Well my un broken reliability record has just ended with the XJ on my Outback trips. Got in on the back of a tilt tray with my trailer half jammed under the rear as well from interstate at 2 am this morning and a $800 bill from doing so. This trip has had more than one problem too starting with splitting my power steering cooler on the first night to loosing the nut off the top of the front shock along with the rubbers to check engine lights coming on due to a injector plug not seating correctly at times. Few days later a rear disc brake starts dragging causing the disc to turn blue. Then for the only the second time ever I manage to boil the radiator, and the auto at the same time I found out later, as well. Still have not worked out why that happened so will look into that as the auto continued to pump oil out of the kick down cable and its vent! As the vent was connected to a distributor vent I have as well it caused a loss on power due to the trans oil being pumped into to it which took me some time to work out. But then yesterday I was just cruising along at a 100 kph on a flat road and bang, followed by a noise that sounded like I had a length of something stuck through my new tyres which was hitting the body work with every wheel rotation! Pulled over and could find nothing wrong. Crawled along slowly with my wife running along side to see if she could pin point where it was coming from and the noise had gone. So drove off, after she got in of course, and the noise came back at around 45 kph! Turned down a dirt road so I could hang out of the Jeep while rolling along and thought it came from the rear diff. Jacked up one wheel at a time and it would clunk every second rotation of either wheel or four turns of the drive shaft. Uni's are all fine but think I have broken something in my D35 Detroit Tru-Trac or the ring and pinion. Was nothing I could do out there now so had to sit on the side of the road in 45*C heat, 113*F, for 7 hours waiting for a tilt tray to pick us up and take us over 300 kms home. Didn't want any one else working on it so was the only way out.
So that is where it is at and wont be able to look at until Tuesday it as it is sitting at a friends factory who opened it up for me at that hour. I have broken the four bolts that hold the diff centre together that you can see in the photo below.
Anyone have that happen before as might have done it again this time. Drill the broken bolts out last time about 3 years ago and replaced them with a higher grade and it lasted longer. Funny thing was is that I was just talking to my wife about fitting a D44 under there and doing a ratio change as lost some pep on the hill climbs while towing with the new 32" tyres or fitting a stroker. Knew the D35 would not be up to either so guess fitting a D44 and 4.56's instead of the 4.11's I have now is on the cards instead. Would really love a high pinion axle like a flipped 9" from Currie but might work out too high a cost to get one over here. Read while on the side of the road there were high pinion D44's too as seen them listed here ( http://www.sams4x4store.com/Dana44Axles.htm ) but don't know anyone that has ever run one. What else is out there as know about the 8.8 from an Explorer but don't want to lose rear track width as think they are 3/4" narrower each side and spacers are illegal here. No D44's from a MJ or some tow package XJ's were ever sold here so would have to go for a D44 from a TJ if I choose that route as all TJ's here have D44's. Thought they are the same track as an XJ at 60" WMS to WMS but have seen someone write that an XJ is 60.75" but no one else says so? Hoping it just just some bolts in the Tru-Trac like happened once before and maybe luckily twice without hurting anything else but still want to change the rear axle anyway if it is but will get it on the road first if a simple repair.
So what do you guys think I should go with? Hi9 or the Currie 9" high pinion ( can get rid of my trans drop then too ), standard 9" ( but would then need a sye due to the lower pinion than any thing else ).
D44 high ( if I can get one over here as too hard to ship a whole axle ) or a low pinion one from a TJ?
Now I dont know either if I should run the Tru-Trac again either even though I really like it otherwise and have had no trouble with the front one. Very streetable and does not effect my towing or off camber work like a full locker would. Like the fact you have a benefit on the street too unlike an ARB.
So that is where it is at and wont be able to look at until Tuesday it as it is sitting at a friends factory who opened it up for me at that hour. I have broken the four bolts that hold the diff centre together that you can see in the photo below.
Anyone have that happen before as might have done it again this time. Drill the broken bolts out last time about 3 years ago and replaced them with a higher grade and it lasted longer. Funny thing was is that I was just talking to my wife about fitting a D44 under there and doing a ratio change as lost some pep on the hill climbs while towing with the new 32" tyres or fitting a stroker. Knew the D35 would not be up to either so guess fitting a D44 and 4.56's instead of the 4.11's I have now is on the cards instead. Would really love a high pinion axle like a flipped 9" from Currie but might work out too high a cost to get one over here. Read while on the side of the road there were high pinion D44's too as seen them listed here ( http://www.sams4x4store.com/Dana44Axles.htm ) but don't know anyone that has ever run one. What else is out there as know about the 8.8 from an Explorer but don't want to lose rear track width as think they are 3/4" narrower each side and spacers are illegal here. No D44's from a MJ or some tow package XJ's were ever sold here so would have to go for a D44 from a TJ if I choose that route as all TJ's here have D44's. Thought they are the same track as an XJ at 60" WMS to WMS but have seen someone write that an XJ is 60.75" but no one else says so? Hoping it just just some bolts in the Tru-Trac like happened once before and maybe luckily twice without hurting anything else but still want to change the rear axle anyway if it is but will get it on the road first if a simple repair.
So what do you guys think I should go with? Hi9 or the Currie 9" high pinion ( can get rid of my trans drop then too ), standard 9" ( but would then need a sye due to the lower pinion than any thing else ).
D44 high ( if I can get one over here as too hard to ship a whole axle ) or a low pinion one from a TJ?
Now I dont know either if I should run the Tru-Trac again either even though I really like it otherwise and have had no trouble with the front one. Very streetable and does not effect my towing or off camber work like a full locker would. Like the fact you have a benefit on the street too unlike an ARB.
