ChiefJosh

Check out M.O.R.E.'s spring perches- I think they are 7", and like $45 for the pair. http://www.mountainoffroad.com/more.htm

Here's the junkyard's return policy: "No returns, no exchanges, no exceptions." I know. It sucks. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do just yet, I thought about just putting it in, but I don't want it to leave me stranded somewhere. I've got a little time to think about it, so we'll see.

M.O.R.E. has one, it's a bit pricey ($237), but it's a complete kit, welding required. Check it out, even just for ideas if you're building your own. http://www.mountainoffroad.com/more.htm

Alright, so here's the deal. After discussing with the wifey the amount I've got "invested" in this truck already and what else remains to be done, I decided to drop back and punt. That means we (that's right, she's got her own Carhartt bibs) went to the junkyard on Saturday, hoping to luck out with a D44, but we walked out with another D35. Looked okay, not bad for $85, drum to drum, mounts and all. I'm going to blame the next part on the freaking cold weather on Saturday. We were freezing, so I didn't look that closely at the internals after we pulled it, but this is what I saw: How big of a problem is this going to be? This is in the "new" axle I just pulled to replace the one that grenaded on me last week to begin this post. Did I just strike out and throw $85 and a whole Saturday into the wind? Should I even bother installing it, or is there a chance it'll be okay?

Here's what my trans fluid looked like after I drained it out of my Pug. Nasty. A few quarts of some synthetic in there, now she shifts like butter. Here's my new toolbox too. It sits high on the bed, I can't see anything in the bed with the rearview, but that's no big deal.

Dude- read the replies in your other post. The MJ springs are 57" eye to eye. XJ springs are 52" eye to eye. Even if you could get them to bolt up, which you probably can't, the shackles are going to be all wrong. I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that won't work.

Is there any way to tell which of the D30's have the stronger u-joints in them?

Sorry, no welder. I wish. I haven't had any problems with the one in my XJ (it's a 98). We'll see. It's not much cash, but it is more time. Time is in short supply lately.

I'm toying with the idea of swaping in a different D30 instead of changing the gears in the one I've got. I can pick one from the U-Pull-It for $40-50, which is much less than the parts and labor for new gears. Can I upgrade to one without the vacuum disconnect 4wd? If so, how does the 4wd engage on it? Or am I better off staying with the vac system? I know I could just upgrade to the better shafts or u-joints, but what are the benefits and disadvantages of this? Any tech links?

Well, here's the update. I crawled underneath it this afternoon, in the 20 degree weather we've been having, out in the parking lot. I decided if I tried to disconnect the rear driveshaft, I'd probably loose my fingers from the cold, so I jacked both rear tires up in the air and I pulled the drain plug from the D35. Inside I saw lots of not good things. :cry: All of the oil had this shiny metallic flake look to it, kinda like bassboat paint. It was really, really dirty (it was new a month ago). I saw at least one tooth missing from the spider gears. I tried spinning either wheel- the passenger side wheel spun freely and easily both directions. The drivers wheel on the other hand, spun with a good amount of resistance backwards, but did not budge at all forwards. (I spun the wheels with both the transmission and the t-case in neutral). I bought the truck about 2 months ago, knowing that the spider gears in the rear were blown. I replaced them, thinking that was all it needed. I'd never done it before, but it really wasn't complicated, and I didn't touch anything else inside. It ran great for the last month, but apparently, there is more wrong with this thing than I knew. I wish I'd have known that before, I'd have swapped out the whole rear then. Guess I'll have to do it now. That being said, if I'm gonna fix this thing, I'm putting in a D44. Mostly because it will be the easiest fix. I don't have any acess to any welding equipment, nor the time, otherwise I would consider an 8.8 or even an 8.25. If I find a D44 out of an MJ, are there any complications AT ALL, or will this be a simple swap? If I find a D44, what if any work should I do to it before I install it?(besides new oil and brakes as needed) I'm currently running 3.07's (I assume - 5spd, 4.0), on 31's. I have a line on two D44's, one with 3.07's, one with 3.55's. Would now be the best time to upgrade my gears without having to do ring and pinion replacement? If so, I'd also swap in a junkyard HP D30 that's not vacuum disconnect. Anybody see/hear any issues I'd run into?

I hate to be "that guy", but I say do away with it too. I just don't really appreciate it being there, and neither does my wife. I'd much rather see another tech article. Bash me if you want, but that's why I didn't renew my subscription. Well, that and that I've learned more on this forum and NAXJA than I ever learned reading that magazine....

Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. Right now my plan is to tow it up to my buddy's garage either tonight or tomorrow. Then I'll drop the driveshaft and see if it stalls out with the transfercase engaged. That'll isolate my problem. Thanks guys- I'll give the update when I get it.

You guys aren't really following my words that closely. If the truck is in neutral I can push it. If it is in gear and I try to let the clutch out, the whole engine, trans, t-case twists the whole body of the truck and then stalls the truck. I don't think that's the brakes. When this happened, I really don't remember exactly, but I was only going about 5mph, and I didn't come to a screeching halt. As soon as I heard the WHAM, I put the clutch in and applied the brakes. Then I tried to put it in gear and move again, but it stalled out. This happened Tuesday AM. I have tried driving it twice since then, nothing doing. I believe the trans is fine. With the t-case in Neutral, I can let the clutch out in any gear of the trans and it will idle in gear. This has to mean that everything in the tranny is spinning. The tranny shifts fine with the transfer case in Neutral. It is only with the transfer case engaged that it stalls out. That means that it has to be either the rear or the transfer case.

