What did you do WITH your Gladiator today?

[WILDHOBO]

I'd love to have a 401 for a future project. But don't really have the storage for it right now.

I do have a TH400 with AMC bellhousing tucked away. Might even have an adapter for it to a Dana 20, if it didn't get lost in the last move.

I don’t think I’ll keep the th400. My plan is a t176 4 speed and an atlas. I already have the 4 speed and intend to rebuild it. But it shifts fine and doesn’t have any damaged gears. It needs a refresh though.

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[RudeJeepin]

I don’t think I’ll keep the th400. My plan is a t176 4 speed and an atlas. I already have the 4 speed and intend to rebuild it. But it shifts fine and doesn’t have any damaged gears. It needs a refresh though.

The 400 came out of my CJ when I swapped in a TF727. The TF is alot shorter, those old 5s need as much help as possible with rear driveline length.
The TH400 has less than 25k miles on it after a fresh rebuild. I should put it on fakebook to sell.

The T176 is a decent trans, just missing an overdrive, depending on how you plan to use your Willys. There were a couple different versions of it, I believe the differences have to do with the input shaft length, which effects the clutch. The output might be different depending on 2wd vs 4wd vs which transfercase it was mated to. Although I believe the output is fairly easy to change.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I don’t think I’ll keep the th400. My plan is a t176 4 speed and an atlas. I already have the 4 speed and intend to rebuild it. But it shifts fine and doesn’t have any damaged gears. It needs a refresh though.

If I was to keep the TH400, I'd put in a shift kit and manual valve body and have a pretty much indestructible gear box - but the TH400 is pretty heavy internally so there's that.

 

[RudeJeepin]

If I was to keep the TH400, I'd put in a shift kit and manual valve body and have a pretty much indestructible gear box - but the TH400 is pretty heavy internally so there's that.

@WILDHOBO
If your gonna do that, might as well do a reverse valve body. As I'm sure you know, then you end up with PRN12D instead of the usual PRND21.
Better for serious offroading. Plus you could toss in a low gear set while in there. Drop 1st and 2nd, drive stays direct. Then you run lower (numerically higher) axle gears to kinda get an overdrive and still have a good overall launch/crawl ratio.
He would have plenty of power for that kinda gear spread.

Ha, it's asy to spend someone else's money. Ya, I know you already have a different trans, but...

 

[Mightytalldude]

@WILDHOBO
If your gonna do that, might as well do a reverse valve body. As I'm sure you know, then you end up with PRN12D instead of the usual PRND21.
Better for serious offroading. Plus you could toss in a low gear set while in there. Drop 1st and 2nd, drive stays direct. Then you run lower (numerically higher) axle gears to kinda get an overdrive and still have a good overall launch/crawl ratio.
He would have plenty of power for that kinda gear spread.

Ha, it's asy to spend someone else's money. Ya, I know you already have a different trans, but...

Don't encourage @WILDHOBO to spend more money, he's doing just fine on his own.
That being said, the reverse valve body idea makes sense and is something to look at.

 

[Stan H]

If I was to keep the TH400, I'd put in a shift kit and manual valve body and have a pretty much indestructible gear box - but the TH400 is pretty heavy internally so there's that.

The TH350 and TH400 are simplistic to work on was helping rebuild a TH350 and we had ordered standard set of clutch disc and friction plates and we realized it would hold one extra of each . So we looked through the old sets picked the best ones out . Stuck them in and holy crap that thing with a 3504barrel in front of it would Start into a burnout at 40mph if ya kicked it down . Motor was bored .030 and had a pretty good cam in it .

 

[WILDHOBO]

The 400 came out of my CJ when I swapped in a TF727. The TF is alot shorter, those old 5s need as much help as possible with rear driveline length.
The TH400 has less than 25k miles on it after a fresh rebuild. I should put it on fakebook to sell.

The T176 is a decent trans, just missing an overdrive, depending on how you plan to use your Willys. There were a couple different versions of it, I believe the differences have to do with the input shaft length, which effects the clutch. The output might be different depending on 2wd vs 4wd vs which transfercase it was mated to. Although I believe the output is fairly easy to change.

The t176 supposedly came from a cj7 with a 304, so it should bolt right up to the 401, but that’s great info about the input shaft. I’ll watch for it and verify everything when I get the motor.

 

[WILDHOBO]

@WILDHOBO
If your gonna do that, might as well do a reverse valve body. As I'm sure you know, then you end up with PRN12D instead of the usual PRND21.
Better for serious offroading. Plus you could toss in a low gear set while in there. Drop 1st and 2nd, drive stays direct. Then you run lower (numerically higher) axle gears to kinda get an overdrive and still have a good overall launch/crawl ratio.
He would have plenty of power for that kinda gear spread.

Ha, it's asy to spend someone else's money. Ya, I know you already have a different trans, but...

