TerryD's 2006 LJ Rubicon

[TerryD]

Dad is getting worse, my truck lost the transmission pump, the Fusion we got to replace our wrecked Malibu is having issues with its AWD unit, my replacement ring and pinion is still on back order, and most of my weekends have been spent on the road dealing with Dad's medical and legal stuff....

The Jeep is still howling around 45mph and the t-case hung in neutral last Friday and I'm still not sure what happened or how I got it back in gear (full body weight on the shifter at one point and still wouldn't move) but worked fine when I tested it after driving 3 hours home.

 

[TerryD]

Transfercase has worked fine ever since. No clue what happened...

 

[TerryD]

Transfercase shifter almost got me again this morning. Took 3 attempts to get out of my driveway and then had to winch a neighbor out of his. It's 3" of solid ice on our road and it took a couple attempts to actually get in 4lo and get my lockers in to drag his big ass Durango into the street.

I dunno if it's a shifter linkage issue or an internal issue but it's like the shifter disconnects from the selector arm and moves without affecting the drive position.

 

[TerryD]

I'm getting tired of being on edge every time I shift my transfercase. Ordered the Savvy cable setup to hopefully nip that in the bud.

 

[TerryD]

Ordered a full V8 ZJ steering setup to replace my (probably completely) 180k mile factory stuff.

Also some parts to repair my soft top frame for spring

 

[TerryD]

 

[TerryD]

Installed a Undercover Fab no body lift skid on the Jeep to replace the rusted out factory skid.

The skid lifts the transfer case about 1 1/4" above the factory mounting height. This difference caused the AFE exhaust to hit the floor and lift the Jeep off the stands before the skid made it to the frame rails.

To remedy that, I sliced about 1 1/8" out of the catalytic converter mount attached the the mounting bracket for the transfer case mount. (mouthful...)

Once that was done, I was finally able to lift the skid up and get it bolted in.

Next I had to deal with the locker pumps. I had originally ordered the UCF relocation bracket but it didn't fit as well as I had hoped and I was going to have to make changes to the hoses. I decided to modify the factory locker pump mount to be similar to the Barnes locker pump mount.

I sliced the ends off then bent the original "back" edge to roughly 45 degrees.

Then just bolted it to the back of the skid. I need to clean up the wires a little and get them secured but it worked pretty well.

After that, I started it to test my locker pumps and the fan was hitting the bottom of the radiator shroud. I pulled the fan and shroud and trimmed out the lower lip of the shroud so it would clear the fan.

I also need to do a little more adjusting on the Savvy transfercase shift cable setup. The shifter is a little heavily loaded in 2wd now but 4-low goes in nice and solid.

Raising the transfercase seems to have put me in a position where I'm probably gonna need a CV style rear shaft. There's some vibration around 25-35mph that wasn't there before.

 

[TerryD]

Well. I don't know what the hell is going on now. The day started pretty good with breakfast then adjusted the transfercase shifter till it felt like the least binding in 2wd and fully engaged 4 low. Then did about an hour of interstate driving to the trail head to wheel some.

On the trail, it was thumping a little which is the transfercase hitting the floor pan. It was whining quite a bit but the NP241 has been loud since I got the Jeep. Once I was off the trail, I headed for town and the Jeep now has a growling noise right at the transition from power to coast. It's there in 2nd, 3rd and OD. I thought it might have been the shifter loading something in 2wd so I popped it in 4 high and it changed but didn't go away.

Next I disconnected the shift cable from the shifter and that didn't change anything.

When I got home, just to see, I added 2x 1/2" flat washers to each skid bolt between the skid and frame. That improved the low speed vibration some but didn't change the noises at all.

 

[TerryD]

Looks like the transfer case is done.

Was diagnosing it earlier and suddenly it wouldn't shift at all. I rocked the Jeep back and forth in park and in neutral and couldn't get it out of 2hi. Drove it about 5 minutes testing randomly and suddenly it would shift again.

Since it would shift, I got up to about 45mph and feathered the throttle till the noise was the worst and popped the transfer case in neutral and it was HOWLING.

Once I got back on my street, I put it in 4 low (with some struggling to get it to latch in 4 low) and it was screaming. I guess through the day yesterday it got much worse but slowly enough I didn't notice. A "frog soup" kinda thing.

 

[TerryD]

I don't have time to crack the case open myself so it's headed to the transmission shop Friday morning. That dude is probably getting sick of me. I've had my truck, wife's car and now the Jeep with him this year so far. Ugh...

