beater!

[ehall]

Ever since the powertrain swap, I've had the breather lines from the transmission and transfer case zip-tied to the trans dipstick, while the D30 breather hose ran up the driver UCA (stock) near the brake booster, each of them with the little plastic GM breather caps on top. When I did the D30 swap, I thought I should move that breather to the other UCA and then up the trans dipstick to the others, and do some kind of filter. Finally got all the prerequisites out of the way on this and did it today over lunch.

First I bought a 3:1 air manifold with 1/4 NPT threads, and a handful of 1/4 NPT to 5/16 barb adapters. I already had a Spectre breather filter from another project (I think its this one but I don't recall exactly), and I had already drilled out the input to a little over 1/2 inch.

Next I bought 10 feet of 5/16 ID oil hose, and ran it along the axle and up the upper control arm to the body mount. From there it was a short jump to the transmission dipstick.

Then tied the breather lines from the transmission, transfer case, and D30 axle into the manifold. I used a small 1" piece of hose on the top port and jammed the breather filter onto that. Then strapped the manifold to the main wiring harness to get it out of the way.

This is better than the old setup for a couple of reasons, primarily because the filter should prevent dust and moisture from getting into the fluid lines, also because its cleaner setup and therefore easier to work on and around.

Potential downside is that there is a possibility of fluid contamination if anything boils up that high. The real risk there is the transmission fluid (transfer case and D30 are very unlikely), although I suspect it will boil out the dipstick before the breather line. I plan to add a temperature gauge to the transmission at some point, so hopefully it won't happen before then.

 

[BasslicksXJ]

Its also a slightly different shade of grey but I have fifty of those now so I'm past caring.

Ever since the powertrain swap, I've had the breather lines from the transmission and transfer case zip-tied to the trans dipstick, while the D30 breather hose ran up the driver UCA (stock) near the brake booster, each of them with the little plastic GM breather caps on top. When I did the D30 swap, I thought I should move that breather to the other UCA and then up the trans dipstick to the others, and do some kind of filter. Finally got all the prerequisites out of the way on this and did it today over lunch.

First I bought a 3:1 air manifold with 1/4 NPT threads, and a handful of 1/4 NPT to 5/16 barb adapters. I already had a Spectre breather filter from another project (I think its this one but I don't recall exactly), and I had already drilled out the input to a little over 1/2 inch.

Next I bought 10 feet of 5/16 ID oil hose, and ran it along the axle and up the upper control arm to the body mount. From there it was a short jump to the transmission dipstick.

Then tied the breather lines from the transmission, transfer case, and D30 axle into the manifold. I used a small 1" piece of hose on the top port and jammed the breather filter onto that. Then strapped the manifold to the main wiring harness to get it out of the way.

This is better than the old setup for a couple of reasons, primarily because the filter should prevent dust and moisture from getting into the fluid lines, also because its cleaner setup and therefore easier to work on and around.

Potential downside is that there is a possibility of fluid contamination if anything boils up that high. The real risk there is the transmission fluid (transfer case and D30 are very unlikely), although I suspect it will boil out the dipstick before the breather line. I plan to add a temperature gauge to the transmission at some point, so hopefully it won't happen before then.

I like this idea alot. Probably end up doing something similar.

 

[ehall]

[size=+1]N[/size]oise
[size=+1]V[/size]ibration
[size=+1]H[/size]arshness

aka, how I spent my winter and spring. Catching up on it now

It started with chasing down a pulsating scraping noise, that I could not quite identify. The noise had been coming in and out for a while but mostly only at highway speeds, then it started becoming persistent at lower speeds until it was doing it all the time.



After a bunch of testing, I narrowed it down to the front output bearing on the NP242 transfer case. This video it fades in around 0:20 then fades out briefly when I slow down, then picks up again



You can feel the grit in the bearings



Picked up a rebuild kit from amazon, the BK 242 kit with Nachi bearings shown in the picture. Very complete set with all o-rings, every seal, etc

The two output bearings were Nachi, but the input bearing was NKF (Chinese) and it had a lot of slop and rattle--no way I was putting that in the bottom of the transfer case, so I ordered a Timken, and they sent me a Nachi in a Timken box. They also sent a narrow (late-model) bearing instead of a wide (early-model) bearing, but the thickness doesn't matter there. The Nachi bearings are nice, should just find a supplier of those instead of paying Timken premium.



