Merle Coggins

Yes, the 4 conical nuts and cupped washers go on the 4 outer most studs. There are also a few thick, heavy, washers that go under the nuts where they span the intake/exhaust manifold stud gap. The rest are smaller flat washers and nuts. If you invest in one of those vibratory tumbler/polishers you could polish your nuts to your heart’s content. 😉

Hi Jason, Welcome to the "family". And as these guys have stated, these trucks can be quite reliable as a daily driver in 'mostly' stock configuration. I don't use mine as a daily ride, but I have done some significant road trips with it and am quite happy with my stock(ish) truck. The 3.73 diff makes highway travel easier... The front disc brake upgrade makes stopping at that speed less of a pucker factor... and as long at the truck is moving, it steers with ease. However, I also see the allure of a 'modern' chassis under the 'classic' skin. And if I lived in Florida I'd probably want A/C too. I've seen a few builds on the S10 chassis, and the Code 504 kit is mentioned frequently. I have no experience with it, but I believe we have a member here currently doing that with his truck. The name escapes me at the moment, but maybe he'll chime in soon. I also saw your post on the FB group page. I've seen this swap referred to more often there, so maybe those guys can also offer some guidance. From what I hear the S10 chassis tends to be a bit narrow in track width, although that can be compensated for with wheels, or spacers. I've also heard that the Dakota chassis is a very good fit for these trucks. Or even a Dakota front clip graft, keeping the rest of the chassis stock so as not to recreate body mounts and etc. There are many options available. Whichever way you go with it, stick around and let us follow your progress. We all love to follow a good project. Merle

I've caulked up my windshield gasket, glass side and body side, to stop the flooding when driving in the rain. Now I'm down a a couple little trickles when driving in heavy rain. I guess I can live with that for now.

Sometimes you do what you gotta do to add a little weight to a bare frame. When I swapped in my 3.73 diff I was still in the overall building stage, with no body work on the chassis yet. The driveshaft was tight to get off the yolk at the diff, but I couldn't get it back in to save my live. Since I was working in our heavy equipment shop, I looked around the shop and spotted an excavator bucket. BINGO!! Set it on the frame with the overhead crane enough to squat the springs and give me the necessary clearance for the driveshaft to slip in place. (sorry, my camera didn't focus too well on this one)

I'll let you talk smack now, based on how they played earlier in the season out in the Bay Area. This game will be different though. Looking forward to a good game. Go Pack Go!!!

If the battery had gone dead to where the engine died and would not restart, it’s unlikely that it would recover enough, from resting, that is would be able to start the engine again. It’s more likely that you have a bad connection issue somewhere that disconnected when things got warm. Then made new contact upon cooling down.

As I recall, the '99 and newer Grand Cherokee's have 5 X 5" lug pattern which wouldn't match your existing wheels on a 1/2 ton. It would work great on my truck though... You'll need a '98 or earlier Grand Cherokee axle, or a regular Cherokee axle.

Have you checked the wheel bolt pattern of the '02 Grand Cherokee? I though those were 5X5"

Can't be any worse than mine, although you have a shorter wheel base. The longer trucks tend to smooth things out a bit more.

I'm with Jeff on this. I've never had my spring packs apart. I sprayed them down with penetrating oil a couple times early on. Now I'll add a spray down with a dry lube spray every couple of years. I'm always amazed how well it rides for a 70 year old 3/4 ton truck.

3 wires would probably indicate a built in resistor for multi speeds. Maybe low, medium, and high? Or Maybe 2 speeds with the 3 wire being ground? The single wire is likely the power for the motor and it may be grounded through the mount. In that case you would need an external resistor/rheostat to control the speed, like what Mark states. I also have that same rheostat switch under the dash for my Arvin heater. As for changing the direction of the fan motor when you switch polarity, it will depend on if it's a permanent magnet motor, or if it has electromagnet field coils. A permanent magnet motor would certain switch direction with a polarity change. But one with electromagnet field magnets, the magnetic field will also reverse when reversing the wires, so the motor would still spin the same direction.

Another theory on the possible "upgrades" a previous owner made... As you state, you see evidence that it may have had column shift, which would indicate it had a 3 speed. With the swap to a 4 speed it would require a different length driveshaft. So they may have just used the driveshaft from the donor truck, and since the rear u-joint wouldn't have matched up they may have just swapped the differential pinion flange with the earlier version. If this is the case your axle and diff may still be original. Or that could be a mix match of components from other donor vehicles. Only time travel would tell the whole story... 😏

While it's true that your Optima's will have a higher amp rating than a replacement lead acid that doesn't mean they'll be discharging all of that amperage. Your alternator, or generator, only needs to output enough current to displace what your car is using. The largest current consumption is at cranking to start the engine. After that the ignition system draws a small amount. If you have lights on there is more current draw from the battery, and etc. So, the charging system just needs to replace the amperage that was used during the starting process and power consuming devices while running. Normally you may see your ammeter move higher to the Positive side right after startup, to replace that amperage draw, then it'll settle down and show a slight positive charge during normal driving. The generator, or alternator, will only output the amount of current (amperage) needed to maintain the battery state of charge. Since you aren't adding any large current consumers to the system there is no need to increase the charging capacity. Stick with the single alternator, or generator, and you'll be fine.

I didn't see anything about a 3.73 diff ratio in the initial post. However... my parts book lists a 3.73 gear set as available for all generations of the B-series, in B and C models, but I've never personally seen a truck with 3.73 gears that hadn't been modified in that respect. In my case I happened across a deal for a diff from a '50 Plymouth that had 3.73 gears. I had to swap the pinion drive flange to keep the truck version, as the car drive flange is quite different, do to their use of ball and trunion joints. Other than that it was a direct swap into my axle. There was a change in the axle shaft splines at some point in the early to mid '50's, but I don't know exactly when that took place. And it could have taken place at different points between the product lines. If you happen across a diff with the updated splines I've heard stories from guys that successfully swapped the side gears within the differential so that they could continue to use their existing shafts. As for the universal joints for your truck. A B3B should have the later Spicer type u-joint. The change was made during the B2 series generation. There is no S/N break as to when they changed, it only designates the "UP TO" as the Lock Plate type and the "AFTER" as the Retainer type. And you need to make the determination by how your u-joint is retained. The fact that your truck has the lock plate, or Cleveland type, u-joints leads me to believe someone swapped in a complete drive train from an earlier truck. Maybe they came across an earlier truck with 3.73 gearing and a 4 speed and decided they wanted that setup in their B3B truck?

I would venture a guess that a previous owner swapped in a 4 speed from an earlier truck, and rather than modifying the driveshaft to work with different u-joints they swapped in the earlier axle too.