Basslicks

It's tranny time!!!!! No, I'm not going to dress drag, I mean I found a 4wd AW4. Guy posted it up on eBay local pickup only, no reserve, starting bid $50. Lives in Jesup, GA (BFE, GA is more like it) and I was the winning (only) bidder at $50 bucks. So I figured I'd swing by on my way home from KY and pick it up. Waaaaaaaay off the interstate, waaaaaaaay out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, waaaaaaaay away from cell phone signal fo my GPS to work properly - yeah, that was a nice treat for trying to figure out how to get from there to my home. Ended up having to backtrack back to a hospital along the way and leech off of their WiFi to get internet connection to map out the route. Sprint sucks, btw.

Longer story short, made it home with this:






Cleaned them up and mated them together:




ETA: This is NOT what ended up in the Jeep. Sold this transmission and transfer case to a friend who needed it. Keep reading to find out what DID end up in the Jeep.

tssguy123

I wouldn't mind going with the full time 4x4 option either. Does everything just bolt right up?

PocketsEmpty

Hmm, where to start. Things seem to be very similar between your luck and mine, and also some interests we share! (guns, music -- guitar player here)

Looks like you got quite a project. What did you end up doing with that floor? If you need some help or advice with rust repair, shoot me a PM. I've become a pro on it in the past year I've had my XJ! Haha

I feel your pain with those door hinges. I noticed when doing my rust fixing in that area how weak they are, I'll see if I can get a closeup. but the factory welds are terrible! The one for my rear door that I had off, there was actually some spattering around the weld, and it's only welded on one side. I'm tempted to do some grinding and weld the other side of the brackets. I HATE THOSE TORX...I replaced mine on the rear door with stainless steel 13mm hex heads I got at Lowes. If I ever need to remove the other doors, I got extras for it. I had a heck of a time getting those bolts out. Dremeling, grinding, swearing...and when I got the door hinge plate out finally, the bolts were stuck in there. Was going to drill them out but decided welding a nut would be easier and they wrenched right out.

Looks like now all you need is a good HPD30 and posssibly a new shift gate for your 4x4. The 242 shift gate is different.

Basslicks

Well, I need a little more info to answer that question correctly. There's a year cutoff regardless of whether you're doing a 4wd conversion or just a transfer case swap... I think it's 1990. For all intents and purposes though, yes. The tranny I got is from a 92 MJ and the transfer case is from a WJ (not sure what year - doesn't really matter). The 1990 and down have a 21 spline output shaft and the 1990.5 and up have a 23 spline output shaft. That's the main thing you need to be concerned with unless you're swapping the transmission too - then you'll need to worry about the wiring harness across the year cutoff.

Here's a great writeup about it: http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1053970

Haha... yeah it's a decent project. Just trying to learn as I go. Haven't really done anything major, but as look back from what it started as to what it's starting to look like - it's very different.

Gettin' a little ahead of me on the floor, I haven't repaired it yet, but I'll get more into what I decided to do with it here in a few. I've consulted with a few other people that are skilled with welding, body, and fab and they say I've got a pretty solid idea - so stay tuned.

As far as the shift gate - are you talking about the Shift bezel? 'Cause I just got this in the mail from eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/200982830252...84.m1439.l2648

I think I'm going to go with a different shifter setup on the inside though. I like the classic straight stick and round **** versus the xj's "handle" style shifter. So I'm probably gonna need some fab help with that.

Thanks for checkin' out the build guys!

tssguy123

I'm eventually going to be doing a 4x4 swap. I haven't really looked into it much because it's gonna be at least 6 months. Probably longer. I have a 96 too, which I'm assuming messes stuff up. Bastard year.

In the thread you linked, it says that AW4s from 90.5-96 should all be interchangeable. At the same time, though, it says the 96 2WD AW4 is different--"1996 and later 2WD AW4s will have the new style slip yoke and output seal, as well as dust slinger." it also says "The vehicle speed sensor is also located in the transmission tailhousing. A 2wd AW4 cannot be converted to a 4WD unit without full disassembly as the output shaft is a different length, has 27 splines (to match the slip yoke used on the rear output of 4WD XJ transfer cases) rather than 21 or 23 splines, and includes the 13 tooth worm gear for the VSS or speedo takeoff which would otherwise be in the tailcone of the transfer case."

