Water Fording

[EJD]

COME ON IN. THE WATER'S DEEP AND UNFORGIVING.
If you find yourself face to face with a deep puddle, Jeep® 4x4s can help you get through it. Their ability to ford deep water is achieved with a sealed central venting system that protects drivetrain components from moisture.

In all seriousness, i'm curious to know if I have a "sealed central venting system" on my '00 TJ? I'm not even sure what that really means to be honest.

I also have these breather hoses coming out of my axles that seem to be real low to the ground, are those something to be concerned with getting water or moisture in? Is there any other vents or anything anywhere that I could check for or plug up somehow that would be beneficial?

I'm not talking about adding a Snorkel, just interested in tightening up any loose ends that may make my TJ be more water friendly.

 

[Rob5589]

Make sure all vent hoses are up as high as you feel you will need them. Seal any vulnerable electronics. My personal rule is no water depths that are deeper than the bottom the frame.

 

[jeep_boss]

Verify that BOTH your transmission and transfer case have breater nipples / tubes. I had to hack together something to vent my NSG370. I also redid ALL of my diff breathers up higher under the hood, and ran new locker compressor input tubing to run in my Jeep, inside the roll bar padding (I wanted this one to be extra dry).

I don't know if they run your diff breather and locker compressor input line along the fuel filler, but they did on mine and that area gets VERY wet (it isn't a sealed area inside the body behind the gas cap). I had a little bit if surface rust inside of my rear diff as a result, so I moved them.

 

[toximus]

Bring your breathers up for the diffs, transmission, and transfercase and you'll be good to go through deep water. I regularly run 3' deep trails without issue.

 

[EJD]

Make sure all vent hoses are up as high as you feel you will need them. Seal any vulnerable electronics. My personal rule is no water depths that are deeper than the bottom the frame.

I'll have to double check them and zip-tie them, my rear diff breather tube is running up the fuel filler area I believe and my front one is routed next to my steering box, which I thought was a little weird...

Are there certain electronics that I should focus on or your just saying make sure there's no exposed wires sort of thing?

Verify that BOTH your transmission and transfer case have breater nipples / tubes. I had to hack together something to vent my NSG370. I also redid ALL of my diff breathers up higher under the hood, and ran new locker compressor input tubing to run in my Jeep, inside the roll bar padding (I wanted this one to be extra dry).

I don't know if they run your diff breather and locker compressor input line along the fuel filler, but they did on mine and that area gets VERY wet (it isn't a sealed area inside the body behind the gas cap). I had a little bit if surface rust inside of my rear diff as a result, so I moved them.

View attachment 40443
View attachment 40444 View attachment 40445

Ok, whats the best way to verify that my transmission and transfer case have them? I have no idea what i'm looking for or where exactly to be looking either, lol.

Is there a way to know if they do by which ones are on my Jeep? My Transmission is a (32RH) and my Transfer Case is a (231J).

Bring your breathers up for the diffs, transmission, and transfercase and you'll be good to go through deep water. I regularly run 3' deep trails without issue.

Are there just hoses coming off the trany and tcase? Where are they normally routed to, and where have you re-routed them to?

 

[toximus]

Are there just hoses coming off the trany and tcase? Where are they normally routed to, and where have you re-routed them to?

Copied from my build thread: jeepforum .com/forum/f22/red-lj-2485961/index2.html#post37964778

I extended my front differential breather, transfer case breather, and transmission breather and added filters to them to keep dust out.

I used the parts:

• OMIX-ADA Differential Vents 16561.01 to top the lines off to prevent water and mud from splashing in.
• FRAM G4164 In-Line Fuel Filter to join the existing breather lines with the extended tubing.
• Stainless steel hose clamps.

My front diff was without a cap where you see it there attached to the grill. The cap may have been removed and not replaced by the shop that rebuilt it after somebody came from the oncoming lane and drove into my lane (which is only the second issue I've had with the repair besides the 'trail rated' badge falling off on a trail. Otherwise I haven't noticed any issues in the last 5-6 years since.). It didn't really need extending but to do the job completely I extended it a few inches (which makes up for the lift anyway) and threw the filter on it. Took 5 minutes and cost only a few dollars so whatever.

The transmission was on a clip that must have once upon a time been attached to the firewall near the bottom of the automatic transmission dipstick tube. When I went to extend it I realized it was just resting against the dip stick tube. Now extended and ziptied to the top of the dip stick tube.

The transfer case was clipped near an electrical plug at the top of the transmission. There's a bracket there that it was attached to. I cut the old clip off and zip tied the breather midway to that bracket and zip tied it to the electrical harness that runs along the top of the firewall. This one was a pain to get to but was also the lowest for me. It would have been easier dropping the front driveshaft so I could get both hands up in there.

I'm probably going to wait to extend the rear diff breather (if it needs it) once I drop the gas tank and have additional access back there.

 

[EJD]

Nice!
I'm going to have to look into this a little further, my front diff breather has no cap either and looks just like yours. It's just nice to know what i'm looking for as I had no idea really, but now I do. Thank you!