ElectricWizards 2000 TJ Sport Build

I have to say, you're my hero! Tackling that re-gear yourself... sheesh.

Back in the day before I was married with 3 kids, you can be damn sure I would have done the same thing. Not so much anymore. It would take me months just to get it done.

Color me impressed!

Those re-gear posts above might even be worthy of their own "how-to" thread as well. It's very nicely done!
Thanks! Being single and having no kids sure made it easier ;).

I'm super happy how easily the Dana 30 went together after the issues I ran into with the Dana 35. After doing both axles I don't think it was too painful of an experience. Definitely helps to have done tons of research and have the right tools on hand (y).
 
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Thanks! Being single and having no kids sure made it easier ;).

I'm super happy how easily the Dana 30 went together after the issues I ran into with the Dana 35. After doing both axles I don't think it was too painful of an experience. Definitely helps to have done tons of research and have the right tools on hand (y).

The good thing is that now you know how to do it, so it usually only gets easier each time you do it. One of these days I feel like this is something I want to learn to do myself.
 
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The good thing is that now you know how to do it, so it usually only gets easier each time you do it. One of these days I feel like this is something I want to learn to do myself.
That is definitely true! The front one was a much easier experience after doing the rear.

I'd certainly encourage you to do so. I personally found the experience easier than I expected. I had been researching for months up until I did the setup, so I had a good idea what to expect.
 
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That is definitely true! The front one was a much easier experience after doing the rear.

I'd certainly encourage you to do so. I personally found the experience easier than I expected. I had been researching for months up until I did the setup, so I had a good idea what to expect.

It's trickier with the Rubicon lockers due to that annoying little switch they have in them. I've seen Jerry's write-up on how to handle that, but you have to be very careful with it!
 
It's trickier with the Rubicon lockers due to that annoying little switch they have in them. I've seen Jerry's write-up on how to handle that, but you have to be very careful with it!
Yeah, I've read about those. Sounds like a real bastard. The e-lockers I installed we're pretty simple. Scariest/worst part was definitely drilling holes in the housings for the wires :ROFLMAO:.
 
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Locker & Regear Saga, Part 8: Dana 30 Final Setup & Re-Install.

Prior to final assembly I needed to drill a hole in the housing for the e-locker wiring. I chose a spot right next to and above the breather tube.

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While on the topic of the breather tube, mine came out when I removed the axle. I gave it a generous coating of RTV and tapped it back into place in the housing.

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Next I installed the new axle-tube seals. I ended up using a combination of sockets & extensions as well as my jack handle to reach through the tubes and drive the new seals in.

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I gave the housing a final cleaning and proceeded to install the pinion. The outer pinion bearing and oil slinger were first placed into the end of the housing, and then the pinion seal was driven into place.

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I slipped a new crush sleeve onto the pinion and then put into the housing. I slid the yoke onto the end of the pinion and spun down the new nut. This time I used my Milwaukee impact to snug down the crush sleeve until there was no longer any play in the bearings and then set the preload with breaker bars as I did on the Dana 35. Once I hit about 25 in/lbs of preload I called it good! Lastly I added some Cross-Check paint onto to end of the pinion and nut.

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Before assembly I needed to add more preload shims behind the carrier bearings. I again used my GXL puller to remove the new bearings and added .006" shims to each side; the new bearings were then pressed back on.

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Next I used my case spreader to open the housing up .010" and then tapped the carrier into place; it was a pretty snug fit, even with the case spreader. Once the carrier was fully seated I torqued down the bearing caps to spec. After verifying my backlash was still in spec (it was, .005-.006) I slathered some paint on the entire ring gear and ran a final pattern check. Everything looked great! (y)

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With the carrier now installed the last thing I needed to do inside the housing was to slip the e-locker wiring through its hole and seal it with RTV. This was a bit tricky as there wasn't much room for my fingers once the bearing cap was installed.

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As I was working on the final setup I gave the diff cover a fresh paint job.

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Once the paint had sufficiently cured I slapped it onto the housing and torqued down the bolts. The axle was ready to go back into the TJ!

