broken jeep

[jeepaneer]

tried to go wheelin last Saturday. The jeep has been running well the last few times I had it out and about so I thought A wheelin trip was due. The ride down Old Dade City road was nice, no traffic, saw a large flock of turkeys, and the minor vibration had gone away. So i thought. The minor vibration went away all right but came right back with a vengence and then bang, slap, violent shaking, then it was over and the rear drive shaft jumped out from under the jeep. Now I'm an hour away from the house on the side of the road with a broke jeep. I had to walk a while to retreive the drive shaft. When I got back to the jeep I thought a couple of new caps for the ujoints and bolt it back in I woud be in business. Wrong. I sheared off two bolts, one in each yoke and flattened two straps. So I did what every redneck would do. Put the jeep in 4HI and took off. Well that only worked for a while as the 229 transfer case does not like to do that so another road side stop. After a call to Rocky (Thanks Rocky) I found out that the 229 T Case must have both drive shafts to work properly. So in defeat I had to call for a tow. I will update with repairs later. Its always an adventure driving an old jeep.

[pyro]

Mini shop day Saturday?

[fulsizjeep]

You can burn out the viscous coupler in the 229 running just one drive shaft in 4Hi!!!

In 4Lo they are locked together however. I dropped a rear drive shaft on I75 between Tampa and Sarasota back in 99 and could not put it back in because the 229 output yoke was bad. I put it in 4Lo to drive slowly along the shoulder and get home. Then again to get to a drive shaft shop the next morning and get it fixed.

[jeepaneer]

Made a trip to the parts store to pick up new u joints. Went over the drive shaft yokes with fine emery cloth and oil to clean and inspect. While installing the u joints in the drive shaft I made sure they could move as freely as possible with NO binding. The yoke on the rear end and t case was another story. I had to remove two broken bolts that had broke flush with the yoke. Center punching and drilling takes all the patience I can gather. Bolts removed and drive shaft back in with zero vibration after a short test run. Will test longer over the week end. Added a shorter belt to drive the altenator and that seems to have fixed my charging issue. To be continued...

[jeepaneer]

So far so good for the road testing. I think it may be a good idea to change the trnsfer case fluid. At the moment all is well.

[Stuka]

You may want to check the t-case fluid after running it without a rear shaft. Although the VC may be self contained in the NP229, I cannot recall.