Jeep Strokers

Get a NEW screen, press in screens shouldn't be reused and personally I'd never use any old screen unless a new one was NOT! available.

*IS* a new Eagle pickup available?

According to YoReily's it is, $29 MELLING 81AS2
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... &ppt=C0145

IH 392 wrote:According to YoReily's it is, $29 MELLING 81AS2
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... &ppt=C0145

Thanks!
I had checked Summit and found Melling 81-AS2, 81-AS3 and 81-AS4 listed for AMC I6's, but they didn't break it out more specifically than that. RockAuto didn't show it... I hadn't thought to check O-Reilly's.

Per your recommendation I bought a Melling 81AS2 with the right part number for the application... I don't know what's going on, but it seems to fit. I haven't installed it yet, though.

Here are the new and previous next to each other:



You can see that with the ends of the tubes lined up, the attaching strap on the new one is shorter.



It's hard to see in the photo, but the previous strap has the same stiffening dimple pressed into it the same distance from the tube as the new one. The strap is welded to the tube at the same height. The previous just has about 1/4" more distance between the dimple and the hole. I have no idea why it's that way... but I have a way to move forward.

I have drill this weekend, but should be able to put it all together the weekend of the 2nd.

Fw: 1980 Spirit 4cyl to 4.0 Engine Swap
Submitted by Frank Swygert on January 5, 2012 - 10:00pm.

YES -- you will need a Spirit/Gremlin/Hornet/Concord six cylinder
crossmember AND the mounts that bolt to the side of the six cylinder
engine from one of those. There's a bit more you need -- the fan and
water pump froma Grand Cherokee or Wrangler if you want to use the
mechanical fan, or use an electric fan. you need the engine and wiring
harness from a pre 96 (87-95, but most use 91-95) Cherokee, NOT the
Grand Cherokee. The Grand has more electronics to work around, as do 96+
models. If you want to swap in the instrument cluster too you can more
easily use a 96+. It's been done! The 87-90 Renix system doesn't have
the nicer diagnostics of the 91-95 HO, but the wiring harness is
separate. It's still more power -- I wouldn't pass a good deal up on a
Renix (I run one in my 63 Classic). The 91-95 HO has the body and engine
wiring all together. UNPLUG the wiring from the firewall so you can
easier ID the wires with a pin-out from the year Cherokee it came from.
Do the same with the Spirit. For the 91-95 harness PULL all your Spirit
under hood wiring from the firewall plug out. Use the Cherokee wiring
harness intact, don't try to separate the wires out.This works better,
though you may have to change a few connectors and lengthen some wires
for lighting. Lay everything from the Jeep in the Spirit. Best to pull
everything attached to the harness out with it and leave it attached.
Then cut the firewall plug from the Spirit and Jeep harnesses and match
the wires. You may have to run a few wires from the Jeep harness that
have no match through the firewall, and you may have a few unattached
wires. Should be enough to run even without those extra wires. One of
the extras will be the check engine light.

For more info go to www.theamcforum.com and see the six cylinder
section,where there is a 4.0L swap sub section.

milnersXcoupe wrote:Fw: 1980 Spirit 4cyl to 4.0 Engine Swap
Submitted by Frank Swygert on January 5, 2012 - 10:00pm.

YES -- you will need a Spirit/Gremlin/Hornet/Concord six cylinder
crossmember AND the mounts that bolt to the side of the six cylinder
engine from one of those. There's a bit more you need -- the fan and
water pump froma Grand Cherokee or Wrangler if you want to use the
mechanical fan, or use an electric fan. you need the engine and wiring
harness from a pre 96 (87-95, but most use 91-95) Cherokee, NOT the
Grand Cherokee. The Grand has more electronics to work around, as do 96+
models. If you want to swap in the instrument cluster too you can more
easily use a 96+. It's been done! The 87-90 Renix system doesn't have
the nicer diagnostics of the 91-95 HO, but the wiring harness is
separate. It's still more power -- I wouldn't pass a good deal up on a
Renix (I run one in my 63 Classic). The 91-95 HO has the body and engine
wiring all together. UNPLUG the wiring from the firewall so you can
easier ID the wires with a pin-out from the year Cherokee it came from.
Do the same with the Spirit. For the 91-95 harness PULL all your Spirit
under hood wiring from the firewall plug out. Use the Cherokee wiring
harness intact, don't try to separate the wires out.This works better,
though you may have to change a few connectors and lengthen some wires
for lighting. Lay everything from the Jeep in the Spirit. Best to pull
everything attached to the harness out with it and leave it attached.
Then cut the firewall plug from the Spirit and Jeep harnesses and match
the wires. You may have to run a few wires from the Jeep harness that
have no match through the firewall, and you may have a few unattached
wires. Should be enough to run even without those extra wires. One of
the extras will be the check engine light.

