DirtyComanche

I think there's debate on if the 242 is actually weaker. Unfortunately I threw out the only one I had around; been meaning to grab another one to play with. Honestly, the 231 is pretty much a pile. I unfortunately cleaned out my tcase collection before I got my current MJ, or I probably would have used anything other than it... I had a nice 241DLD with a 23 spline input that could have been a great option. Or the 242 I tossed, which was 21 spline but that's an easy swap.

My pilot bushing came in yesterday afternoon. I buttoned it up tonight (also did rad and heater hoses, tsat, and valve cover gasket while I had it down) and went for a test drive. Thus far zero issues with disengagement, and that was with a fairly long test drive (40km). I will see how it fares tomorrow. Fingers crossed, replacing every part other than the transmission has fixed it.

At least they look good.

I'm not sure what that axle will be like. The Explorer (with the exception of the relatively rare Sport model) went to IRS in 2002, hence people say to get one from prior to that. The Sport Trac was also generally viewed as undesirable for an axle donor, as it seemed to share the rear axle with the Ranger, meaning it had 28 spline axle shafts and drum brakes. However, I don't know if that was true only for 00-01 models, or if it actually is even true at all. I suspect the Explorer Sport 2002+ and the Sport Trac probably shared rear axles, but hard to say... I'd go measure how wide it is. My suspicion would be that it is wider than the typical Explorer 8.8, as like all SUVs, the Explorer got bigger with each generation.

Probably a loose connection on the fuel pump. Or a pin has pushed out of the connector on the harness there. Or a loose ground. Start with the area you were mucking with when you first had the problem show up, which you've lead me to believe is the fuel pump/sender.

It's there for low traction scenarios. That might be snow, depending. Maybe ice. Rain on a gravel/dirt road, sure. Rain on pavement, probably not, unless there's enough to skimboard on. The (not available on a MJ) NP242 transfer case has a Full Time 4HI position, which is for running around in situations where you might want more traction, but there is not a complete lack of traction. Basically there is a differential in the case that allows for some speed variation between the front and rear tires. This tcase was optional on the XJ, so some guys swap them in because it's basically a bolt in. If I was to plan to run around in 4wd a lot, I'd get one. Like I said, you can use Part Time 4HI at speed or on pavement, you will just wear the tcase out faster. And your tires. And your ujoints.

It isn't the abrupt torque that'll do the damage. In the 231, the front and rear driveshafts are locked in 4WD. That means they both spin at the same speed. If the rear wheels are under power and spinning when you shift, the rear wheels are rotating faster than the front wheels. When you try to shift, all you're going to get is a loud, alarming grinding sound. It's exactly the same as trying to shift a manual tranny without the clutch, and not matching the engine speed to the road speed. It's entirely possible to do it, but you have to be abusive. It is synchro'd, it is possible to shift it in a way you shouldn't. I have seen it happen, granted not actually on pavement, but in similar situations where the rear is spinning and "I'll just engage the 4wd" happens. And if you tear the synchros and the teeth off the annulus, that was still torque that did it.

Cheap, reliable, bigger tires. You can only pick too. The XJ/MJ D30 (and the D44) is quite inferior to the newer JK stuff, and IMHO 35" tires should not be put on a D30. Every time I say that somebody says "But you can, I did it, my cousin did it, blah blah blah." It's just a failure waiting to happen, not that you can't do it. Everything about that axle was not meant to do it. I'd stick with 33s unless you want to break stuff or spend more money. Chromo shafts are just a bandaid for the other weaknesses, and you'll probably need them eventually anyways. Like I said, to do it over I'd have gone with JK axles for my current MJ, and I only run 32" tires. Beyond being a strength upgrade, the other value in them is they come with better brakes, way better steering, a bolt pattern that is now way more common, and are a much better width than the factory axles. Plus the aftermarket is all over them right now.

I'd also consider JK axles. I wish I had used them on my MJ, as they would be about right for what I'm doing. And they're almost a bolt in.

Watch out for the cast in wedge D44s, you can't remove the factory radius arm brackets as they are an integral part of the tube. They're also supposedly weaker.

At least it wasn't a MJ that got it. They build new Dodges every day... I'm hoping you have insurance for it though??????

That might be normal. It doesn't drive like a modern vehicle with fancy dampening crap. You have to ease in and out of the throttle if you're at lower RPM. But cleaning the throttle body, IAC, and all the sensor grounds isn't going to make it worse...

Linkage works great. Wouldn't do it any other way at this point. Hits all the gates, doesn't pop out of gear.

