Ownership Verified: BCS repeatedly breaks, fixes, and re-breaks his Jeep

? I've seen what happens when this does actually occur. People can lose feet...
True that, SFI flexplates/bellhousings exist for a reason.
 
Honestly, after the work week I've had it was cathartic to go out and hit things with a hammer. I had a great time.

Axle is completely gutted and next it's off to the car wash tomorrow to clean out the tubes while I'm washing the transmission case and a few other parts.
 
Now to be fair to my transfer case, I bought this from a junkyard on half-off day for $50 out of an '89 XJ with some crazy number of miles on it. Upon opening it to swap the input shaft I discovered that what it lacked in lubricant it made up for in rusty water. The shift fork pads were visibly worn. I replaced nothing, not even the seals.

But that's OK, because I proceeded to daily-drive and beat on it for nine years without a complaint (and with the occasional mild leak)

Unfortunately I was starting to hear some odd noises from amidships, so it was finally time to yank it out again and see what's what.

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Ah yes - the fork pads have disintegrated and the shift fork has a nice deep groove worn in it. Wonder where the pads went.

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Found 'em!

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Good thing I have spare transfer case parts for some reason. Parts hoarding saves the day!

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Pump not looking great either.

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Pump definitely not doing well. RIP.

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Gears, diff, and planetary all look to be in good shape. Forgot the mainshaft needle bearings have no retaining cage. Thanks goodness for trans reassembly grease.

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A quick trip through the "parts washer" to make the case look about 13% less shitty.

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And that brings us to today. A complete set of new seals, a new oil pump, new fork pads, and a new chain are all incoming and I should have it back together this weekend. Will this solve my concerning banging noises? Maybe!

My trans rebuild parts arrived as well, so I think that means it's time to drag the other spare trans out of the shed and open it up. Ought to be able to make one great trans out of two OK ones. Fun!
 
I am still amazed how people are able to open up those things and go "Ah, the rotary spline transducer is worn, and that made the viscous thermoactuator give up. Since I was already opening it up, I put in a desmodromic spline rectifier. That should hold up."
 
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I am still amazed how can people open up those things and go "Ah, the rotary spline transducer is worn, and that made the viscous thermoactuator give up. Since I was already opening it up, I put in a desmodromic spline rectifier. That should hold up."
The nice thing about the modern world is a full course on turboencabulator repair is just a quick trip to Youtube!

Short update: Transfer case is mostly back together, chain just showed up, but I'm stuck waiting on a $0.10 O-ring that was discontinued by Mopar like ten years ago.

Single aftermarket replacement o-ring: $15+$30 shipping from the States.
Dimensionally identical unit made from better material: $10.40 for a pack of 100, free Prime shipping.

This is why I own like five sets of digital calipers scattered around the property. Sometimes a guy's just gotta do the measuring.
 
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I am still amazed how can people open up those things and go "Ah, the rotary spline transducer is worn, and that made the viscous thermoactuator give up. Since I was already opening it up, I put in a desmodromic spline rectifier. That should hold up."

Eh, we all learn and understand different things.
 
Yes, I know.

If @BerserkerCatSplat watched my thesis defense about butterflies he would probably go "The what did what to the what now?" :ROFLMAO:

Sounds legit interesting! A friend of mine did his thesis on the philosophy of mathematics as viewed from a nihilist perspective, and it can be generally summed up by "wut".
 
You've been making great progress on the Heep and it's quality entertainment to boot. Moar!

Thanks! I'll have lots of content when the transmission build begins... but for now I'm paused on the transfer case while Amazon figures out how to send me the correct package of O-rings instead of ones that are noticeably too large because they put the wrong damn stock sticker on the bag. Sigh.
 
And we're back! Back on the healing bench that is, with a range fork scavenged out of my NP249 parts pile, a full complement of fork pads from RockAuto, and brand new seals everywhere. After years (maybe decades) of neglect, she gets a pampering.

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Shockingly, the OEM chain hadn't stretched at all, so it goes to the Milk Crate Of Spare Transfer Case Parts.

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New chain installed and it's time to button her up. New fluid pump not pictured.

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TOP TIP: Tired of your tube of RTV drying out even though you've only used 20% of the tube? Store it in the freezer! Mine has been going strong for a good three years now. It feels like a miracle. Also the case is back together.

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Leg-pressed the case back into position on the trans and an intial test drive showed a lack of disturbing bangs from the driveline, so... maybe fixed? Here's hoping.



Also, remember that Aussie locker that came with the axle I bought?

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Sold it for more than I paid for the entire axle. Win! So I took that $ and bought myself a pilot-arc plasma cutter. Let's make some brackets or an axle truss or something!
 
With the transfer case seemingly back in its happy place and the bottom armour bolted back on, it was time to finish off the winch rebuild.

That era of Warn winch used an old-school array of starter solenoids to run the winch. This worked....OK. Reliability was...OK. Frankly, I hate them and prefer a contactor.

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So out come the solenoids, which I will throw on eBay.

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After modifying the solenoid housing baseplate a bit, the Temco CN0238 450A contactor fits into place nicely. The factory wires bolt up perfectly, though I may eventually shorten then a bit for a cleaner install.

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A bit of extra insulation for safety and the control wiring is connected.

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And that's all buttoned up!

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Now, for most people, they would hook up the winch to a 12V source and enjoy the sights and sounds of a fully functioning device.

