I didn't want Jon to have all the fun so I have my own project going too.
The 5spd trans that I swapped in a couple of years ago had a whirring noise in 5th gear and needs a rebuild. Truth be told I should have had it rebuilt before installing it in the first place but oh well. I decided that I wanted to swap in a manual 2h, 4h, 4lo transfer case and figured that would be a good time to swap out the AR5 too. So, I bought another parts trooper this one an '01 and pulled it's trans and exhaust etc and got ready.
Forward to Friday night, I pulled out my exhaust which was an older style trooper setup with the crossover in front of the trans and a single cat. I had to cut the muffler out since the shop that installed it didn't bother with any bolt up flanges (but at least they charged me a lot :upsetgray ). I then drained the tranny, removed front and rear prop shafts, and pulled the TOD out. Then pulled the trans out. The first time I did this I dropped and installed the tranny with the TC installed. I don't recommend this, very heavy and unwieldy and it's much easier to separate them first.
Saturday I installed the replacement AR5, this one has not been modified to accept TOD. Next came the manual TC, I sourced this from a '95 trooper since the later models are electronically controlled. The TC install proved to be the more difficult job as its shape does not lend itself to jacking up from below. The use of ratchet straps to hoist helped significantly and then I could get under it a bench press it into position.
Sunday I planned to install prop shafts and exhaust. This turned out to be quite a chore. The front TOD prop shaft uses a CV joint with 6 bolt connection at the diff and TC. Because of this I had to either swap the TOD flange to the manual TC or the flange on the diff to accept the u-joint style manual TC shaft. I had initially decided to use the VX CV prop shaft but as it turns out the TOD and manual TC flanges are NOT interchangeable. So, I pulled the flange off my '01 trooper diff and swapped that with the VX one. I was then able to install the trooper front prop shaft. Next came the rear shaft and since the manual TC and the TOD both use a 4 bolt connection they would bold right up right? Nope :madb:. Evidently the '95 and '01 troopers used a different 4 bolt pattern so neither the trooper or VX shaft would bolt up to the manual TC. To fix this I swapped the rear flange from the '95 manual TC to the '01 elec TC. This of course required yet another run to the parts store for a 36mm socket, for reference the TOD and front and rear diffs on the VX use a 30mm socket. Now I could finally attach the rear shaft.
Next came to exhaust. I decided to return the exhaust to the original two cat with crossover after the TC design that came on the VX and '00 troopers onward. The design I was using came of my original '99 trooper donor and if I tried to reuse that I would have clearance issues at the bend that goes around the front prop shaft since the new shaft is bigger in diameter than the TOD one. I could still make it work but I like the idea of going back to the stock setup. So I tried to install the right side exhaust and found that I needed to remove the front prop shaft to get it in place grrrr :mado:. I eventually got it installed but know now that it would be better to install this before installing the TC. The left side went in without too much of a fight but exposed another problem: the rear exhaust flange interferes with the super flex IFS setup. It fits but it will definitely make a racket bouncing around. Since I now have a front locker I think I'll go ahead and remove the SFIFS and go back to the stock setup there too. Which brings up the likelihood that I will have a SFIFS kit available in the near future, see pics
SFIFS exhaust clearance - my previous exhaust had a straight through pipe here instead of a flange.
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da.../IMG_08371.JPG
With locking pin in place
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/da.../IMG_08361.JPG
Locking pin removed
http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/IMG_0835.JPG
If all that wasn't enough I then went a played ice hockey Sunday night. The things we do in the name of fun make my body and head hurt.;)
Scott