Teardown and rebuild was pretty straightforward. Rather than post pics, take these informative links and bookmark them

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f13/np242-tutorial-764168/
http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/showthread.php?18984-242-Xfer-Case-Photos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibY_xzCn10k parts 1 through 4 (part 2 and 1 are switched)

Here are some exception pics

Putty knifes work great for separating seams

Transfer case hit puberty

This damage is from when I replaced the chain and put the tail housing on crooked, allowing the rear shaft to move around a bit, so the differential was rubbing on the chain. This is only a couple of days wear. Interestingly the chain has no marks on it. I suspect that most of the magnet fuzz came from this. It may have also contributed to the bearing failure, however I suspect that was due to insufficient lubrication from the pump.

The cup bearing at the bottom of the planetary gears had some kind of substance on it. Can't tell if this was setup adhesive or burnt fluid. It did not look like the transfer case had ever been rebuilt, only a couple of seals had obviously been replaced (blue RTV on seal surface being a dead giveaway).

Used my assortment of hole saws for bearing presses when needed (it worked)

Got it all back together very tight and snug, no slop anywhere and good feel on all the bearings. Had to get help from a guy in the local jeep club to get it reinstalled. It has been working great since then, no more obvious noises from it, and action feels good.

That was one noise

 

[ehall]

Another noise, which I wasn't sure was related to the transfer case, was a loud gear whine in any 4WD mode. The transfer case had always made a little noise but when I swapped in the junkyard D30 axle the amount of whining went way up. The pinion seal on the D30 had a very small leak, so I assumed it was just cavitation noise (fluid goes out when the unit heats up, then air comes in when the unit cools back down), but youtube videos seemed to suggest that the loud whining was from outer pinion bearing where cavitation had led to damage on the race.

Talking to monkeys at a shop I use sometimes, and they had just bought some new setup tools and wanted a test case, so we negotiated a deal for them to do a full bearing swap for half price. In came the G2 master rebuild set with all the bearings and shims needed for the early-model HP D30

Outer bearing race did have some galling

Then they replaced the bearings and reset the gears. They added one very-small preload shim, which put them at the low end of the tolerance range.

After a few weeks of break-in time, and the rebuilt transfer case, there is almost no perceptible whine in Full-Time 4WD anymore.

That was noise two.

 

[ehall]

Something about noises, you remove the loudest and then you start hearing all the others much more clearly. I started to notice some engine noises so I got some 1/2" hose and started fishing around in the engine bay.

The loudest sound was the alternator whining on charge, and just being noisy in general. This was the 136 amp ZJ alternator that I had bought from a junkyard several years ago, and I'd already rebuilt the electronics once. Looking around and Amazon had a discount deal going for a new (not reman) 136 amp ACDelco so I grabbed that up. Huge reduction in engine noise right there.



Found another noise near the throttle body so I took it apart to clean everything. The IAC port was a little dirty, but I also found that the gasket on the IAC sub-housing was super brittle and had a little crack in the corner, so I stripped that out and replaced it with a smear of black RTV.

Replaced the thin and brittle Fel-Pro throttle body gasket with a new dealer gasket 53007543AB that is thick and soft. Also discovered a leak in the rear of the valve cover gasket, and resealed that too. That combined took care of some secondary whistling and chirping.

Only a couple of noises left, that I am still chasing down.

 

[ehall]

When I initally did the lift, I had to put the D30 pinion angle really steep in order to eliminate driveshaft vibes. After replacing the D30 axle, and the pinion bearings in the axle, and adding adjustable UCAs, I figured it was safe to drop the pinion for better caster angle. Still vibrated!

A bit of diagnosis, and figured that the ZJ driveshaft on the front was out of balance pretty bad, as confirmed in this video (you can hear the old noise from the 242 output bearing in this video as well)



Looking at various options, and the cheapest thing was to drive to a salvage house in Virginia and buy a couple of more driveshafts there, since I already had enough u-joints to rebuild them and only needed a new centering ball and boot which I needed for the spare shaft anyway.

