"Pacing myself" build

I posted some pics from our Slick Rock trip on the NorCal thread. Sadly, we had to bail a bit early and head home shortly after finishing the trail Saturday. 2 wild land fires broke out Friday, so we headed home to take stock on the situation. Ended up being evacuated from our county. Been hanging out in a RV park away from the fire zone in the cozy coach since Monday. Here's the fire map as of this morning. We live in Nice.

https://firemap.sdsc.edu/

Lowranger is on the other side of the lake being threatened by the other fire, but so far we are both not scorched yet.
 
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Back home and safe for now. I'm done with summer. Hard top's going back on tomorrow. I've had the soft top up now for over a month. It's either been in the triple digits and too hot to put it down, or the smoke here is horrible, so screw it, I'm ready for rain. If anyone needs a new soft top skin I'm selling this one. I want a dark tan one anyway.
 
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bobthetj03 said:
Back home and safe for now. I'm done with summer. Hard top's going back on tomorrow. I've had the soft top up now for over a month. It's either been in the triple digits and too hot to put it down, or the smoke here is horrible, so screw it, I'm ready for rain. If anyone needs a new soft top skin I'm selling this one. I want a dark tan one anyway.
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The dark tan will look great excited to see that next summer
 
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All garage time for mine since the Rubicon trip. Too freakin smoky. The heat I can sorta deal with but the smoke is horrible. Today is the first day in about 2 weeks that I can see blue sky. Even still, there is a slight smoke haze.
 
Rob5589 said:
All garage time for mine since the Rubicon trip. Too freakin smoky. The heat I can sorta deal with but the smoke is horrible. Today is the first day in about 2 weeks that I can see blue sky. Even still, there is a slight smoke haze.
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I feel your pain brah! Been breathing this shit for 13 days now. Got smokers cough, and I don't smoke.
 
Well, today was the first day I've had a chance to check the jeep for any damage from the Slick Rock run. Nothing too bad really. Few scrapes on the front diff. Diff skid did its job. Front lower arms took a few scrapes. Passenger rock slider took a good scrape. Rear tank skid has a few new dings. All in all, not too shabby. The rear diff cover is leaking. That's new. So, I pulled the cover, cleaned it up and re-sealed it. Gears look ok. Decided to check gear tooth pattern. @Rob5589, or anyone else gear savvy, what do you think? Drive side looks decent. Coast side looks deep to me. Couldn't check backlash, but felt for it, and it didn't seem too loose or too tight. I'd guess .004-.006 thousands by my butt dyno gauge.
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Rob5589 said:
Waaay too deep. BL 4-6 thou is on the tight side.
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Not much I can do about this at this juncture. Gears have 25K+ miles on them, so I gather they are set. Yes?

Another experiment I did today was to put the jeep on jack stands and run it up to speed. Went rear wheel drive first up to 70 mph. Felt pretty smooth. Put it in 4hi and ramped up to 65 mph. There's those pesky vibes! Front drive shaft is completing the circuit. I think there's more than one thing going on here. With the coast side pattern too tight, and probably the backlash too tight, I'd gather the pinion depth is also too tight. Could be amplifying vibes thru the drive train some how. Just a thought.
 
Well, yes they are set but I don't think they are you issue. You'd be hearing some whine or howl from the gears from improper set up. The pinion depth is too deep, bl may be too tight. Going by feel and guessing 4-6 thou is tough. That is nearly no movement on feel.
 
Rob5589 said:
Well, yes they are set but I don't think they are you issue. You'd be hearing some whine or howl from the gears from improper set up. The pinion depth is too deep, bl may be too tight. Going by feel and guessing 4-6 thou is tough. That is nearly no movement on feel.
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Just a guess in the dark on the BL since I didn't measure it. I've heard of others who had the pinion depth set wrong encounter vibes at higher speeds, so I was thinking it could have contributed. Like I said, I think there is more going on than the tooth pattern being a bit tight. It also doesn't explain why the vibes happen when the front DS is spinning to speed.
Also, it's tough to hear if I'm getting any whining from the gears as my tires are stupid noisy, so there's that too.
 
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Hmm, not sure. I do not recall ever having a vibration issue due to a gear set come through the shop. And of course, me and my guys would never send one out like that so no help there either.

It sounds more like an issue between the front and rear ds, but you know that already.
 
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Rob5589 said:
Nice. Make sure you get some before and after measurements.
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I will.

Chris said:
What made you go with Barnes?

I thought you were going with Rokmen for some reason.
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Price mostly. It was going to be either the Rokmen or UCF No BL skid, but then this one popped up. At almost $150 cheaper than the other 2, it made the decision for me. The Rokmen skid does provide more clearance, but I'll take that sacrifice to save some dough. the Barnes skid gives over an inch more clearance than stock. the UCF skid is about the same, and the Rokmen gives 2.25" more clearance. I never was looking to go flat on the skid. Just too many other things you have to change to get there. By only going an inch'ish higher, my factory linkage should still work ok, and I won't have to jack my pinion angle to the moon to get things lined up.
 
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bobthetj03 said:
I will.



Price mostly. It was going to be either the Rokmen or UCF No BL skid, but then this one popped up. At almost $150 cheaper than the other 2, it made the decision for me. The Rokmen skid does provide more clearance, but I'll take that sacrifice to save some dough. the Barnes skid gives over an inch more clearance than stock. the UCF skid is about the same, and the Rokmen gives 2.25" more clearance. I never was looking to go flat on the skid. Just too many other things you have to change to get there. By only going an inch'ish higher, my factory linkage should still work ok, and I won't have to jack my pinion angle to the moon to get things lined up.
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All valid points, I agree!
 
The way it looks in their video, they compensate for the extra clearance by reworking/lowering the trans mount so it appears no changes are made in that regard.
 
Rob5589 said:
The way it looks in their video, they compensate for the extra clearance by reworking/lowering the trans mount so it appears no changes are made in that regard.
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That trany mount plate that bolts to their skid is angled to allow for the angle of the drive train, otherwise the trany mount wouldn't sit flush to the skid. At least that is how I see it. I could be wrong. UCF and Rokmen weld their brackets to the skid, so you have a little more work at the end user end.
 
Been experiencing a whistle noise on deceleration in the mornings. It goes away after about 5 miles into my commute as the engine gets to operating temp. Interwebs say loose intake bolts. Checked for vacuum leaks and such and couldn't find anything noticeable, so I put a wrench on the intake bolts. the rear one next to the firewall was loose. Not sure how to get to the lower bolts yet.
 
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