 

[MeanGreen86]

I wouldn't hate you. Repeat business $$ good luck with the transmission.

 

[TerryD]

I wouldn't hate you. Repeat business $$ good luck with the transmission.

Truck was for warranty work. Converter he put in last year cooked because of a failed boost valve in the pump.

Car was a cooked PTO (what Ford calls a AWD unit) and took 12 weeks to get the parts in from Dana/Spicer.

So it hasn't been good, money making work for him so far. LOL

 

[MeanGreen86]

Truck was for warranty work. Converter he put in last year cooked because of a failed boost valve in the pump.

Car was a cooked PTO (what Ford calls a AWD unit) and took 12 weeks to get the parts in from Dana/Spicer.

So it hasn't been good, money making work for him so far. LOL

ohhh....I might hate you a little bit, not much though.

 

[TerryD]

ohhh....I might hate you a little bit, not much though.

Hopefully this is a straight forward, quick rebuild. He fixes it, I write him a check,m and continue to brag about how good he treats me. LOL

 

[TerryD]

Just dropped it off. He had a new Rubicon there with similar symptoms.

 

[GoldenGorilla]

Well. I don't know what the hell is going on now. The day started pretty good with breakfast then adjusted the transfercase shifter till it felt like the least binding in 2wd and fully engaged 4 low. Then did about an hour of interstate driving to the trail head to wheel some.

On the trail, it was thumping a little which is the transfercase hitting the floor pan. It was whining quite a bit but the NP241 has been loud since I got the Jeep. Once I was off the trail, I headed for town and the Jeep now has a growling noise right at the transition from power to coast. It's there in 2nd, 3rd and OD. I thought it might have been the shifter loading something in 2wd so I popped it in 4 high and it changed but didn't go away.

Next I disconnected the shift cable from the shifter and that didn't change anything.

When I got home, just to see, I added 2x 1/2" flat washers to each skid bolt between the skid and frame. That improved the low speed vibration some but didn't change the noises at all.

Mine did the same when I installed the Barnes version of your skid. The rear TC output was too high making the angle too steep on the rear DS. TCase drop spacers resolved it.

 

[D's Jeep Wrld]

ohhh....I might hate you a little bit, not much though.

Nothing worse than having to fix a vehicle that you fixed coming back over an issue you fixed.....and it being failed parts
However I love seeing people come back to
me for other stuff that I didnt touch Or better yet they follow through with what I recommend replacing as preventative maintenance
I.e doing an aluminum oil cooler housing upgrade on a 3.6 pentestar and sparkplugs as im already doing rocker arms/lifter and possibly cams on those engines. I hate em personally but they make me money

 

[TerryD]

Nothing worse than having to fix a vehicle that you fixed coming back over an issue you fixed.....and it being failed parts
However I love seeing people come back to
me for other stuff that I didnt touch Or better yet they follow through with what I recommend replacing as preventative maintenance
I.e doing an aluminum oil cooler housing upgrade on a 3.6 pentestar and sparkplugs as im already doing rocker arms/lifter and possibly cams on those engines. I hate em personally but they make me money

Well, mine was the first worn boost valve bore he'd ever encountered. He replaced the entire pump, did a transgo boost valve and a new converter where the leak had caused the converter to heat up enough there was heat scaring on the outside of the billet converter. Said he'd done a boost valve kit in every 4L80E since.

He will build the transmission for the Jeep when it finally goes. I almost just said "do the transmission too" but I'm gonna hold off. Gotta save up some funds for that. I've spent A LOT this spring between the Jeep and Camaro.

 

[D's Jeep Wrld]

Well, mine was the first worn boost valve bore he'd ever encountered. He replaced the entire pump, did a transgo boost valve and a new converter where the leak had caused the converter to heat up enough there was heat scaring on the outside of the billet converter. Said he'd done a boost valve kit in every 4L80E since.

Oh damn ...

He will build the transmission for the Jeep when it finally goes. I almost just said "do the transmission too" but I'm gonna hold off. Gotta save up some funds for that.

yeah,I almost went with a "built" 42rle on my Lj but im sure that I wasn't gonna be happy with the results of it with the way I drive (after all I also broke the bell housing on it too....) so I went with an Ax15,Im gonna hate it for crawling but boy is it fun on the streets and hoodrat activities (burnouts&drifts&donuts)

But yeah 4k on a 42rle that I'll probably break was a no for me

I've spent A LOT this spring between the Jeep and Camaro.

Thats me right now but with 1 vehicle,between wanting to spend money on making more power with the jeep or upgrading my axles....so im upgrading my axles&suspension