jeepcoma

What's the purpose of this system anyway? Faster warmups when the heater is off? If the heater core leaks the flow can be stopped? Seems kinda like the CAD... interesting in concept but no real point :hmm:

Besides stock replacements, there is a quicker ratio box from certain V8 ZJs that is an upgrade (if you want quicker steering), which I plan to do eventually.

I paid $160 each.

Unless you have a SYE you'll lose fluid out of the front where the driveshaft enters the case. I've read it can be plugged up, something about rubber bands and saran wrap or plastic baggies. I'd give it a shot to help isolate the problem, just be sure to carry your driveshaft and extra fluid so you can make it home in case something goes wrong. A much easier first step is to remove the front DS, that's just unbolt and go. I had a similar noise and found it to be the front, there's a joint between the double cardan that had completely destroyed itself (I'll have to double check the name). Even got a spare brand new unit if you need it!

I think a re-gear is in my future, it's quite noisy and there seems to be a good amount of lash (though I admit I'm not sure what's normal). After this fix, the only thing stock in my D44 is the housing itself, the ring and pinion, and the pinion bearing. Everything (and I do mean everything! even the vent!) else has been replaced since I got it. Too bad about the shaft, I could have sent you my stockers. And due to a shipping mishap, I have a spare TenFactory alloy unit, if you're interested in upgrading. Got spare 1-piece 297x shafts for the front as well!

Super. Looks like I'll be needing: YMS5778 Yukon Mighty Seal YY D44-1310-26U Yukon yoke for Dana 30, 44, 50, and 300 with 26 spline and a 1310 U/Joint size DS 2-94-28 Dana 44, 8.2", 12P, 12T, VET, and Model 20 U-Bolts YSPPN-009 Pinion nut YSPPN-029 Pinion nut washer Fifty bucks here and seventy there every now and then and these D44s sure do get expensive! I've spent more on parts to fix it up than the whole running unit cost in the first place.

Don, did you order this kit from R R&P? YP TRKD44-1310U I don't need the ujoint though I suppose a spare wouldn't hurt, but my pinion is leaking like a sieve and I should probably replace the yoke along with it by the sounds of it (do it right, do it once). Should I do the bearing while I'm in there? From what I've read, replacing the seal sounds pretty simple but what's needed to do the bearing?

Thought I would mention, ToolTopia has an IR unit on sale today: http://www.tooltopia.com/ingersoll-rand-css3l3.aspx 3 HP Electric 60 gallon vertical tank Maximum operating pressure is 135 PSI 230/1/60, nominal amp draw motor: 6.5 electric ASME receiver size: 60 11.3 CFM at 90 PSI 10.3 CFM at 135 PSI

I think it's pretty rare, but I can't give you any numbers...

Yes I do, the previous owner (Twisty) had been using them as SOA. I don't plan on ever doing it and I'm using the stock SUA setup. I'm actually thinking of removing the upper perches since I'll never switch to SOA; I'm occasionally getting a clunk from the rear and I think it's the springs shifting around because the welds from the perches aren't letting the ubolts sit nice and tight against the perches. Not really sure but I'm not sure what else could be causing that noise :dunno:

If you can wait a bit for answers, I hope to have this upgrade done soon and an update on braking performance and more pictures. I've so far bought and installed all the parts I listed in the threads and am finishing up bending the lines. I tossed out the rear height sensing valve and replaced it with a manual adjustable proportioning valve, and upgraded the booster and MC to the dual diaphram unit. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32143 Few pics also here and more to come. viewtopic.php?p=324164#p324164

