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1994 Jeep YJ - The YardJeep

1994 Jeep Wrangler YJ 2.5L/AX5/NP231/HP30/D35
Sent back the LockRight today. Decisions decisions. I was secretly hoping a D44 would sprout on Facespace Marketfarce but no dice.

Zip or ARB RD105?
 
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went to NM yesterday and picked this back up. long story but the gist is mice ate a hole in the middle of the title before I got it. NM wouldn't issue a title, had him send it to me and I tried but no luck. even though I have the title DMV said I would have to do a bonded title. so I went and paid him and got it back. I am tempted to pull the covers and see what ratio and if it still has the ARBs in it. I keep telling myself I don't need it but it runs good and is simple. plus I already got 1/2 doors and a bikini top for it.
 
The last couple weeks I've been working on the house (new windows, light kitchen remodel, etc while the boss was visiting her mother in commiefornia).

I haven't set up gears in like 15 years and after reading a bunch of manuals and BillaVista I don't know WTF I'm doing.

Is this acceptable? .008" backlash, metric shit ton of preload on all bearings.

HP30Gears_20240414_.jpgHP30Gears_Coast_20240414.jpg
 
I like the drive side, if you closed up the back lash to .005-.007 the pattern would move toward the root. Is centered nicely front to back. how much is metric sh$$ ton of preload ? to much is a bad thing
 
I tried moving it more trying to get it closer on the flank/root... and got a worse pattern... I think I'm just going to run it.

I've never set up new gears on such a tiny differential with such a steep set of gears... it's weird.

I spread the case .010-.011" and you're not getting the carrier back out without a prybar if you don't spread it. I put the pinion on with the impact since it takes shims instead of a crush collar. Takes 32 inchlbs to turn the pinion... more when going through the compound. I'm used to GM stuff where you just kind of set it in there. haha.
 
32 in lbs seems like a lot but the pattern looks good….I’ve put pinion nuts back on with an impact on used sets but I usually torque new sets
 
I ended up with 23 inch-lbs after I took out my setup bearings and races and put a little oil on the permanent ones... torqued the pinion nut to 160ftlbs.

It takes 62 inch-lbs to spin the pinion now with everything together. Seems a bit high. But, it's fairly dry, everything is new, and I noticed it got easier the more I cleaned off the gear marking paint. Run it?

I can pull it back apart and take .005" off the non-gear side. I'm just kind of tired of messing with it.

HP30GearsInstalled_Coast_20240415.jpg

HP30GearsInstalled_20240415.jpg
 
So, after contemplating it overnight I decided to tear it down because it didn't make sense that when I did the math on the amount of strain I'd have to put on the carrier bearings could be that great.

It appears I magically have 55ish inch-lbs of pinion preload. Must be when I ran it together with the impact I didn't put nearly as much torque on it, or my Koyo setup bearings that are a 5 year newer vintage (bearing kit I got from Yukon is circa 2019 per the card in the box) is causing me strife. The "new" Koyo outer pinion bearing I bought because I dropped the one that came in my SECOND Yukon master install kit... is 2022 or newer from Ron's Machining Service (copyright on box says 2022).

I tore it down and added a .0095" shim to the pinion preload stack... 10-12 inch-lbs. 18-19 inch-lbs with the carrier torqued down. I tried pulling a .0095" shim out of the air side but the carrier fell in *without* the case spread.

Backlash creeped up to .0085". Can hear it now, before you couldn't.


HP30GearsInstalledTry2_20240415.jpg

HP30GearsInstalledTry2_Coast_20240415.jpg
 
Now that sounds much better! Really shouldn’t need a case spreader. Glad you slept on it.
 
I dug my "bad spare" Koyo outer pinion bearing out of the trash (the one I dropped and scratched the cage) and compared it to the spare race I have with the setup bearing and the same spare race... .0027" difference. I also noticed that there is a different luster on the races and the rollers... Doesn't seem like .0027" should make that much of a difference... but it also doesn't seem like there should be a difference since it's the same manufacturer just 5 years apart. I guess I could compare them to the NTN and Timken outer bearings I bought trying to get two of the same ones (to make a setup bearing)... I wonder if they were subcontracted or something.

Dana likes a lot of preload on their carrier bearings... Dana 30 for whatever reason asks for .015" of shims for preload. Seems excessive to me, so I went with .0095" and spread the case .011" and just used a plastic hammer to put it in. Maybe they expect a lot of deflection under load? Basically it ends up just tight enough that you would need a really big prybar to get the carrier out. With .005" less shim on the air side I could move the carrier out with a small prybar. It was really nice having both metric and freedomunit shims for mixing and matching. I'm really nervous about putting an ARB in using the hammer method because it's really easy to **** up the playdoh soft air coupler thing.
 
Spring has sprung here, so I've been busy with yardwork.

However, I did start assembling. I tried to take pictures of the weight of items as I went. I ended up with a reflection after I clicked the tare button. The wood weighs 15.75lbs.

Dana30BareWeight.jpg
 
I started installing it, but haven't finished. Hoping to button up the front this week. I am running out of return window on some of my Shamazon purchases for stuff I bought as I was tearing it down last month.

I found that the right-front brake line needs to be replaced as it looks a bit crispy in one spot. I hate bending brake lines.

