DirtyComanche

I can tell you with reasonable certainty that your tires will always slip enough to take up the difference in wheel speed while moving at a decent pace. To think that your tires always have 100% traction on the road surface is simply wrong. They always slip a little, and the side walls flex to make up for slight inconsistancies in drivetran speed. Not to mention that you do not make sudden changes in relative wheel speed while travelling fast - it simply isn't possible. If you've driven anything with a spooled axle at high speed and really thought about exactly what is going on - you'd understand. And on a related note, the stress is highest is actually when you're going slow and making tight turns. My NP231 logged far more time on the street in 4hi than you'd think. Sure, a fair amount of it was in low traction (slow, ice), but almost always the case was left in 4wd for the entire duration of the winter. Both I did that and the PO (original owner). Once it gets cold enough the roads clear up again and you again have a high traction situation. Why didn't it break? Simple. There's not enough torque load on it from the marginal amount of binding it sees on the street to actually produce a failure. Cases that have failed on the street are most likely already damaged. Bad bearings, stress cracks in the housing, worn chains, etc will often rear their head while seeing the cyclic stresses of being in 4wd on a higher traction medium. But, I'll not disagree that street use will prematurely wear out a tcase. And Jeepco... Extra weight is ALWAYS extra stress. If it causes you to lose traction more than otherwise, the actual torque loading on the parts is still MUCH higher than had it not been in that situation. I know of many other part time tcases that get left in 4hi for the winter. Clear roads or not.

So, if you blow up your tcase on pavement, then why doesn't it explode on the high-traction rock of moab?

I love previous owners that are awesome mechanics! And I thought I'd seem and done some hack things. The MJs looking great. Good luck with the inspection.

He was flat towing a YJ with the tcase in 4wd and the tranny in neutral. I have no idea why he felt that was the best way to flat tow it... Anyways, it somehow got into gear and carnaged the tcase entirely. It is possible that the tranny locked up due to lubrication issues. I don't recall if he threw out the tranny after that or if it was fuct too (he threw out the entire drivetrain within short order, a 2.5L doesn't do much for a guy who loves speed).

I've seen that before! But it was different. Involved flat towing and a slight going into gear issue... I'm not sure. But look for bearings that have seized once you get the remains out.

You did a compression check? Does it fire on all cylinders? Pull the plugs and see if they're wet. If it doesn't, that can cause problems. I've seen engines with the oil level creep up due to blow-by. Not as bad though. Anyways, the PCV system is supposed to burn off all that crap, but that never really happens. Not that it would account for that much. FWIW, despite gas being really useless for the oil, I bet the motor will be okay for quite a while. These things seem to be tough enough...

Blowby past the rings.

That zinc chromate primer is good stuff.

Sure.

Tach is fuct. Since my propane tank failed tech, I got PO'd and bought something new... A 33lb forklift tank... Aluminum. It probably doesn't have enough range for me, but I can get a second one for in the dodge. It's crazy light for a propane tank. And I got a new mixer. But I tore the base plate to mixer gasket while swapping them. :headpop: And I went to the parts store and they were being TOOLS and wouldn't even talk to me. :headpop: I figure if I can't be helped in under 10 minutes for a simple gasket there is no hope.

Dunno if this comes out cheaper...? http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/pro ... t=0&page=1

Uh, probably. Those are the POS quick connects they use for the tranny cooler lines. Which happened to be a major deciding factor in selling my XJ...

Image Not Found Yup.

Yeah... But umm, you might need to buy new unitized hubs. I don't think it is as simple as re-drilling it.

If it's a 60 front, and it's reasonably intact, pick it up. The ball-joint unitized hub ones kinda annoying because of the bolt pattern. But apparently it can be fixed. They're starting to get popular because they are stronger than a standard full-floating hub design in many ways. The unitized hubs on them are worth a bundle if they're good. Oh, and as for moving them... Levering, dragging, wiggling... Or you take the damn thing apart as much as you can.

Oh yeah, get to work on this so I can copy all your ideas.

SWB Image Not Found LWB Image Not Found Not great. But they're the same frame at the cab, and hence can be cut off and swapped. You'll have to drill a lot of welds.

How about I jsut post them here? They're on my photobucket... I jsut have to find them.

Oh, I've got the frame diagrams if you want to compare.

The frame portion is way different. You couldn't swap them without majoy mods. If you had a good quality donor you could swap frames. Lots of work, but it looks possible based on the tech diagrams and my own looking at them. Or you could buck off the frame you have at the cab and stich in a new one (from scratch) to make erverything line up. Lots of work again. Probably wouldn't come out better than a stock frame unless there was something you specifically wanted to do (4-link rear, dually conversion, or something else funny).

Yeah, tappet/lifter... But the roller ones are for the V8s. They've only got flat hydraulics for the 4.0 and 2.5. It's unfortunate, a roller cam/lifters would actually be a worthwhile upgrade on these motors. Less friction, better cam profiles, no more flat cams.

Roller rockers yes, roller lifters no. I knew they sold roller rockers (they're a huge ripoff, about $900 for a set, and that'll give you maybe 2HP). But somebody said they had roller lifters too. But those are for the V8s. Which makes sense since they had them stock. They have the aluminum 4.0/4.2 head in there! I can't even imagine what they want!

I'm pretty sure some of the F-350s could have a D50 front. However, they're easy to identify. It says 50F on the housing's rib. However, D50s are VERY rare. I figured they are undesirable axles so I should be able to get a couple for a cheap price, but no such luck. And the rear axles are probably sterling 10.25s regardless of 250 or 350. They're not exactly great. Heavy duty yes. Worth maybe $200 in good shape. They have a few issues and stupid flaws.

I doubt it's in there. Apparently mopar used to make roller lifters for a 4.0L. Which made no sense because there's no roller cams for them. It was more curiosity than anything. Because it sounds like BS to me.

I was thinking the same thing...