Varg In Jeep's Clothing

They’re temporary.
I wanted to make sure this idea was going to work before I spent any more money on it. I’ll get some thin 2” clamshell clamps eventually.

 

I’m surprised nobody commented on the mint Scout II in the background.

 

I'm glad you said what we've all been thinking

 

I treated the jeep to a spa day today.



She’s been overdue for a tire rotation and re-balance. While I had her in the air, I wanted to see if I could address the few issues she’s developed. She’s been gradually developing a pull to the right under braking, and while braking, the handling has become a white-knuckle experience.

The pulling is the brakes, I’ll address that when I get the funds. The sketchy handling was due to some very worn out bushings in the radius arms. The worn bushings were allowing the axle to rotate forward under braking, canceling any/all caster. During articulation, these bushings take the abuse; most of the front axle flex happens in these bushings.



I cut new bushings for all four sleeves, and a few for new sway bar bushings too…



…they’ve also taken quite the hammering.



She still pulls to the right, but at least now she’s completely predictable and controllable. I’ll get new calipers, rotors and pads ordered up eventually.

 

She’s back home!
The move is finally complete, the garage finally has room, and the roads were finally dry enough to tow her home from the storage unit today. I gave my GF’s Explorer a trial run in flat towing. It did pretty well.



I’ll be pulling the t-case out soon to replace that stupid adapter once again.

 

Ryan, isn’t this the 3rd time you had to fix this issue? Can you redesign to make it a stronger design, so this won’t happen again? …or was this a purposely designed fuse so something else didn’t break?

 

First one sheared splines in Moab, and I swapped it out with my spare. The spare was never intended to be in for very long because I didn’t like trusting welds on a critical part like that, but it never failed. I swapped it out last year when I thought I’d come up with a better design, but now that one is making noise. I’ve since beefed up the spare one, and I trust it more, so I’ll put that back in as preventative maintenance. I’ll keep the noisy one as the spare.

I have the plans drawn to have one machined out of chromoly, but it’s always such a low priority, I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to it. I have the parts to build a 2.48:1 reduction box that would replace the adapter in this, so if I did anything, it would be that before spending the money on a custom made shaft.

 

Checking the adapter on the trail.

 

My Flex is the same platform... did surprisingly well across town but front wheel drive no tow package and 3.31 gears. I don't want to cook the transmission any more towing our camper.
That one is gonna be a bit easier if it is v6 4x4 with tow package. Something like 3.73 gears for final drive. I don't know enough about the 4cyl but get the powerstop truck and tow brakes for her if you need to ever service the brakes.


Just don't ever try passing at full throttle up hill with anything in tow. Absolutely destroyed the front suspension and bushings on mine when it crossed a centerline rumble strip.

 

I’ve been having a rough idle issue. I tore into the idle air control valve to see if it was clean and working as it should. During the tear down, with the fender off, I found the inlet hose coming off the intake tube had left the chat.



I ran to oriellys and asked to go in the back to pick out a similar hose. Closest one was this 90° bend that is apparently lined with gold.



$25 later, IAC valve is cleaned and operational, and everything is buttoned up. Idle is still a little rough, but it’s better than it was. It is in horrible need of a tuneup, but that’s a pile of money I don’t have ATM.

While I was in there, I found one of the set screws on the steering shaft u-joints was loose, the alternator belt needed tightened and a bolt was loose on the adjuster arm, there was a loose bolt on the power steering pump, and that belt also needed to be tightened.

She should be good to go to start making the 55 mile round trip commute to work if the weather ever breaks.

 

After a day of wheeling…



In the snow…



My fan lost some blades due to some snow getting jammed up in the engine compartment. The 38 year old plastic was a bit brittle.



The fan also took out the radiator drain plug as it was exploding. That took some effort to get the rest of the plug out.



The threads were nothing common, SAE or metric. So I took the radiator to work and tigged the hole shut. I never use the drain anyway; I just pull the lower hose.



One thing I found truly amazing: I ordered the fan from Rockauto, and I’d noticed the brand of the fan was the same as the factory: Aisin. What I didn’t expect was that they’d be IDENTICAL, even down to the date code being in the same spot. Old one is 86, new one is 23. Perfect.





I also replaced the thermostat while it was apart. If the weather ever breaks, I’ll take her for a spin.

 

My clutch has been feeling weird as of late. The pedal has only been wanting to move in 1” increments. The liner broke loose and has been bunching up at the clutch fork over the last year or so, so I assumed that’s what it was: friction. I shortened the last one by a few inches, and I think whatever held the liner in place was compromised in the process.

I ordered a new cable from FCP Euro.



I wanted to do everything possible to not cut this one. It took some creative routing around the MC and cage support, but I got it in there. To maintain the most direct pull at the pedal, I added a few high tech straps around the booster.



It’s smooth as silk again, and now I have a spare in my tool/parts drawer.

 

good job you had two extra long ones

 

Here we go again… hopefully for the last time ever.

 

Tim say zip ties good.

 

I ordered this new D300 output shaft from Advance Adapters…



I drew up prints that I’d planned on sending out along with this shaft to have a new adapter shaft made from scratch. That didn’t work out, so I devised a plan to precisely weld up a new one with known good parts, rather than the worn out parts haphazardly thrown together like before.

I picked up a cheap 45RFE trans last week just for the rear output shaft.



I pulled the old one out to find a bunch of cracks. I believe the shaft wasn’t perfectly perpendicular to the flange, so it was trying to straighten itself out and developed stress fractures. That would also explain why both the internal and external splines were wearing out.





After swapping in the new D300 output shaft, I dropped the new stub shaft into the hole and used a cutoff wheel to start carving a key into the end that fit into a slot I cut in the flange with a die grinder.





I had to mill out a section for the transmission’s output shaft to nest.



Then I bolted the companion flange to the transmission, left the stub shaft in the t-case, and I married the two cases in place. Letting them align the pieces, I tacked them together through the hole in the adapter tube. What I had to work with:



I took it back apart to preheat, finish welding, post heat, then insulate. I brought the temp down over the course of a few hours. I sat with it in silence through the critical times and didn’t hear any “tinks.”

The mating surface of the flange warped a little from welding. If I had access to a lathe, I would’ve just faced it off, but I don’t currently. I took it in to where the high spot touched, then used .005” and .008” shim stock between the faces to prevent any stressors as it got tightened down. It spins freely with no signs of binding, so I’m happy. These tolerances are much tighter than any of these I built before, with near-zero end play and full spline engagement, so overall it’s a better design. If the welds fail, it’s still locked in place in a keyed hole. It might make noise, but it can’t go anywhere or leave me stranded without completely shattering or shearing off first.

I took it for a spin last night, and it felt great. There was always a faint vibration at 45-50 that I’d assumed was my homemade rear driveshaft, but this cured it. It must’ve been that old shaft.

If god forbid this ever does fail, I’m going to redesign this adaptor and utilize a giubo (pronounced JOO-bo) joint to make up for any microscopic misalignments that I can’t work out.

 

Why not build a gingery lathe and metal shaper?

My FIL made one out of square tube for the base all drops of stock instead of casts. You build it to true itself and make it's own accessories.

 

Right now, I don’t have the space for a lathe of any capacity. I’m trying to convince the school district I work for that the maintenance department’s metal shop needs one.

 

Do they have a floor mount drill press?
Pottery wheel?

I need to get pictures of the little gingery it's just the size of a table saw without legs. It'll fit in the trunk of my Flex.