You’re over my head at this point. But that’s perfect. More reading for me. Thanks. I do really want a manual for this build though. It won’t be as functional, but it’ll be fun.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The t176 supposedly came from a cj7 with a 304, so it should bolt right up to the 401, but that’s great info about the input shaft. I’ll watch for it and verify everything when I get the motor.

The crankshaft tail end change in 1972 to accommodate the TorqueFlite transmission.
Up through 1971 they used Borg Warner which had a different torque converter snout on it. Shouldn't matter for the stick, but then the pilot bushing may be different - I can't recall right now.
I suggest that you use a BEARING and not a pilot bushing like most used.
I made a sleeve for the back end of my 4.0 crankshaft so I could use a needle bearing in there for a pilot bearing as I got tired of the mad rogue bull elephant sound in extreme cold when the oil in the pilot bushing got cold and dirty and I pressed the clutch in. It often caused difficult shifting in the winter. The bearing totally took care of that.
You also want to make sure the bell housing is lined up to the Nth degree otherwise there's enough movement things can actually be out of alignment a bit.
When everything is right, it literally almost all falls together.

 

[WILDHOBO]

The crankshaft tail end change in 1972 to accommodate the TorqueFlite transmission.
Up through 1971 they used Borg Warner which had a different torque converter snout on it. Shouldn't matter for the stick, but then the pilot bushing may be different - I can't recall right now.
I suggest that you use a BEARING and not a pilot bushing like most used.
I made a sleeve for the back end of my 4.0 crankshaft so I could use a needle bearing in there for a pilot bearing as I got tired of the mad rogue bull elephant sound in extreme cold when the oil in the pilot bushing got cold and dirty and I pressed the clutch in. It often caused difficult shifting in the winter. The bearing totally took care of that.
You also want to make sure the bell housing is lined up to the Nth degree otherwise there's enough movement things can actually be out of alignment a bit.
When everything is right, it literally almost all falls together.

Awesome advice. Thanks a lot.

 

[drewcnit]

Walden's Ridge - Trail 75 at Windrock Park yesterday - A double black, bucket list level trail for me.
It starts up with a climb up the fins onto the ridge, that's right the top ridge of a mountain line, at times a Jeep's width only and drops ranging from 200 to 1200 feet below with not much to catch you.
This was the most pucker I've felt in one day, several of the climbs are super sketchy and technical getting lined up with a drop if you make a mistake.
I did the wave and threw up some 3 wheel action right at the gatekeeper, first Jeep broke right after I got up and I got to play anchor Jeep when my buddy's front ring gear left the chat.
After that was the slab, a steep climb that requires a bit of wheel speed and a stop as soon as you hit top so you can cut it hard driver and avoid going over the edge.
A short stroll down a bit to the next climb up onto the fin that lines you up for the drop. This was stupid sketchy to see how close the tire is to the edge and trying to Austin Powers park it up on the line which is barely wider than my Jeep. Unfortunately we are still waiting on footage from the last few obstacles but other then the mini-Lion's Back, not a ton more rowdy like this.
All 6 Jeeps technically left under their own power, however one was minus it's front ring gear and locker and another was running on a borrowed tie-rod end after she snapped hers, then also snapped her spare tie-rod end. Due to the breaks and the 2 hour wait to retrieve a tie-rod end from a trailer, we spent 10 hours on this one trail.

And boy east TN is turning all sorts of pretty right now -

 

[Shibbyjeep]

Used it to take our older dog to the EM vet at 3am...

 

[WILDHOBO]

Not today but my buddy just uploaded a video of us out exploring.
WARNING- You’ll have to see my ugly mug. But lots of JT LOL

Used it to take our older dog to the EM vet at 3am...

I hope the dog is ok. Very sorry to hear that. We’ve spent some er vet time lately as well with pets. No fun.

 

[Shibbyjeep]

I hope the dog is ok. Very sorry to hear that. We’ve spent some er vet time lately as well with pets. No fun.

She didnt make it. Infection in her blood stream. But she was 13.5 Australian Sheppard so she lived a full life. Its been a long day(woke up at 1am to her whining and wincing). Waited until after Scouts to let my little guy know what had happened. Hit him pretty hard. Shes in a better place. She struggled with mobility the last few years(pretty bad arthritic hips).

 

[Rcoe]

Hit up WindRock this weekend for our for real trip with the Gladiator. It is a beast pretty much was able to walk up everything in front of it, was pretty dry so nothing we hit was terribly hard.

Wife like this much better than our 2D JL we had before, feels much more stable climbing and going up and we only had to do a couple 3 point turns. Good shake down weekend before we head out to Moab in the spring.

Big drop banged the sliders pretty good on this one.

Panther rock was pretty cool.

Going back up from Panther rock was pretty rutted out.

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