Anything is Fixable: Dylan_See's TJ Build Thread

[Dylan_See_TJ]

I replaced the alternator and the ignition switch, and haven't gotten the refusal to start thing since. Checked and tightened a bunch of grounds, but she's still doing the voltage spikes intermittently while driving, and I've been having to give her a bit of gas to keep her from stalling during cold starts. Once the Jeep is warmed up, she starts great for the rest of the day, but that first start is pretty hard. I'm thinking it is probably the PCM, or a sensor, because the fuel pump is a year old, the alternator is brand new, and I just swapped in new plugs, wires, and a new distributor cap over the winter, and just changed the oil last week. Transmission rebuild is going slow and steady; finished the pump, working on the front drum, and hoping to get most of the cleaning and reassembly of the drums, pistons, gear train, output shaft, and valve body done this weekend.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

After two hours messing up all my perfectly clean drum parts with woodworking clamps, I still can not for the life of me figure out how to get the spring in the front drum compressed enough to slot in the snap ring that holds down the washer above it. Calling it for tonight, and hopefully I can devise a way to put enough pressure on it without breaking anything or making it so I can’t put in the snap ring

 

[hear]

After two hours messing up all my perfectly clean drum parts with woodworking clamps, I still can not for the life of me figure out how to get the spring in the front drum compressed enough to slot in the snap ring that holds down the washer above it. Calling it for tonight, and hopefully I can devise a way to put enough pressure on it without breaking anything or making it so I can’t put in the snap ring

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7DWQHFX?tag=wranglerorg-20

 

[Wildman]

After two hours messing up all my perfectly clean drum parts with woodworking clamps, I still can not for the life of me figure out how to get the spring in the front drum compressed enough to slot in the snap ring that holds down the washer above it. Calling it for tonight, and hopefully I can devise a way to put enough pressure on it without breaking anything or making it so I can’t put in the snap ring

Have you looked at the FSM for rear brake "How To" information?

 

[Rickyd]

After two hours messing up all my perfectly clean drum parts with woodworking clamps, I still can not for the life of me figure out how to get the spring in the front drum compressed enough to slot in the snap ring that holds down the washer above it. Calling it for tonight, and hopefully I can devise a way to put enough pressure on it without breaking anything or making it so I can’t put in the snap ring

Only disassemble one side at a time so you have a reference.

If you are struggling and worried about breaking stuff then you are trying to put it together wrong or in the wrong sequence.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

I apologize; I meant the front clutch drum inside the transmission. I've been through the drum brakes on my Dana 35 and had no issues getting them apart or back together. Thanks for the tips though!

@hear; I am ordering that tool right now; I appreciate the suggestion immensely.

 

[hear]

I knew what you meant, obvi. I find that using the silver arms in my HF press without the bottom plate works the best. The tool itself isn’t great, but it does the trick. I kinda want to build my own with the correct shape for the 32RH.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

That tool worked much better than the four wood clamps I was messing around with the other day. Finished cleaning reassembling the front drum and the rear drum today, and I’m hoping to go through the gear train and valve body tomorrow.

Additionally, I think whoever dug into this transmission before used steels meant for the rear drum in the front one, because not only were there the wrong number of clutches, but the plates were the wrong type. What’s more, a flat and a waved snap ring had been swapped between drums.

Should be good to go now, but I guess that’s reason enough to be glad I went ahead with the rebuild before swapping in this new 32RH. So long as I keep making progress on the cleaning and reassembly, it’ll be time for the swap in no time.

Got a CEL making a run to get pizza tonight, but I’m fairly certain it’s an evap leak code, because it was accompanied by a strong fuel smell on startup. Drove fine, but that’s going on the never ending to-do list.

Got a chance to drive around and hit up a Denny’s a couple nights ago with some friends, and the TJ behaved for a couple hours cruising with the windows and doors off. Getting to do that is worth the mechanical annoyances and electrical gremlins. As you guys know, TJs are awesome when you take care of them.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

The clutches taking their pre-install bath

Pulled this steel out of the old drum stack; if you look closely you can see the ground up edge where the notch on the correct steels is supposed to go

Three subassemblies down. Progress!

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

Finished the valve body, gear train, and cleaned the output shaft assembly parts and the case. Going to be doing reassembly this week, and swap day is getting closer and closer. Broke a bolt off in the transfer plate and somehow managed to get it out and find a replacement without damaging the plate or the threads. That was a close one.

Got a chance to eyeball the CEL codes and it's two: P0455 and P1594. Guess I will be checking my evap hoses again. The second, P1594, is incredibly frustrating. Probably means my PCM is going or I have a wiring issue somewhere. Been starting and running great, but I need to hunt those two down and clear them before my inspection comes up again in a month.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

The offending busted bolt

The fully rebuilt valve body

Shiny clean case

My workbench is getting a bit crowded

 

[hear]

Well get it reassembled already!

