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Purple Jeepin' Power

1K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  Ricel 
#1 · (Edited)
My buddy has a 99' Jeep Wrangler, but after more than a decade living in salt ridden new england and 130,000 miles of hard driving and a careless PO its in need of some restoring.

He picked it up a year ago and really only lifted it with 3/4" spacers and gave it some nice tires. After I purchased the X it got him a little more into the bug.

We prepped and primed the tub for a full bed liner job along with a new bumper he pulled off our buddies sadly traded in rubicon.


Yeah I bet the MEK is slowly killing my kidneys after that one




Tim taping off for bed liner




aint that purdy!


Under the sliders






fender paining


Beast


Well we knew it was coming, the infamous Dana Turdy5 started screaming. A mechanic had naively overtorqued the pinion nut to set the yoke farther in due to it being gouged. A few months later the overstressed bearings were destoyed. It was time to replace all the parts that are prone to breakage.

He selected a truetrac geared limited slip to eliminate the weak carrier and spider gears that all to often in the jeep world go through the diff cover unexpectedly. 4.56 Superior gearing was chosen to give the anemic 2.5 an easier time getting up in the revs and Superior 4130 discovery series axle shafts were chosen to replace the weak stockers.


That worked really well.





The bearing was definitely shot, and upon further inspection of the diff we found small metal shards of what was left of the outer and inner bearing components and an abnormally large amount of metal dust from all the gears.

We ordered up all the parts needed, but were missing a couple so we headed off to the dealership. Talking to the parts guy we saw another guy working on a diff. Started talking and thinking it was more like a D44 thought we had to press the bearings onto the shaft. He was nice enough to correct us with out insult that they were to be compressed to the housing. We asked if we bring it in can he press them for us. "the housing?" looking at us blankly. "Yeah" time replied. "Uh, the housing? you want to bring it in? Its the heavy thing." "yeah we removed it.", "Uh, the housing? the whole thing, right?", "Yep its sitting on the floor on jack stands right now." He just looked at us blankly, turned and walked away.

guess that attitude goes with everyone else telling us we can't set a diff without previous knowledge. hahaha

So we ripped her apart and got the trutrac ready and willing.



Long story short after you have perfectly mastered the bearing, shimming and backlashing parts, there's still one little piece left of the puzzle. That thing called a crush spacer.....



Undoubtably the most evil part of this whole experience. If you mess up well, your SOL. Start all over again. Tim first found out the hard way as did I about over torquing the damn thing. It went from 6 in/lbs on the pinion to 30! how the hell can you do that.

Crush sleeve #2: I overtorqued it. Lets try again.

Neadless to say there was much drinking after that one.


What? wine out of the bottle? What can I say, Im a classy SOB.


Tim taking his frustration out on the bottles cap.

Well we ordered the new crush sleve and went to work for the third time.

Spaced, torqued and tested.


Nate tighnting up the pinion nut.








Money Shot.


The final test. WE HAVE PINION AT 13 IN/LBS! (spec is 12-14)

There was much rejoicing.


She's done. Well.....almost


Now its getting prepped and painted.


the new differential cover


Some of my paining handy work.

We removed everything from the rear end. Oh did I mention everything under that wheel well is getting replaced!



Well now that the rear is almost finished guess theres only one thing left to do....

Yeah the parts for the front came in. That project starts Friday!
:wink-big:
 
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#3 ·
Nice! It's a great feeling when you can tackle a big project like that and come out on top. Looking forward to the rest of the pics!
 
#4 ·
cant quite tell, but if thats a Budweiser bottle, its a twist top! : )

lookin good tho!
 
#5 ·
Ah, the (nearly lost) art of setting up a diff. I loathe it. I'd rather attempt to put together a 5000 piece puzzle of nothing but blackness than set the pinion lash on a Dana diff. But good job! Nice looking little TJ project!
 
#6 ·
Thankfully that is not bud my friend! That be a micro brew I picked up to make a Mix-A-Six.


I now loathe the 0.005" shims. Sliced my thumb to stitches depth. Little bit of blue painters tape and some super glue can fix anything.

All three of us can't wait to get this girl back on the trail. Hopefully (if its allright with you guys) will be joining me on the Jan 8th run up here in mass.
 
#8 ·
First diff setup is the hardest, they get progressively easier after that. Having all of the right tools also helps. You would be suprised what else you can do with a 20 ton press.
 
#10 ·
First diff setup is the hardest, they get progressively easier after that. Having all of the right tools also helps. You would be suprised what else you can do with a 20 ton press.
haha how bout flattening "slightly used" shims cause the ones you ordered came in cracked.

After the 4th time rebuilding the diff caused by us over torquing the crush sleeve, we got it down to little over an hour. Pulled out and put back in to torque specs.
 
#11 ·
Got caught up with the front end. 4x4 group buy sent us a YJ kit after we specifically told them we have a TJ... well even though, We still highly recommend them. One bearing is different so we stopped by autozone and picked up the outer pinion bearing.

On to the next step then! Painting the rear axle.

prepping it with Rustoleum rusty metal primer. So far its looking pretty good.







second coat.





 
#13 ·
Ok so 10 minutes to 3am and we finally finished painting the damn thing.

Now we can sleep peacefully.











... and there was much rejoicing (but really, more sleeping)
:kaffee-big::schlaf2-big:
 
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#14 ·
yeah that thing is BOSS, rep points fasho gettin that faaasho
 
#15 ·
Rear end is finished.


Tim with his 'new' D35.





Extended the breather to the rear brake light housing



You can see it on the right.

The restored D35's new home!

 
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