You bet your bippy I got the drilling jig! That's the only thing that convinced me I'd be able to do this myself in an honest to goodness manly-man, "made, not bought" kind of way. And then this thread comes along and points out Murphy's Law possibilities that I hadn't even know existed.

Not only do me and drilling (cleanly) into metal not have a fantastic historic relationship, but I'm also the type of guy who would see a broken tap in my hacked up drive shaft and tend to think, " welp, F it. I tried. It's not gonna work. Time to junk the XJ and go buy that Audi. They've technically got 4 wheel drive, too. It's just . . . different. Plus, the seat warmers will actually work."

For the record, I would end up coming back to the project, but it would be about a year and a half later . . . after I'd had sufficient time to cool off.

I, uh . . . I sometimes don't deal with setbacks all that well. It's part of my charm. Part of what makes me so much fun at parties and other social gatherings.

 

^ You will be fine. I have done the hack on two cases and only broke one tap. LOL

 

Haha teep. Drill slow and use the cutting oil from ace or sears. When you start to tap it, it should be difficult to turn (as your cutting ) but not hard to do. That was my issue. The first couple rotations were easy. Quarter turn or half a turn then back out completely and re-oil tip. I ignored the change in difficulty and when it snapped, each quarter turn had gotten more and more difficult which meant there were shavings getting built up inside. It got hard to turn but I didn't realize it. If you have access to an air compressor definitely use it to blow out the drill hole after each turn. Hold a rag over the end so no oil or metal shavings get shot out.

I'm starting to understand what all the older and more experienced jeeps guys around here were getting at. Even when you fix it, it doesn't mean your jeep is now fixed.

 

Get a compass from lowes. Only a couple of bucks in the hardware section by the levels. Park on flat land. Check DS angle then check angle of the diff pinion. Diff pinion needs to be same as DS angle. This is how I've heard it to be done. The pinion needs to be pointed straight at the TC

 

Use a magnetic screwdriver to clear the chips out of the hole

 

You mean an angle finder

 

Potato/ potato same difference lol. But yea angle finder :P