• Help Support Hardline Crawlers :

Never ending Samurai build...

Yes both cases are stock and yeah its enough. I was actually able to run a few trails and one of the harder lines at the local park this past weekend with it in high in the doubler and low in the 300. The trans wasn't too happy but it pushed through just fine.
 
Yes both cases are stock and yeah its enough. I was actually able to run a few trails and one of the harder lines at the local park this past weekend with it in high in the doubler and low in the 300. The trans wasn't too happy but it pushed through just fine.
That's good to hear. I was hoping to get away with stock gears in both.
 
Another area of concern I'd had since I first installed an automatic trans was the temps I was seeing on the gauge. I'd installed a Derale tube and fin cooler with a fan and have always wondered if it just wasn't up to the task so I ordered a slightly larger Derale in the stacked plate flavor and also with a fan. Previously I'd just used rubber hose with barb ends at the cooler and the transmission, but this time around I wanted to swap over to AN fittings and the same hose I'm running for my steering. I ordered one of the Trail Gear hose kits and went to town...it worked out well and looking forward to seeing if it makes a difference in temps I see on those long hills at places like Harlan.

Moving the transmission cooler around and with the changes being made to the tcases I'd also removed my exhaust from the down pipe back. Previously I'd had the cooler mounted right behind the driver seat and under my Action Packer tote. The exhaust had a tubular muffler that came up in that same area with the tip turned down right below the cooler. So, I'd also wondered if the previous cooler might have been fighting a losing battle too...constantly fighting the heat of the muffler being so close. This time around I limited myself to one muffler and it is between the frame rails under the driver footwell with the tip turned down at the rear lower link mount. Hopefully I see some improvements with these changes and the exhaust doesn't drive me nuts...I like to drive...not listen to loud exhaust.
 
Once everything was in and I had the seats where they were going to be I turned my attention to the shifters. Luckily it didn't take much to get the JB Customs shifters to work out. The real headache was the doubler shifter.

I started out with some ½" steel rod and chucked it in the lathe and turned the OD at one end down so I could tap it to 7/16-20 to match the threads on the JB shifters because I had plans for knobs already. Then I took some much smaller diameter round stock and bent it up to see how I needed to work the ½" rod. I used the oxy/acetylene torch to heat and a jack handle to bend the rod to the desired shape. Of course, this took several tries before it worked out, but all said and done I'm happy with what I ended up with.

These pictures show the billet knobs I got from JB. The Dana 300 shift knobs are sweet, and I ordered the doubler knob based on a wild ass guess riding down the road one day only to find out I was wrong. Jon at JB is super easy to work with and said I could exchange it and if I wanted to have something laser etched in the transmission knob he could do that too so I sent both knobs back today and hopefully will have them back soon.

IMG_20200328_203709.jpg


IMG_20200328_203806.jpg
 

Latest posts

Top