hi, I have a 72 cj-5 jeep, and I want to build it up to be a little more aggressive on the trails, but save some money at the same time. it has the stock 304 and all the stock running gear. it has a mild lift with 32in. tires and i'm wanting more, maybe 38's, 39's. I'm looking for lower gears.

my dad found a chevy 4 speed transmission (about a 1966). we think it has a lot lower gears than the stock trans that is in the jeep now, but I don't want to by two adapters to go from the engine to the trans and trans to transfer case. is there an easy to find jeep trans that has lower gears and bolts right up? or can I lower the gears in my transfer case?

What kind of wheeling are you planning on doing? The lift needed for running 38's will make that Jeep dangerously high. And you will be spending lot's of money in breakage. What you want is wide trac axles and if you plan on hammering on it you will want at least a 60 rear and 44 in the front with chrome moly axles and ctm joints. I run wide trac axles and 35" ssr's and 4in. lift on my 80 CJ5. As for your tranny questions a t-18 has a 6.32 low range. you will also want to change your axle gears to run the larger tires. If all this sounds overwhelming just remember Jeep = Just Empty Every Pocket.

hey thanks for the help! im wanting a saturday toy even wanting to join a 4x4 club here in logan utah.
so im not going to be on highway much or even at all. your right i will need wider axles and thats something else i planed on too. i don't know what would be a good axle swap? a cheroke perhaps?

as far as getting a wider stance, I've herd of people putting chevy axles under their jeeps. if so what are some good chevy axles? Or are they not good swaps?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 72cj5jeep,

about wider axles. I would get dana 44's out of a scout. they are just about the same width as a cj-7. the catch is you have to relocate the spring perches ft/rr. I have a 44 rear in my cj-5 and it works great. another advantage of having a scout (rear)44 is that both axles are interchangable left to right etc. due to the placement of the pinion gear. I picked up a dana 30(front) from a donor cj7, I know its not the greatest axle while running a 360 and 35's but due to low funding and actually getting a great deal on it I picked it up, and replacing axles out in the desert gets to be an adventure when ur romping. If I had my way I'd run dual 44's front and rear out of a scout.

Trans. wise what you need is a t-18 out of a '78-'79 cj. Will bolt right to your engine and uses the same transfer case and has the killer first gear. As for the diffs. I agree with 360. Scout axles are dirt cheap and quite durable.

yah I am running the same T-18 that rusty is talking about, its a great transmission very durable and awesome first gear ratio 6.32:1 the only downside is that from my understanding some of the T-18's came with a variety of input shafts some long, some short u get the point. If you were to go that route I say try ur best to snatch that bellhousing up too thats if its available.

He used the stock manifold and a $12.00 adapter.
Here is a link to all the info you should need.

http://www.greatcj8.com/mc2100.htm

Sorry, I don't know how to make it so you can click on it and it will take you there.

Well looky there! It did do it.

Always fun to discuss. The 360 is just about a bolt in, except for the flywheel if you buy a motor out of an automatic. The 304 flywheel will bolt up, but it'll cause the engine to self destruct.

Even the tranny out of early 1980s CJs will be an improvement for a number of reasons. The most important being that the Dana 300 transfer case will come bolted to it. The T176 has the strength if you don't drive like a idiot.

Once you decide to increase the tire size to 38s, you've basically decided that you want to break parts. Its just a fact of life. Big tires, more horsepower, taller gearing (torque multiplication) will result in either the jeep going faster, the tires spinning, or parts flying. Probably all 3 will occur at various times. As you add strength to one part, another will become the weak point an will fail.