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Schaef's 89 YJ "build"

55K views 290 replies 32 participants last post by  The_Goob 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

I figured I'd start a thread here to help keep track of my progress with my Jeep. This isn't so much a build as a "getting it back in good shape". It's been my DD through college so some things have been neglected as funds were low the past few years. It has pretty typical YJ issues with rust(thanks to PA winters) and I have a laundry list of things that need done(heater core, exhaust manifold, fixing frame rot, the list goes on lol). Here's a bunch of pictures of what I started with as of last week for a before comparison. I'll be taking a bunch of pictures to track progress as I get things completed as well. Feel free to give me any advice you may have.. I'm sure I'll need it lol

Here's the subject.. 89 Wrangler S




The main reason I decided to get my *** in gear to get this thing fixed up.. I got a solid frame section from a junkyard that I'll weld in once the rot is cut out.








The typical windshield frame leak rotted out my dash frame.. got one from the JY to replace eventually


Also caused this..


All that being said.. it was time to get a more street friendly tire especially since the swampers were dry rotting. I scored some BFG all-terrains from a forum member recently. Pic is me getting the tires to the tire shop to get installed lol.


I've also got a Borla header, heater core, and 4.88s waiting in the garage to be installed once the rain stops here in PA..
 
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#278 ·
You lucked out! I still think you should sell them to me! Lol

If you are going to take it down for the winter then wait and do it right. There is no point in doing half a job. Do it right the first time. I do think you run the 35. Keep the 44 as to do project until you break the 35.
 
#279 ·
I thought people were unfair to the 35 until I started poking around on mine. Its walls were so thin, it was light and you can tell they went cheap on it...it has a plastic drain cap.

Imagine something minor breaking on the D35 and having to dump more money it. You can sell it as to an I6 wrangler needing the 4.10 gears and get $150 towards your 44.
 
#280 ·
You lucked out! I still think you should sell them to me! Lol If you are going to take it down for the winter then wait and do it right. There is no point in doing half a job. Do it right the first time. I do think you run the 35. Keep the 44 as to do project until you break the 35.
I hear ya on the "do it right the first time", but I think I'm running out of time as far as warm weather goes. Not sure if I have enough room in the garage to pull it in again too, so my work will be done on the street (driveway is a hill). I have had the rear gearset on craigslist trying to see if there was any interest in them but not takers yet.
I thought people were unfair to the 35 until I started poking around on mine. Its walls were so thin, it was light and you can tell they went cheap on it...it has a plastic drain cap. Imagine something minor breaking on the D35 and having to dump more money it. You can sell it as to an I6 wrangler needing the 4.10 gears and get $150 towards your 44.
That is my thinking on keeping it 4.10, but then again who would swap axles for another d35 when 8.8's are readily available with 4.10 gearing. That will have to wait to be seen I guess Another development.. my part searching has lead me to find a good used Motive Gear 4.88 thick cut gearset for 65 bucks on ebay for my d44. I popped on them, so they'll be here this week. Therefore, I'm still leaning towards option 2. Replacing bad bearings and double checking backlash / tooth pattern on reassembly. I also have a 0-60 in/lb torque wrench, MHC dial indicator, and d35 master rebuild kit on the way. I'll need to stop at harbor freight for a bearing splitter and socket drive adapters as well. Que if you're seriously interested in the rear 4.88s let me know. I don't see a point it regearing the d35 with my d44 4.88s on the way.
 
#282 ·
My in-lb torque wrench and d44 4.88 gears showed up last night.

For those who are interested, Motive Gear #D44-488GX (listed for 03-06 rubicon models only) will work in any D44 with 3.73 and numerically lower carrier. I put an email into Motive Gear after looking the gears over/researching since I was worried it was listed wrong on eBay. The Motive Gear rep said that it'll work for the lower-gear carriers and that they've never marketed it correctly for other applications other than it's original application (03-06 rubicon). I even compared them to the G2 thick gears and they were the same.

Pic of Motive Gear d44 4.88s compared to the Alloy USA d35 4.88



I've always seen pictures of them side by side but was surprised by the size difference in person. The d30 gears are even smaller than the d35 that too

R&P install kit, and dial indicator are due in by the end of the week so I'm on track for doing the repair this weekend (weather permitting :umbrella:) . I just have to make a run to Harbor Freight for the Bearing splitter and drive adapters
 
#283 ·
schaef89 said:
My in-lb torque wrench and d44 4.88 gears showed up last night. For those who are interested, Motive Gear #D44-488GX (listed for 03-06 rubicon models only) will work in any D44 with 3.73 and numerically lower carrier. I put an email into Motive Gear after looking the gears over/researching since I was worried it was listed wrong on eBay. The Motive Gear rep said that it'll work for the lower-gear carriers and that they've never marketed it correctly for other applications other than it's original application (03-06 rubicon). I even compared them to the G2 thick gears and they were the same. Pic of Motive Gear d44 4.88s compared to the Alloy USA d35 4.88 http://s1140.photobucket.com/user/c...624-241-000000B73A8445BA_zpscdfe1f38.jpg.html I've always seen pictures of them side by side but was surprised by the size difference in person. The d30 gears are even smaller than the d35 that too R&P install kit, and dial indicator are due in by the end of the week so I'm on track for doing the repair this weekend (weather permitting :umbrella:) . I just have to make a run to Harbor Freight for the Bearing splitter and drive adapters
Nice man, ull love the dana 44. If u break ne shafts or need ne misc parts let me no. I have a bunch laying around from my dana 44 and I no where there is another at a local junkyard. If have 2 sets of spare shafts tho from before putting in the chromos. I went with the g2 gears tho cuz I got a killer deal $150 bucs, I have motive gears up front tho with no issues. They r both the same company but the g2 performance series is made in an old dana factory so it 100% to original specs, made on the same machines them at made the originals. Atleast that's what the guy in the phone told me when I bought them lol
 
