Offroad-Express

Hey all, I just brought a 1980 Jeep J20 and are wondering if there are any other J20s out there. I look forward to hearing from you all Thanks.

As Jerry linked, I do. It's a '79 and running a 350 Chev with a TH400 auto, although I'll get around to converting it to a manual again one day.



I've also got a 1980 almost complete for parts.



Got any pics of yours?

oi Jay20..... you in cambridge arent you???????????

Hey mate I am in south taranaki.

Fen wrote:As Jerry linked, I do. It's a '79 and running a 350 Chev with a TH400 auto, although I'll get around to converting it to a manual again one day.



I've also got a 1980 almost complete for parts.



Got any pics of yours?

Hey Fen, awesome I am in Taranaki. I will try to get some photos up tonight. My waka is all original and I am thinking of getting it regeared so I can cruise at a 100kph. At the moment I have d44 in the front and d60 in the back both with 4.88 gears I would like to move to a 3.7 or something there abouts. Any thoughts/parts

JAY20 wrote:Hey mate I am in south taranaki.

Ha funny. I got a mate just bought a J20 last week in Cambridge. Also, hes never (tmk) been on here before.

Seems theres a few J20 owners around the place.

Welcome to the forum

i've got a j20 pto if anyone looking was supose to fit my 4a but alas no
guy in ashburton has parts if/when you need them got his details here somewhere !!

I stopped in to see Bill in Ashburton just after new year. Unfortunately one of his sheds with a J20 he'd just sold to Ashburton Fire Service, his 1950s Bedford truck and all his new parts burned down on New Years Eve.

He still had some used parts and one truck that was on Trademe a few weeks ago (yellow with AMC stickers on the doors), but it think he was getting out of the parts business.

I have a pair of axles, a D60 and a D44 that don't fit my '79 but suit a newer truck (they changed the TC and front diff position for 1980). I don't know the condition nor the gear ratios, but they'd be available, preferably minus hubs / brakes, if they are any good to you.

I had a feeling my truck has 4.10 gearing that I thought was standard. I have what I think is a 1980 J20 NZ brochure (my actual truck is one of the ones photographed) and it has the specs in it, but it doesn't state diff ratio, so I don't know where I got 4.10 in my head.

I can cruise at 100km/h with my 3 speed auto. I have no tachometer so I don't know what engine speed that is, but it doesn't sound excessive. I do have 35" tyres on it, but the speedo is reasonably accurate by GPS, so they aren't making a difference to cruising speed.

aroma wrote:i've got a j20 pto if anyone looking was supose to fit my 4a but alas no
guy in ashburton has parts if/when you need them got his details here somewhere !!

Do you know if the PTO is for the transfer case or the gearbox - they listed both as options in my brochure?

xj wrote:

JAY20 wrote:Hey mate I am in south taranaki.

Ha funny. I got a mate just bought a J20 last week in Cambridge. Also, hes never (tmk) been on here before.

Seems theres a few J20 owners around the place.

Welcome to the forum

I keep an eye on Trademe and besides the Ashburton yellow one there has been a white with a 350 and a Patrol diesel manual 'box listed I think in Coromandel, and an orange one on the west coast that needed minor work for re-registration recently.

There's an NZ new full size Cherokee on there just now as well as the comically priced "restored" Wagoneer that isn't ever going to sell.

Fen, my Father in Law may be on the look out for replacement diffs for his Full size Cherokee, are your diffs 6 or 8 stud, any chance you can confirm the ratios?

Smurf wrote:Fen, my Father in Law may be on the look out for replacement diffs for his Full size Cherokee, are your diffs 6 or 8 stud, any chance you can confirm the ratios?

They're 8 stud, D60 should have tracloc LSD. I'll see what I can find out about ratios. it's a popular upgrade in the US, and because most Cherokees are wide track it is a bolt on change.

The Cherk would have been 6 stud I expect. I have a second set of 8 stud by 16.5" wheels that I don't really need (only 4 as I have 9 in total and I want to keep 5). I'm thinking of fitting the 4 with 33" muds in place of the 35" ATs on the truck currently, so the spare set would have almost new 35x12.5x16.5 BFG ATR tyres. They are truck wheels though, not what the wagons came with, so they wouldn't look exactly right if it's a resto.

Fen wrote:They're 8 stud, D60 should have tracloc LSD. I'll see what I can find out about ratios. it's a popular upgrade in the US, and because most Cherokees are wide track it is a bolt on change.

