Mudbug Adventures

Every Mile Is An Adventure

Jeep Wrangler Clutch Failure

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A few weeks back we wanted to take the Mudbug on a back road adventure. I came up with a route to Hico, TX that would take us on unpaved roads. We got up early to prep the Jeep for the adventure. We took the doors off, removed the soft top, and were excited to get started. I hopped in the drivers seat, put the key in the ignition, pushed in the clutch, and it slammed to the floor without resistance. The clutch was gone.

Huge Disappointment

It was a huge disappointment for us. I looked over at Margaret and said “The clutch is gone”. At first she smiled thinking I was just playing around. Then after I pumped it a few times I saw the truth of it wash over her face. At this point there was no telling what could be wrong. I began to worry that we would have to tow it to a transmission shop for repairs. That’s not what anyone would want to hear. We closed the gate, put everything back on the Jeep and went in the house to figure out our next step.

Another Repair

We have put a lot of repairs into this Jeep since we got it. I’ve worked on vehicles since the 80’s and know my way around a vehicle. I also knew purchasing an older vehicle would have issues, especially a Jeep. You just don’t know how hard previous owners drove it. Admittedly a good portion of repairs were actually upgrades that we wanted to install for performance. Most of the other repairs have been pretty simple like the radiator replacement, exhaust headers, valve cover gaskets, etc. A transmission failure is on a completely different level of repairs though.

Diagnosing The Issue

Before taking it to a transmission shop I wanted to troubleshoot a bit first. We had just driven it the week before without issue so I knew it wasn’t the clutch plates or anything major. I crawled underneath and noticed a bit of leaking around the area where the clutch slave cylinder attaches to the bell housing. I removed the clutch slave cylinder and found a seal had gone out in it which allowed fluid to escape. When I disconnected the clutch line I had Margaret push the clutch pedal. Nothing came out of the clutch line so the clutch master cylinder wasn’t pushing fluid through to the slave cylinder. Looked to me like the clutch hydraulic system had failed.

Replacing The Clutch Hydraulic System

When systems like this fail it’s usually beneficial to replace all of it. This is a closed system that only relies on three components to function. A clutch master cylinder, a clutch line, and a clutch slave cylinder. We ordered all three parts on Amazon for just under $150. I had a few days before the parts would arrive so my son came over to help me with uninstalling the clutch master cylinder. That is a two man job and quite difficult to get out. We also noticed a sticky film on the side walls inside the brake cylinder. On the Jeep, the brake cylinder is also the fluid reservoir for the clutch line. The reservoir would need to be cleaned too.

More Issues

So many times during repairs one problem will often cascade into more problems. It’s common because so many systems rely on other systems to function. Upon removal of the brake reservoir we were unable to get it clean. The gunk was stuck to the walls. Even scrubbing didn’t work because of different compartments that prevented us from getting a brush inside. I also became concerned with that gunk getting into the brake and clutch lines. The right decision was to replace the part so we could start with clean DOT 3 brake fluid that would not get contaminated from the gunk inside the old reservoir. I couldn’t find just the reservoir but Autozone had a replacement brake master cylinder with a reservoir. Another upgrade…

Installing The Parts

The brake cylinder and reservoir went on without issue as did the clutch master cylinder. That was a bit unexpected since the clutch master cylinder was quite difficult to remove. The clutch slave cylinder however was difficult. There isn’t much working room in the area where it is installed. Removing the drive shaft would have helped a lot. Once we installed the clutch parts we had to bleed both the brake lines and the clutch line. I watched a couple videos about purging air from the clutch system, none of them followed the instruction manual from the manufacturer. I decided to follow the provided instructions first and even though accessing the bleeder valve on the clutch slave cylinder was difficult, the process worked perfectly. We also completely purged the brake lines of the old fluid which was very dark until fresh clean DOT 3 fluid came out of each line.

Complete Success

The next day we drove the Jeep a couple hundred miles to test the clutch and brakes. Everything worked perfectly and we had a great day. I’ve been testing the clutch every couple days to make sure it is holding pressure, which it is. I am also grateful that the issue arose while the Jeep was sitting at the house instead of on the road, or even worse, on a trail.