#284 ·
Little (non)-update.. I now have all the tools I need to get into the rear axle as of friday night. I Ended up going paintballing for the first time all day Saturday, then out for wings and beer. The plan was to wake up Sunday, head home and start on car work, but crap Pittsburgh drivers/traffic had other plans. I guess someone rolled their SUV on 79S and it took us 1.5 hours longer to get home (finally got home by 3pm). Had to do an oil change/tire rotation on the lady's g5 and by then it was about 5, so I decided to tackle my Grand Cherokee's tie rod end. I failed so horribly after 3 hours trying to spin it out that I gave up and put it back together. I finally got it out last night after removing the entire tie rod from the vehicle and putting it in a bench vice + 24" pipe wrench + 15 min of propane torch (geez).

As far as the wrangler goes, I'd like to have a full day for the d35 fix in case I run into any snags. I also think I'm going to pick up some gear marking compound from Advance. The container in the kit only netted me a pea size blob of yellow compound. This weekend's weather forecast looks to be promising with sun/clouds all weekend so I'm shooting for one of those days to fix it. It's been nothing but crappy rainy days over the last week and a half.
 
#285 ·
I got home today and buckled down on the jeep. Took me from 5p to 10p but I got both pinion bearings replaced.

My pinion preload ended up at 20 in-lbs which is smack dab in the middle of the range (15-25 in-lbs in the FSM). I will say that making that crush sleeve collapse is a ***** to say the least!

I then checked the backlash and landed on .008" which is within the FSM range of .005-.009". Ran the pattern and it looked good so I decided to button it up and all 4 are back on the ground now. Only thing left is to fill the diff with gear oil and run a test drive to see how good I did.

Here are the pics I have. Sorry I didn't do step by step like usual but I was mostly working in the dark and was trying to move fast

Drive
Coast
 
#286 ·
It would be great to hear how you put on the pinion gear. Did you torque it without the ring gear? If so, what did you use to tighten it down? ...to crush the sleeve.

Thanks....my project is waiting until I figure this part out.
 
#287 ·
It was torqued without the ring gear since you have to set the bearing preload of the pinion only. Basically how much torque to make it spin by itself.

This isn't the most ideal way to tighten it down, and I'll probably get flamed for it but I could only get it to keep tightening with my air impact gun. I physically could not get it to budge after a certain point and didn't have many resources to apply more leverage on my socket wrench. So I held the yoke still with a 24" pipe wrench and drew a line on the side of my socket to watch it move. I'd tighten it 1/16-1/8" at a time and measure preload with the in-lb torque wrench I bought. It took awhile even with the impact gun.

Here's the update from the last couple of weeks..

I went through the diff and took it for a drive after refilling the gear oil. Noise was still there so I started by checking the u joints on the rear driveshaft to rule things out. I found that the one u joint i hadn't replaced had a damaged spot on one of the needle bearing surfaces



So i replaced it and when i was strapping down my yoke I noticed something. The first picture is the way it should look





The ear for the u joint is worn down. At this point I was thinking that this was making the clicking noises/growling. Took it for a ride and.. noise was still there.

At this point I thought I was hearing the noise more towards the passenger rear wheel. I figured at 25 bucks for the bearing and 8 for the seal I might as well replace it and see if it quiets up. Below are pictures followed by a video of how loose the bearing was on the race and noise while turning. Hopefully the videos work correctly







Threw the axle back in after the new seal and bearing install and the. noise. was. still. there. :brickwall: I think regardless if the bearing was making noise, it should have been replaced. Either way I was really hoping that was the cause.

To be honest I have no idea what the cause is and I'm severely starting to doubt my diagnostic abilities.

I'm going to replace the 10w30 in the trans with gear oil because I hear it mainly coming from the trans hump. That and the trans is the only thing that is not known to be good. I've already gone through the rear and tcase and the noise is still present so my next step is to change the fluid to see if the noise decreases and maybe narrow it to a bad bearing in the trans.

My driver side axle bearing was in similar, but slightly better shape than shown above so I haven't replaced it but I may decide to do so if the gear oil doesn't change anything. At least I can say that the rear was gone through when I go to sell it during the d44 swap. Hate to admit it but Sooner was right about having to dump more into the d35
 
#290 ·
Props on diving into gearing and great job on fixing the rust. Awesome build thread, thank you for a lot of good info!
 
#291 ·
Just read this whole thing. well done, you have way more patience than I!

What I dont get is how you didnt burn through on those floor panels! Im doing mine right now with a tiny 90 amp flux core, and no matter how I set it she ends up lumpy or cooks holes in it. Wish I was better at this!
 
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