The ARB diff cover I got from @swettysblazer . I wish I'd noticed he was a vendor before I spent thousands elsewhere.

HP30_hanging.jpg
 
Yardwork season started so it has severely hampered my progress. I also have to get the glamper ready for camping season. And the boat ready for boating season. And excuses.

So I spent all that time getting the truss and housing ready to weld the truss to the housing, and I chickened out. I was a little worried about ending up with martensite since I don't have a big enough oven to heat and cool it in... but then I drilled and tapped the housing for fittings and got absolutely skeered. It was like drilling and tapping chalk.

Dana35DrillandTap.jpg

So I clearanced the truss so it cleared the housing by 1/8" all the way around and just welded to the tubes. The weird cold rolled bar stock is to protect the brake lines. Long story, but there was a running joke when I was in college that no one had ever lost a brake line wheeling... I lost 3 to tree roots. The flat stock welded to the spring perch is so I have somewhere to mount the hose-to-line brackets. I don't know what the tubes are made out of, but it welds weird. It was tough to get good penetration on the truss and not blow through the tube with my Miller 252. I almost got out my Multimatic 215 since its autoset is awesome but I have it set up for welding stainless right now.

Dana35Housing.jpg

I had a hell of a time getting a good pattern on the gears. Probably had the carrier out 20 times. My palm is bruised from it. Ended up settling with .008" backlash and like 12 in-lbs of pinion torque. I don't remember what it ended up with for total preload. The only place I could get a good pattern is if I ran the pinion a little deeper and ended up with .004" of backlash. The total amount of preload ended up in the low 30 in-lbs even after tossing some more oil on it and running the pinion for a minute or so with the cordless drill. So I went back to what I had, which I guess is acceptable.

A little tight (.004" backlash)
Dana35Gears1.jpg

A little bit close to the heel on the drive side, but from the charts I saw it should be fine. Got it at .008" of backlash and 20some in-lbs of total preload. It "felt" right I guess.


Dana35Gears.jpg

Edit: Deleted the duplicate image
 
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Since I noticed the right-front brake line was a bit tired and needed to be replaced... and the brake booster looked like the master cylinder had leaked on it...

I decided to replace the whole brake system. It was already getting new calipers and new soft hoses since it was getting new rotors and Z36 brake pads. So I decided to replace all the hard lines, the combination valve, the master cylinder, and the brake booster with a dual-diaphragm setup. And of course, added a pair of electric linelocks.

DualDiaphragmBrakeBoosterAndLineLocks.jpg
 
And the Dana 35 hung in place... it was a PITA to get the leaf springs in because they are arched about 1.5" more than the old ones (the hitch is in the way of putting the bolts in from the outside and the hitch uses flag bolts for mounting).
Dana35_Hung.jpg
 
I’ve never heated axle housings, just welded them up and threw a blanket over them so they cool slow. Haven’t had anything bad happen yet, I don’t even drain the oil.
 
I'd always preheated them with a 200kbtu diesel heater for like an hour, then heated with a rosebud to 500 or so, then let 'er rip. Then blow the diesel heater on it for a bit to cool it down slow... then blanketed it.

But this housing was weird. Literally powder when I was tapping it for fittings. When I ground it for axle tube drains with my dremel it chattered a lot. I didn't paint the housing on the inside... it is literally that black. And that was after I cleaned it out with gasoline.
 
Finally got it out of the garage yesterday. I have a leaky brake line, and of course it's the one I ran through the truss.

4.88s and 31s are a good way to get whiplash driving it around on the idle air control valve. The 20 year old $20 muffler is kind of loud.

I ended up abandoning the ZJ drop pitman arm and went back to a XJ drop pitman arm. I'm a little nervous about the XJ drop pitman arm, because even though they're both from Crown/Omix/whatever their name is... the XJ one looks Chinesium. If the bumpsteer is too bad I'll have to get one of those stupid expensive Teraflex knuckles.



I had to do a lot of grinding to get a modern steering stabilizer to fit, including on the ARB diff cover. I milled the taper so it ran as deep as possible in the tie rod as can be seen by the cotter pin hole being worthless... then made the stud shorter so it crushed the bushing more... then welded a disc on for the retainer... then still had to grind on the diff cover. Rancho RS77407 steering stabilizer may be too stiff, it actually significantly slows steering.
Stabilizer.jpg

Still need to set up the air compressor, rebuild the spare NP231 and put the SYE in it, and then it can have 1310 CV shafts front and rear. Then I'll probably just drive it until winter and then do the body work.

The geese on the pond do not care for it.

Took the boss lady for a ride in it with the dog around the yard and the wider trails since I don't have plates or insurance on it. The dog doesn't like it much because he can't see out the windshield well. She didn't like that it rides so rough. It does. I told her I wanted to buy a LJ but she said no. So now she wants to sell it because at least the TJ/LJ has airbags. I said that it's basically a large garden tractor so it's dirt simple and that's the tradeoff for something that rides rough and weighs nothing. It's not supposed to be a daily driver.

I am hoping the springs break in a bit. They sit an inch higher than the clapped out springs I had on it.

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So I haven't really had much time to do useful stuff.

I do have a problem.

It sits too high.

It rides a bit stiff.

Do you guys think I can get away with yanking any of the leafs out of the pack? There isn't a good one to pick from.

LeafSpringsNew.jpg
 
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