Speed isn't really the issue. It's just going to wear things out more. Slamming the case into 4hi while you've got varied traction can cause issues. If the rear tires are spinning when you do it there can be a rather abrupt coupling of torque at the case. That's what will break something. All in all you can be pretty abusive and it's unlikely anything will ever break.

You can shift into 4hi at any speed. I don't recall what the official literature says, up to 45mph sounds about right. At any speed there is risk of damage (like the tcase blowing apart) if the conditions are perfectly wrong. Don't drive around in 4hi on dry pavement if you have a NP231 (Part time tcase). A NP242 or other full time tcases can do it, as long as they're in the full time position.

The word C#*@ is censored? Like, to C#*@ a gun?

Also, another thing I did prior to pulling this apart was to swap the clutch pedal and pivot bushings out for a known good one. I noticed there was a lot of play in the pedal and it would C#*@ over, even jamming it all the way to the floor would not cause the pedal to contact the 'stop' on the bracket. That said, I don't think the pedal is supposed to contact there, but I am curious what people have to say? It's still maybe 3/16" away, or so I recall, I'd have to check again. I did possibly gain a little travel by swapping it over though, and the pedal feels better, so I'm glad I did it either way. Regardless, it did not solve the issue, it still did the same thing where everything seemed okay until I drove it a bit and then it would not disengage. I was able to get the truck to creep on my garage floor (which is basically perfectly level, I did not have it poured with a grade, no code against that here) with the clutch pedal all the way down, both forwards and reverse. Anyways, I'm still not sure what to say the issues I am having are caused by. Maybe a stackup of things? Random friction disk, worn out flywheel, beat up pilot bushing, and perhaps a sloppy pedal all coming together in a perfect storm? Or I'll put it back together and it still won't work. :doh:

So I can't say for certain what is wrong. Bear with me on the pictures, I had to Imgur this because Photobucket is garbage and won't upload (plus has deleted a bunch of my pictures). Imgur doesn't auto resize, but I think the forum does so hopefully it isn't too bad... The pressure plate is a Luk, and appears to more or less match the one I purchased. It doesn't look like it has any excessive wear or damage on it. I'm guessing it was new as of the swap. The friction disk was not a Luk, rather it was marked T-NKK. It still had a fair whack of meat on it. I'm not sure if the flywheel is OEM or not. It still had a slight crown to it. I wasn't thinking when I measured the wear on it and measured it from the bolt face instead of the mounting surface, but compared to the new Luk one it is about .020" of wear. I should measure it again correctly. You can see there is more crown on the new flywheel. I probably could have got all technical and measured that with feeler gauges. Unfortunately I've screwed myself. The AX-15 is a 92, to match the tcase, and thus I will need a pilot bushing from a CJ. This one was pretty mangled before I slide hammered it out. Hopefully I can get one tomorrow.

So I have some family stuff going on and figured I'd take most of the scrap out of my back yard before I tore the truck apart, but I did manage to pull the tranny tonight. Two things I noted. The asshat that put this thing together reused the e-torx bolts, one of them just about smeared right off on me... And there is a pilot bushing in the crank, and it is mangled. I'm going to try to pull the clutch off after dinner and see if there's anything else I can figure out at the time. It is a Luk clutch, so I'm guessing it was new as of the tranny swap, but who knows.

If you want manual control, he's the guy to go to. I still have a BrettM controller somewhere... BUT, they had issues. I don't know enough about how the TCM works to know how to make it happen in a factory like install. There is a guy on Pirate that has been making adapters for the AW4 to some odd options, so there might be some decent info on Pirate if you're willing to wade through the crap...

There's a steel beam across my shop with two chain hoists and trolleys on it. Like I said, I'd just need to put a couple anchors/eyebolts in the top of it and I can pick it up. On my old Dodge I used to take the one it had off that way, there was brackets on it for putting a boat on it or something that I could hook to, then I'd just set it on the back of my plow truck for the summer. Well, I cut my plow truck in half, so even a short box MJ canopy won't fit on it. :rotf: That said, I could probably put some brackets on the plow truck to hold it. Hmm. That might be easiest. The plow truck rarely moves in the summer, I don't even take the chains off normally.

That would be fairly easy to make. I'd need to put some big pneumatic tires on it so it would roll outside easily though.

That's a badass old floor jack. Way better than any of the junk sold today.

Looks like a solid truck :thumbsup:

Ah. The PCM is silver box, yes? Always got those two confused. ECM. It's only really controlling the engine. But yes, it's the silver box above the accelerator pedal. PCM is more of a newer/ODBII thing where you start to integrate all of the vehicles systems, often still used in conjunction with an ECM/TCM/ABS/Cruise modules/etc (acts as a liaison between these things and allows for centralized diagnostics of all systems).