tom11919
New member
I finished some long overdue repairs this morning.
The unhealthy sounds coming from the pull-a-part 8.8 had been gradually getting louder and louder ever since dragging the old M101A1 trailer full of stuff up the Alaska Highway last winter, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and reset the pinion angle while I had the axle out for a rebuild. I originally swapped to the 8.8 when I had the factory leaves with an AAL and extended shackles so when I installed a set of deavers and shackle relocation brackets, I had to use shims to get the angle close enough to live with. Of course, as soon as I start unbolting the axle I notice a fresh set of cracks in the passenger side "frame rail" right at the front edge of the internal bumper supports (the rear bumper ties into the factory hitch mounting points inside the "frame rails"). I saw a very small one in the driver's side about a year ago but fixing it at the time would've meant pulling the fuel tank in the middle of winter in the driveway of the cabin I was then renting. Now that there was a much larger one and since I already had the axle out, I dropped the fuel tank and brought out the little MIG welder.
I stop drilled and stitched the crack up with my handy-dandy mig welder (using the cutest little bottle of argon/co2 I rented for the occasion), then welded a piece of 18ga over the area for reinforcement. Ditto for the outside of the "frame rail" and a much smaller crack on the inside of the drivers side. After welding, everything got a coat of primer and rubberized undercoating.
Once I got the axle home from the shop, I ingratiated myself with the neighbors by grinding the old spring perches off in the driveway. Then it was just a matter of reinstalling the axle with the new perches just resting on the cleaned up axle tubes and setting the pinion angle parallel to the driveshaft at normal ride height since I am running a double cardan joint at the transfer case. After switching the MIG back to flux core (and finding an outlet in the fiance's garage that would let me turn the amperage up without immediately tripping the breaker) I burned the perches in and buttoned it all back up.
There's still a slight vibration from about 45 to 65 so I'm either still off on the pinion angle a tiny bit or need to look harder into the front axle. In any case, the rear end of the jeep feels more solid, there are no 'clunks' when shifting into gear, and its definitely quieter at highway speed, so I call it a win. :smiley_drive:
The unhealthy sounds coming from the pull-a-part 8.8 had been gradually getting louder and louder ever since dragging the old M101A1 trailer full of stuff up the Alaska Highway last winter, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and reset the pinion angle while I had the axle out for a rebuild. I originally swapped to the 8.8 when I had the factory leaves with an AAL and extended shackles so when I installed a set of deavers and shackle relocation brackets, I had to use shims to get the angle close enough to live with. Of course, as soon as I start unbolting the axle I notice a fresh set of cracks in the passenger side "frame rail" right at the front edge of the internal bumper supports (the rear bumper ties into the factory hitch mounting points inside the "frame rails"). I saw a very small one in the driver's side about a year ago but fixing it at the time would've meant pulling the fuel tank in the middle of winter in the driveway of the cabin I was then renting. Now that there was a much larger one and since I already had the axle out, I dropped the fuel tank and brought out the little MIG welder.
I stop drilled and stitched the crack up with my handy-dandy mig welder (using the cutest little bottle of argon/co2 I rented for the occasion), then welded a piece of 18ga over the area for reinforcement. Ditto for the outside of the "frame rail" and a much smaller crack on the inside of the drivers side. After welding, everything got a coat of primer and rubberized undercoating.
Once I got the axle home from the shop, I ingratiated myself with the neighbors by grinding the old spring perches off in the driveway. Then it was just a matter of reinstalling the axle with the new perches just resting on the cleaned up axle tubes and setting the pinion angle parallel to the driveshaft at normal ride height since I am running a double cardan joint at the transfer case. After switching the MIG back to flux core (and finding an outlet in the fiance's garage that would let me turn the amperage up without immediately tripping the breaker) I burned the perches in and buttoned it all back up.
There's still a slight vibration from about 45 to 65 so I'm either still off on the pinion angle a tiny bit or need to look harder into the front axle. In any case, the rear end of the jeep feels more solid, there are no 'clunks' when shifting into gear, and its definitely quieter at highway speed, so I call it a win. :smiley_drive:
