The Oreo (T.J.'s YJ)

hobhayward wrote:My only input would be.. if synthetic smells better than conventional its probably worth it lol.

buahahahahahaha. Truth.

75w90 smells *terrible*

The smell attracts bees too as does hydraulic fluid.
I had spent a bit of time in the field working on Bull Dozers and heavy equipment and Whew, the Bees seem to flock to the odor of basically anything made from petroleum.

Ryan loves that smell. There is something wrong with that boy.

Also, sorry TJ for turning your thread into the chatroom, ha ha ha.

CrawlingForward wrote:Also, sorry TJ for turning your thread into the chatroom, ha ha ha.

Please, chat away. Seriously I'll take all the advice. Now I know to avoid overfilling the axles, that the fluid wreaks, and to keep an eye out for the bumblebees that are usually all over my parents' house, haha.

I had drilled, tapped and plugged a hole in my solid d30 cover at the same level as the original cover, I fill it from the upper hole until it comes out the new lower hole , works great.

To the best of my knowledge the holes are barely higher than the factory originals, at least judging by what Riddler says of them (I haven't done a side by side yet to confirm this however). Also, how long should I let the RTV cure for in everyone's experience? I haven't looked at the stuff that came in the kit with the cover to see what its instructions say in fairness, but I assume it's probably half an hour or so. I'll see what it says, but again I'm new at this sort of thing so I want to be safe, so if I should allow significantly more time than it says I'd rather learn that now than after the cover starts leaking.

Mark - I assume the process of driving in slow circles will also allow the gear oil in the front axle to lubricate things properly as well? Since I'll be doing both axles at the same time I'd hate for them to simultaneously grenade on me if that slow circle method should only be done one axle at a time.

I have always used permatex ultra blue or ultra copper.
You can put fluid in immediately after you install the cover, you don't need much at all.
You do not have to do the circle thing with the front because the axle seals are right next to the carrier bearings so it's lubed right off the bat.
Unlike the rear that has axle bearings that need lube all the way at the end of the axle tube, the front doesn't lube the axle bearings,,it just lubes the carrier
The passenger side axle tube does have fluid down as far as the axle disconnect, but there is old fluid there already so no need to circle unless you had removed the disconnect cover.

More of my goodies have arrived. Tax returns are a Jeep's best friend.



I gave it a quick test to make sure it worked correctly, but plan on a much more thorough test over the weekend. Both rear tires will be off anyway so I figure that's as good a time as any to really try it out.

Well tomorrow's the big day. I picked up the gear oil and some bearing grease, as well as a cheapie 12-point 1/4" wrench (in case I couldn't find one in the vastness of my old man's toolbox) to help with getting the cross pin retaining bolt out without having to drop the retaining straps. I also had the wheel studs pressed on by the mechanic I've been going to for years so I wouldn't have to deal with doing it the ghetto washers-and-nut-way, and it saves a bunch of time.

I've also decided that I will be removing my rear track bar tomorrow. That however will be done the ghetto way, which involves a sawzall and some choice words. There's no way it's coming off without hacking it to death, and I popped my hacking-the-Jeep-up cherry last summer with the installation of the TJ flares. If it ends up that I don't like it, I'll figure out a way of getting bolts off and put a new one on there, but I seriously doubt I'll notice anything negative about removing it.

What's the bearing grease for?

Just to help the shafts slide in easier and prevent them from getting hung up. I'd probably be fine without it, but I'm doing it just to be safe. Plus it doesn't hurt to have some kicking around for future endeavors. If I could somehow get some into my damn steering column bearing it would probably make things a hell of a lot easier on that front also.

Don't pack the bearings with grease as it stops the gear oil from getting in between the rollers.
It's better to use gear oil.
Replace the axle bearings,, install new seals and pour a bit of gear oil behind the seal onto the axle bearing and slide the axle in.

I think he's referring to greasing the splines and seal surface on the axle shafts? At least that's what I've read you're supposed to do?

A dab of white grease in the seal groove, but that's all you need to grease.
I usually put some grease on the spring that is on inside of the seal also because sometimes the spring comes off and you'll never know it, the grease helps it stay on.
They tend to come off when you are using a seal install tool when you shock/hit it to bang it in.

Well everything went according to plan yesterday, and the new axle shafts and diff covers are on and ready for some abuse. The whole process was exactly how you guys, others, and videos described it. It took me about four hours start to finish, but I was taking my time, taking care of the family dog, taking photos of the process, and had to deal with a very stubborn brake drum that gave me problems. The hardest part of the whole process you ask? Filling the goddamn rear end with gear oil. Shit was that an impossible mess; my parents' driveway will never be clean again.

