Hmm I have bumpers, tire carrier, winch, 35 hanging off the back, hi-lift, some heavy *** wheels and still feel 4.56's are enough gear. She gets up and goes if I need her to.

Anyway, gears are certainly the best mod you can do to restore power to your rig. Turns em into a whole different animal. It was so nice not having my trans search for the right gear or constantly shift in and out of OD.

 

Worse than having to shift constantly, is getting stuck in 3rd and not being able to accelerate. Any reason to decelerate will get me stuck at a lower and lower speed, I basically have to go max RPM at the bottom of the hill and pray I can hold RPM or at least keep it from dropping too rapidly.

99% of the time it resulted in me "lugging" the motor which is bad for fuel consumption and will cause excess carbon I am told. In fact I was CONSTANTLY lugging the motor - in traffic 2nd was simply too low to use so I would just lug it at 800rpm till I got enough speed, instead of slowing to shift back down into first.

Getting a bit of vibration at 60mph, hoping it is just the bearings wearing in.
56 miles on it thus far

 

Getting a bit of vibration now at 60+ mph. I am thinking that because it is speed related, it must be my t-case drop which used to be vibration free till about 80mph. The gears sound great at all lower speeds, very little gear whine. About 110 miles on it now

Did some research and think I settled on an IRO Hack n Tap kit, plus an XJ front shaft

Unfortunately not much info about length with the AX15 + 231 + Ford 8.8 combo so going to pull the driveshaft and measure it tomorrow

 

Im glad to find this here

But according to this I need to check the gearing in my F150 since it says I have 3.08:1 gears according to the door sticker but if I hit 85 on the speedometer it sounds like the I6 is about to explode lol. No way I can run 106mph at 3000 rpm.(7000 maybe)

 

the drive shaft is spinning way faster. 65 real mph (gps) my needle says 80.

 

I did the Hack n Tap on mine. If I was to do it again I would spend the extra for the jig. Worrying about breaking a bit or the tap was the worst part. I did actually break one drill bit but thankfully it came out easy. With the AX-15 and 231 being short you may need a GC DS.

Talking about not having the right gears I used to drive a 6 speed 4 banger Wrangler with 31s up I70 to Silverthorne. I was lucky to keep it over 45mph up the steep grades.

 

Speedo gear arrived yesterday, installing it and hopefully sorting the parking brake cables today.

Ordering the Hack n Tap kit tonight - I think the most nerve-racking part is going to be the drilling and tapping part (obviously), mostly because I read a ton of stories of broken taps and I am not that seasoned when it comes to tapping.
My plan is to just keep backing the tap all the way out, and clearing the hole with PB blaster or brake cleaner to get ALL the shavings out, and using a good cutting fluid to help keep the tap from binding and potentially breaking.

What worries me is that a few say that the tap broke with "minimal" pressure but if I completely screw it up I can try a helicoil insert, or just go for a full SYE and pull the t-case.


As far as drivehsaft measurements go - I am pretty confused. From center of u-joint on the axle to the where the splines begin on the t-case, I measured 35.5 inches.

Supposedly I can subtract 1.5" which will give me the distance from the t-case yoke (once cut + installed) to the DS yoke. That gives me 34"

According to my research, the front DS should have 3" of extension from collapsed to fully extended.
Subtracting 1.5" (center of range) from my 34" measurement leaves me at 32.5" for my driveshaft

I am fairly certain the below measurements are the collapsed length of the driveshaft but I have not been able to determine that for sure;


The bolded ones are what I am going to most likely try and find at the JY on Monday - they have a 30 day return policy so I might grab 2 and hope that one fits without needing a custom shaft ($$$$$)

 

Decided that an actual SYE kit was worth the extra few hours for install, and avoid the potential headaches of cutting + tapping the stock shaft.
My grinder is a POS, my drill kind of sucks, and I am afraid of breaking the tap or screwing up the threads somehow.

Ordered the Advance Adapters kit from Summit Racing for $190.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/add-50-7906


Easier than $150 for the IRO kit (and jig + bits), $8 worth of cutting fluid I would need, and $60 for a capable grinder. Going to do the install with the t-case in the Jeep still.

Going to the JY to grab probably 2 driveshafts of varying lengths and will hope for the best as far as lengths go, tried to get some measurements but my numbers are showing 32.5" to 34", but thats also with a 1" t-case drop

 

Installing a full SYE kit isn't all that difficult. Just get yourself a good set of snap ring pliers if you don't have them already. I'd much rather do that than a H&T kit. Also, much easier to install with the Tcase out.