For more info go to http://www.theamcforum.com and see the six cylinder
section,where there is a 4.0L swap sub section.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I'd run across that forum before.

Mechanically, the swap is straight forward... I'm bolting a 4.0 in place of a 258. Swapping into an Eagle complicatesthings a little bit, but not much.

I'm not worried about the wiring. I've built other fuel injected engine swaps before. I haven't snagged a harness yet, but the local yard has plenty of Cherokees. I'll likely set it up so that the engine compartment harness and the engine harness are separate. This would mean I wouldn't have to unplug everything from the engine to remove the engine.

Finally got the pickup installed:





Comparison of Jeep and Eagle pans. You can see that the Eagle sump is shorter front to back than the Jeep sump.


In this one, the light makes it easier to see the channel or trough in the Eagle pan that makes clearance for the passenger side axle tube from the D30 IFS diff.


In trying to actually INSTALL the pan, I hit yet another snag. The pan wouldn't sit flat on the block unless I pushed it out of position a bit fore or aft. I removed the drain plug to try to see what the pickup was hitting, and the pan dropped right into place... The protrusion of the drain plug into the pan was hitting the pickup. <sigh>

Has anyone else encountered that? Does the stock drain plug protrude any into the pan?

So this is weird... This should be an OE Eagle pickup with an OE Eagle pan and AFAIK, an OE Eagle drain plug. Everything *should* go together perfectly.

I guess the Melling re-pro might not be dimensionally perfect.
I guess I might have some kind of aftermarket drain plug.

The "lip" at the edge of the pickup is pretty much immediately inside the drain plug hole in the pan. I'd have to cut the unthreaded "pilot" off the drain plug so that the end of the plug was flush with the inside of the boss on the pan in order for it to work.
If I bend the lip out of the way, then it should be deep enough that I only have to cut off about half the pilot in order for everything to clear.

Do I have a non-stock drainplug? The plug I have has about 1/2" of threaded length with an unthreaded pilot about 3/8" long.
Does the factory drain plug not have a threaded pilot? Should I get a plug without or cut the pilot off the one I have?
Should I just bend the pickup tube so that the drainplug I have screws in?

Thanks!

If the clearance between the pan and pickup is correct I'd get a short plug or saw off the one you have.

Yeah, but factory parts should all go together with factory parts without a problem, right?

reproduction pieces, even factory replacements arent always exactly the same

Yeah, I know... just wondering if anyone else had seen this problem and had any advice to offer before I button it up and make it a LOT harder to fix anything...

Been SLOWLY hammering through various things...

I've been slowly oozing along with this, despite the fact that it should be a very simple build... just have other things going on.

Oil pan fully torqued


Left engine mount bolt holes. The three unpainted ones are used by the Jeep bracket while the rear/painted hole is not. The Eagle bracket uses the two lower-in-photo holes (the engine is upside down, so those are actually the upper holes) as well as the painted hole, but does not use the upper-in photo hole.
The three unpainted holes are 3/8-16, while the painted hole is a loose 7/16-20, that was apparently drilled with a larger than standard tap drill. Neither 1/2-20 nor 12x1.25mm will thread in. I'll drill it out, tap it for 1/2-20 and install some 1/2-20 to 3/8-16 bushings that McMaster car has.


Mods to Eagle engine mount bracket necessary to bolt it to the 4.0 block. Only the through-thickness cutout is necessary. The partial depth gouge is not necessary.

NON-disco axle bracket used with disco axle