Picked Up A Traitor Jeep (tj)

Clutch kit is supposed to be here tomorrow.

I'm getting too old for bench pressing heroics, so I stopped by Harbor Frieght and picked this up tonight:

 

Still waiting for you to put a lift in your shop.

 

Me too.

 

Shaping up to be a fun Sunday:

 

The real fun is getting to it. Do you have clutch fluid on hand and a pilot?

 

The LUK kit comes with both bearings and the alignment tool. Planning on unbolting the slave cylinder and hanging it out of the way without undoing the line.

 

Tore into it today and found a few things I didn't like.

Body side shift boot/seal is torn and a repalcement piece of plastic and rubber is $200! I'll end up jerry rigging something:


Even worse, the seal on top the shift tower is torn and leaking oil:


The seal isn't available separately, They expected you to buy a new shift tower back then and it is no longer available now. When they were available, they were $800 from Mopar! Good grief. It also turns out the -03-06 TJ shift tower is different than the JK ones, so you're stuck getting really old used parts unless you modify the shift lever to clear the console with a JK shifter. Dorman and Hurst make replacements but they are all for JKs.

Annoying. I ordered several similar boots for other transmissions from Amazon and will make something work.

Getting there:


...and it's out! You're not putting that in a short wheelbase Jeep!


The Harbor Freight jack worked well.

Throwout bearing is indeed bad:




That's it for today. I'll investigate the clutch and pilot bearing tomorrow.

Just for mental exercise, Back to the length thing. This sucker is 39 inches long from the bellhousing face to rear output flange surface:


Even in this 93.4" wheelbase Jeep, the rear driveshaft is really short:


At 11.5", it's nearly a foot longer than the T18/D18/OD setup in my '71 which is 27.5" bellhousing to rear flange:


This brings up an interesting comparison between the two.

2006 Rubicon NSG370 6spd transmission with NVG 241OR transfercase

• Total Length: 39"
• Number of speeds forward: 12
• Number of speeds in reverse: 2
• Transmission 1st gear: 4.46
• Transmission high gear: 0.84
• Low range: 4:1
  
• 1st gear/low range: 17.84
  
• Total range from highest to lowest gear: 21.24

Ford T-18 with GM bellhousing, Novak adapter, D18 transfercase, Warn overdrive:

• Total Length: 27.5"
• Number of speeds forward: 16
• Number of speeds in reverse: 4
  
• Transmission 1st gear: 6.32
  
• Transmission high gear w/OD: 0.75
• Low range: 2.46
  
• 1st gear/low range: 15.55
  
• Total range from highest to lowest gear: 20.73

It's interesting the total gear range is nearly the same for both. The NSG370 has a lower low gear, but doesn't have as much overdrive. With the older setup, you get more speeds and a way more compact setup. However, it doesn't shift as nice and there is no 1st gear synchro. I suspect total weight is similar.

It gets even more interesting when you do more with the T-18/D18 setup with a Saturn 30% OD and Terra Low 3.15 gears:

Ford T-18 with GM bellhousing, Novak adapter, D18 transfercase w/Terra Low, Saturn 30% overdrive:

• Total Length: 27.5"
• Number of speeds forward: 16
• Number of speeds in reverse: 4
  
• Transmission 1st gear: 6.32
  
• Transmission high gear w/OD: 0.70
• Low range: 3.15
  
• 1st gear/low range: 19.9
  
• Total range from highest to lowest gear: 28.44

I don't think there is any other way to get such a wide range of gearing in such a compact package. (the Jpet 5.07 (or something like that) D18 low gears are a wider range I guess, but they require extensive case modifications and won't work with an OD)

 

If you can’t find a boot that works, a CV boot and some hose or oetiker clamps would be where I’d go next.

Also, while you have it out, pull the four bolts on the shift tower and just go ahead and re-gasket/seal that mating surface. I’m not sure if they ever had a gasket and they ALWAYS leak.

 

Good information. I wasn't expecting you to find such can of worms. No support on parts and that drive shaft.

 

Yer yankin' our chain with that rear driveshaft right?

 

while that TJ rear shaft is really short
this was the rear drive shaft out of my jeep . when I ran the TH350
it isn't much longer

 

No, those are the factory driveshafts.

 

The problem I had with the JK NSG370 was that it would pop out of gear a lot when driving over rough washboard or occasionally in the rocks. I think the shifter mechanism and the super flexy engine mounts both played a role in that as the shifter would oscillate back and forth rapidly. That was replaced under warranty on my JK but didn't really fix the problem. Somewhat disconcerting when that occurs at really inopportune times. That transmission likely works a lot better with the 4.0 than it did with either of the two JK replacement engines.

 

Yuck. Definitely not something I've had an issue with on this one yet. That's even including a trip that was a solid 30 miles of solid washboard.

 

Grammar police here… thank you for using this word correctly!

 

At least you had a shaft....all he has is a slip yoke.

 

Yep, it's basically a slip joint and two U-joints.

 

That looks almost identical to the one now residing in the 3B.

 

The pilot bearing looked good, and the clutch is still nice an thick with no signs of excessive heat so I just changed the throwout bearing and clutch fork spring and put the transmission back in.

A few more things to button up underneath and then assorted shift boots should be rolling in so I can make some solution for the top side:


While the quality isn't amazing, the Harbor Freight transmission jack worked great for the task. Glad I bought it.

Blood sacrifice made, so it should work when back together:


I did smash up the crank position sensor before I realized it MUST come out to pull the transmission back. It's cracked but I think it will still work. I ordered a replacement just in case.

 

Thanks for this tip. I installed both yesterday. I still need to modify the relay for the high beams.