So, I'm thinking I should be able to find a donor from 91-96 that has an AW4 and an NP242... and that should swap in just fine. Then I just have to worry about getting a d30, shift linkage, and the interior parts... and driveshafts. Seems easy enough I guess...

Sorry for hi-jacking :P

Basslicks

Hey no problem man. That's what we're on here for is for people to ask questions. Truth - if you're doing a 4wd swap, you might as well go find yourself a good deal on a 4wd tranny & TC or by a donor jeep with the tranny and TC already in it. Yeah, 96 is kind of a bastard year. Can be a bit of a PITA trying to figure out which parts you have at times. I will say that's a pretty clean one you've got at least.

tssguy123

It is clean. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for me. It's treated me well. I'm definitely going to go the donor route, when the time comes. It's a shame that 97+ AW4s won't work easily, or I'd get a 97+ donor and swap the seats and header panel/fenders and doors while I'm at it.

PocketsEmpty

Underneath of the bezel there's a metal bracket that limits how far the shifter can go. I've heard of some guys ditching it altogether and not looking back--I haven't experimented with that yet because I had to cut out all of my rusted bolts holding the whole damn thing in. If you're concerned about it, here's an image showing the difference. NP231 on the left, 242 on the right. I'll see if I can get a better picture then because I have both setups.



Also, I totally agree with you about the handle shifter. I hate it. I have a **** from an old CJ I got at the local Jeep Show that I'm eventually going to chop and weld onto the XJ shifter in place of the handle. Probably not until I do my 231 swap, though.

tssguy123

Good to know. I actually had no idea about that piece. I assume there's just a solid plate there now since I don't have a shifter.

Basslicks

Hey, did you skip the part in that thread that says this:

Just get a 1997 and you're golden - cut the pigtails off of both trannies and swap 'em out! Good to go lil' bro!


OOOoooohhhhh yeah, I didn't even think about that. I'm thinking that since it's 2wd right now, there's probably not anything there. I've had the console out and don't even remember. I'll probably just get someone to help me fab a bracket that is just a straight slot - not lateral action since that has no bearing on the transfer case actually shifting. Worse come to worse though, I'll just snap a 242 bracket out of the JY.

Basslicks

So where was I. Oh yeah, springs.... yuk. Stupid rear springs were sagging on one side now even with the ghetto extended shackle on the one side. So I got ambitious one day and swapped in the free leaf springs I mentioned earlier.

Little bit of rust on them, but the springs are in good shape. From the looks of it, someone got themselves a lift, pulled them off and just sat them in the dirt. There's some algea on them as well.


You can still see the yellow lettering on the other side of the leafs.


Here's the coils - I haven't installed them yet though (just finished painting them red - but that comes later in sequence).


Coils are about 18" long unloaded - hoping they've seen less mileage and weight than my current ones.


Passenger side before swap:


Driver's side before swap (extended shackle still in place):


Passenger side after swap:


Driver's side after swap - back to stock shackles:


As you can see from the pictures, I lost a little bit on both sides, but I also didn't cinch the shackles all the way tight so I got a little more flex and better ride out of them. Plus I have the same length shackles on both sides for better geometry.

I need to just lift the thing and get it over with, right? Well, bastard packs are in the plans.

Basslicks

Wanted to go do some wheelin', but tired of my tires and fenders getting into fights with each other during articulation. So I trimmed up the fenders.

Before:


After:




As you may notice, I didn't do a full cut. I did about as much as is required for bushwacker fender flares because I plan on getting some soon. Well, I plan on getting the Ruggid Ridge because they're the same and cost almost half as much. Anyway, it might not look as good as a full cut, but it worked - no fights.

Next thing I trim will most likely be the front bumper.

Also added a new sticker:

tssguy123

Apparently I did! That's awesome.

Basslicks

Yeah man, read that whole thread thoroughly - wealth of info in there.

Basslicks

Some wheeling shots:

Was following this guy (Josh):


In front of this guy (Lee):


Well Josh ended up getting stuck in this so I wanted no part of it:




Mike to the rescue in his green monster YJ:






Yeeaaahhh Josh being Mr. MX man decided he was gonna cross-up on the friggin' trench everyone was driving through...




Finally got him out and he decided to drive normal


My turn:


That, of course, led to this:


So by that point, I didn't even care how much water I went through - it was already in my jeep.









Aftermath:








Didn't like how much the fenders ended up flapping around without the flares on them - turns out they add a little bit of support - plus the sheet metal bracket kind of acts as a gusset