Repairing The Front Axle On Our Jeep

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After breaking down the front axle and accessing the damage we settled on the repair decisions. This was the perfect time to perform parts upgrades. When we had the rear axle upgraded by Redemption Offroad and the gear ratio changed, we did not upgrade the front axle. There were money concerns which prevented that upgrade. We knew there was a good possibility of the front axle breaking by not upgrading and it finally did.

Installing The Limited Slip Differential

First we had to clean all of the metal shards that littered the inside of the differential. Next we had to remove the Yukon ring gear from the old carrier and reinstall it on the new PowerTrax Grip Pro LSD. I then made a pair of SETUP bearings for adjusting the backlash of the ring gear on the new LSD. This was done by purchasing the bearings at Autozone and using a dremel tool I carefully ground the inside until they would slide onto the new LSD. This allowed me to install the LSD and shim it until the correct backlash was set. Once the backlash was set I removed the LSD and using a press, installed the permanent Yukon bearings onto the LSD. Now the LSD was ready for final installation.

Installing The Axle Shafts

Next came the install of the Ten Factory Chromoly Axle Shafts. This was very easy. It really only involved oiling the shaft and carefully sliding it through the axle until the splines set into the grooves of the LSD. Be sure to determine the groove count on both ends and the lengths of each axle before purchasing. We also took the opportunity to install Axle Shaft Seals to prevent water and mud from entering the axle shaft.

Final Steps To Completion

The rest of the rebuild was easy. Installed the hub assembly, brakes, wheels, differential cover, and tie rod. We finalized the rebuild by filling the differential with 90W gear oil. For testing I put it into 4WD and slowly drove it a short distance. I had to be easy on it because the rear axle still had to be repaired. Soon after we had the Jeep hauled to Redemption Offroad for the rear axle repairs. It was under warranty so it was the logical course of action.

Rear Axle Repair

The rear axle suffered a lot of damage as well. We snapped the driver side axle shaft. Pieces of it ground up inside the differential and destroyed the E-Locker. Both the axle shaft and E-locker had to be replaced. Redemption Offroad made the repairs which got us back on the road again. The picture shows the inside of the E-locker.

Final Thoughts

This experience was quite educational. Fortunately we were somewhat close to home when we broke the Jeep. It also taught us to make sure to upgrade everything necessary when performing initial modifications. Other than the rear axle shaft, the weakest components failed. These were the parts we had not upgraded. This could have easily happened on one of our out of state off road trips which would have been a complete disaster. For now though, were ready to wheel again and are planning our next adventure. This time with the front drive train upgraded as well.

The Front Axle On Our Jeep Wrangler

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Decisions To Be Made

At this point we had to decide what parts we were going to use for repairs. Cost would play heavily into this decision. The stock components had given out which means if we repaired back to stock it would probably happen again. Because of this we decided to perform some upgrades.

Axle Shafts

The first upgrade were the axle shafts. From the pictures on the last post you can clearly see the twisting that occurred. That twist was at the point where the axle shaft is inserted into the carrier. The stock shafts simply weren’t able to handle the level of wheeling we have been doing. I suppose we were fortunate they didn’t snap or there would have been even more damage. We upgraded the axle shafts to Ten Factory 4340 Chromoly axle shafts. This will be quite an upgrade from the stock axle shafts and hopefully be able to handle the larger tires and level of wheeling we are doing.

Differential Carrier

Next was the difficult decision about what to install in the differential. While it is broken down is a great time for upgrades. The only problem is it can get very expensive at this point. We wanted to install an E-Locker like we did in the rear axle. The Eaton locker runs right at $1000. As much as we wanted to upgrade to the Eaton locker, we simply didn’t have the finances at this time to do so. Another option was to rebuild the stock carrier with heavier spider gears. This would have cost us right at $200 and would have only made the carrier stronger. It would not have helped with traction to both tires when needed since it would still be an open differential. After researching heavily for a couple of weeks we decided on the Powertrax Grip Pro Extreme Traction System. This is a limited slip differential that will apply torque to the wheel that is not rotating. Basically if one wheel is slipping it will engage the other wheel so that both will be providing traction. This is an in between solution to an open differential and a locker. Cost did play into the decision. This carrier was $351 which was only a small amount over replacing the spider gears. The cost was also far less than the locker. It would also give us more traction in the front when off roading which will be an upgrade for us.

