my yj build.

[redneck23ms]

i bought this jeep when i moved out here in the spring of 2012. it was stock 6 cyl 5 speed with 2" suspension lift and 1" body lift and 33's since then its been crashed. whole body replaced. then the real build started. here is a list of what all has been done since then. full cage tied to the frame, full width hp44 front with 5.13 gears, detroit locker, ctm u-joints, chromo shafts, solid dif cover, ford 9" rear, 5.14 gears, detroit locker, chromo shafts, pinion guard, prp seats, dakota rear leafs for a 10" stretch, heim joint steering with waggy pitman arm, hydro assist steering, 36" iroks on 15" beadlocks, swingout tire carrierbumper/crossmember. thats all that i can think of for now. Anyways a couple weekends ago i started working on the main thing the jeep was lacking and that was lower gearing for crawling. a year or so back i picked up a np231/dana300 doubler. the dana 300 had broken output shafts. but came with another parts dana 300. It turns out the parts case was a 1980 dana 300 which had a shorter output shaft and different rear housing than the later cases. so i found another rear shaft online. eventually got around to putting the dana 300 all together. Now came time to install it all. I began by installing a set of brown dog 1.5" lift motor mounts. These serve 3 purposes for me, 1 my stock ones were getting worn out , 2 raise the motor for more clearance in rocks. 3 to keep the drivetrain somewhat level once i raise the t-cases. While installing the motor mount mounts i found that the motor side bracket was loose. tightened the bolts and one snapped off. after and hour of fooling with that i finally got it out and the mounts all tightened up. then came the t-case. Got the old 231 pulled and began the plan for the install. i knew a couple of the bolt holes on the transmission would need to be opened up a bit for the new 231 doubler to be installed as the mounting studs arent evenly spaced. got that done without too much hassle. Tried to install the 231 and it wouldn't slide on the shaft. It turns out that my 231 doubler had a 21 spline input shaft not 23 spline like i needed. so i disassembled both the doubler and my old 231 and swapped input shafts. Then i installed the doubler and held the dana 300 in place to see where it needed to go clocking wise. then pulled both the doubler and 300 out and bolted them together. along with the shifter cable mount. one bolt was a nightmare due to the shifter cable mount. i had to modify a wrench so that it was only about 1/4" wide to be able to tighten that bolt and it still took 20 mins to tighten. got that all bolted up to the trans. then jacked it up and cut the floor on both the drivers and passenger side. i was hoping to be able to get it above the bottom of the frame but the doubler hit the seat mounts on my cage before i could get it quite that high. Made new trans crossmember and mount and then a mount for the back of the 300 to help hold the weight and a crossmember for it. Then installed the new triple stick cable shifters from jbfab. Then came time for driveshafts, ended up shortening the rear 1.5" and lengthening the front. covered the wholes in the floor with some rubber belting material. Installed new flat skid plate dropped 1" below the frame rails. then reinstalled seats and made new trans tunnel cover since t-case shifter no longer mounted under, welded up shifter mount. then installed new catalytic converter and muffler. and now i have a t-case setup with a 1:1 high, a 2.62:1 low, a 2.72:1 low and a 7.126:1 double low. and a new exhaust. and onto the pics.
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_06951_zpsffaufx2n.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_06951_zpsffaufx2n.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_06971_zpse1j3xett.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_06971_zpse1j3xett.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_06991_zpseehcj90s.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_06991_zpseehcj90s.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07001_zpskdyss2ko.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07001_zpskdyss2ko.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07051_zpsypvhxpv9.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07051_zpsypvhxpv9.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07031_zpscgarvagz.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07031_zpscgarvagz.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07021_zpsomknpx7a.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07021_zpsomknpx7a.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07091_zps2exkgetq.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07091_zps2exkgetq.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07081_zpsi06y9yvg.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07081_zpsi06y9yvg.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07101_zpswdaonyic.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07101_zpswdaonyic.jpg.html)
and done!
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07111_zpso41kovcm.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07111_zpso41kovcm.jpg.html)
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_07121_zpskjjndxnd.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_07121_zpskjjndxnd.jpg.html)

[dieseldoc]

nice work alex.
sucks you had the wrong spline count issues.....
now you need some 4 to 1 in the d300 to get the full use of the gears!
Wish we could have seen you at the annaversry run.

[EKXJ87]

Glad to hear you didn't let the jeep get the best of you! Nice work on the doubler can't wait till we meet on the trail again.

[redneck23ms]

well today i made the first attempt to drive the jeep since the swap and had a hiccup. the 231 doubler jumps out of high range. so tomorrow i get to pull it back out and try to figure out the issue. i think the problem is either the input shaft retainer ring or the range fork.

[dieseldoc]

Hope it an easy fix, once you get the thing out.

[redneck23ms]

found the issue. when i swapped input shafts i didn't swap the input shaft bearings. the one from the 21 spline shaft was 1/4-3/8" narrower than the one from the 23 spline shaft. that allowed the input shaft to walk back and forth when in high range and pop into neutral. just have to reinstall it now

[dieseldoc]

Hope all is well man.
Hope the northern stuff open soon.