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Before the axle went back under the Jeep I needed to replace my jounce bumpers. They've been quite dry rotted for some time, however after this years adventures, the passenger-side bump was nearly non-existent..

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Next the axle was finagled back under the Jeep, everything reattached, all bolts torqued to spec, the diff filled with fluid. Time for a test drive!

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I was only able to get in about 15 miles of driving this evening but am happy with how it drives and don't seem to have any issues.

That is pretty much the end of the saga! In 500 miles both axles will get their fluid changed and inspected. I have yet to sort out the wiring for the lockers, that will be covered as part of an upcoming project in the near future.
 
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eBay Switch Dash Lighting Mod

Today I worked on a mod that'll be part of a larger project. Previously I purchased a set of after-market factory style switches off eBay. They work well aside from feeling a bit cheaper than an OE switch, but they don't have any dash lighting bulbs, thus making the switches rather hard to see in the dark.

However, the housing is at least already somewhat made to support dash lighting, so I thought about it and figured out how to add an additional bulb into these after-market switches.

These switches already have a light for when the switch is enabled, it's a simple incandescent bulb soldered directly to the switch body. It looked like one would fit in the bottom of the housing as well. I found some bulbs on DigiKey that matched the ones already installed.

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I also needed to add an additional pin to each of the switches wiring pigtail; they only have 3 wires (12V, GND, and OUT), but the connector has an empty 4th slot.

I removed one of the pins from one of the harnesses and cross-checked it to figure out what type I needed to order; I found these pins which ended up fitting perfectly.

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A couple of mods to the switch housing and internals were needed before soldering the bulbs in.

First I drilled a new 1/16" hole for one of the legs of the bulb. This was because the leg comes close to the OUT portion of the switch on the inside, and I didn't want vibrations to inadvertently cause it to short, thus turning on whatever the switch is hooked up to.

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Next there is a black plastic block (essentially it does the "switching") that requires some Dremeling on its bottom edge. This is to allow room for soldering the new bulb to the switch body. The edge lip is just Dremeled down flush with the rest of the block.

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Then I fed the legs of the bulb through the body and soldered each side down to the switch body. One leg goes to GND, the other goes to the normally unused pin, which is now our dash lighting pin.

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The switches were then reassembled;the process is the same as normal, aside from having to feed the black block in behind the new bulb, which is quite simple.

Next I set everything up for a test. The switches still worked as they did previously, but when the new blue wire was connected to 12V, they now featured dash lighting!

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Switch on w/ no dash lighting (stock function):
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Just with dash lighting, switch off:
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And both dash lighting and switch turned on:
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I tested this setup by leaving both bulbs on for about 90 minutes to see how hot the switches would get. They definitely got warm (125F was the hottest I saw), but didn't seem to be any hotter than the factory switches do, so I consider that a success! (y)

Soon I will be embarking on building a fuse-box and reworking some of my previous under-hood wiring projects. I will also be wiring up my lockers at that time, incorporating them into the new fuse box. I wanted to get this switch mod done before I started that project.
 
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Today I changed the fluid in my Dana 35, it has been a hair over 500 miles since I did the re-gear and it is time to inspect the gears and give them some fresh fluid!

The gears looked good to me and everything still seemed to be just fine inside the housing. The oil definitely had some metal particles in it, but I don't believe the amount was excessive, some is to be expected during the gear break-in.

I cleaned up the housing and cover, sealed it up with a new gasket, and put in some fresh 80W-90 gear oil. All good to go! I'll probably change the oil again in about 1,000 miles or so.

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Nice job on the switches. I'm running one of those same switches to bypass my factory locker 4low safety. My bulb burned out very quickly, so I replaced it with an LED. I might need to add another one now, so it lights up with the dash lights!
 
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Nice job on the switches. I'm running one of those same switches to bypass my factory locker 4low safety. My bulb burned out very quickly, so I replaced it with an LED. I might need to add another one now, so it lights up with the dash lights!
It's rather irritating that those switches don't come with any dash lighting bulb to begin with! I considered using and swapping in LEDs bulbs, but by that time I already had the incandescent bulbs on hand; plus eventually in future I'd like to replace all my switches with Carling rocker switches anyways.
 