Miscellaneous Parts

Other parts were more common that we replaced or added. We had to get new bearings and races for the carrier. We also added axle shaft seals to keep water out of the axle. The inner seals were recently replaced when we re-geared the differential and suffered no damage. The Yukon ring gear and pinion also suffered no damage which I was very pleased about. It was nice that the few parts we had upgraded were not damaged.

What Comes Next

The rear axle still has to be dealt with. We did not build the rear axle. We had Redemption Offroad perform that work. They re-geared to a 4.88 gear ratio with Yukon ring and pinion gears, Yukon chromoly rear axle shafts, and an Eaton E-Locker in the differential. This was a costly upgrade but made a positive impact on the capability of the Jeep on more extreme offroading. At this point we don’t know exactly what is broke in the rear axle. We only know for sure one of the axle shafts snapped. After our next post on the front axle rebuild we will cover all the information about the rear axle.

 

 

Discovering What We Broke On The Jeep

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After towing the Jeep home and sleeping on what transpired we had to make some decisions. We knew a lot of parts were broken. We didn’t know the extent though. I decided to wait until the following Monday and call Redemtion Offroad for some quotes. They built the rear axle for us so we knew some of those parts at least would have a warranty.

Our First Option

I called Redemtion Offroad and told them what had happened and the symptoms resulting from the breakage. Wayne said we most likely broke a rear axle shaft since it wouldn’t move in 2WD but would move with the lockers engaged. The front however could be many issues. We knew all of the front axle components other than the Ring and Pinion gears were stock. We also knew it was only a matter of time before we broke those parts. Wayne gave us a quote for a few options based on the information I gave him. First option was to rebuild with used stock front axle shafts and replace spider gears if those were out. This was the cheapest way out but would put the Jeep back in the same shape as it was. This would not upgrade the front to handle the larger tires and heavy wheeling we have been doing.

The Next Option

The next option was to upgrade everything. Chrome Moly Axle Shafts and Electronic Locker. This option is what probably needed to happen but it was also costly. Now we were talking over $2500. That was only for the front axle. At that point he told us if we were going to spend that much to overhaul and upgrade our dana 30 axle it would be better to spend a bit more and just order a fully loaded upgraded dana 44 axle instead. Now with options we had to come to a decision.

Our Next Move

Because we did not know the extend of damage to the front I decided to drain the differential and see if there were any metal shards in the oil. Removing the drain plug revealed a lot. It was literally covered in metal shards. Now I knew there was carrier damage so I remove the differential cover. Now the extent of the differential damage was revealed. The spider gears in the carrier were almost gone. The teeth had shredded and were laying in the bottom of the differential. At this point I wasn’t even thinking about having anyone else perform the repairs. I was actually kind of excited to continue tearing apart the front looking for damages. It only took about 2.5 hours and I had the entire axle tore apart.

What Was Damaged

The spider gears were gone. We also found the axle shafts had twisted at the point they mated with the carrier. So new axle shafts were now necessary as well. The Yukon Ring and Pinion gears had no damage at all. The seals were still intact as well. We would need new carrier bearings for the rebuild as well. Now that it was in pieces I decided to go ahead and perform the repairs myself. The only parts under warranty in the front axle were the Yukon Ring and Pinion which were still good. Doing the work myself would void any warranty on those 2 parts but at this point that cost is negligible. This gives us the opportunity to upgrade the front axle. We will have Redemption Offroad repair the rear axle because of the warranty. The next post will cover the parts we used and the rebuild.

Jeep Exhaust Manifold Continued

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After discovering the broken bolt on the passenger side exhaust manifold I decided to go ahead and make the proper repairs. After removing the passenger side manifold I was greeted by a welcome surprise! The bolt was not broken into the block like the drivers side. There was still some of the bolt sticking out for me to grab. Using a pair of vice grips I was able to loosen it and even remove it by hand.

