My build

[tworley]

Just a thread following my build.

Purchased a 97 TJ Wrangler in July 2014. Always wanted a jeep and after selling a truck, I figured now was the time. I found this jeep local to me in Colorado. Been a CO rig all its life. This is what it looked like


4" Superlift with 35s, dana 30/35 combo with 3.55 gearing. I wasnt aware that the D35 was such a poor axle, the thing that sold me was how clean the jeep was, not a scratch underneath, no rust. Literally had never been offroad.

First change was getting rid of the 35" tires. They were over 6 years old and clearly the rig was not set up to run 35s quite yet. I opted for 33" duratracs


2nd upgrade--Found a guy on wranglerforum who posted about selling his rubicon axle in the near future, subtle comment that not to many people noticed. Lo and behold, he was only 45 minutes from me. I called him, made a deal, and was ready to hit the trails soon. He also helped me install it in his garage. With that purchase, I added an Advance Adapters SYE and metalcloak adjustable control arms and track bars to get everything dialed in and to lose the tcase drop that the jeep originally came with.




And my first wheeling trip with the axle suspension parts


A few more wheeling trips






Fast forward to 2016 and my big purchase was the savvy under armor. Included a 1" motor mount lift, 1.25" body lift, tcase skid, and gas tank skid.

[tworley]

Issues arose with this. my shock bodies contacted the coil springs (not the perch), my pinion angle was 34 degrees, and my CV shaft was binding at full droop To solve this, we decided to relocate spring perches, shave the axle completely and reinstall 3/16" brackets and clocked everything to mesh with the steep angle








With all that work, I am still binding at full droop (juuuuust barely). I opted for the super short sye from JB conversions and am working on that currently. It is about 2" shorter than my current SYE which should help tremendously.

[tworley]

During a test run, I shifted into 3rd and my thumb accidentally engaged my locker Pulled the cover and found alot of gear teeth. So the hunt for a replacement started. Luckily my buddy found a brand new ARB locker on craigslist. $500! I bit the bullet and bought it. Was going to install it this past weekend when I found out the new R&P I bought (rubi locker requires thick cut gears, the ARB requires normal cut) would not work. With new parts on hand, I am hoping to get it installed this Thursday and try and get a my current DC shaft lengthened to accommodate the super short sye. Hopefully I am back on the road by next week. Ill have to burn thru a couple tanks of gas to break in the new gears and locker before I can offroad again but there is light at the end of this long tunnel.

[sam025]

Looking good!

[tworley]

Had an incredibly long weekend.

JB Super short installed



The goodie found on Craigslist. New ARB for $500!


To replace the stock rubi locker (see why)


Notice the lovely chunk of metal in the bottom to the right of the ring gear? Ive learned rubi lockers dont like to be enganged while in motion.

[tworley]

We could have had this done earlier, but some mistakes by 4wheelparts, I received thick cut gears for a stock locker when I actually needed normal cut gears. After a bit of back and forth, I finally got the correct ring and pinion. Then the next issue arose. We had the wrong size ring carrier bolts. Another trip to town delayed us. Theres a reputable shop here in CO called Edge Automotive who had the correct ring gear bolts, for free Finally, we started making progress.

Old parts removed.


The old pinion nut took its toll on this ratchet


Cutting drain slots


Carrier bearings in place along with ring gear (and the correct ring bolts)


Installing the setup race and pinion bearing

[tworley]

New ARB installed. Still alot of work ahead of us.


Still cannot get over how thin shims can get. IIRC, this was a .006" shim to start with. I knew gears needed to be set up correctly, but actually seeing it first hand is amazing. Much respect to those who can accomplish this. I had a buddy helping me thru all this, he has installed a handful of gears, I couldnt have done it without him!



This is where my photos get a little out of order. But I believe this was our initial test run. Pinion, if I learned anything this weekend, was a bit to close. So we added more shims. I think this may be been a .074".




I missed a few photos from here. But we had a lot of back and forth trying to get it right. Finally, and I want to say we ended up at 0.70 on the pinion and have .010" carrier bearing shims.




Installing the air line


We got line farther away from the ring gear than this picture shows, but gives you an idea of how much room there is to work in here.


After getting everything back together, we found out that both axle bearings were shot.


Another trip to the store(s) which delayed us a hair longer. Ended up with National bearings, should do for now. I was wanting Timken but nobody had any in stock.

I am still without a rear driveshaft, I need a longer one built, and the speedo connectors on the tcase need swapped. Also, the compressor and switch need installed but all minor things I will wrap up this week (or try too).

My buddy was a HUGE help in this. I learned a ton and couldnt have done it without him. At one point, he was helping with 3 different vehicles this weekend and had a bug that was bothering him. Didnt stop him from helping out. Really a great guy.

[tworley]

On the way to the driveline shop I use for my CV driveshaft, my jeep died. A little research shows that the speedo being disconnected (didnt have the correct plug at the time) will throw a check engine light and will kill the engine every now and then, which I was experiencing. Got a tow home and dove into it. New plug connected but I still couldnt get the engine to turn over.

Now, my rig came with an aftermarket alarm which has always given me an issue if I had an electrical problem, like a dead battery or if a headlight was out. Weirdest thing. I narrowed my problem down to that and found a bad relay. I finally just ripped the whole thing out. Good news--The jeep will start just fine, but now it stumbles and struggles at idle. More research into that (and after consulting with a buddy), we think its the CPS sensor

[Jeepin Hokie]

Originally Posted by tworley

On the way to the driveline shop I use for my CV driveshaft, my jeep died. A little research shows that the speedo being disconnected (didnt have the correct plug at the time) will throw a check engine light and will kill the engine every now and then, which I was experiencing. Got a tow home and dove into it. New plug connected but I still couldnt get the engine to turn over.

Now, my rig came with an aftermarket alarm which has always given me an issue if I had an electrical problem, like a dead battery or if a headlight was out. Weirdest thing. I narrowed my problem down to that and found a bad relay. I finally just ripped the whole thing out. Good news--The jeep will start just fine, but now it stumbles and struggles at idle. More research into that (and after consulting with a buddy), we think its the CPS sensor

I had a bad cell in my battery two years ago after a wheeling trip, I could start the engine on the battery, but it would not idle at all. low voltage to the CPS would shut the engine off every time. its worth investigation before randomly replacing sensors.

[tworley]

Originally Posted by Jeepin Hokie

I had a bad cell in my battery two years ago after a wheeling trip, I could start the engine on the battery, but it would not idle at all. low voltage to the CPS would shut the engine off every time. its worth investigation before randomly replacing sensors.

That is good to know, thanks!

The gauge showed a good charge on the battery, which is only a year old. But I will look into that before buying a sensor...

The good news (if my battery is ok, that is) is Autozone has a CPS, with a two year replacement warranty for cheap (less than $100, not necessarily cheap I guess).