 

Probably a good choice. I only did the Hack n Tap because it was the only option at the time for a 242.

 

Yeah, the full SYE seems like an overall better investment.

I don't know if I'll be able to get the t-case in and out on my own to be honest. My back has been acting up, plus I weigh 125 lbs and can't bench press worth a damn, it looks fairly simple to do with it on the vehicle. I'd rather work on my back for an extra hour or two vs having issues getting the t-case mated up again.

I found a good set of external "lock ring" pliers at Home Depot, I have a set of basic snap ring pliers that served me well for a while.
​​​​​​
Watched the Advance adapters install video like 10 times already so should be good to go.

​​​​​​Parking brake cable is giving me some headaches though, might pull the cable that's too long, cut it to length and have a garage door shop crimp a new end on if my spacer doesn't hold

Also, I'm getting a faint grinding noise from the rear brakes, the calipers were both in great shape, I greased the sliders but I don't know if the parking brake shows are retracting properly, there was a ton of brake shavings and the parking brakes were definitely rubbing but even after adjusting them in a ton they still sound like they are rubbing

 

Grr, e-brake fix completely failed. I just can't overcome the difference in cable length. I put in some spacers but it still causes the equalizer to engage to one side, and I can only ever get one drum to lock up hard. I want to be able to actually park on a hill without having to make sure my rig isn't going to roll into someone else's car...
The RT Offroad kit is complete garbage, many have had the same issue where the cable length does not match up, despite it being a very specialized kit (specifically for the XJ with disc brakes in the rear).

I wish my original cables were in good enough shape, they were so rusty that I cut through them without any effort and promptly chucked them in the trash because spent the big $$ on a "custom" designed kit, that turned out to be complete garbage. I doubt Morris 4x4 will care but I sent them a warranty claim email because this is seriously a manufacturing defect, or shoddy R&D on the part of RT Offroad (AKA Crown, no surprise)

I wish I could just drop $100 on the East Coast Gear Supply cables but it's just priced way too high for me to afford.

I am going to grab a set of stock XJ cables and do what I should have done initially, which was cut the spring and loop the cable ends like this (and like everyone else did)





I also epic failed when trying to figure out why the e-brake shoes are dragging. The parking brake lever is VERY hard to actuate, not like my ZJ brakes which I rebuilt myself. I tried to take one side apart, and am unable to get it back together. I ended up just leaving it off, which is fine because now one parking brake is super tight and the other drum isn't dragging so, half of each issue sorted out due to my incompetence...

The 8.8 uses dual springs at the top of the parking brake shoes, and it requires herculean strength to get the shoes back on! I thought they might have been improperly assembled but comparing it to the other side and a ford FSM diagram, they look exactly like they should. Uugh, might need to take it to a shop and get raped if I cant get it figured out


I suck at fabrication

 

SOB - I think I may finally understand why my e-brake shoes are dragging! I seriously worked on that for like 3 hours yesterday with no success, they kept making a really faint dragging noise that turns into a "ringing" noise after the rear brakes get hot. Rotors are definitely hot, and you can feel it grab when you spin the rear wheels with it on jackstands.

Luckily RockAuto has an awesome return policy, I will probably grab a set from the parts store this weekend ($12 rotor vs $31 Napa standard "premium" rotor, better be worth it )

 

Well, this is annoying. Went to the JY today, only had 1.5 hrs I could spend there so I was kind of rushing.

Looked through all the ZJ's and only a few met the criteria. Most of them either the shaft was already gone, or it was gouged to hell. Finally found one that would work, measurements were perfect. I was almost out of time so I kind of hurriedly pulled the driveshaft and bought it.

Well, I put it on my bench to assess when I got home and it looks like the shaft is bent (like, really bent).
Didn't notice it in my hurry




Supposed to rain on Friday, hopefully not in the morning. I am going to go back and look again, might call a driveshaft shop to see if these can be straightened but it is super bent (even though the shaft itself isn't gouged or anything).
I think they use forklifts to move the cars around and end up gouging or bending the driveshafts/everything else underneath

EDIT:
At least it was cheap, found a guy on Craigslist parting out a ZJ that looks like it would work - but he wants $100 for the driveshaft and its rusty as hell

Custom shaft runs about $300, don't want to go that route right now. There is another yard an hour away, might consider heading there instead on Friday

 

Yeahhh this is common in JY's. A buddy and I went to the local yard last weekend in search for a DS for his truck and the only truck that had one was bent all to hell from the forklift.