What We Discovered Next

The exhaust manifold on the passenger side also had a crack. It wasn’t as bad as the other side but we decided to replace it. Having gone this far it only made sense to complete the work properly. The crack wasn’t the only issue we found though. I noticed the rear spark plug had quite a bit of oil on it. After closer inspection I found the valve cover gasket was leaking. It only made sense to repair that as well. Upon removal of the valve cover I was unable to simply remove the gasket. It had solidified along the bottom edge and cracked into pieces. I had to dig out all the hardened rubber in preparation for the new gasket.

Getting the Parts

Summit Racing again provided the replacement exhaust manifold. I already had new bolts from the kit from the driver side replacement. The valve cover gasket came from Autozone. Then came the next problem. No auto store anywhere local had the manifold gasket. Summit could get the part but it would have been a month before it arrived. We had to order it from Amazon at a higher cost but it would arrive within 5 days.

Installing the Parts

It only took a couple hours to reinstall the new parts. Once again the Jeep is ready to go. We’ll take it out a couple times before our next off road adventure to make sure there were no issues with the install. The picture below is of the completed driver side install. I couldn’t get the camera on the passenger side manifold for a final picture due to lack of space but it looks essentially the same.

Tires on the Jeep

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A completely unplanned for upgrade took place last week. We had to get new tires on the Jeep.

What Happened

A few weeks back we went to Crossbar Ranch in Oklahoma to run some trails. The Jeep performed well and we didn’t see that anything had happened to it. The rear passenger tire has always had a bit more wear on it which is common on most vehicles. The off roading took its toll on that tire while we were there with the rocks taking out some pretty good chunks of rubber. When we got home I decided to rotate the passenger side tires to put the lesser used front one on the rear. That is what began the road to replacing the tires.

While We Were Out

The day before heading out with a group of off roaders from the North Texas Jeep Club we decided to take the Jeep out and have Car Toys install a new radio. The old one that I hated finally stopped working. While driving I noticed some shaking of the steering. This was not happening before I swapped the tires. The shaking is a common issue with balancing. After Car Toys installed the radio we headed over to National Tire and Battery who had balanced them before. That’s when the manager told us we had a slipped radial belt and it could not be balanced. I could only assume with the excessive wear that was showing on that particular tire and the excessive use as the main drive wheel that it had been damaged the previous week while off roading.

Decisions to be Made

It was late in the afternoon and this brought us to a new problem. Money. We had just spent quite a bit on drive train upgrades. We had 33″ tires on the Jeep and have been building it to handle 35″ tires. Moving to a larger tire is more expensive though. Then came the expense of the 33″ tire vs the 35″ tire. There is a significant cost increase between the two. We also had to get 5 tires so we would have a spare if we moved up to the 35″ as we had been planning. Another factor was a small amount of dry rot on our tires. They had dry rot when we got the Jeep and we new they would need  to be changed soon. It was just bad timing for us.

What Tires Did We Get

We asked what brands of tires and pricing NTB had available. We asked a lot of questions about the characteristics of the different brands as well. The final result was the NEXEN Roadian MTX RM7. It’s not one of the big popular names of tires that most people seem to run but the specifications of the tire equaled or exceeded even those. The price was also manageable. Each tire was about $50 less than the average of the big name tires. Here is a breakdown of the specs for comparison to other tires.

Size: 35×12.5xR17
Diameter: 34.8
Tread Depth: 21/32
Load Range: “F”- 12 Ply
Max Load: 3195

When it comes to the numbers the tires rank with all the popular brands most people gravitate towards. Only time will tell how they hold up on the road and trails.

How Did They Perform

On the road the Nexen’s were a bit rougher than the tires we had. This is partly due to the “F”-12 Ply rating where most other off road tires are “E”- 10 ply rated. The noise level was the same as before, maybe even a bit less. Off road they seemed to perform flawless. We got into a variety of terrain. Mud, rocks, loose dirt and gravel and the tires grabbed perfectly. We did notice quite a bit less slipping while climbing rocks than before as well. Some of that could have been from the new rubber. For the first run with the new tires we were completely satisfied.