I'm asking for a reason... Thanks Chad It's just a mechanically elegant system that essentially does something for nothing. Very simple in design, but very effective. It functions like a lever, or imagine you're trying to free a stuck bolt with your 12" long 3/8" drive wrench and you put a 6' cheater bar on the end. Simple, right, but it gets the job done much easier? Engine vacuum and heat are natural byproducts of a gasoline engine that are typically wasted, unless you can harness that energy for something. In a booster there are two sides that are sealed off by a large plate; the vacuum side is valved to let air out, and the pedal side is valved to let air in when you step on the brake, so that when you press the brake atmospheric pressure pushes against the plate giving your foot a boost (think of how you can pick up a bowling ball with a vacuum cleaner). This is how you can stop a speeding 3000 lb vehicle with nothing more than your big toe. The booster itself weights practically nothing, a few pounds maybe. You'll save more weight by cleaning the change out from under the seats. Simple things first though, have you identified where the leak in the system is? There are only three places really, inside the booster the diaphragm that separates the chambers could have deteriorated, the housing itself could be rotted out (underneath usually) and have holes, or the hose and/or check valve could be rotted. A properly functioning system will retain the vacuum for quite some time after the engine shuts off, enough for a few power assists at any rate. How quickly do you lose the vacuum? You should be able to stick your head under the hood and turn the engine off and be able to hear where it's coming from, if you can't otherwise hear it over the engine noise. Are you getting a good boost while it's running?

Seriously? Vacuum power brakes are one of the most simple yet effective technological innovations. There's no good reason to scrap this system, unless you are doing an engine swap and there's no physical room for it. Weight is a non-issue, for both the stock singe diaphragm and the dual unit. I'm in the process of upgrading my braking system with the dual power booster and manual rear bias adjuster. If you're comfortable on working on the brake hydraulics, it's pretty straightforward. You'd need to bleed a new MC and bend/flare some new line. Otherwise, just replace the booster and unless your lines are already in danger of exploding you can do it leaving the MC hooked up. Shop around, they are not that expensive. If you want to go manual to solve a specific problem (no room from engine swap, no vacuum from radical cam, etc), or even "just because", then OK and who am I to argue. But don't try to convince yourself and others there are any real-world benefits to dumping a power system for manual. If you already have trouble stopping when you stall the engine... hit the gym. You don't need a full time manual, it's not an "upgrade". Especially with bigger tires, you'll be a menace on the road. Brakes are not something to mess around with. You're placing your life and the lives of others at risk.

I think you're right, but with oil it's more of a long term wear situation rather than a warped head or critical seizure like would happen with too high coolant temps. If oil overheats, sure it will wear out faster and accelerate engine wear, but your oil selection and change interval should be taking care of that before the oil wearing out (and by that I mean, all the additives are consumed). If you know you'll be operating in a severe manner, adjust your viscosity and change the oil more frequently to suit; essentially, pre-emptive maintenance. I think also that oil pressure is a pretty good indirect indicator of both temperature and flow, that a separate temp gauge isn't needed for most vehicles. It's very easy to know what's going on with the oil by reading the pressure and knowing how it should be behaving and determining if you have an issue. When I cold start in the morning, I can tell when the oil starts to warm up by the idle pressure. When I'm cruising on the highway, I can see when everything is finally up to temp (which, by the way, I have noticed the oil takes FAR longer to reach final temps than coolant). When I'm stuck in traffic in the boiling heat I keep an eye on the pressure to see if it starts dropping too low. And of course if it ever suddenly just drops to 0, I've got a flow problem! So while I may not know the exact temp, it's enough to know whether or not I'm in the danger zone. I think many (most?) new cars incorporate oil temperatures into the computer for the benefit of the "oil change interval" suggestion. With fancy 15k mile oil change intervals it's much more important to know the status of the oil, and the computer keeping track precisely of the temperatures can accurately measure when it's time to change. In lieu of calculating, the rule of thumb is just "change early, change often" which leads to increased cost and unnecessary waste (rather, it would be unnecessary if you knew a change wasn't required). That's my take on it anyway. +1 on the vacuum gauge, it's the most informative gauge never used anymore. There's so much to learn from a vacuum gauge, but it seems like a lost art though. People rely so much on the computers they overlook the simple tools, but there's a ton of information to learn from vacuum. Coolant temp, oil pressure, and vacuum really tell you just about everything you'd want to know (well, maybe gas).