This was a great learning experience, and it was very encouraging to see that both differentials are in excellent shape. No signs in either of them of any chipping or pitting of the spiders or ring gears, and there were no metal shavings in the bottom of either diff. The damn thing just continues to be the little (under-powered) engine that could.

I also was able to successfully lop off the rear track bar, and I have to say I definitely feel the difference driving around town. Props to the "Big Ugly" sawzall blade for making that a quick ten minute affair; it definitely lived up to its name. Subsequently, the loud annoying 'clinking' noise I've been hearing when taking corners has also disappeared, confirming my thinking that it was the in fact the track bar improperly shifting. I knew I was on to something when I cut the frame side of the bar off and it immediately pivoted down on the axle side mount. The bolt must have been terribly loose in the mount, and I'm sure the bushing are cooked as well.

Per usual, pictures to prove it all actually happened:

The rear diff drained and looking good



Original driver side shaft removed



New passenger side seal installed and the new chromoly shaft going in



New driver side seal and shaft installed



New diff covers installed rear and front





And the remnants of the spent track bar





As you might be able to see in the photos, the brake shoes are getting pretty low, so I'll be replacing those in the coming months. In the meantime my old man adjusted them and the thing feels like it could stop on a dime now, but nonetheless it's a temporary fix. Something is definitely wrong on the passenger side too, as the brake adjuster was moving in both directions, which is not good, so things will be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Good job TJ, it wasn't that hard to do, now was it..
Did you need to remove the carrier bearing cap?

Mark wrote:Good job TJ, it wasn't that hard to do, now was it..
Did you need to remove the carrier bearing cap?

I did not. After watching a few more YouTube videos and reading up on other forums, I saw the task of removing the retaining bolt could be accomplished with a 12-point 1/4" hand wrench, so I picked up a cheapie from AutoZone when I grabbed the gear oil since I didn't have one in my collection. Now should I have to do a trail fix (fingers crossed I won't) I'm prepared, plus it never hurts to add tools to the repertoire.

THOOPY3 wrote:The hardest part of the whole process you ask? Filling the goddamn rear end with gear oil. Shit was that an impossible mess; my parents' driveway will never be clean again.

Buahahahaha.........yeah.

I have never found a successful way of pumping gear oil without making a royal mess. I don't think it can be done.

THOOPY3 wrote:As you might be able to see in the photos, the brake shoes are getting pretty low, so I'll be replacing those in the coming months. In the meantime my old man adjusted them and the thing feels like it could stop on a dime now, but nonetheless it's a temporary fix. Something is definitely wrong on the passenger side too, as the brake adjuster was moving in both directions, which is not good, so things will be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Eh, it's rear brakes. And drums at that. They're pretty much worthless even when they're new, ha ha.

CrawlingForward wrote:Eh, it's rear brakes. And drums at that. They're pretty much worthless even when they're new, ha ha.

True, but boy can I tell the difference with just a few turns of the adjuster. The pedal is so much stiffer now and everything just feels so much more responsive. And I won't lie, there have been a number of times off-road where I have avoided situations because of a lack of confidence in the brakes being able to stop my momentum, particularly steep inclines/declines. There have been too many situations off-road in the recent past where first gear has been relied on as an air brake in tricky spots.

I think my plan is going to be to get everything out of the way in one shot. I haven't had a chance to check the fronts at all, but everything (front and rear) is going on five years of everyday and off-road service so I'm sure the majority of the stuff is due for a changing. I might look into EBC pads for the front (price pending of course) and some affordable ceramic shoes for the rear. All in all, everything has held up pretty good for being cheapie AutoZone parts originally meant for a vehicle that was supposed to be my brother's around town and eventual occasional to-and-from-college commuter.

See what rockauto has if you're looking for new pads, I scored a set of brembo pads for the 8.8 disk brakes for $11 on closeout. Granted I have no idea if they're any good but I figure can't go wrong with the brand.

Glad you had no major problems!

Well the fruits of last summer's labors have finally paid off, and my new roof basket has arrived. Despite the box holding it arriving open on two sides, it went together great and (in my opinion) is the perfect size. I mounted it up and took the Jeep for a 15ish mile cruise and I couldn't even tell it was up there, over bumps and all. It will be a huge help to my issues of trying to get three people and gear into the Jeep on my camping trips.

That sucker is starting to look pretty badass!

That will be nice to have for the Rausch Creek trip.