One of the shafts is really smooth, but unfortunately the other is out of balance. I will probably take it to a driveline shop in Baltimore sometime and have them rebalance it for $60 instead of buying another. Interestingly the good one has a slightly different part number. Per this sticky all of the shafts for 4.0 with 4WD AW4 are the same but sometime in 2000 or 2001 they made some additional modifications to the shaft and incremented the part number to 53005542ac. I have looked but can't tell what changed, but something to keep in mind in the future.

Another thing I noticed during the diagnosis was that the wheel hub bearings were starting to make some noise. These were unmarked hubs from ebay that I picked up for an axle shaft switch back in 2011, and had been working fine so I kept running them.



For the new units, I bought some SKF bearings with the large rubber seals on the back like stock hub units. These are not sold as regreasable, but I have found that it is possible to carefully remove the seal, clean the bearings and then pack them with wheel grease (I have an old set of stockers on my spare shafts). Timken bearings have a narrow metal seal that cannot be removed easily without high risk of damage, so I sprung for the SKF.

I also bought some anti-rattle clips for the brakes, to see if that took care of any other noises (it did not). I'm not sure this is the right way to mount them--the only picture I could find was on JF and they showed the clip rubbing on the rotor, but this way they don't rub as much

Side effect of the bearing replacement is it got rid of a mild rumble and vibe at 45ish that I thought was drivline noise. Between the hub bearings and the driveshaft, the jeep is smooth at all speeds now, and is quieter too. I will go back and try to lower the D30 pinion some more and see if I can get a little better caster angle, should improve ride quality some more.

That brings things pretty much up to date. Lots of repairs and maintenance items but this POS is finally comfortable and safe to drive out of the county

 

[ehall]

Another problem on my list was every time that I went over a large bump, something under the Jeep would make a loud thwump noise. I thought it was exhaust noise but when I rebuilt the transfer case I found a wear spot in the tcase skid. There was only about half an inch gap there, and the transmission mount had apparently become soft enough for the transfer case to throw around a bit. I was going to hold off on a repair until I could do some underbody work, but Stinky Fab started selling their replacement transmission mount so I grabbed one of those.

Unfortunately the mount is only available with poly bushings and I am strongly opposed to those, so I also needed to find a rubber bushing. The sleeve is 1.5" ID and 2.5" long, while the outer uprights are 2.75" apart with a .5" hole (matches the sleeve of the poly bushing). Looking around, the only thing I could find with the same measurements is the RB-71 leaf spring bushing, with the only difference being a 9/16 inner sleeve. NAPA also has a stock YJ leaf bushing with very similar measurements, just a little wider on the inner sleeve and a 9/16 diameter. The NAPA near me was able to get one before closing so that is what I went with.

First step was to cut down the inner sleeve on the bushing to fit. Just cut the excess metal off so that it was flush with the rubber

Then pressed it in with my HF BJ press. Note the washers acting as pilots to avoid pushing the rubber out

Not a lot of margin there

Then drilled out the holes in the upright to 9/16, and installed a 14mm LCA bolt

Driveline at rest is pretty much the same as before, however nothing goes thwump anymore. The mount is still able to twist, but does not allow for much vertical movement (acts like a leaf bushing ought to act).

One artifact of the new bushing is it transmits a lot more noise--when I start the Jeep, it sounds like the starter motor is right in the cab with me. I also hear the chain in the transfercase, and feel driveshaft vibes that I didn't notice before. Some of this has already started to fade as the rubber breaks in, but its a little unnerving right now.

If I were doing this again, I would probably cut 1/8" from the outer metal sleeve of the bushing so that there was more rubber to "pillow" between the two bracket pieces. It seems to be okay like this, but it would probably bet better in the long run to have more rubber sidewall.

Another noise down

 

[ehall]

Another problem (!) was the Walker tailpipe that was installed as part of the engine swap in 2011 started to rust apart from the winter usage. There are a couple of other things down there that have become rusty, but the Walker tailpipe actually fell apart. Asking around, and none of the local exhaust shops really seemed to specialize in stainless steel, but I got a recommendation for an exhaust shop near Baltimore so headed up that way.