Something about the brass synchros getting corroded and burning out. I wouldn't worry about incorrect fluid in the short term, but long term I would for sure want the right stuff in there. I noticed a marked improvement when I drained the crud from my tranny and put in synchromesh, though it didn't fix the things past repair so now I've got a spare AX-15 riding around in my bed waiting for a rebuild. I hate wasting fluids on unnecessary changes, but the price for the right stuff is cheap by comparison. Some good info here, plenty more to be found from internet searching. http://www.stealth316.com/2-pennzoil-synchromesh.htm

+1 Don't use anything else, except the more expensive Redline version. Regular fluids can (will!) trash your synchros!

Old thread but I found it through a Google search. I just ordered from here. http://www.conversionradiators.com/serv ... ANK/Detail $3 each, shipped.

Check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30530

Now THAT is awesome. Details?

Progress this week. Not as fast as I would have wished, but progress still. Lots of little things that crop up, you can either ignore and get the job done or do it right and fix it while you're there. Sucks it's supposed to SNOW today, I need to get this done so I can drive to work on Monday. Anyway, since I won't be working today, I thought I would do some pictures and progress updates. I've got all the parts together for a complete brake system overhaul. 100% of everything is being replaced. See my other thread here. My frame is starting to get pretty crusty as well and I wanted to get that taken care of before the winter. The past two years have just been murder on my truck, I've been watching it get worse as the days go by. I want to take care of the frame because despite the body rot, the frame was remarkably solid, and I want to keep it that way. I decided to try out Eastwood's kit, and so far I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the results. For the rust converter, I used a regular hand pump spray nozzle thing. In retrospect, it didn't work out so well. It was difficult to get even coverage (the mist wasn't fine enough) and I wasted a lot. Brushing it on works very well, or go with the aerosol spray (or put it in a spray gun if you have one). I think overall brushing is probably best if you can reach everything you need to, no waste and easy application. Here's the gas tank painted up. I brushed the rust converter on and then followed with the encapsulator and chassis paint. I think I will paint the lower half silver. I thought of just replacing the tank and pump, but for $350 I figured I'd see how well this works first. Now that I know how to get the tank down, it's a piece of cake (and I have new hangers going in so it should be even easier) if I have to replace the pump. Here's so shots under the bed. I've mainly concentrated so far on the area behind the gas tank, and the main frame. As soon as I get the brake line bent behind the tank I can put that back in, then come back and paint the rest OK but what about the brakes you ask? For the rears, I already had all new hardware except two pieces, so I replaced the wheel cylinders and the drums. For some reason, my D44's vent hole was just that, a vent only. It's from an '88, but my '91 axle uses the vent to hold down the brake like. Last time I was in a hurry so I just zip tied it down, but now I did it the right way. I tapped the hole for the threads (7/16x20) and it's just the way it should be now. Go REAL SLOW with tapping, and use lots of grease to capture all those metal flakes. You don't want that stuff going down into the axle. That surface rust on the drum is from one freaking day of sitting outside. It's painted with Rustoleum High Heat enamel. It's really more grey than black so I'm not real happy with how those turned out. Check out my neat bending job. The roller bender worked pretty well, but for some reason it was tough for me to visualize how the bends were going to go. :hmm: Must have been tired and not thinking straight (no pun intended). I've started on the main line from the rear rubber to the front, but it got dark real fast so I didn't rush it. The Eastwood flaring tool was AWESOME!! Perfect flares in about 5 seconds. Money well spent on a specialized tool. Front brakes are a piece of cake, I got new calipers, pads, and rotors. I was surprised to find the rotors drilled and slotted, I did not know in advance. All my brake hardware is Raybestos Advanced Technology. Again, some surface rust from just sitting out one night. I've used the rust encapsulator where needed but haven't finished with the chassis paint yet. Here are the rest of the brake bits waiting to go in. Booster, MC, and Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve to replace the load sensing unit. I ended up getting the 10 lb valve as well, not sure if it will really do anything (it's generally used when the MC is mounted lower than the caliper) but I figure it can't hurt. I moved a lot of crap out of the way to get the lines out, it's NOT going to be fun bending a new line for the passenger side caliper. Last bit of big news... drum roll please... I ordered the bed side panels from Z&M Jeeps. I showed the pics to my bodyshop that did my floors, and they thought it wouldn't be too bad. My wheel wells need repair too but no one makes replacements for that so it will have to be custom done by them. It's going to be an expensive repair, but hopefully it's the last big body work I have to do. And, I'll have saved an MJ from a slow, rusty death.