[EKXJ87]

Well thats good news hope the reinstall goes well

[redneck23ms]

got it back in today, after it fell off the jack a couple times. it is a heavy sucker to try and handle alone. just have to add fluids, change a u-joint in the rear shaft and install the skid and it will be ready to test again. should work fine now. oh and i also have to reassemble my old case.

[redneck23ms]

back together and all is well now. heres a pic of the bearings.
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_0714_zpseykivynw.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_0714_zpseykivynw.jpg.html)

[redneck23ms]

The jeep worked great last saturday at chinamans. even ran the entrance of carnage. then that night on my way back to my camp from the koa the t-case made a weird grinding sound for a second. worked fine after that. sunday i again ran the entrance to carnage but didn't make it as far, kept getting hung on the diffs and leaf spring mounts, while waiting for the rest of the group to show up. all day sunday the dana 300 made a rythmic grinding sound if going over 15-20 mph. worse in low range. made it through the day without any other issues. took all of the hard lines with no problems. got it home and opened up the dana 300 and quickly found the problem. lots of metal in the bottom of it. turns out the last time i assembled it one of the thrust washers fell out between the intermediate gear and the case before i got the pin in it. if you've never taken a dana 300 apart, the intermediate gear sucks to install. there are 48 loose needle bearings, 3 spacers and 2 thrust washers. and you have to install it without any of them falling out. i have done this several times now even with it still installed in the jeep. anyways i didn't notice the thrust washer wasnt in before i closed it up, lesson learned. so a couple days ago i pulled out the intermediate gear and cleaned everything up as best i could without taking it completely apart, reinstalled it with another thrust washer, new oil, and closed it up etc. still made noise. best i could tell from there something appeared to be binding on the front output shaft, most likely a chunk of the washer in one of the bearings. so between yesterday and today i pulled out the intermediate gear again, and completely removed and disassembled the front output shaft, one bearing on the front output had a ding in the bearing cage so i swapped the bearing, cleaned everything up and reassembled yet again, new oil again, closed it up. put my floor patch panel back on, reinstalled the seat (as i have been doing all of this with the t-case still in the jeep accessing it through a hole in the floor) and guess what? it still makes noise, although it doesn't seem to be as bad. at this point i'm just going to run it as i really don't want to have to pull the whole doubler out again to disassemble the input shaft/rear output shaft. meanwhile if anybody comes across a dana 300 let me know. heres a pic of what was left of the thrust washer.
http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l539/redneck23ms1/IMG_08231_zpsdovcm1hq.jpg (http://s1122.photobucket.com/user/redneck23ms1/media/IMG_08231_zpsdovcm1hq.jpg.html)

[Jim]

OOF - that stinks - a PITA part to assemble and you had to do it again and again - with doom sitting on the horizon for the system as-is - what a pain - sorry for the hassle with it.

edit: If an extra hand would help while you jostle heavy parts, let me know.

[EKXJ87]

Damn those are some big chunks! Can't believe you did it while the tcase was still in the YJ

[redneck23ms]

it definitely sucked to do it through the hole in the floor. but pulling it out and installing it alone in a gravel driveway is worse. been there done that lol

[dieseldoc]

Dam man that sucks.
Sounds like upgrade time.
I have been shoping them and the EBAY prices are about 400 bucks.
PM multiscuff he might still have to one he picked up for $200.

Good luck

[redneck23ms]

he wanted $300 for it at one time. but i'll ask him about it once i get back from vacation. theres also another one on craigslist for 300. thinking about listing the jeep for sale and seeing what kind of interest i get.

[dieseldoc]

What..:confused:...is it time to build a different rig?

[redneck23ms]

yeah i'm wanting a juggy or buggy. had this rig for like 4 years now and getting ready for something else. plus i'm ready to hit some of the big boy trails. but i don't need to sell my rig either so i'm not gonna give it away. and i'm sure most will think my price is too high. and thats fine. i'll just keep having fun with it.

[dieseldoc]

Full on buggy time!
I will PM you a pic of my budy vic's new build for this year W.E. roc
I feel ya man I am so debating on what to build.
I have a 1 tons laying around, Jamie an Carolee have there wrecked wj I could grab the engine trans from....
40's is the goal but I have 37's to thrash on first.

I get nice prices on steel from an M Iron so when you are ready let me know.

[redneck23ms]

right on. if it does sell then i will be looking for an already built rig, or at least mostly finished. i don't have the space or tools or time to build from scratch.

[dieseldoc]

look on KSL.com
Go to there classifieds they have a rock cwraler section in the RV section.
It the Utah guys.
They will have some nice stuff for sale. You could pick up a few years old ultra 4 car

[redneck23ms]

broke something today. i'm thinking its one/several of the gears in the dana 300. was climbing the quarry on moody and 3/4 of the way up there was a helluva bang. had a similar bang a while back on kelly flats but i thought it was a hub as one was only halfway turned to lock. but now got the midget making gravel sound from one of the t-cases. i was able to drive it home though. only trusted it to go about 25 mph.