Yeah she's definitely coming along. The best part about the rack is that it actually splits in two pieces, so right now it's actually shoved under my old bed at my parents' place until I can find a more permanent storage solution for it. I'm debating whether or not I want to have it on this weekend for the club run to see if there are any ill effects on the hard top while off road, but I distinctly remember there being some low-hanging branches the last time we were in Mason, and as much as I like a good battle scar, I think I'd prefer it to look nice for more than a week, haha.

As far as Rausch Creek goes, it will probably stay home because I think I'll be heading down solo, so I'll just take the back seat out and I should have plenty of space for my gear and spare parts (I can finally say I'm mildly prepared since I'll have spare shafts with me!). Plus my little square on wheels is already rough enough when it comes to gas mileage, so I'm sure the basket won't help things. We'll see though, there's still plenty of time to change my mind.

Seeing as it's been months upon months since the Jeep gave me any major trouble, I was due for a wake-up call which came in the form of a terrible bang from the drivetrain somewhere last evening. On my way home from work, took a left turn, straightened out the wheel, got up to about 9-10 mph in a straight line, shifted into second, and a few seconds later BANG, something let me know it wasn't happy. Got out and took a look around underneath but saw no noticeable failures or fluid leaks (aside from the usual).

Long story short:

I believe a u-joint in the rear shaft has been binding terribly and is now probably toast, and decided to unload last night. The good news is I don't think the rear end let go. I've had terrible chatter when taking off from a complete stop for quite awhile, and occasionally when slowly coming to a stop I can feel and hear a rotational clunk. I had been attributing this to something in the rear drums possibly shifting around, but that now appears less likely. This has been going on for longer than I can remember now, and I'll be blatantly honest and say that my pinion angle is probably not the greatest, so I'm sure it is a contributing factor. I've also had a strange squeak/clink when taking turns (primarily right turns) for longer than I can remember also that could point to a bad driveshaft u-joint as well. I thought this might be the rear track bar bushing, but seeing as the noise didn't stop after the track bar came out that was ruled out.

I think the u-joint decided to bind up and let go now because I ditched the rear track bar, therefore giving the rear axle more flexibility and "ability" to shift around. I'd swear removing it added a little bit of height (half an inch tops) in the back end, which probably stressed the shaft even more, and that a perfect storm of things occurred yesterday to lead to the situation at hand.

It is currently at the shop I usually go to to have both u-joints in the rear shaft replaced. I also requested that the rear end fluid level be checked (just to make sure I didn't f-up a few weeks ago). Unfortunately it may not be getting worked on until Monday, which would mean the run this weekend is a no-go for me. I'd also like the transfer case fluid to be changed just to be sure it wasn't anything in the case imploding, and because I'm seeing a lot of build up around it. I may also pop the diff open and look around to be sure it wasn't something in there grenading, but I'm planning on doing that myself. We shall see how things turn out.

Long story long:

I was able to drive the ~4 miles to my apartment with a tat-tat-tat rotational noise coming out of something in the drivetrain, but it shifted fine the whole way with no loud clunks from anything and no fluid spewing. This noise was definitely also noticeable while coasting in gear with the clutch depressed. My thinking though is if something in the rear end let go I wouldn't be able to move at all.

As soon as I got back to my apartment I started messing with the driveshaft thinking that it might be the culprit (i.e. a u-joint let go). I did notice some fluid stains from the front of the diff where the driveshaft mates up with it, but I can't say that this isn't normal. All of the caps were still on the u-joints but there was a little bit of play. From there I began making sure the transfer case wasn't toasted and shifted into 4-Hi, 4-Lo, and Neutral. In 2-Hi, there was some slop in the driveshaft, but I can't comment on how normal/abnormal this is. With the case in neutral, the shaft wouldn't budge at all. Again I can't comment on the normality of this either.

So, after having driven it short distances around my apartment lot in 2-Hi, 4-Hi, and 4-Lo, the old man showed up and we took it to an empty parking lot across my apartment in 2-Hi. Wouldn't you know the damn tat-tat-tat was gone, however it was replaced by a very noticeable rotational hop up to about 15 mph, almost like going over small speed bumps only on the rear end. This hop did not occur in reverse.

After driving the thing in circles, straight, forward, and reverse around the parking lot for nearly half an hour, I decided it was heading to the shop and that I didn't want to risk it. Here's where it gets real confusing: as soon as I turned out of the parking lot and onto the main road, the hop never returned for the entire 6+ mile back-road ride to the shop. Not once through any of the gears, at a variety of speeds between 0 and 40. To be completely honest, it actually felt BETTER than before the bang, as in I wasn't getting any of the take-off chatter I was previously encountering. I am also no longer feeling/hearing the rotational clunk when slowing down either.

I'll update once I get it back from the shop. Opinions are as always welcomed.