Today I changed the fluid in my Dana 35, it has been a hair over 500 miles since I did the re-gear and it is time to inspect the gears and give them some fresh fluid!

The gears looked good to me and everything still seemed to be just fine inside the housing. The oil definitely had some metal particles in it, but I don't believe the amount was excessive, some is to be expected during the gear break-in.

I cleaned up the housing and cover, sealed it up with a new gasket, and put in some fresh 80W-90 gear oil. All good to go! I'll probably change the oil again in about 1,000 miles or so.

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That was a very quick 500 miles! Great to hear there everything looks good. Not when you drive near MtHood you won't have the engine lugging !!
 
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That was a very quick 500 miles! Great to hear there everything looks good. Not when you drive near MtHood you won't have the engine lugging !!
Being I've got a 5spd with the 3.07 gears I'd just shift into 3rd for the climb up to Gov Camp, but now it'll be nice to be able to keep to the speed limit all the way up! :cool:

I drove to Cascade Locks yesterday and was able to keep it in 5th the entire time on the freeways. Definitely couldn't have done that with the 3.07 gears.
 
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Today it was the D30s turn to get its oil changed after the 500 mile break in. Same exact procedure as I did with the Dana 35. Oil looked good to me, as did the ring gear.

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My latest project was to put a new fusebox under the hood for storing relays and fuses, for my lockers, upcoming projects, and to relocate some existing fuses off the battery directly. I also finished up my locker project by wiring them up, including mounting my modified eBay switches into my second switch panel for them.

I started by fabing up a bracket to mount the fusebox to. I wasn't going to use the intended method of mounting mainly due to constraints with the box itself and the layout of the engine bay. It fit nicely just ahead of the factory airbox using pre-existing holes in the fender.

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I didn't take many pictures of the next steps. Basically I ran wires to each axle as well as into the cab for the locker switches. I also modified some of my previous under-hood wiring to utilize the new fusebox, as well as to tidy up my wiring further.

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In order to get wires to my second switch panel I needed to drill a hole in the dash-framework. I used a 1-1/8" step-drill for this and it was big enough to easily pass the wires through.

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I also did a similar process for under the dash, combining previous projects harnesses into a single, neat, harness.

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For utilizing the dash lighting feature of my modified eBay switches without splicing into the factory harness I used an add-a-fuse to tap off the interior fusebox, specifically the "panel lamps" circuit. The second one of these is tapped off the radio circuit for powering my switches.

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I put everything back together and gave it a test. I jacked up one wheel on each axle at a time and tested the lockers, everything worked flawlessly. My aftermarket switches now feature dash lighting as well, making them much easier to see at night!

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I got my Jeep out into the mountains this past weekend for the first time in a while!

My main goal was to do some recon and decide where I'd like to go camping in the coming weeks. There is still quite a bit of snow out on the higher elevation FS roads; being so late in the season is is rather icy and sloppy, greasy as I like to call it.
This provided me with a great opportunity to test out my new e-lockers! I'm happy to report everything worked as expect; I had no issues getting stuck even in some particularly sloppy spots, whereas my buddies XJ got stuck multiple times. Also had to pull out two trucks stuck in the slop ;).

Below I've posted a few of my pictures from the trip; they're not all strictly Jeep related, however the Jeep did get me there!

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Not particularly interesting, but today I greased all my zirk fittings on the TJ and also noticed my front lower control arm bolt on the axle end had backed off some. This past weekend I started hearing a "clunk" coming from that area and can only assume this to be the cause. Re-torqued to 85 ft/lbs and should be good now; I'll keep my eye one it in-case it tries to back off again.

This is a good reason to paint-mark your bolts, or use a product like Cross-Check (which I use). Makes it dead simple to tell if bolts have loosened up on you!
 
Wow, those are some awesome photos for sure. I may have already asked, but I am assuming photography is a passion of yours? If so, keep it up!
 
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Wow, those are some awesome photos for sure. I may have already asked, but I am assuming photography is a passion of yours? If so, keep it up!
Thank you! Yes, I've always had a passion for photography. It's very inspiring growing up in the NW with our beautiful places and views!