As I mentioned before, I didn't really break anything at fullsize invasion that kept me from wheeling, but i didnt get away completely clear either.
I had a bad u joint in the front axle that was making a ton of noise, but never did break. I replaced that when i got home.
Also found out my motor mounts were shot
I replaced those, and it also became very apparent that I needed to fix my rear pinion angle and add an anti wrap bar. So to that end, I cut off the old perches.
And added new ones setting the correct angle.
In order to add the anti wrap, I needed a crossmember to land it on, and in order to do that right, I needed to redo the transmission crossmember so that I could match them for an eventual skid plate.
With the pinion angle fixed and crossmember in place, I got to work on the anti wrap. It went together fairly quickly and turned out nice.
I used 1.75" DOM .120 wall tube fore the antiwrap, and fully sleeved the bottom tube with 1.5" for added strength.
Between the functional motor mounts and the anti wrap, throttle response is dramatically better and I can floor it without hearing my driveshaft wrap up and stress the u joints.
However I am now chasing a new noise on deceleration.
It sounds like it's coming from the transfer case, but it wasn't there before. I'm suspecting that the anti wrap is transferring noise up from the rear end. May have gear issues, or possibly a loose pinion. Gonna try to chase that down tomorrow.