Well.... It's been a while since the last update and quite a bit has gone on with the jeep. So much so that I think it may finally be starting to lose its former name of "paperweight".
OK first off, before I get to far into this I want to stop and thank both scrambledbill and tonka for the help with all of this. We worked late into the night through the worst snow storm Portland saw in 2009, came back early the next morning and put another full day in, got to 99% complete on New Years and literally finished it up in the parking lot of Coleman's before the run. Major thanks (and kudo's!) to both of you for helping me with this. I learned a lot and owe you both.
So with that being said, here is the latest in the never ending saga of my Jeep. These pictures aren't necessarily in order, but you'll get the general idea of how it all went. By no means though will they do the hard work justice. Thanks to Bill, Tonka and everyone at Good Guy's Auto Care and Performance Center for letting me take up some time and space.
I had originally ordered 4.10 gears but after hearing pretty much everyone tell me I should go with at least 4.56's I began to seriously rethink my purchase. I got a hold of Wayne @ alljeep.com and asked what kind of restocking fee's I may face to return the 4.10's and get the 4.56's. This was pretty close to 2 months after I had gotten everything. I figured there would be a restock fee and was amazed when Wayne told that as long as the packaging was intact he'd just swap em out for me. I can't say enough about the great service this guy gave me. Great price, cheap and quick shipping, and he even followed up to make sure everything arrived ok. I highly recommend him and without a doubt will be a repeat customer.
So I got the replacements delivered to me by my Mom at Christmas. Tonka had offered to show me how to put them in at his shop in Portland after hours. I figured this was something that would happen in 2010, but when Tonka offered to do it on the 29th I jumped on it.
I still needed to get air set up for the lockers. This was something I had planned on doing myself, but with a little extra Christmas cash in my pocket and a strong desire to have all this ready for the run on the 2nd I opted to have some one else do the install. I figured I would have enough on my hands now with the gears and lockers. I called around and ended up working a deal Precision 4 wheel drive install a new Via Air heavy duty system in to my truck right before I would drive over to Tonka's to do the gears. The install took a little bit longer than than I would have thought, but other than that went smooth and the system works very well.
The tank tucked underneath.
The compressor upfront.
They finished up the install at 5 (which is also the same time I was suppose to be arriving at Tonka's... sorry man!) and with snow falling we began our way the 6.5 miles to Tonka's shop. I have always loved driving in the snow. Snow falling in Portland during rush hour almost killed that for me... almost. I think we got there at 6:30. Sorry again Tonka.
Drove in, unloaded the jeep
and lifted her up
4 hours earlier, my jeep was bone dry. It was shedding slushy snow and mud, and caused quite the puddle in the shop. Can't take that dang thing any where without it making a mess
We pulled all the tires, axles and tie rod so we could get in and out of the difs with relative ease. We then opened em up to see what we could see. The front was as expected, open 3.73's. Nothing special. The back was a bit of a surprise. Turns out I had a truetrac limited slip in there.
The front... nothing special here
The rear... Bonus!
Empty rear
Empty front
With the old out, it was time to put the new in.
Scrambled Bill putting the ring on the locker
Tonka pressing the pinion shims and slinger together
Checking the backlash
Checkin the pattern...
Nope, not quite...
remove rinse and repeat. There was quite a bit of this. I was worried that something was wrong, but Bill and Tonka both assured me this was normal. At the end of day one we had tried every shim combination we could find and still couldn't get the front right. At one point we where close, but not close enough. With snow falling we left the jeep on the rack and Bill gave me a ride home.
After a half nights sleep a stop at Six States for some shims and a bite to eat we arrived back at Pats shop ready to finish it up! Day two proved to be more of the same. In out, getting closer, but still not quite there. After a quick trip to Holbrooks for a couple pinion shims it all started coming together.
Front - Finished!
Rear Finished!
When putting the front axles back in Tonka noticed my u joints where shot. Imagine that... trashed ujoints on my jeep. A quick call to Baxters, some heating and hammering and wham out came the old joints. They looked exactly like the ones off the drive shaft at the burn. Cooked. We put the new ones in and button up the front and rear ends.
At the end of day two, I drove home under my own power, but open. All we needed to do now was plumb the lines and mount the switches. We opted to take New years eve off, and it was well deserved. Sitting on my rear and driving a keyboard has made me soft, and standing on concrete all day had taken its toll on my legs. It was good to have the day off and rest.
On New years day I showed up at the shop to finish it up. Tonka wired the switches and plumbed the lockers only to find we needed a few fittings to hook up to the solenoid. I tried a few spots near the shop before calling it a day. We had 5 minutes of work left, all I needed to do was find the right fittings.
Switches in!
I always seem to end up at hardware stores looking for automotive parts. Sure enough though, Lowes in Delta park has a decent selection of brass fittings and with a little of this and a little of that I had what I needed. On the 2nd, 10 minutes before heading to browns camp I tested them and they worked perfectly. The true tests would come later that day, but even on pavement I was grinning ear to ear!
Later that day I would put the lockers and new gearing to some good use, and both worked marvelously. The jeep was a fairly capable rig before, but with this latest addition it took a big step forward in increasing my confidence in its ability. I know some will look at this and laugh and say "should have gotten ARB", and that may be the case (only time will tell). I'm certainly not the most extreme member of the bunch, but I do plan on using this stuff so again, only time will tell if I will regret not going with the ARB lockers. So far so good, and so far no regrets! ;D
But wait theres more! On a night run I lost one of my lights, wasn't tight and fell off on my way home. For Christmas the family got me a new set, nothing fancy, just a set from HF which is exactly what I wanted. With my bumper and where they mount theres a good chance they may hit something so I don't want to spend a bunch of money on them. So, with the break in the rain today I took the opportunity to mount them up. I think the aim is off, but it will be close enough for now.
Let there be light
Thats it for now, the jeep formerly known as paperweight has made some huge steps forward. Theres always more that I will want, but probably not much more I need. Want and need are sometimes things I have a hard time telling the difference between though ;D
For now though I think my next to do is a rear bumper.