James & The Sahara Build Thread
- Thread starter JamesAndTheSahara
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OP
OP
James glad to see that you got out in woods. Which gear ratio did you go with? And how much do you like it while in the city and on the highway?
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I went with 4.88’s & its really nice driving I have a 5th gear. I will update you on the highway drive as I have one on tuesday & will have a proper speedo at that time. Said I was going 90mph in a 65
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Didn’t get a chance to take some photos (tomorrow I will though!) of my speedo & rear shock extension. I decided not to convert the front yoke to ubolts yet as I am going to need to phone motobilt about this pinion leak... driving to columbus tomorrow to get my vehicle aligned and gonna be taking my napa gear oil with me lol.
They trashed that seal on installation. They are kind of a pain to install but that's no excuse for doing a shitty job.
yea it looks like a brand new seal too..WTF! I would be surprised if they give you any lip on this.
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They have offered to fix it, if I bring it all the way back to them. My gear break in is nearly going to be done this week wity all this 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off driving.
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I'm going to see what I can do in terms of that, hoping I can. I won't make them change the gear oil because when they receive the vehicle it will only have 250 miles on it, I want to go the full term and use my own gear oil. I scheduled the repair on Thursday, so that will be happening then!
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Another update: Here are the photos of the speedo & rear shock extension install:
(Sorry for the lack of speedo pictures... Just realized I didn't take any oops!)
Here was my stopping point in Columbus. When the gears are heating up, the seal expands and starts profusely leaking oil, see all oil splatter below:
Here's a new leak alongside an old leak:
(Seriously gotta fix that rear main seal relatively soon!)
Here was the main reason for going to Columbus (that toe in was kinda close, haha just kidding):
And post trip this is how much gear oil was lost and required to re-fill up the front differential (10 fluid oz lost, 100 miles traversed):
And to conclude I want to end on a positive note because right now the Jeep is in a very positive place. I finally got to drive her for a solid 30 minutes straight on the interstate and all I can say is wow. She drives great, holds 70mph at 2800 RPM in 5th gear (AX15, i6 4.0L) & really getting a feel for the new gearing. She is not the fastest off the line but in the future I have plans for that. Right now I am very pleased with how the axles are performing. I'm excited to start getting these leaks fixed & take this thing offroad!
(Sorry for the lack of speedo pictures... Just realized I didn't take any oops!)
Here was my stopping point in Columbus. When the gears are heating up, the seal expands and starts profusely leaking oil, see all oil splatter below
:Here's a new leak alongside an old leak
:(Seriously gotta fix that rear main seal relatively soon!)
Here was the main reason for going to Columbus (that toe in was kinda close, haha just kidding):
And post trip this is how much gear oil was lost and required to re-fill up the front differential (10 fluid oz lost, 100 miles traversed):
And to conclude I want to end on a positive note because right now the Jeep is in a very positive place. I finally got to drive her for a solid 30 minutes straight on the interstate and all I can say is wow. She drives great, holds 70mph at 2800 RPM in 5th gear (AX15, i6 4.0L) & really getting a feel for the new gearing. She is not the fastest off the line but in the future I have plans for that. Right now I am very pleased with how the axles are performing. I'm excited to start getting these leaks fixed & take this thing offroad!
Don't feel alone. When I had my gears done, the shop must not have bothered to take it for a test drive. I picked the jeep up and drove the 30 miles to home. When I got home, both sides of the front axle leaked gear oil profusely, so I had to drive it back to the shop and say WTF! Come to find out, he somehow installed the wrong inner seals in my Dana 30. He did try to make it right by offering to change out the gear oil after break in. Sucked for him since he had to pull everything back apart to change out those seals.
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I hate when crap like that happens (the seal). Especially right after you get done doing a huge project like this and just want to drive it!
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Haha the rear main has been an issue for the past couple miles, pinion seal is super annoying though. Definitely in the long haul tomorrow...
Yeah, rear main seal is always an issue on these things, but yours appears to be much worse than the usual slow leak.