I finally got to the tcase rebuild today, but first a cautionary tale... this is what happens when you run a 27 spline output with a stock slip yoke, 35s, and fill the case with gear oil:
not recommended. :laugh:
So I cleaned the mf snot out of the case to get rid of all the metal dust and gear oil, what a PITA. But the bearings and seals all seemed OK, and they got seriously lubed during the buildup (I like engine assembly lube for this, cause its so damn sticky). I was then was ready to swap in the loooooong 5-45rfe compatible input gear, along with a 6-gear planetary setup - old and new pictured here (the one on the left is the longest gear used in XJ/TJ apps):
Then I hit the "hunt-all-over-town-for-parts-noone-has" wall, as I searched for some fork pads -- the gear oil melted the shift fork pads into a blob, and noone in town had shift fork pads, only mode fork pads - then I figured out why, as I saw something I have never seen in my MANY prior NP231 rebuilds: a shift fork with the pads incorporated into it -- apparently chrysler redesigned this part, the parts dude at Perkins was surprised as well. see below:
With that in hand, I was ready to roll (3 hours later) along with some fresh pads for the mode fork:
All cleaned up and ready to re-seal the case:
Sealed up with the SYE installed:
Now I have a new problem - I have three flat pins on my VSS, and three round pins on the pigtail I'm using to tie into the ABS sensor and steal a speedo signal:
If anyone has one or the other lying around (in the springs) to make this work, it would be much appreciated. :cheers:
I also need the VSS retaining screw dealy that isn't pictured here, if anyone's got one:
I also managed to get the full-time NP247 out this evening - the input gear acts as a seal to the back of the 5-45fre tranny, so if you pull it out on an angle (like say it might be at to get those top two bastard bolts), you get a mouthful of ATF, which tastes like shit BTW... ask me how I know. :gag:
With some luck (and electrical blessings), she'll be buttoned up and ready to roll tomorrow.