The trackbar is a piece of cake, but which part are you referring to? I know it's confused me in the past, but there is the pitman-arm to (passenger) wheel part, and passenger wheel to driver wheel part. You can remove the wheel-to-wheel bar with noting special but a wrench and hammer (remove cotter pins, bolts, then whack the top of the bolts). You'll get plenty of clearance by jacking up the front and removing the wheels. If you use the pickle fork to separate, just be prepared to tear the boots and force replacement. I wouldn't trust the grease method to finding play. There's a huge difference between having the vehicle unloaded and searching by hand (even with tools) vs actually driving on the road. If you suspect a component is bad, replacing it is the only way. There's no way to actually simulate the on-road forces that are occurring when you drive.

Thank God for cotter pins :eek: :bowdown:

I don't believe there's any difference in hubs between the 2wd and 4wd. http://www.myjeepxj.com/cherokee-repair ... eplacement Good point about the trackbar, I was thinking (possibly incorrectly) from your other threads that you'd solved all the rod end issues and whatnot. If those have any slop though, you will be able to wiggle the wheel (attached to the rotor, attached to the hub) back and forth, because with loose ends the two wheels aren't controlled 100%. In other words, the steering is connected to the right wheel with one end, then the left wheel is connected to the right wheel through two more ends. If either of those have play, the wheels can steer independently (major cause of death wobble too).

Then thats probably all you get :thumbsup: Don't overlook the basics either! Line size and your connectors play a big part in performance as well. If you're running through one of those cheap yellow 1/4" coils, it's like running a marathon breathing through a straw. You want good 3/8" line with HI-FLOW couplers, at least. Harbour Freight actually has some quality stuff here, you can get the Goodyear rubber hose cheap and they sell (or at least used to, I haven't seen them in a while) the hi-flow couplers (you have to really look for them, they aren't in any of the all-in-one kits). Beyond that, there's always the quality of tool to consider. Some are just more powerful than others. Make sure it's mechanically sound, if it's worn out it will slowly sap performance. You may be able to rebuild it. My wife bought me a bunch of AirCat tools for my birthday a while back and I LOVE them. I'm running a small 11-gal ancient CH 110v and I get GREAT performance out of my tools. It doesn't have much legs for sustained use but it gives full power for long enough to use the impact hammer and air wrenches. It does fall flat on it's face for serious cutting or grinding work, but still gets the job done given enough time. I don't think I'd want to paint with it either. Has anyone looked at gas powered compressors? The RolAir stuff looks pretty nice for giving a lot of performance in a relatively compact and portable package, where it's impractical to wire 220v. Anyway, if it were me, I'd hang on to your money and keep an eye on craigslist. I tend to prefer to buy an older, used professional model than a new "home-owner" type deal. I find most times even the old pro stuff is worlds better than new junk (heck, that's why we have Comanche's, right?), and if I'm not happy with it it's easy to sell it for the same price you paid.

If you can visibly see your brake rotor moving around... that's not good. The rotor is torqued up against the wheel, so if you're really seeing the rotor floating around then you should also see the same movement with the wheel (which could also explain some suspension issues you've been having?). The rotor is held in place on one side by the hub (and technically the pressed in studs), and clamped from the other by the wheel/lug nuts. First things first, are your lug nuts all good and tight? If so, remove the wheel and repeat your test, it should be pretty easy to see what's going on. Start taking things off in order to drill down, it's a pretty simple system to diagnose.