Me, I hooked the winch up to my shop battery and was rewarded with strange random clicking/buzzing noises and a winch that wouldn't turn. What followed was two hours of:
- Double/triple checking the controller wiring diagram
- Disconnecting all of the controller wiring and activating the contactor manually
- Double/triple-checking the contactor wiring
- Attacking the contactor with a multimeter to see if it was functioning correctly and which poles were being switched
- Learning about how the armature/field windings work on a series-wound motor and how that relates to the contactor
- Sending power directly to the motor via jumper cables, still no turning
- Disassembling the winch again to remove the motor housing and inspect the motor parts
- Powering the motor directly again but this time without it being installed on the winch - the motor spins but sloooooowly
- Eyeing my shop battery with suspicion
- Discovering that my shop battery that I fully charged last week and has been sitting on its usual shelf since then is putting out a whopping 8.5V
- Realizing that there was never anything wrong with my wiring and I was just testing with a dead battery
- Sigh. Reassemble winch and wiring exactly the same way I had it to begin with. Sigh some more
- Connect to battery in Jeep and see winch perform flawlessly now that it's actually being fed 12V
- Sigh.


Postscript: The shop battery was put on the charger again and immediately started making scary cracking/popping noises and was relocated to the yard under a bin in case it decided to get a bit explodey.
 
So like 10ish years ago when I did the 5.9L build/swap, I also swapped in a low(er)-miles 46RH transmission from a junkyard ZJ. I put in a Transgo TFOD-H2 shift kit at the time and since then it has performed very well.

As noted in a previous post, I bought a broken 46RH (which was in a 1995 ZJ but turned out to be a 1993 trans) from a friend. I also had kept my original 46RH (1994) in a shed in case I ever decided to rebuild it. With both transmissions in my shop, I proceeded to tear them down and figure out what was what.

I definitely discovered that there were internal design changes between 1993 and 1994 transmissions. In usual Chrysler fashion, 1993 being the first year for the 46RH means they re-used a bunch of parts from the older A518 trans. The major issue being the different gear cut in the overdrive section (22.5 degrees vs 15 degrees) which meant basically none of the parts in the 1993 unit's OD section were useful to me. This discovery led me to completely tear down both units to see if there would be any other issues. Fortunately, the only other difference was the presence of a thrust washer vs. hardened surface on the reverse drum. Thus, I ended up with a much greater understanding of transmission design and a shop knee-deep in Torqueflite parts.

After struggling to purchase transmission parts out the States (one company abjectly refused to answer any emails and had no phone number) I finally acquired most of the parts I needed to finish the build. I had intended to start with the OD section as it is assembled as a separate unit, but my upgraded 5-pinion planetary gear has not yet arrived. So instead I started with what I could do on the main case and clutches.

I should probably mention I have never, ever built a transmission before and everything I know comes from the ASTG manual, the shop manual, and a lot of Youtube videos. A lot.


Main case cleaned and ready for action:
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Soak those clutches while you wait!
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The upgraded aftermarket piston retainer calls for a hole to be drilled in the case to better lubricate the rear sprag, thank goodness for that big-ass drill press I picked up.
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It's a very small (0.045") hole but important nonetheless.
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With the hole drilled, I could install the new piston retainer and associated gasket. Marinate liberally with green trans assembly goo.
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Among other upgrades is a much thicker billet steel reverse servo piston, as the stock cast-aluminum unit (bottom) has a habit of getting off-kilter in the bore and jamming up.
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Many of the internal bushings were showing some ugly wear, the shop press and a set of bearing drivers made short work of replacing them. This is a very satisfying process, I've discovered.
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(Ignore the rust on the spring seat, that part gets replaced when the OD section is assembled.)

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Next up on the press, the forward drum spring retainer needed to be removed to replace the piston lip seals. Random bits of oilfield pipe make for great press tools - just cut out the bits that are in your way! This particular tool was my first use of the new plasma cutter, and man that is so much quicker than the angle grinder. Freehand cuts are pretty ugly though.
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There's the springs hiding under the retainer - the bushing is in OK shape but I'll replace it while I'm in there.
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Forward drum with new frictions and steel installed. It's provisionally together but I'm attempting to add an extra friction pack to this assembly (3->4) - I discovered that if I used a spare retaining plate from the direct clutch installed upside down, it allows me to get the extra clutch in there with endplay within tolerances. I have to pick up some parts from my trans guy so I'll pick his brain about the setup while I'm there - if he says it's a dumb idea I'll just machine down the factory plate instead. New bushing? New bushing.
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Rear clutch drum: Old frictions and steels out, new ones in. These can be modified to hold more clutches (5-6) than the 4 I have in there, but for what I do that wasn't a worthwhile upgrade. You need to be in the 500HP+ range to make that clutch slip. The endplay was a bit looser than I wanted, the stock big-ass snap ring you can see on the outer edge is 0.074" thick and endplay is manged by changing that out for thicker/thinner ones. I'll see if I can get a 0.088" one.
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Installing new seals on the various parts is a bit of a puzzle game. Here's a bag of assorted seals, find the ones that fit! what are the other ones for? Who knows!
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That's about as far as I can go without the last few parts I'm waiting on - a couple of upgraded planetaries, a couple of thrust washers, an upgraded kickdown band apply lever and a replacement servo piston centering ring I broke during assembly.

In the meantime, I took my old damaged intermediate shaft and turned it into a combination of an alignment tool and a knockoff of a Miller 6312 so I can accurately set OD intermediate shaft depth and also keep the OD splines aligned. The legit Miller tool is ~$250, but with an old shaft, a bit of ingenuity, and some math, you can get the measurements you need. You'll see this used when I build the OD section IF MY PARTS WOULD HURRY UP AND ARRIVE.

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