120 Series General Tech and Classified

[BMThiker]

And completely unrelated to the brake caliper seizing which was the real wrecking ball in this disaster. In time, I'll pull the old tcase apart to see what's going on there. For now, I'm just in a hurry to button it up and get some miles on it before SCC.

In a sort of related topic, I just found a guy the FJC section that figured out how to clock the stock tcase 21* raising the lowest point on the tcase to be right at the frame rails. He says BudBuilt made it out of 3/16" plate, so no extension for the input shaft needed. He had to cut and reweld the shifter, but that's it. Hot damn! [ain't gonna happen before SCC, but it's on my shortlist now]

 

[wngrog]

Do you get hung up on the skidplate a lot?

 

[BMThiker]

Ask Bodean/Bossman/JT how many times I high centered at K2, LOL!

Yes, it's retarded... from the factory these things hang down 4" at the center breakover point, tcase is low and they routed the exhaust crossover under the tcase. I've already rerouted my exhaust crossover to go behind the tcase. So the tcase getting clocked and then replacing the OE trans boxed crossmember with 1/2" plate will get everything up above frame rails.

 

[Bossman]

I don't remember you having too many problems. Probably a testament to your driving skills and knowing your vehicle. Now, my 14 bolt on the other hand...

 

[fountainhead]

Nothing high centered here:

 

[BMThiker]

A buddy in NC had this operation done a while back, but at the time it was only possible if you put a Lefty Inchworm case in place. Now that I see it's possible with the stock case, it's much more in my budget.
Mtbcoach's LIVNSTRNG build up thread...

 

[BMThiker]

I remember right before coming over that boulder - on the way up I got stuck, backed down and reshot. Then on the last day, when we went exploring on the Back 40, came around that last big boulder and then promptly got high centered. Someone strapped me off that ledge.

 

[wct49]

Nothing high centered here:

View attachment 1324653

The three spectators are all saying WTF...

 

[BMThiker]

y'all were definitely more freaked out than I was in that spot

 

[OGBeno]

@BMThiker : Not afraid to follow the big boys and their toys.

 

[fountainhead]

#yugeballs

 

[Bodean]

He follows but sometimes gets the "eye" from Kitty if things go south. I've seen it! lol

 

[77TLCFJ40]

Eye cream will fix that...

 

[wct49]

Eye cream will fix that...

eye cream fixes so much...

 

[BMThiker]

The good news is the t-case went back in without much fuss. I just needed to drop the trans cross member again and tip the whole drivetrain down a little to get it into position. Needed an extra set of hands to make that happen and Dugan happily assisted.

The bad news is that I wasted half my day and a fair amount of Dugan's time trying to extract sheared exhaust bolts/studs. Broke an extractor, blued a handful of drill bits and still didn't accomplish much with regards to the exhaust. Dugan put an acetylene torch on one stubborn stud and it it damn near blew out all the metal surrounding the stud. Those things are friggin' titanokryptonite! Decided to punt near the end of the day and will take to a muffler shop and have them redo my flex connection with V-band.

***ker #1

***ker #2

Bonus win though, I found that little plastic piece that goes in the starter hole in the bottom of my tool bag. It's the doohicky on the left. The doohicky on the right is the cover for the bottom of bell housing - so you can retrieve those dropped flexplate bolts

 

[Bossman]

I have the best luck welding through the center of a slightly larger nut to the broken end of the stud. The welding puts enough heat on it to help break it loose. Gotta do it 2-3 times sometimes but generally works

 

[BMThiker]

Progress this past weekend:
Bled the rear brakes, fluids for rear axle and tcase refreshed. Got drive shafts installed, new pinion flange no bigger than stock, just more holes.

Assembled the driver side exhaust to the Y-joint, the passenger side is the section that's fubared, but I managed to reassemble with off the shelf hardware. Good enough to get the rig to an exhaust shop to redo my flex flange.

Started to reassemble the center console and realized something really wrong with the shift lever on the newer tcase. Pulled the shifter from the top and compared with the old one. Guess which one went back in?

Newer one at bottom, older one at top.

So that's it so far. Wheels on the ground, ACC is going to drop at exhaust shop this week. They are also sending my old prop shafts out for full rebuild - may retube the rear one with heavier gauge if it is too dented. The shafts that are on it now came from the donor truck and will make great trail spares. If all goes as planned this week, I'll be bolting new skids on the truck this weekend and prepping for SCC. Whew! Cutting it a little close Carswell, huh?

 

[BMThiker]

Oh yeah, extended the trans/tcase breathers up to the engine bay. From the factory, they terminated at the top of the bell housing.

 

[BMThiker]

Skids will be installed bare metal for SCC. I'm going to do some reinforcing with tube after that.
engine skid

trans skid

Sent pic of the old one to All-Pro and they knocked 15% off

 

[OGBeno]

Awesome Rick. Nice work bro.