cherokee to willys

Welcome to the forum (from down the hill). Someone on here can answer your question, but I've heard that the Ford 8.25 is a common rear axle swap for the Willys trucks.

Cheers,


Scramboleer AKA Dan
 
Sure will. They are the same, or 1" wider than stock wagon axles depending on the year. You'll wanna look into how well the willys master cylinder (or whatever you have in it) will work with the Cherokee brakes, though. You should be able to figure out what size bore a stock Cherokee MC is, and if you aren't gonna use a power booster, I think your supposed to accommodate for the lack of boost. Pretty sure you would want to run a MC with a smaller bore without a booster. Welcome to the board. A lot of friendly, respectful people and a good wealth of knowledge to learn from here. Not necessarily me. My knowledge is limited:) I live a little ways outside of Placerville. Always like seeing Willys in my general area pop up on the forum. What's she like? Pics?
 












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Sweet! I enjoyed the pics. Thats a pretty solid, and complete, looking wagon. It looks happy:) If you want to rewire the whole wagon then it's hard to beat a Painless Wiring kit. The price of wire is pretty high right now, and a kit can save you a LOT of time. If your just looking to clean it up black plastic wire loom is pretty cheap and can make a huge difference in looks. A decent quality wire crimping tool can make a big difference if you want to replace multiple connectors too.

This is the wiring harness that I chose for my wagon-
http://www.amazon.com/Painless-10102-Circuit-Universal-Streetrod/dp/B0006B3UF0
 
Will this keep it a 6 volt system????
BigRod024 said:
Sweet! I enjoyed the pics. Thats a pretty solid, and complete, looking wagon. It looks happy:) If you want to rewire the whole wagon then it's hard to beat a Painless Wiring kit. The price of wire is pretty high right now, and a kit can save you a LOT of time. If your just looking to clean it up black plastic wire loom is pretty cheap and can make a huge difference in looks. A decent quality wire crimping tool can make a big difference if you want to replace multiple connectors too.

This is the wiring harness that I chose for my wagon-
http://www.amazon.com/Painless-10102-Circuit-Universal-Streetrod/dp/B0006B3UF0
Click to expand...
 
The harness would work with 6v or 12v. I've never personally changed a 6v vehicle to 12v, but from what I've read it's pretty simple. If I remember correctly you would need to change the headlights, and the bulbs for the rest of the lighting, to bulbs meant for 12v. This includes the bulbs for the gauge cluster and the dome. The gauges are also meant for 6v. The speedo and ammeter will work fine with 12v, but the oil, temp, and fuel gauges would need voltage reducers to be used. They need about 5.5v. A lot of people just install aftermarket gauges and leave those three unwired. The last thing I would look into is the coil. Not sure what would be needed there. Different coil? Ballast resister? Maybe a voltage reducer like what's used for gauges would work? Hopefully someone here will chime in and set me straight:) Im pretty sure you would need 12v to run a new stereo.

In my first reply I said Cherokee axles would work fine in your wagon. A few nights later I woke up in the middle of the night and that was on my mind. I realized I had assumed you would be aware of all things that needed to be considered(except for the brakes for some reason), and I felt I needed to address them. I fell back asleep and forgot, until now.

-Stock Wagons came with d18 transfer cases which have outputs both front and rear on the passenger side of the vehicle. Cherokee rear axles have a centered pinion, and the front is on the driver side. I don't know why I didn't address those, and I apologize. You could change tranny/t-case or just t-case to run them, but watch out, cause adapters can be very expensive.

-Second thing to note is the change in lug pattern. Stock willys is 5 on 5.5. Stock cherokee is 5 on 4.5.

-the Cherokee axles also will have different gear ratios. Stock wagons I believe only had 4.27:1 and lower (higher numerically)gearing. I think most Cherokees came with 3.07:1 or 3.55:1 axle gearing. The 3.55s might work fine. Not sure you'd wanna go as high as 3.07.

-Spring perches would also need to be changed. The stock cherokee suspension mounts would need to be cut off and new spring perches welded on properly for your wagon. The lower shock mounts too.

Sorry again for not being more thorough. Hope I didn't cause any problems.

Edit- forgot to mention the stock generator would need swapped out also. A new single wire alternator would be a nice replacement.
 
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I got a wiring harness from Walck's. It was awesome. Call him up and tell him what you've got and he'll steer you in the right direction. Everything was terminated with proper connectors, and to the right length. I was very impressed.
 
I converted a 55 Chevy from 6V to 12V.
Replace all light bulbs.
Mechanical gauges don't need changed. The two gauges that need a voltage reducer are the gas gauge and maybe the water temp if it's not mechanical.
A 6V starter works even better at 12V.
Remove generator and voltage regulator and figure out a way to mount a one-wire alternator.
Heater fan and wiper motors need to be replaced with a 12V model.
Good luck.
 
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