Jeep 5 Speed Swap & NJ Jeep Invasion
July was a fun month! We took on a project different than the usual custom fabrication work. A customer brought us his ZJ Jeep Grand Cherokee with a really angry, old Chrysler transmission. Laying in the cargo area of the Jeep were all the guts of a factory 5 speed ZJ! He bought a donor factory 5 speed ZJ, pulled all the important parts, and brought it to 4Link4WD to complete the swap.
The swap went well with the exception of a few small setbacks. All of the old junk was pulled from the flexplate to the driveshafts, then the new exterior parts (transmission, transfer case, etc.) needed a full degreasing and cleanup. A new shifter bushing and dust boot was installed, as well as new throwout and pilot bearings. Then the aluminum adapter plate, flywheel, clutch, clutch hydraulics, and transmission/transfer case were all bolted in. Next, the crossmember and new transmission mount were installed to hold everything up in place.
After all the main components were installed, we rebuilt both driveshafts from the parts Jeep (which are different lengths than the auto-trans model). An important thing to note is there are 2 different part numbers for the front centering bearing, but both have identical markings in the casting. In short, one is greasable and one is not, and they are not interchangeable so make sure you get the correct one that came off of your driveshaft!
The next step was to finish up the interior and work on wiring. Wiring was pretty simple. There is a 3 pin connector that attaches to the auto transmission. 1 wire is power (for the reverse lights), 1 wire goes to the reverse lights, and the last one is the neutral safety switch wire (NSS). The manual trans has a 2 pin which is where the reverse lights wire in, so we cut the pigtail off the donor Jeep and soldered that in. The NSS wire was simply grounded to the body, which allows the ignition to start. You could wire in some sort of switch to take place of a NSS but our customer is a manual transmission veteran and didn’t think it was necessary on his vehicle.
The interior was pretty simple as well. The clutch pedal and brake pedal bolted in to the factory locations without an issue. The trans tunnel dust boot was completely torn and ruined and also unavailable to order, so we CNC cut some sheet metal parts to adapt a universal dust boot. The original center console was reused and only had to swap the 5 speed leather shift boot over with the shifter handle.
Now the Grand Cherokee drives so much better, has much more power, and is simply fun to drive. The transmission shifts extremely smooth and tight.
On another note, we ended the month by taking a few 4Link4WD-built Jeeps out to the New Jersey Jeep Invasion to show them off and meet local Jeepers. It was a great event, with amazing weather and nice to spend time with some awesome people. We will be a vendor at the Great Smoky Mountain Jeep Invasion in Tennessee in August, so plan to meet up with us there!