Re-Gearing to 4.88 Ratio

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Hot Springs ORV Park was a blast. It did however push us to make some more upgrades to the Jeep.

Redemption Offroad in North Richland Hills, TX is who did our upgrades. The upgrades were beyond my level of competence and even if I knew how to do the work I don’t have the tools for it. We knew what upgrades to make but some of the details we weren’t sure about. The first of these was regearing the differentials.

Current Gearing

I had done my homework on differential gearing based on the engine size and tire size we eventually want to run on the Jeep. We have the 3.8 V6 in our Jeep with a 6 speed transmission. The front axle is a dana 30. The rear differential is a dana 44. The gearing was still the stock 3.21 gear ratio. The problem we were having was 6th gear was unusable. This was because the previous owner had installed 33″ tires without regearing for the change in size. Doing so brought the rpm’s so low that even doing 80mph in 5th gear the engine was still only sitting at about 2800rpm. I also feel quite sure this affects 4 high and 4 low when off roading lending to some power and torque loss on the trails.

What Gearing Did We Go With?

I had settled on a 4.56 or a 4.88 gear ratio before we made the call to Wayne at Redemption Offroad. He said bring it in and we would talk further about gearing. His expert advice was to go with the 4.88 ratio. With our future plans to run 35″ tires and the fact we were actually using the Jeep for off roading he said we would get more performance with that ratio. If we were to ever pull a trailer this would give us the necessary torque to do so as well. I went with his recommendation. Wayne and his staff not only build extreme off road vehicles, they wheel them hard as well. So in my opinion, their advice is golden.

Front Axle Upgrade- Yes or No

This would be the time a lot of people might upgrade that dana 30 front axle as well. We decided not to. Other than the axle ring and pinion size, the dana 30 front axle diameter is the same as a dana 44. From what I’ve read, outside of the gearing, there isn’t a strength difference between the two. If we were to put lockers on the front that would be a different story and an axle upgrade would be a good idea. If we decide not to change the axle for a dana 44 we will probably install chromoly axle shafts later which will strengthen the front axle. For now were not ready to invest in a complete front axle upgrade.

This was the beginning of more upgrades. Next post will cover another upgrade that Redemption Offroad performed to the Mudbug while it was on the lift and disassembled.

Changing the Type of Lift on our Jeep Wrangler

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Changing the Type of Lift on our Jeep Wrangler

 

The Decision to Change Our Jeep Lift

As we adventure forth on our adventures in the Jeep we decided it was time to change the type of lift that is currently on our Jeep. When we purchased the Jeep it had a spacer lift on it. This is also sometimes referred to as a budget boost lift. It lifts the Jeep but doesn’t provide any extra suspension or flex capabilities. The spacer lift uses the stock coil springs that come with the vehicle. We were also concerned about how well those rubber spacers would hold up. Would they slowly collapse or dry out leaving us lower in some areas of the Jeep than others? Would they fall out under a heavy suspension flex situation? These were questions and concerns we had so the conclusion was to just replace them with a proper coil spring suspension lift.  [Read more…]

OEM vs Aftermarket Motorcycle Parts

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This is a difficult question with a few things to consider. Since we are the ones who will decide when shopping for motorcycle parts it’s important to know a few key things.

First, you need to consider what you are looking for. By this I mean is it for a repair or better performance?  Second, will this affect my warranty? Lastly, consider your budget. [Read more…]

Viking Ultimate Large Saddlebags On Harley Softail Deluxe

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Viking Ultimate Large Saddlebags On Harley Softail Deluxe Review

Viking Ultimate Large Saddlebags On Harley Softail Deluxe Review

Almost five years, 14 states, extreme weather conditions and almost 40,000 miles. That’s what my former Viking saddlebags were able to handle. Is it any wonder why I decided to stick with the Viking brand?! Truth be told they probably have some more life in them but we felt several new features/options warranted upgrading. [Read more…]