I love my problems

purpleTJchick

purpleTJchick

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Location
Durham
first let me give you the background and set up.

I got my jeep back about a month ago. I had an used 8.8, 4.56 gear, lockrite lockers in the rear, and re4.5 lift put on it. while I was there I saw the guy shim it up, and three others check behind him, so I figured I could trust them since they were good guys that did it for a living. My problem finally popped its ugly little head not to long ago. It started off when I noticed my rear wheels when pulling off. In a normal everyday pull off my wheel will start like they is going to roll, stop/pause for a brief sec then starts to roll again. My father informs me it is probably shimmed wrong, but after I told him I had lockers he said he did not know b/c he was not sure how they worked.

Fast forward to this past week. I am backing up on a small hill and hear 2 very loud pops. I thought it was the lockers messing up so took it for a spin and found it did it again (not so loud) in low gear (while I do not have my foot on the gas, brake or clutch) It almost feels like it is rolling fine, then misses a notch, or gear (not sure how to explain it) then catches the next one. and it always feels like this in the rear axle.

I tested the lockers well and this does not sound/feels like lockers and anyway.

After doing everything I can think of I am left assuming it is the gears shimmed wrong. does this sound right for wrong shimmed gears?
 
Sounds like teeth to me either on the R&P or the locker itself. The pins may even be busted on the LR. If they are it allows the side gears and the middle gears next to the cross shaft to rotate more than usual. Happened in my tacoma a few times. Last time it happened I was backing up and the rear end slipped bad enough it sounded like a machine gun going off. Put in a new set of pin and springs and filed the teeth on the LR then flipped the gears around inside the carrier so it was riding on the opposite side of the gears. 3 vehicles and almost 300k later that LR is still going. :flipoff2: even after being under my 38's. You may even try getting another set of spider gear thrust washers to stick in there on top of the ones in there now to tighten things up a bit on the locker if your trying to go cheap and the pin kit alone won't fix the problem. Last time I bought pins and springs I got them the cheapest with shipping from Jay at West Coast Differentials.
 
Let me know if we can help you out. If you want to bring it to Charlotte we will be happy to take a look and see if we can get you back on the road.

It sounds like you have a tooth broken in the R&P, and the longer you drive on it the more damage it can cause.......

Give me a shout if we can help

Andy
 
I am all the way in durham, I dont think I can make iit to see you, but I appreacaite the offer. if all closer options fail you will be hearing from me. I will be parking stubby till I can get something done
 
purpleTJchick said:
I am all the way in durham, I dont think I can make iit to see you, but I appreacaite the offer. if all closer options fail you will be hearing from me. I will be parking stubby till I can get something done
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wouldn't hurt you to just pull the cover and see if metal chunks fall out, or if you see any missing teeth by rotating the rear tires...

Greg
 
Drain it snap a pic and post it up... Prolly give ya a rough idea of whats wrong. No time like the present to at least take a look, besides cant hurt being familiar with whats in there.
 
the time is not the best. I have to move the bikes out of the garage to stick it under. i will get to it soon, and I will get that picture for you. all the help i can get would be great. thank you
 
I'd put my money on a broken cross pin in the carrier. I'm going through the same thing right now except I broke a mini spool in the process (still haven't quite figured out that one yet). I sheared the cross pin (notched style), and when coasting, it would allow the broken portion of the cross pin, that wasn't retained by the retaining bolt, to slide out and catch the pinion gear. Hopefully it didn't take out your locker or the R&P. Only way to find out is to open it up and take a look. Since you're running 4.56's, if they didn't grind a tooth on the ring gear, I would think it pretty unlikely that the cross pin screwed up the R&P too much.

You'll be able to tell pretty quickly if this is the problem. Just jack the wheels up, pop the cover and rotate the wheels. Keep an eye on the carrier. Good luck.
 
Do you feel comfortable pulling the cover? It doesn't take much skill, but if you are not used to digging into the guts of your Jeep...

If you need a place, some tools and someone to watch over your shoulder or any one or two of the three, shoot me a PM and I can get together with you next week and give it a look see.
 
lomodyj said:
Do you feel comfortable pulling the cover? It doesn't take much skill, but if you are not used to digging into the guts of your Jeep...
If you need a place, some tools and someone to watch over your shoulder or any one or two of the three, shoot me a PM and I can get together with you next week and give it a look see.
Click to expand...

I have done it twice, on someone esles jeep with them there. My dad has the tools , the space (if you move stuff around) for me to do (it is going in his garage when I move stuff around) if anyone is close with time I might try to get them to come out there and help me. as far as me taking it any where esle, I dont think I will be moving it much. I can be parnoid like that.
 
Kevin Watts (TOP-notch gear guy) is in the RDU area...

I could prolly swing by sometime after work next week if you want to pop the cover and have a look around. We can also test the locker and make sure it's doing what it should if we don't see anything that screams at us.
 
So are we starting a pool on who gets the correct answer? :D

I say the installer ground the center pin to clear the ring gear, the center pin has since failed, causing the locker to skip teeth when it shouldn't. The locker may have been damaged as a result.
 
I checked it out. and what did I find????.... not a damn thing. WTF? that is too much noise for nothing. the guy helping me played in there a while but couldn't find anything. There were no metal chunks... no metal shavings and everything looked normal. he even admitted that those pops did not sound normal, so I know it is not just me. I will send pics later, but it looked normal to me. he did adjust something so maybe that helped. we even checked the things ya'll thought might be wrong. if it continues I am not sure what esle to do. thanks for all the info
 
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