LONG POST: project virgin. Advice please

[A-man930]

As the title states I have never taken on what most would consider a "project." The most I can claim is the 8.25" swap I did a couple of months ago and pulling the motor thats sitting in my garage right now.

 

Here's my reason for posting: I've been without matching gear ratios since my axle swap, my Renix is going to blow chunks one of these days, and the other morning I developed a wonderful noise from my tranny/clutch (not sure which). So what I'm faced with is at least three seperate "repairs," or one huge undertaking where it gets all done at once. Here are some specific questions pertaining to each part.

 

FRONT

I was able to get a killer deal on a HP30 out of an MJ with the CAD and everything (just to keep things as simple as possible). My concern is that it has a moderate surface rust problem and I don't want my spring perches rotting off in a year (plust I'm kinda anal about rust prevention). My Dad thinks its a horrorable idea to sandblast it, I don't think so because I'll be replacing the outer U-joints and hubs anyways and I figured I could cover up everything else well enough to prevent sand from eating the guts alive. Should I really be worried? I mean, don't front ends get plenty of dirt in them anyways?

 

AX-15

We drained the oil on it and the only thing we saw was a tiny little particle of syncro ring, I was kinda hoping for more convincing results :roll: We weren't able to see or feel any parts tumbling around in the bellhousing and you can't see crap from the top of the case (when the shifter's out). What this leaves me with is I'm probably going to have to take this thing out and open it up to really see what the issue is. I've been scarred by my only attempt at separating a transmission from a 4.0 (ended up taking the whole drivetrain out and I had to grind off the head of one measly bolt to get them apart :headpop: ) Are you supposed to be able to remove the transmission from the truck without also removing the engine?

 

ENGINE

Finally, I've had this motor sitting in my garage since December and I would really like to have it in my truck before this winter! If it takes major moving/positioning of the motor to get the trans out I'll be majorly tempted to go ahead and tackle swaping that out as well... Stupid idea? Good idea? Good idea only if you've got lots of time/patience/and money?

 

Thanks for the help guys, love this site!

Alan

[MiNi Beast]

Pull the whole drivetrain, check what you need to check then mate up the AX-15 to the different engine and drop it all back in when your ready. But you can pull the tranny without the engine, as well as you can pull the t case without pulling the tranny. Just easier to pull everything at once if swapping engines..

 

Axle, just wire wheel it up real nice then use rust prevented primer and paint it.

 

If you earch through the Projects thread you'll find some good ideas as to what you want to do.

[A-man930]

I ended up pulling both the tranny and transfer case together, it wasn't too bad after all. The guy I had look at the transmission said he didn't see anything catastrophic, just worn-out syncros and one of the 3rd gear shift dogs, he says niether of which are likely causes of the noise I was hearing... I'm having him re-built it anyways. So then I tore into the clutch, nothing there either! The friction material is like new, as are the flywheel and pressure plate, the thrust bearing doesn't feel bad either... I'm at a loss here! I aint about to put it all back in and have the same freakin noise come up again. What now?

[ejndssn]

is the setup on you tranny internal or external slave I had similar problems with the internal setuo and swap it for an external. it could the fact that the retainer on the internal slave gave way and that could be you prblem since it would be floating kinda on the input shaft. if it is the external setup I :dunno: just something to look into