Heres the scenario..
When im in four wheel drive on pavement and try to take a turn the Jeep jumps, knocks, clicks and bangs as im trying to make the turn. On grass or gravel it seems fine. I initially thought the locker was bad, so I replaced it with a spartan. I thought the locker was bad because my pinion bearing went south on a wheeling trip and i had to have the ring and pinion replaced, and I thought that possibly the locker may have gotten damaged, but when I pulled it out it was fine. Since I was in there I replaced it with a new Spartan locker anyway. Last week before I replaced the locker I was testing it in four wheel drive just in my driveway when it bound up and actually snapped the outter part of my axle shaft and destroyed the ujoint. I replaced the entire axle with a junkyard piece.
So far I have replaced the locker, ring and pinion and pinion bearings, full passenger axle, and a wheel hub. I cannot for the life of me figure out what is wrong with this thing. I had a spartan locker dana 30 in my TJ before this XJ and it didnt do the same thing on pavement like this Jeep does, so there has to be something wrong, I just dont know what. Does anyone have any ideas before I burn this thing to the ground. I was supposed to go wheeling next weekend with a group of friends, but im afraid as soon as I get it out there I will break. I have to wheel to and from the trails so this really isnt an option. Has anyone experienced anything like this before. Please help, this is killing me.

Thanks

 

When you installed the Spartan did you re use the thrust washers?

 

No the instructions said not to use them, plus there wasnt any extra room for them. The Aussie that was previously in there that I thought was broke had them installed though, which I thought was really weird.

 

It's just how they are made. What t case do you have?

 

I had a similar problem, I was told that 4wd on pavement was bad because when you tried to turn it caused added stress on u -joints as well as gear teeth and shafts. this is because the tcase is trying to spin the wheels at the same speed but during a turn one wheel has to spin faster. When its on dirt and loose ground its not as bad because the tires have a little less traction and can take the stress off sensetive parts by spinning the dirt. Not the case with asphalt. That's what I've been told anyway. I had a similar problem, and I've been trying to get around to changing my front u joints but its my dd. Best of luck to ya, also if you have the vacuum disconnect front axle id pop the cover on that just to make sure its all peachy.

 

Its a 99 so I dont have a vacuum disconnect and my transfer case is a NP231J

 

First off it will jump and bind on pavement cause its getting to much traction I wouldn't lock it in on pavement if you want to test it just Jack it up and spin the tires by hand in 4x4, second you may need to leave the thrust washers out if you installed them. I had to on my lockright in my d30,

 

If you have the np231 transfercase they are NOT supposed to be driven in 4wd on dry pavement! It will do exactly what happened to you, or worse.

 

X2!!! That's what I was getting at! There probably isn't anything wrong, its a 231 with a locked front on pavement! What can you expect?