They did pretty good work although it was kind of pricey for the finished product. They bent up a couple of stainless hangars and rigged them to the factory locations which was nice, and they also cleaned up some of the welds and brackets from the local garage (who does not have stainless welding gear)

That also got rid of a buzz in Reverse, where the flange was rubbing against the floorboard. Another noise down, and no more risk of leaving a section of tailpipe on the highway

Unfortunately I picked some severe vibes on the way back home, and it appears that the "good" junkyard driveshaft I picked up has decided to play bad. I need to schedule some time with the driveline shop and get the driveshafts rebalanced but I also need to do an inspection on the rear axle bearings and gears before then.

 

[BasslicksXJ]

Wow - that's a whole lot of noise chasing.

 

[ftwelder]

Great thread. I really like the breather ideas!

 

[OverlandZJ]

I had been chasing a noise on bumps in the wife's WJ. Swapped out the rear lower CA's, the upper A-arm and balljoint, new exhaust, shocks etc.

Had an oversized load to Baltimore last thursday, open the hatch glass and the friggin upper hinges were broke.. hatch glass hanging by the struts. Dealer wanted 175..

This Jeep thing is gettin' to be like a bad rash..

 

[ehall]

Unfortunately I picked some severe vibes on the way back home, and it appears that the "good" junkyard driveshaft I picked up has decided to play bad. I need to schedule some time with the driveline shop and get the driveshafts rebalanced but I also need to do an inspection on the rear axle bearings and gears before then.

I took the junkyard driveshafts to a driveline shop in Baltimore that was setup for double cardan joints. The desk monkey said they both tested good for runout and balance, but he installed some minor weights to get them closer (and to justify charging me). I got back home and put them on and they still vibed. :flamemad:

After some thinking about it, I cleaned out the grease in the expansion joints, and then regreased all the u-joints and centering balls to flush them out, cleaned the caps and straps to get everything flush, and that made most of the vibes go away. While I was tugging around on stuff, I also noticed that the shaft on the front (which is hyper-extended because of the axle being moved forward) had some play in the expansion joint, so I reinstalled the old shaft that was still good. Now everything is nice and smooth, and just a little bit of vibes coming in randomly.

So, I have two good shafts, and a spare that is marginal, which is basically where I wanted to end up, but it cost me a trip to Virginia for two junkyard shafts and a trip to Baltimore for two rebalances, about $400 total I guess. But jeep rides smooth, and I have a spare.

I really need to get custom shafts made, especially with the front being so stretched out

 

[ehall]

Even after the exhaust shop cleaned up the old exhaust, the pipe before the cat was still close enough to rub against my T&T crossmember a bit.

A guy in the local club is into demolition derby and hotrod stuff and has a bunch of projects going all the time. He bought a new notcher and was looking for something to use it on, so I had him make a couple of divots in the crossmember to clearance the exhaust.

There's about 1/2" of clearance at the pipes now, no more rubbing

 

[ehall]

I'm testing a new hosting setup, images should be much much faster

 

[OverlandZJ]

Yep... much faster!

 

[ehall]

My 242 is still making some noises in 2WD, like the chain is rubbing against the planetary differential, and still some whining in 4WD. Last week a 242 from a 99 WJ (light duty) came available from a part-out for $50. It should not be a HD unit but I am hoping to scavenge some parts anyway.

It was sitting outside for a little while but the fluid looked alright and it is pretty low mileage and the bearings feel good. I have new seals and bearings on mine from the rebuild so I'm mostly interested in internals, which should move over

 

[ehall]

ps--did some wheeling in a local guy's back acreage, put my nose in a creek and got stuck pretty good

Did good otherwise, cleared my own trail fine, crawled through mud fine, got pulled out fine, engine ran cool, everything worked well except the driver, good fun

 

[ehall]

I am doing some stuff under the jeep and the 8.25 axle breather kept getting in my shit so spent most of the afternoon rerouting it instead of what I had planned to do.

Up behind the driver-side gas tank hangar, inside the skid, through the frame rail, and then out the flap. Puts it out above the cargo deck floopan, which is pretty high.

Also a good test for new webhost and image gallery software

 

[OverlandZJ]

New photohosting is worlds better now.. I dont need to make an apt to view them anymore.

Slick location for that breather end..

Picking up my new project today, another ZJ.

Going to the York show up this way?

 

[ehall]

Probably won't make it this year, my Cadillac is back in the trans shop because the planetary we didn't replace burned up after 300 miles, then need to replace the water pump gasket and AC clutch, and supposed to make a trip to TN a week ago.