I did, so it paid there.

[aw12345]

I really liked the creative problem solving, no money and lots of spare time makes for some really creative thinking. You definitely used some to get the trans stuck to the bellhousing, I have seen pretty good fab guys do worse for sure.

[1 Bad F N Z]

That nice, Where you catch the bass at?

[inVERt'D]

That nice, Where you catch the bass at?

Just a little private pond out here in Anza. No wheeling involved at the time, but there are other fishing spots out here that would be a nice mellow trail ride to get to.