Eagle, you're right- I'm really unsure which is to blame. The only reason the truck was hard to push would be because I pushed it up a very slight incline. I don't think it pushed any harder than any other time I've pushed a car, except that I couldn't get any momentum going uphill slightly. No one else was in the truck, it was in Neutral, t-case in 2wd. Would lifting the rear tires off the ground help me diagnose this in anyway? (by turning either the driveshaft or the tires while in the air?) I guess it could be my rear diff right? If while the t-case is engaged and the tranny is engaged, the truck stalls, something is jammed. If the tranny runs smooth with the t-case disengaged, then it's not the trans. Either it's the rear diff or the t-case. How can I check this? What if I jack only one side of the rear up and attempt to spin that wheel(by hand) while the trans and t-case are in Neutral? Wouldn't that isolate the movement to the spider gears? Let me know if I'm thinking correctly about this....

You could take that first one, strip the race stuff, add the 4wd components and with that 360 - you'd have one hell of an offroader.

When I pushed it back into the parking spot, I had the trans in Neutral and the t-case in 2wd. Is there any chance it is my rear diff? But I suppose if that was locked up, I wouldn't be able to push it in neutral either..... It's not a DD yet, but I was hoping it would be.... I have one small garage bay to work on it over at a friends place, but not a whole lot of room. I was just thinking that if I could pick up a 231 from a junkyard or something for under $50, that wouldn't be a bad way to go.

Okay, here's what I've got. I just ran out to check something, as I was thinking about what 87manche said about the t-case. I can shift the t-case through all gears. If I put the t-case in N, I can let the clutch out with the trans in any gear and it won't stall. I can hear the trans gears turning, especially reverse, you know, it always has that whiny tone. So I guess that means it's my t-case that's locked up. I've got a 231. Are all years of the 231 the same? Is it the same t-case as in an XJ? If I'm replacing should I go with the 242?

Oh yeah- I forgot. Last week I looked at my trans fluid and it looked more like pea soup than anything else, so I drained the fluid from the drain plug at the back/bottom of the trans and I refilled it with generic sythetic 75-90w, figuring I'd change it out again in another 1K. I shifted like butter for the last week. I tried the transfer case, I can shift to 4HI, into N, and back. I didn't check 4LO.

So, here's the deal: This morning, I start the truck, and let it warm up for about 5 min before I take off for work. I put it in 1st and pull out of my parking space in my apartment's parking lot. I shift to 2nd to idle to the road, and WHAM!! my truck comes to a stop as I put the brakes on. I do all visual checks- no leaking fluid. I can cycle through all five gears and reverse with the clutch in. I can put it in any gear and attempt to let the clutch out, but if I do it slowly, all I get is the smell of burning clutch and it stalls out. I stalled it in ever gear trying to get it to move using different syncros, but nothing. I took it out of gear and rolled(read 'pushed') it back into the parking spot. What gives? I know its a Peugot and I shouldn't expect a lot, but can anybody help me trouble shoot this? Thanks (My truck specs are in my sig.)

Well, i took a look at the vacuum canister, and it looks okay, but I did replace the bumper after the guy I bought my MJ from had a close encounter with a guardrail. The idle wasn't really giving me problems until this past week, at least nothing of this magnitude, so who knows. I also know that the guy I bought the truck from only put on about 1000 miles in the past year, out of the 172,000 that are on the truck, so I'm sure it is still gettin used to being driven on a regular basis. I'll try the TB cleaner in the IAC bowl (I assume that is the roughly triangle shaped orfice on the top of the TB?), and see what happens. I'll also double check the ball while it's running.

That's helpful, a starting point at any rate. My temp gauge is not functioning either, does the ECU accept any info from that sensor? Could that be related?

I've got something to add to this discussion. Did anybody else happen to notice how hard it is to find seats in good condition? Especially driver's seats? Well, I was at 3 different U-pull-it yards and came up with zero 2-door XJ Laredo's and only two 2-doors at all. But, there were plenty of 4-door Laredos. As has been previously stated, the four door seats seem to work fine, you can still access that extra space, just not as easily. Anyways, on a whim, I intentionally bought two passenger seats from seperate XJ's with gray interior. The seats are in excellent shape because they rarely get sat in. The question you all are wondering is, "can I still use the lever to lean the seat forward?" The answer is yes. It a tight reach, I won't kid you, but it is doable. I for one, rarely adjust the angle of my driver's seat, so it's not really a problem. Just food for thought for anyone else having a hard time finding seats.

I took it in for inspection, mainly because I didn't have the time to sort it out. Apparently they figured it out, because they work and they didn't charge me for it. Hey, what can I say- good mechanics are hard to find, I'm hanging onto mine.

I've got a problem with the idle on my Four-Oh. It seems to idle normally (around 750-850 rpms) when I initially start it in the morning, but as it warms up, the idle goes up. It's been around 25-30 degrees outside in the morning, so it's a bit chilly out. As the truck reaches operating temperature, it will settle in anywhere between 1750 to 2250 rpms! I feel kind of stupid sitting at a stop light with my engine screaming. Today I cleaned out my throttle body with some TB cleaner, and it seemed to make the problem worse. I have no idea what is going on- any ideas?

HURRAY!!! :cheers: I passed PA state inspection today! I must admit I was a bit worried, what with all the electrical demons I've got in the 'Cheif. Now I can use it as my DD. It'll even be legal. I'll post up a few more pics on the weekend.