OK, crazy weekend! Awesomeness and carnage!
So, I got the 242 last Saturday and immediately started the teardown. On Wednesday I traded a case of beer for a dead NP249 for the input shaft donor. Finished the IS swap on Wednesday night, and did the final case RTVing on Thursday night. Friday night I got a hand from my dad and swapped the NP242 into the Jeep. Note: Transfer cases are heavy. My jack's lifting surface was too small to effectively lift the TC so I just humped the thing into place myself. By Friday night I had the 242 in, but I was testing the drive settings and popped the shift linkage out.
Saturday was spent fixing the linkage (I installed the linkage bushing incorrectly) and bleeding the brakes in prep for Sunday's wheeling run. That's right, mallcrawling = over.
Today was both awesome and catastrophic!
Met up with the Beyond crew for wheeling in Waiparous, a local OHV park.
I was generally near the end of the train, so I didn't get to take many pictures. Some other guys that were in the lead took some but I haven't seen most of them them yet. We hit some great mud pits right off the bat, had some steeeeep loose-rock hill climbs and some water crossings. (Pics not taken by me, obviously.)
We were going to run to the Falls, but we got to a slope that was polished sheet ice and decided that it just wasn't worth the frustration of having to winch back up and stopped for lunch.
Picked up some nature along the way somehow.
I was exiting the frozen creek via a loose-rock embankment, and just as I was getting over the ledge the Jeep suddenly pulled to the right. Immediately the guys behind me started yelling into the radio telling me that my tire had "fallen off." Yeah, it pretty much had.
So. jacked it up and threw the spare on. Unfortunately, having it spin loose while climbing loose rock tore the shit of of my wheel's lip so I'm not sure it's any good anymore. Fortunately I've got a matching spare wheel, I'll just have to swap the tire over as it tuned out the tire was OK minus a couple minor sidewall nicks.
After that, not knowing any better, I was following the kitted out H3T when he picked the "hard" trail section. No pics, but I found myself stuck in a frozen ice pit with one tire out - on sheet ice. Needless to say I was stuck pretty good as I didn't have enough tire to get up the sheer ledge from the pit. Grabbed my recovery strap and got yanked out by the 4Runner behind me, even though he temporarily got stuck pulling me out, haha. Unfortunately no pics of that particular incident.
So, after all that we finished up and started to head home. I'd been running in 4Part-Time all day so I shifted into 4Full-Time for the gravel road. As soon as I got moving, the Jeep started making a godawful banging and grinding. I stopped and tried 2WD, some thing. Only in 4PT would it not make horrific noises. Drove on 4PT until we got to pavement and tried it again, same thing. Pulled into the ditch with a couple of the other vehicles to take a look at it, and discovered that when in gear with the brake applied, the front driveshaft was still turning. Fuck. Figured I somehow trashed the ring and pinion, so I unbolted the front drive shaft and headed home in 2WD. Here's what my drive sounded like!
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Wonderful! I got a lot of looks from other drivers/cyclists/pedestrians as I drove home sounding like a giant metal blender full of bolts.
Got it home and did a closer inspection, and what initially appeared to be a split CV boot turned out to be a completely grenaded CV joint. As in, to the point that the joint itself is now in 2 (maybe more) separate pieces and is in no way connected to the axle shaft anymore. However, when the wheel rotates the metal remains of the joint on the wheel side fly around the remains of the axle side and make (guess what!) a pretty horrific clanking noise akin to what I was hearing. Hence, I figure that's my problem there and it was time for a U-joint upgrade anyway! It'll be off to the junkyard to find a late-model XJ with ABS'd 297x shafts.
So, yeah, had a ton of fun and broke a bunch of shit and thus will be heading back to the boneyard again. It's like the circle of life!
Parting shot!