The Cherk would have been 6 stud I expect. I have a second set of 8 stud by 16.5" wheels that I don't really need (only 4 as I have 9 in total and I want to keep 5). I'm thinking of fitting the 4 with 33" muds in place of the 35" ATs on the truck currently, so the spare set would have almost new 35x12.5x16.5 BFG ATR tyres. They are truck wheels though, not what the wagons came with, so they wouldn't look exactly right if it's a resto.

yeah Cherokee is 6 stud. Let me know the ratios if/when you can. He wants to stick to the 15 inch rims he has now, Not a full on resto, just a straighten and paint, recarpet etc. only running on whitespokes.

Fen wrote:I stopped in to see Bill in Ashburton just after new year. Unfortunately one of his sheds with a J20 he'd just sold to Ashburton Fire Service, his 1950s Bedford truck and all his new parts burned down on New Years Eve.

He still had some used parts and one truck that was on Trademe a few weeks ago (yellow with AMC stickers on the doors), but it think he was getting out of the parts business.

I have a pair of axles, a D60 and a D44 that don't fit my '79 but suit a newer truck (they changed the TC and front diff position for 1980). I don't know the condition nor the gear ratios, but they'd be available, preferably minus hubs / brakes, if they are any good to you.

I had a feeling my truck has 4.10 gearing that I thought was standard. I have what I think is a 1980 J20 NZ brochure (my actual truck is one of the ones photographed) and it has the specs in it, but it doesn't state diff ratio, so I don't know where I got 4.10 in my head.

I can cruise at 100km/h with my 3 speed auto. I have no tachometer so I don't know what engine speed that is, but it doesn't sound excessive. I do have 35" tyres on it, but the speedo is reasonably accurate by GPS, so they aren't making a difference to cruising speed.

Firstly, thanks for all the replies something tells me I am part of a bigger picture. I have spoken to Ashburton Bill and what a bummer it must of been to see his shed full of parts and tools burn to the ground.It was him who told me that he thought all the NZ j20s were running 4.88 gears. He also said if you take the back off the diff the ratios will be stamped inside. I am keen on the axles but I should make sure they are the right ones first. Maybe I will take a drive down your way soon.I have got an Alaskan Slider camper that I might put on for the ride. Just got the j20 warranted and regoed so its all go. Its running on LPG so thats good for the pocket.. Is yours got a wof or is it cof. What I am really trying to find is a well deck.I heard about 1 a week ago and when I rang theguy said I was a day late, he sent it to the scrap yard.

a pity bout bill's shed and gear he had a good selection of bits

its a 6 bolt one side of the transfer box i belive ,it does need put back together pm me if interested

on one of the bolt that hold the diff head in should be a tag with the ratio stamped on it

heres a pic of pto

Bummer, I hate things getting scrapped, and to be so close...

Bill knows a lot more about J20s than I do, so if he says they all have 4.88 he's probably right. I'll see what I can find out over the weekend. Typical if they are; the J20 gets super low diffs and the NZ TJ gets unusably high (3.07) ones.

Depending on what it's worth I'm interested in the PTO, I've been meaning to buy a tractor for about 2 years partly for a PTO and haven't got far with that approach. Someone I know form the UK pointed me at a really cool design for a log splitter that runs off a PTO that I want to copy, or more realistically have copied as I never have enough time to do anything that involved.

I almost forgot about checking the gearing, and it was getting dark by the time I remembered.

Anyway, mixed results:

To my surprise the tag was still on the diff, but less surprisingly it broke off while trying to read it and when I cleaned it up there was nothing to see but rust pitting.

I set the diff on a handy old tyre (the rear axle is on the truck bed) and marked a stud, thinking I would count the number of turns of the drive shaft for 1 turn of the hub. Both hubs turned together in the same direction (even when turning one of hubs) so the LSD is still there, but I could only get maybe 2/3 of a turn of the drive shaft before it bound up on something.

It was getting too dark to see much by then so... Unscientifically the hub looked to turn more than I expected for the 2/3 turn I got on the drive shaft so I did some sums. If it's 4.88 then I'd see around 50 degrees turn on the hub, but then I calculated that if it's 4.11 I'd see 58 degrees and I can't sell the difference between 8 degrees in the dark with no measuring tools.

Given that it's binding I think the cover has to come off to see both what the gearing is and what is up with it. I'm not going to promise to do that next weekend as I have a bit to do on Saturday already and I'm doing a trip on Sunday with Wellington Jeep Club.

may be of intrest to one of you 2
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 378787.htm

That would be a cool thing to have just for the Hell of it. The guy with the cowboy hat is classic!

stop talking start bidding

another one
http://bringatrailer.com/2012/09/05/197 ... kee-chief/

Hi guys sorry to reopen an old thread. New on the board and new to J20's, im down in wellington fen and i was wondering if you would be keen to sell a few parts off that parts truck you have there. Pm me and let me know