Norcal69's Common Sense Build.

It's the latest wireless driveline.

 

Don't you carry hose clamps?

 

This is how I managed to break the front driveshaft. I was golden till I tried to pull the pig out of the ditch. Once the tires plugged up with mud we were done...

 

Maybe the driveline was worth sacrifice ....

 

Here are a couple more of the front drive shaft. At least it broke 2 miles from home.....
looks like zero penetration on the weld.

 

Time to upgrade...

Can you see any point of failure? It looks like it failed next to the weld. Undercut weld? Or was the tubing machined from the inside to fit the slug causing a thin section that wasn’t covered by the weld?

 

Definitely not Steve's drive shaft.... this one would have been trail weld repairable.....

 

You hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what I think happened.
I actually did back down the hill with the intention of hooking onto the pig and driving out. The spot where I backed down forced me to side hill a little bit. When I got close to the bottom I started to slide sideways down hill. On top of that.... the pig, which I thought was dead because I shot it in the head and it rolled limp about 100' down hill to rest in the bottom of the ravine, got up and started to run away. I stalled the jeep as I jumped out to shoot the fleeing pig which ended up dying in the worst possible location..... From there I could no longer side hill and I was forced to turn down hill to stop sliding/prevent a roll over. The pics posted earlier show the story.... I think that the low range, front locker and tons of weight transferred to the front from the steep terrain.... coupled with the weight of the pig in the ditch just snapped the weakest link.

 

How'd you get back up the hill with no front drive? Looks difficult.

 

I pulled the winch cable out till only a couple wraps were left. Ran it over the front bumper and under under the Jeep. Out the rear of the Jeep and up the hill to a tree where I mounted a snatch block on a tree saver around an oak next to the ridge top road.
I called my dad and he came out with his Yukon. Snapped the winch hook to his hitch and in 4wd low he drove straight down the road, pulling me up the hill at a 90 degree angle to him. The pig was tied on a rope to my front bumper about 10’ long.
I killed the pig about 7 pm took 2 hours to get out of the hole. Pouring down rain and soaked to my underwear I field dressed the pig and dropped it off to a needy family about 9:45 pm.
I could have gotten out without calling for help but I would have had too winch myself through the bottom of the ravine and up the other side. The only problem is the whole hillside I would have to winch through was covered in poison oak.

 

More Rubicon upgrades. My old 10SI alternator that came on the jeep was getting tired. At only 61 amp output to begin with it didn't provide enough charging capacity at low rpm. Way back when the forest service held live onsite auctions we ended up with a box of CS130 alternators for early 90's chevy pickups. The nicest one is a 100 amp Napa unit rebuilt in USA.... Yup they are that old...
I was able to swap the serpentine pulley with the single v belt pulley from the 10SI. I picked up an adapter that allowed the CS130 to be plug in play. If everything works good..... I will likely cut the extra connection out and solder the new plug in permanently.

I'm guessing this alternator was rebuilt around 2000. At one point I was going to throw them away.......



Adapter plug from 10SI to CS130. There are two types of adapters available. One with a resistor built in and one without. My wiring harness has a resistor installed so I was able to use an adapter without a resistor. The resistor is used in place of a light which excites the alternator.



The CS130 is considerably smaller than the 10SI but it fits right into the factory brackets.





Tonight I will get the fan shroud back on and the grille bolted up.

 

After fighting with the new alternator not making power I threw in the towel and called Steve. Within 2 minutes Steve had me up and running.....Don't want to talk about it.... Pretty nice to see the volt meter up around 13.5 at fast idle.
The adapter harness was driving Steve crazy so he cut it out and hardwired the CS130 plug into my harness. All done it came out pretty clean... there's slightly more room in the engine compartment. I'll probably spring for a slightly shorter fan belt, shorten up the heater hose and reinstall the chain saw.

 

Took the jeep for a test drive yesterday evening. I really didn't expect any difference, test drive was just to make sure belts, ect were good.
I should have changed the alternator 5 years ago! As soon as I pulled out onto the street I could feel the jeep had a noticeable pep to it. Similar to a fresh set of spark plugs, cap rotor, carb tune. Engine just runs crisp and is more responsive. The headlights are brighter as they are able to take full advantage of the 12V relay setup.
Headlights on, heater on and wipers running the Voltage only drops to about 13. There were never any problems before, I just didn't know how good life could be.

 

I think a 100 amp alternator would let all the smoke out of my wiring.

 

I went to a new local driveshaft shop. I walked in and told the counter guy what I was looking for. I was planning on a new 1-1/4” heavy wall drive shaft built out of my current slip joint and yokes. He gave me a price that I felt was expensive for just a new piece of tube. When I said that sounded high he said hang on..... a minute later he emerged from the back with a 2” diameter driveshaft with all new slip yoke and joints.
Turns out it was returned because the customer measured wrong. Counter guy offered to cut it down 2” and sell it to me for $150 out the door.

 

Nice.

2” clears everything?