Great Pics! Some of the best I've seen. Way to go!

 

Time to remove the output tailshaft housing. My TC had a lock ring that needed to be removed from the shaft before the tail housing would slide over it. If you look closely, you can see it in the picture below. I finally got to use my new lock ring pliers!


Lock ring has been worked out of its groove


The aforementioned lock ring


Time to unbolt the tailshaft housing, 10mm bolts IIRC.


Then you can remove the housing. I tried the hammer technique again, but to no avail. Had to pry it off.


You can see the gasket material


Once the housing is removed, you'll be able to see the TC oil pump/slinger assembly.

 

Thanks man.

By the way, apparently there's a bandwidth limit for photobucket, which of course is the service I use to host my pictures. Bascially, they only allow a certain amount of access to pictures on a per monthly basis (for the free account). What this means is that some of my earlier posts may not render the pictures until next month. For the last couple pages I've been using a new account so hopefully that'll alleviate some of the bandwidth issues. Just FYI.

 

Removing the rear TC halve requires removal of several bolts around the perimeter of the case. The bolts are 15mm with the exception of one which is a 12pt 10mm. Not sure why they decided to throw in an oddball like that. After all bolts are removed, you can start prying the case open. There are 2 notches in the seam of the case which are designed to be used as prying points, they worked well for me and the case opened right up without damaging the mating surfaces.

I tried to take a picture of the notch, but it was tough to get the camera in a good position... it's there but not really discernible in the picture. Sorry, I'm too lazy to circle it.


Another horrible picture, but it does show where the notch is


I removed the TC rear halve and oil pump assembly off as one unit, which resulted in this:


At this point, the rear output shaft is ready to come out for exchange with the upgraded Rugged Ridge shaft. However, the chain prevents you from sliding it right out and in order to remove the chain you have to pull the front output shaft out a little to allow some slack/play in the chain. I don't have any pictures documenting that process. Basically, I had intended to leave the front output shaft in place as I had read about a possibility of removing the chain without disturbing the front output shaft. Long story short, that did not work out. I ended up removing the front driveshaft as it is required if you want to remove the front output shaft. Once the front driveshaft is removed you must remove the front output shaft yoke and then the front output shaft can be pulled back far enough to manipulate the chain. Anyway, there's no pictures of all this because I was frustrated with having to do more steps than I had planned so I was in a hurry and decided to forego the pictures.

So back at the ranch.... Magically, the chained was removed.


Followed shortly by the removal of the rear output tailshaft assembly...


Don't forget to clean this magnet while you're in there:


The magnet looks like a big washer. Also, it's probably a good idea to reinstall it immediately after cleaning so it's not forgotten.


Here's a shot of the TC before reinstallation of the tailshaft. I cleaned it up with some brake parts cleaner and removed all the factory gasket from the mating surfaces. Turned out pretty nice. Shiny even.

 

Now that the rear output tailshaft has been removed, it's time to swap the gears over to the new shaft.

I laid the stock shaft, still fully assembled, beside the Rugged Ridge shaft to compare the difference in length... Old to the left, new to the right.


I took the shafts over to my workbench (a cooler with a blue towel draped over it). Remove the lock ring that holds the gears in place.


Now the components can be slid off the stock shaft and swapped over. Of all the steps I reviewed in preparation for the installation of a SYE I was most concerned about this one. Turned out, it was actually pretty simple. There are only 3 components that need to come off, 1 lock ring and 2 gears. The gears have official names, like "mode hub" and "drive sprocket" but that's just minutiae haha.

Here are the gears removed from the stock shaft in the order. They are ready to be installed on the new shaft. Factory shaft still on left, RR shaft on right.


Gear 1


Gear 2


And finally, the lock ring


Final product. All gears have been swapped over to the new shaft. Also pictured are my lock ring pliers and a bowl of ATF used for assembly lubrication.


The shaft is now ready for installation into the TC.

 

Reinstall the tailshaft


Run the chain


Before replacing the TC rear halve, make sure you replaced the magnet and that the shift lever spring is on the shift rail in case it has fallen off during disassembly. Run a bead of gasket maker along the case, I used RTV Ultra Black. And no, before you ask, I didn't forget to reapply some RTV around that lower bolt.


Install the case halve and torque down to 25lbs/ft. I also took some time to clean up the mating surface for the tailshaft housing.


Now it's time to install the speedo gear and provided lock rings. A lock ring goes on each side of the gear. Here is the first one going on:


and in place


Next, slide the gear on...


and finish with the second lock ring...


Time to install the output tail housing. Run another bead of RTV and bolt it down, 20lbs./ft.

 

Install the yoke seal


Followed by the new rear output yoke


And torque it down to about 140lbs./ft


Now's a good time to reinstall the speedo gear connector into the housing.

And that's about where I'm at right now. I had a few things to do so I couldn't totally finish up. I still need to reattach the front driveshaft, fill the TC with fluid, plug the shift rail hole with the provided plug and order up a custom rear DS.

I also want to take it for a little test drive in 4WD, technically FWD until my DS arrives, to see if everything is ok as far as the TC's ability to transfer power to front wheels is concerned. I guess I also need to remove the TC drop while I'm down there.

Looking forward to a smoother running drivetrain. I'll continue to keep you posted.

 

i would install the correct speedo gear for your different gears/tires u've installed

 

Yeah, I probably should've picked one up beforehand. Would've been an easy swap since I have it apart. Why didn't you recommend this a couple days ago!

I'm going out to the garage now to button her up, hopefully be pulling her out of the garage sometime today. I gotta clean the garage floor, apparently the combination of ATF and brake parts cleaner eats right through plastic tubs.... huge mess.

 

i was just thinkin it......... haha

 

Yep, found that one out a while ago. LOL, Kitty litter and then finished up with parts washer solvent, we had a seal coated concrete floor then and it was like a sheet of ice until we put the solvent down.

 

Haha, I have kitty litter all over the place right now as a matter of fact. Gonna let that soak up a while, then try some Simple Green or something.

Finished up the SYE, here's the final product:




Installed the front driveshaft, filled the TC with fluid and buttoned it all up. Took her for a test drive in "FWD"... everything appeared to be alright. No strange grinding or vibrations of any kind. I even walked beside it while managing the brake pedal with my hand to watch the rear output yoke spin. I checked out 4LO and 4HI to make sure the TC was shifting modes properly and all seemed fine. Once I got back to the house I took a look underneath to make sure all the seals were holding up. No leaks from the TC halve, the shaft tailhousing, or yokes. I did however see a couple drops from around the speedo gear housing. I'll keep an eye on it, but I need to replace it with the proper gear anyway so I'm not too worried about it right now. Plus, the instructions say to use a little RTV for that seal and I did not use any b/c I knew I would be removing it soon. Anyway, so far so good.

Looking forward to getting the rear DS installed so I can fully evaluate everything. That reminds me, I have to go measure the DS length I'm gonna need.

 

what fluid/brand did u go with?

 

Just got to say how infomative this build up thread is... excelent photos and great description on the how to do things... one of the better builds going around, well done love watching/reading your build...awesome mate !!!!

 

Got the DS measurement complete, now all I gotta do is order it up. It was 33'' from yoke to yoke.

Valvoline ATF +4 Full Synthetic. I didn't really put much thought to it really, it was basically all they had on the shelf.

Thanks dude. Trying to make this thread useful to other beginner's like myself who are new to Jeeps and enjoy modifying them. I appreciate the feedback.

You figure out what you're gonna do with your hood yet?