Thanks. The first time around was very much "An angle on the back is better than nothing" and the second was "I have this piece of scrap that will be better than it was". Extra height would help make it lighter, but I think this is about the best I'm going to get with the current constraints.
Bty34 TJ build
- Thread starter bty34
- Start date
Thanks. The first time around was very much "An angle on the back is better than nothing" and the second was "I have this piece of scrap that will be better than it was". Extra height would help make it lighter, but I think this is about the best I'm going to get with the current constraints.
Picked up a new Jeep for my wife. I have been looking for a 4.0 auto with a/c, ideally an LJ. I think this will work out well for her and match up fairly well with the TJ off-road.
Since it doesn't need a lot, I'll probably just put the limited updates in here.
Since it doesn't need a lot, I'll probably just put the limited updates in here.
I think there are at least a couple modifications I did to my jeep based on pictures of this one 15 years ago.
I have tinkered with it a little bit while I was waiting on the paperwork from the DMV.
Installed new bottom seat foam on the driver's side and added some Buchanan spacers. Put the rear seat belts back in for the kids.
Motor mount lift block had a couple marks from occasional contact with the bracket. Pulled it and added some buffer with a burr.
Found a broken weld on the rear stiffener of the under armor. Not obvious in the picture, but I was double checking bolts and pushing on things made it easier to see.
Since this is an original non Rubicon UA, I decided to change out the center part of the brace with 3 x 3 x 1/4" angle. This allows me to cheat it back a little further to give room for the 241.
Added access for the nuts. Test fitting without the notches was a struggle.
No major updates, but a couple of small things. The LJ spent most of the spring and earlier summer taking over the back and forth to little league games. The extra space comes in handy with bat bags and catcher's gear.
Swapped the blower motor resistor. Received two damaged ones from Rock Auto before they wouldn't try another replacement.
Swapped over to a framed soft top. I had a frameless top on the TJ years ago and I prefer the frames top with the rain in the northeast. The rear c pillar spreader also didn't match up great with the rear window. I did pick up some factory rollbar covers with the used soft top frame. I'm going to try and fit them without it looking too cobbled.
Added some Yukon hubs in place of the Currie drive flanges. On the TJ I have a habit of rubbing the front driveshaft on rocks and this can make the ride home nicer at times.
Noticed the ignition park interlock was absent. Thanks to this thread I found the interlock pill was missing and was able to find one in a junkyard.
Swapped the blower motor resistor. Received two damaged ones from Rock Auto before they wouldn't try another replacement.
Swapped over to a framed soft top. I had a frameless top on the TJ years ago and I prefer the frames top with the rain in the northeast. The rear c pillar spreader also didn't match up great with the rear window. I did pick up some factory rollbar covers with the used soft top frame. I'm going to try and fit them without it looking too cobbled.
Added some Yukon hubs in place of the Currie drive flanges. On the TJ I have a habit of rubbing the front driveshaft on rocks and this can make the ride home nicer at times.
Noticed the ignition park interlock was absent. Thanks to this thread I found the interlock pill was missing and was able to find one in a junkyard.
The TJ had a code this spring for bank 1 running lean. It's done it once or twice before on the first drive of the season, but this time it came back. Noticed the upstream sensor was reading lean and the downstream was reading rich. Put a shop vac in the tailpipe and had a decent exhaust leak around cylinders 3 and 4. Doesn't look like the downstream sensor was the accurate one.
Also found some non factory hardware had been installed at some point. Blaine helped me out with getting that squared away. Went with Mahle/Clevite for the new gasket.
Still had similar readings, swapped the upstream sensor and it has been good so far.
Also found some non factory hardware had been installed at some point. Blaine helped me out with getting that squared away. Went with Mahle/Clevite for the new gasket.
Still had similar readings, swapped the upstream sensor and it has been good so far.
That's unfortunately one of many of the stories I've heard about RockAuto that has turned me away from them. Even, if a few dollars more than Amazon, etc, - I knew the RockAuto would fit right.
But the delivery issues I've heard of are pilling up and I have paused myself when I even recently considered a purchase from them...
The first one I ordered was a Dorman part with a new pigtail and connector. From Dorman they were both in the same box with no packaging. I'm guessing the connector broke the one circuit in shipping. Reported it to Rock Auto and they had a replacement shipped which ended up the same. This time they just issued a refund and wouldn't exchange for a replacement. Placed a new order for just the resistor and it came undamaged. It doesn't help Rock Auto's shipper didn't add any packaging in their box, but a little effort from Dorman would have helped too.
My last order with them came from an auto supply warehouse about an hour away that has their own delivery vehicles for shop accounts. Maybe I can get setup like that and avoid shipping.
Drove the Jeeps down to Rausch Creek over Labor Day. With two kids in each jeep we ended up pulling the m416 trailer with the TJ to make things easier.
Only casualty was a couple more holes in the TJ soft top. Might be time to replace the fabric. I picked up a quadratec replacement after the first hole, but it has been sitting in the box a little over 8 years.
