Alrighty then, another photo and text dump of Jeep stuff incoming. Once again a good amount of time has elapsed since my last post here in the build thread for JP90 but that doesn't mean the Jeep has been sitting idly by. Over the winter we saw a good amount of snow here in Vancouver, not just limited to the mountains either. We saw plenty on the ground, so there were plenty of opportunities for parking like a boss and snowboarding behind the Jurassic Jeep.
However with the snow, on occasion I would not be going anywhere and wouldn't bother to clean the snow off. So one day when I noticed a decent puddle on the driver's floor pan carpet I decided to look a little deeper. Unfortunately the prognosis was rust, luckily there was plenty of sheet metal still there. I don't think this was recent, probably been like this for awhile but just got worse. For now the fix was a healthy lathering of POR15 rust paint to seal things up. I then drilled an extra 1/4" drain hole because the factory drain hole isn't even the lowest point on the pan; Mopar quality. This should bide me some time until I get the tub LineX/Herculine/Bedliner'd this summer.
One week before Christmas I got the call from my American postal box service that a big pallet had arrived. Enter my Ford 8.8 rear axle swap.
I now have the complete confidence only offered by an 8.8" ring gear, massive 3.25" axle tubes, 31 splines, Detriot Truetrac Helical LSD, and disc brakes. Also concurrently the perches were switched to Spring Over Axle (SOA). This netted me about an extra 4" of lift, once again making the prospect of running 37s a possibility. Geared to 4.88, which is a little short for my 33" tires but more suited to my future plans of 37s. Still it is nice to get some acceleration and 5th gear on the highway back. Oh and I splurged and went with the Yukon Ultimate 8.8 kit which eliminates the c-clip axle retention method, adds set 20 wheel bearings, and gives you some beefy chromoly axle shafts. Hells yeah. Oh and the red ARB cover to mismatch my actual locker because I needed more red in my life. Magnetic filler notched to denote my minimum fluid level of 3 quarts.
More ancillary mods were required, time to crack open the NP231 transfer case and install my JB conversions super short slip yoke eliminator. The main benefits are that you gain driveshaft length, get a smoother operating CV driveshaft, and a fixed yoke. One of the downfalls of the stock slip yoke is that if for whatever reason whether it be a broken u-joint/driveshaft or overextension and the slip yoke falls out the transfer case by design will puke all its fluid out the tail housing. Then you roast the innards. Not cool! Rough angles are superimposed on the last picture, with a CV driveshaft you want the axle pinion pointing 1-3 degrees below the output yoke to account for axle wrap. Busting out my protractor I'm sitting at about 7 degrees. This is a compromise at the moment, as down the road when I go 37s I will be going for high clearance fenders and lower lift springs to bring that centre of gravity back down. So the goal is to not have to get the spring perches welded again. I am currently waiting on some spring shims to get the pinion where it needs to be until that day comes. Part of running the super short SYE meant I had to ditch the stock speedo pickup. Just a simple splicing into the factory harness to attach a factory mopar connector which allows me to plug into the supplied sensor. Since we got everything out, might as well throw in some new tranny mounts in red, good thing because the old ones were about as supportive as my ex girlfriend BAZINGA.
Now to combat some of the extra axle wrap that is inherent with a SOA setup I plan on installing a MORE traction bar (not pictured yet). One mounting point for that is the rear of the transfer case skid plate. Time to beef that sucker up! Time to burn some metal together with the welder. By the end of it all I almost remember how to do it. I sure did add metal alright, flat bar, stringers, square tube, check! Then sandblast time, super koropon primer, and 2 part polyurethane paint, in red of course.
The axle came with a breather nipple however the size of that one compared to the factory breather hose weren't exactly the same. I concocted this mashup of metal to adapt it all. Her name is ANNA. With the adapter I terminated the factory hose near the rear hard brake line at the frame and was able to run new hose from there to the axle. Also welded a big piece of metal to protect it. Overkill for a breather; I know, I have a problem.
Next up, custom driveshaft from Tom Woods. I can only say great things about dealing with them, not very often will the owner of the company personally respond to your questions and help you get the right product. While it may appear smaller in diameter it is certainly heavier and stronger than the old stocker. Pictured below at almost full extension, splines cut for the entire stub, and a good amount longer. On install I ran into a bit of an issue with the supplied bolts. Because the JB SYE comes with a high clearance yoke the bolts didn't penetrate far enough into the CV socket yoke and were causing me to lose sleep at night. Quickly fixed that with some much nicer looking bolts. As with anything custom you have to make things work, in order to get the bolts to slip into the yoke I had to shave the heads for extra clearance against the transfer case output housing. Still a good amount of metal left on the heads and now I have a good amount of thread extending into the CV yoke, add some red Loctite and bingo winning. All's well that ends well.
Lastly a closing picture of JP90's current status, driveable but looking hilarious with the ride height difference.
Short term goals (as in starting next weekend) are:
- Front Dana 30 spring over axle conversion
- New front ball joints from Synergy MFG
- Crossover steering kit from MORE, which means new beefy tie rod and drag link
- Alignment
- Regear the D30 to 4.88 to match the rear so I can reinstall my front driveshaft and not blow up my Tcase
- Install spring shims on the rear axle to correct pinion angle
- Remove 1" transfer case drop
- Weld on Traction bar from axle to rear of Tcase skid
Re-evaluated future goals in order of priority (starting Summer 2017):
- 37" BF Goodrich Mud Terrain KM2s
- Paired with Method MR105 beadlocks
- Metal cloak high clearance tube fenders front, rear (with corner guards), and rockers, paint matched champagne. Will have to redo the red plastidip stripes at that time
- LineX the tub
- Lower lift springs (come from 3" currently hopefully down to 1-2" pending on clearance gained by fenders)