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

Well get it reassembled already!

I'm working on it! If I can't get it ready to swap this weekend, or maybe next weekend, then the swap will probably have to be pushed to the third weekend in July. Don't want to risk having an undrivable rig when I need it for a trip mid July.

 

[hear]

Leave yourself some buffer, non-zero chance you'll have to at least drain it or remove the valve body for some reason. It's just how it goes on your first time.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

Got the rebuild finished today. Broke two bolts rebuilding the output shaft assembly, one doing the valve body transfer plate, and had to fab a custom one for a stripped oil pan hole that the PO of my new transmission had just stuffed full of RTV. Was doing the air check for the rear clutches wrong, unnecessarily tore apart the pump assembly to get back down to the drums, and nearly stripped one of the pump bolt holes in the process. Fingers crossed that one doesn't decide to leak, but at least it's closest to another hole, being one of the two next to the breather.

Wrestled with the park rod for what seemed like forever, but at least for now the new transmission is buttoned up and ready for installation. Couldn't find the right fittings yet for installing the temp gauge into the drain plug slot, but I think I can order something online and just swap it in when I can find the time to drain it and add the fittings.

Started tearing everything out for the swap this afternoon; removed the big skid plate, the driveshafts, the starter, and the transmission mount and got everything unplugged and unbolted from the tcase and trans. All that's left are the four torque converter bolts, the bellhousing bolts, and the cooler lines. Should be pulling the old unit tomorrow, cleaning and sourcing some miscellaneous parts this week, and the new one will go in Friday/Saturday if I can't find the time after work before then. That'll give me two weeks for testing, break-in, and the likely possibility of needing to take something apart at least once.

Doing a new transmission mount, new valve cover (unrelated but it was leaking pretty bad down the block and making everything nasty), and possibly a new starter. Flywheel looks good, and other than a whole lot of rusty bolts to replace, should be good on parts. Fingers crossed everything goes somewhat well. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do with the old transmission. Probably just sell it as a core or trans that needs to be rebuilt; I don't think I'd want to chew up my limited summer wrenching time rebuilding a unit to sell.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

Old transmission is out, along with the transfer case. Took several hours of cursing at bolts buried in a half inch thick layer of oil leak grease, but we got it apart. Time to tidy up electrical, repaint and reweld some spots that the transfer case skid blocks, clean everything that is staying on or going back in, and start putting everything together with the new transmission. Ended up ordering new cooler lines (had to cut one off because of a rounded fitting and they are crusty junk anyway), a crankshaft position sensor, a starter, and some other stuff today. Shaping up to be a much less greasy Jeep with a much less slippy transmission when I'm done. Replaced the valve cover gasket, so no more oil leak hopefully.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

Spent the evening yesterday giving the transfer case a once over with some degreaser; I wouldn't eat off of it, but it's much better than it was. The ATF that was in there was just about brown, so I'll flush it out with a quart and fill it back up with fresh stuff when we reinstall it. Got my front driveshaft on the bench and punched out the front axle u joint, and realized that the internal boot in the doube cardan joint is toast. Considering that I'm not doing any hardcore wheeling, and that the shaft itself is totally fine, I'd like to rebuild it, but despite being able to find the joints and the extension boot, and the ball, spring, and seal, I can't find the boot for inside the joint. Is it Spicer 2-86-418? That one seems like a much shorter sleeve than the large boot that is currently shielding the ball assembly inside the joint.

EDIT: I was digging through the drivetrain section of the 98 FSM, and I don't see the boot in the parts diagram. I will probably just tear it apart and figure out what parts I need and if I can't find the parts, I'll just snag a new driveshaft from Tom Woods. Hopefully I can get by with the parts listed in the Denny's kit, but we shall see, I suppose.

EDIT 2: I figured out that the grease boot on the centering ball is only necessary on non-greaseable joints, and since I don't really need the extra strength of non-greaseables, and don't mind doing some monkeying around with zerks and a grease gun when I do my oil changes, I can just do the rebuild with the greaseable wear parts and kick the boot to the curb.

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

Getting ready to put the new transmission in today; hopefully she'll be moving under her own power tomorrow night so we can get the first test drive and adjustments in. @hear , I realized that I forgot about two bolts that screw into the cavities for the servos from the outside of the case. Haven't seen them mentioned anywhere; what do they do? They don't contact anything in there, so are they for adjustment, checking, bleeding air? I'll dig through the FSM and see if I can find their purpose.

EDIT: Line pressure test ports. FSM to the rescue. Time to install a transmission. Wish me luck.

 

[Wildman]

Cool

 

[Dylan_See_TJ]

We’ve been wrestling with the torque converter for two hours; still can’t get get it to line up with the flex plate to bolt it in, and it’s definitely not a problem on the pump side because the torque converter seated great and the bell housing bolted up very easily. They’re not only capable of going on one way in the bolt pattern are they?