MountaineerTom's 2006 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited

Nice. Be sure to grind the corners of that rear steel flange, like here, or it will gouge your tank pretty badly (7th, 8th, 9th pictures).
Thank you. I hit the edges of of the aluminum the other day but didn’t even think about the steel parts. I just have everything in there loosely for now so I’ll pull them off and grind those edges down.

Is this the area you were talking about in your thread that had a little interference with the frame?

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Yes, that's the spot. The frame angles down a little bit there and hits that aluminum corner on the rear side.

You can probably verify if it touches by jacking the skid up into place without the tank, and maybe installing a bolt or three to hold it. Yours might touch in a different place than mine, or not at all.
 
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Yes, that's the spot. The frame angles down a little bit there and hits that aluminum corner on the rear side.

You can probably verify if it touches by jacking the skid up into place without the tank, and maybe installing a bolt or three to hold it. Yours might touch in a different place than mine, or not at all.

Ok, thanks. I’ll try to remember to test fit it first. The way mine had exhaust hitting everywhere and yours didn’t despite using the same skid and set-up, who knows. 😂
 
Got the new to me transmission bracket/exhaust. Got it cleaned up, wire wheeled it (without tearing my hand up) and painted with ACE hardware rust stop. Tomorrow I'm going to cut and modify the exhaust hanger part so I can lower the exhaust. Also ordered a new bushing for the exhaust hanger. I pushed the one in it out and kind of mangled it up a little.

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Got the modified transmission bracket/exhaust hanger installed. Plenty of room for the exhaust now. I may actually need to lengthen the slot I made in it to keep from stretching the rubber exhaust hangers. Test drive had no crazy rattles/vibrations that I was having when I come to a stop like before, when the exhaust was hitting the front control arm mount.

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Got the modified transmission bracket/exhaust hanger installed. Plenty of room for the exhaust now. I may actually need to lengthen the slot I made in it to keep from stretching the rubber exhaust hangers. Test drive had no crazy rattles/vibrations that I was having when I come to a stop like before, when the exhaust was hitting the front control arm mount.

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Looks like a rub spot on your exhaust from the rear Trackbar. Is that from before this modification of the exhaust system?

Also, does the Trackbar hit the Gas Tank Skid where that edge of the skid pokes out. I always bend that section in or cut it off.

Oh, and good job! I would be remiss in not telling you that!

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Looks good. Keep an eye out for contact at the front driveshaft.

I didn’t remove springs or anything, but I jacked all 4 corners as high as my jack would take it, and it wasn’t anywhere close to it. I’ll keep an eye on it though.
 
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Looks like a rub spot on your exhaust from the rear Trackbar. Is that from before this modification of the exhaust system?

Also, does the Trackbar hit the Gas Tank Skid where that edge of the skid pokes out. I always bend that section in or cut it off.

Oh, and good job! I would be remiss in not telling you that!

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Thanks.

Yeah, that’s from previous contact before I lowered the exhaust. Before modifying the exhaust hanger bracket, it had the exhaust pushed up into everything, including the rear control arm mount for the upper front arm.

I’ve never seen signs of the track bar hitting the gas tank skid. It doesn’t seem to come anywhere close to it. I guess due to being an Unlimited. I’ll look at it tomorrow just to make sure. 👍🏼

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Control arm mount and exhaust contact.
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After getting the exhaust hanger issue sorted out, I thought I’d remove the Dana 30 drivers side bushing real quick before going in for the evening. It wasn’t real quick by any means. Since I’ve had this Jeep, all fasteners have came out easy but this has been the hardest thing to remove by far. I know it’s a little different than regular fasteners though.

My air hammer didn’t budge it, good old manual punches and a hammer didn’t budge it. As you can see, they bent the bushing casing quit a bit though. Drilled holes in the rubber so I could get the sleeve out. I was going to try to fit a hacksaw blade up in there and cut a groove in the bushing casing but decided to try something else first. I used a razor to trim all the rubber off the passengers side of the bushing casing, then used a punch and hammer to hit the sides of the casing in a few places on each end. That dented it in a little and created some small gaps. I sprayed some Kroil in there and let it sit for 30 minutes or so. Then 1 hit on a bearing driver on the passengers side moved it flush with the ear on the axle housing. From there, a few hits on the edge of the casing with a punch and hammer knocked the thing out.


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