Only casualty was a couple more holes in the TJ soft top. Might be time to replace the fabric. I picked up a quadratec replacement after the first hole, but it has been sitting in the box a little over 8 years.
I did have a couple of instances where the TJ would crank but not start. I noticed after the first time if I went back to run and tried again it went better. Also had one instance where it was running but didn't have accessory power. When I moved the key a little bit the accessory power came back. Based on this I thought I might be losing the run position from the ignition switch occasionally when in start.
Pulled the ignition actuator and switch to see if there was something out of place. The actuator looked good.
Not sure if the switch was causing it, but sure looked suspect.
Here it is opened up.
And with the grease cleaned up
Cleaned up ok without too much effort. I did order a new Mopar switch for a spare. In the limited time since it hasn't acted up again, but it's too soon to declare it fixed.
Pulled the ignition actuator and switch to see if there was something out of place. The actuator looked good.
Not sure if the switch was causing it, but sure looked suspect.
Here it is opened up.
And with the grease cleaned up
Cleaned up ok without too much effort. I did order a new Mopar switch for a spare. In the limited time since it hasn't acted up again, but it's too soon to declare it fixed.
On the drive to PA a couple weeks ago my wife mentioned some noise and vibration from the LJ about 20 miles in. Pulled off the side of the road and looked things over and didn't notice anything obvious. Started back out and it happened again after a couple more miles. So far we have a little over 1000 miles on the Jeep with no issues and the only change is the locking hubs. Switched both hubs to locked and didn't have any other occurrences over the next 500 miles.
Got a chance to pull the hubs apart after we got home. Below is how they go together, with some parts you may or may not need as Yukon uses the same diagram across multiple applications.
The inside / driven gear is held out by the spring and then pushed in (unlocked) by the ramp on the lockout knob. The drive gear floats on the shaft between the retainer plate (3) and the spacer (8). In the install instructions yukon says if the drive gear floats more than 0.200", the hubs may not work right.
Little greasy, but here is the spacer and drive gear.
Doing some measuring, I have:
0.187" of movement in the drive gear
0.145" tooth depth on gears
0.350" throw in lockout knob
Looks like this is where they get the 0.200" spec. As long as the drive gear can't move in more than this, the throw of the knob is enough to keep the gears apart.
The other relevant measurement is when the lockout knob starts in the locked position with no pressure on it, the knob floats out 0.040" before hitting the stop and starting to push the driven gear in.
Stacking all this up it appears even with being under the 0.200" spec, there is nothing stopping the drive gear from moving in and partially (0.022") engaging the driven gear.
I'm guessing this is what my wife was experiencing. For comparison I checked the hubs on the TJ and I was less than 0.005" of float on the drive gear, which explains why I haven't seen this with those before.
Got a chance to pull the hubs apart after we got home. Below is how they go together, with some parts you may or may not need as Yukon uses the same diagram across multiple applications.
The inside / driven gear is held out by the spring and then pushed in (unlocked) by the ramp on the lockout knob. The drive gear floats on the shaft between the retainer plate (3) and the spacer (8). In the install instructions yukon says if the drive gear floats more than 0.200", the hubs may not work right.
Little greasy, but here is the spacer and drive gear.
Doing some measuring, I have:
0.187" of movement in the drive gear
0.145" tooth depth on gears
0.350" throw in lockout knob
Looks like this is where they get the 0.200" spec. As long as the drive gear can't move in more than this, the throw of the knob is enough to keep the gears apart.
The other relevant measurement is when the lockout knob starts in the locked position with no pressure on it, the knob floats out 0.040" before hitting the stop and starting to push the driven gear in.
Stacking all this up it appears even with being under the 0.200" spec, there is nothing stopping the drive gear from moving in and partially (0.022") engaging the driven gear.
I'm guessing this is what my wife was experiencing. For comparison I checked the hubs on the TJ and I was less than 0.005" of float on the drive gear, which explains why I haven't seen this with those before.
The Yukon are the only 99-04 super duty hubs I have experience with. Once they are setup the other set has been trouble free. I did spend some time wheeling with someone with mile marker hubs. After stripping the splines out of 3 hubs in ~10 hours of wheeling he ran out of spares.
I thought it might be worth pulling the unit bearings to double check things since there will be relative movement with the shaft now with the hubs unlocked. It looks like these have a steel bushing in place of the needle bearing to accommodate the 35 spline shafts. It is likely fine, but I ordered a pair of brass bushings from Branik to put in their place. Currie says the 35 spline unit bearings they sell now are opened up for a needle bearing, but I doubt I'll get enough road miles for that to be necessary.
I thought it might be worth pulling the unit bearings to double check things since there will be relative movement with the shaft now with the hubs unlocked. It looks like these have a steel bushing in place of the needle bearing to accommodate the 35 spline shafts. It is likely fine, but I ordered a pair of brass bushings from Branik to put in their place. Currie says the 35 spline unit bearings they sell now are opened up for a needle bearing, but I doubt I'll get enough road miles for that to be necessary.
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