NO RAGRETS

I got a good one for this, lol.

Ok, so, I worked in a trans shop for about 1.5 years. One day we get this Dodge Nitro in. I don't remember how it even got inside the shop, but I got it up in the air, pulled the rear cover...and almost nothing drained out. My face goes . Grab my light and start looking around inside the diff, some odd mass in the bottom of the pumpkin, diffs shouldn't look like that I think to myself. Pull the ring gear and carrier and low and behold, the mass in the bottom of the pumpkin....is the freakin pinion gear HEAD laying in the bottom of the diff. It has sheared completely off.

Pinion seal on the exterior of diff was leaking for a long time, could see the slung grease all over the underside of the truck. Slung the lube out, pinion got so hot the gear head sheared right off. It was incredible, it had to make a hell of a noise when it let go.

 

lol. I bet you see some weird shit working in a mechanic shop.

This is the worse i have seen. My brother bought an 05 dodge 2500 that had a front diff issue. Let me see if you can see the problem.....

Best we could guess is that the pinion bearing locked up at speed and boom goes the dynamite.

 

The flatbed did come in handy when I was repainting my fuel cell brackets lol

 

It’s gonna be a bitch when it’s time to take it off. Those bolts never come out without a impact and a cheater.

And the people who installed the body lift cut the fuel neck so you gotta undo the clamps to remove the fuel neck. Half goes out the top of the bed and the other half stays attached to the tank lol.

 

Didn’t notice a body lift. How much is on it?

 

So when the truck was rolled, it locked up the seat belts. Any way to unlock them or will I need to send them somewhere to get the safety stuff restored (gas charge)?

 

It had a 3” body lift when I got it. The people who did it fucked the bed bolts up and I never tapped em. I just ran em back down.

It’s removed now tho. I took it off a few years ago.

 

New diff went in and drove the truck around for the first time. Not bad. Expected some wobble, but drove nice and straight. It does have some ticking coming from the top end so a valve job is in order. It looks mean with the new 32s.




New windshield and back glass are being installed today in the Taco. Also the 37s have been mounted and are going on this evening. Cant wait to see how it looks with the powder coated FJ steelies.

 

A few things happened yesterday. My windshield and new back glass were installed without issue. Now i can easily get it inspected after a little exhaust work. Also mounted up the 37s. This is when i noticed the issue on the passenger side. As you can see in the last pic, it is cambered in hard at the top. So much so, that it contacts the UCA. The drivers side doesnt do this and has plenty of room lock-to-lock to not hit anything. Its close, but doesnt. I crawled under and noticed the alignment tabs were flat on all 4 tabs (passenger and drivers side). Apparently this is a common issue. Even with adjusting them all the way in, i still couldnt get the camber fixed enough to not touch the UCA. This leads me to believe the spindle is probably bent from the roll or from wheeling. A wheel spacer would fix the rubbing on the UCA, but is a band aid IMO. I also need new lug nuts as the ones on there previously have too much shoulder to work with these FJC steelies.

So my solution is to weld some of the TC alignment tabs onto the LCAs and try to get an alignment done to confirm the spindle is bent. If it is, Nathan @SMKYTXN says he has a set of spindles left over prior to his SAS to hold me over in the meantime. It sure looks mean though with the 37s. Cant wait to get a bed on it and see how she looks.

 

Cool little truck! A reg cab is the only 2nd gen I would get and is on my rig build "bucket list".

 

After some work on the truck the last few days, i finally took it for a test drive on the 37s yesterday. Since the spindle was tweaked on the passenger side causing some ugly stanced camber issues, i took it all apart and applied some heat and some press to it. The result removed the camber but for some reason still caused the tire to contact the UCA. I didnt have this issue on the drivers side. After some more research im sure the LCA mounts are also tweaked.

So in order to fit the tires, i had to use some 1.25" wheel spacers that Nathan had. I HATE wheel spacers. Had a bad experience once on my crawler and i try to avoid them at all costs now. The spacers now caused a new issue...the tires got into the firewall now when turning. A little BFH and some cut off wheel action took care of that for the most part. I still rub on the passenger side a little when cut hard and reversing. nothing on the drivers side. Once again im sure something is tweaked over there. It did drive nice and straight though for the most part. Got it up to 65 without issue. The 4.88s help, but its still slightly under powered. I may fix that later. Overall im pretty pleased.

Next up exhaust work, cleaning the interior, and trying to get the seat belts unlocked.

 

There is a LCE 2.7l header for sale in the classifieds. I wonder if its worth it? I can see it helping more with the auto trans for some reason, but should be the same for the manual.

 

Do it. May help a little turning the 37s

 

No Ragrets got a clean inspection report done on Friday. Just waiting in the title then she’s as legal as it’s going to get.

Also started on a touchscreen 2013 head unit swap. The one I had didn’t read CDs worth a shit and the antenna is cut. Going to repair all of that and get some fm/am tunes back in the truck.

Starting to looks for won ton swap part deals.

 

The antenna was cut cause I was using the CB antenna for the radio. I bought a splitter that’s installed in line

 

Not any more. lol. Cut most of that out.

 

New to me headunit wouldn’t work so I ordered a new kenwood unit.

Also want to thank @Biscuits for the stock muffler. After some chopping and welding NO RAGRETS is now in stealth mode. #nomorefartcan

 

How's NO RAGRETS coming along?

 

Great. Been putting miles on it around town. Working the bugs out. Almost ready to DD.

Here it is next to @SMKYTXN beast. One day it will be close to it.

 

Did you get this figured out? I think my old '05 AC inertia reels are in the left over part out bins...