My Blue Jeep

[Ron84cj]

I got new nuts to replace the damaged ones. Once you put in the outer bearing the smaller of the two washers go on first. Then proceed to torque the first nut to 50 ft lbs. Spin the rotor around a few times then back off the nut 1/4 turn.

Then the big washer goes on along with the outer nut. Torque that nut to 50 ft. lbs. Now bend the washer OUT over the nut.

 

[Ron84cj]

At this point I started pumping the grease into my newly installed zerk fitting. Then spun it a few times. Then put some more in. I did this until it started coming out. Then I shoved in more grease on the outside. Obviously under normal circumstances you would never need this much. This is purely an effort to keep water out of the bearings.

Then this little guy goes on along with this clip. To get it on you normally have to pry the axle in from the back.

 

[Ron84cj]

Ok, time to update. Since I regeared this has been a blast to drive! The 3.73 gears with 32" tires and the 5.3L is a very nice combo all around. It does great on the freeway, around town, and offroad. I haven't clocked my gas mileage every time, but certainly enough to have a good idea of what I'm getting.

All city driving...16
Mix.....................16-17
Just freeway averaging 73-77 mph 16-17
On county highway driving 60-65 mph 18-20

Every single time I clocked the milage I never got less than 16 mpg. I am very happy with this. It gets better gas milage than many of the 6 cylinder Jeeps probably because it doesn't have to work very hard. Plus it can actually deal with a strong headwind where my other Scrambler with the 258 struggles at times.

Regarding the axles, I still go through a lot of water and I have had zero issues with water in the bearings like before. So I definitely feel my little grease/hub mod helped a lot. The Aussie lockers front and rear have been great! I have been able to tackle some obstacles with my 32s that some of the wranglers in my group struggled with on 35s. I can definitely say though that I consider a twin stick a necessity if you have a locker in the front. When offroad it like to "push" a lot around turns. I found myself going back and forth a lot just to make basic turns. Now that I have my twin stick I just leave it in 2wd low most of the time and only engage the front when I'm at an obstacle. This has been working very well. Just changing from 2wd to 4 high or 4 low is MUCH easier with the twin vs the factory single shifter.

Now on to my trans....
I got the AX15 roughly 6 years ago for free. It had 179,000 miles on it at the time and came out of a Dodge Dakota that spent it's entire life as a landscaping truck full of equipment and towing a trailer with several riding mowers on it. So it very much had one hell of a workout. When I first put it in my Jeep 5 years ago it did drive ok, but was a bit notchy when shifting under somewhat heavy throttle. I knew it was on borrowed time but I was very limited on funds at the time. This past fall shortly before Drummond Island it started groaning really bad on decel in 2nd and 3rd gear. So I knew it was time. I drained the trans fluid and saw little silver sparkles (never a good sign) and pulled the trans.

 

[Ron84cj]

The AX15 is really easy to take apart. Just have to keep track of the shift balls and such. I was expecting it to be in really bad shape but it wasn't. The gears themselves looked great. The synchros had some wear and one of the bearings were pretty bad. I'll start looking into rebuild kits. Anyone have any recommendations?

 

[Ron84cj]

So back back in March when I tore this apart I ordered a rebuild kit from Quadratec because it was the most complete kit I could find and they said it was in stock. So I waited and waited with no update until I finally called them a few weeks later. They apologized and said it was on backorder and it would only be 2 more weeks. Well, 2 more weeks went by and then they said it would be on backorder until July . So I cancelled that one and ordered a kit on eBay. It was nice, no Chinese bearings. I also ordered an upgraded 1st gear thrust washer from Marlin Crawler. It's listed for a Toyota R series trans which is the same ish as the AX15. Also, my 1st gear was a little damaged so I bought a new one. The were a few small chips on the edges. Didn't make me feel too comfortable.

 

[Ron84cj]

My friend came over to give me a hand with assembly which went very well up until 5th gear. We made a very dumb mistake and accidentally damaged the 5th gear syncro. He actually happened to have an extra from a Toyota trans he tore apart that was used in some race car. So in other words 5th gear was never used in that particular trans. We matched it up to the old one and everything was the same except the inner lip was a little bit bigger. No big deal, I just brought it to work and turned it down to the right size in the lathe.
And all together...

 

[Chamba]

I've always had good luck with Marlin Crawler.

 

[Ron84cj]

I've always had good luck with Marlin Crawler.

Yes, they definitely have good stuff. I bet if they listed more things for AX15 and not just Toyota R series they would likely get a lot more business. I don't think a lot of people realize that a lot of stuff is interchangeable.

 

[Ron84cj]

On to the clutch stuff. I decided to change things up a little. My setup that I had with the RX7 slave cylinder did work well. However, I replaced the slave and the throw out bearing 3 times each. The slave would trap water in the boot and cause the piston to rust and eventually leak. As far as the throw out bearing goes...The clutch fork was basically maxed to one side of the hole in the bell housing causing the fork boot to regularly pop off and/or tear. So it would become very exposed. Everytime I drove in the rain I noticed a huge difference in pedal feel. The water basically would run down the fork straight to the throw out bearing and wash out the grease from within the bearing. I knew every time it would start go bad. It started as a squeak and would eventually start a grinding sound. I've been dropping the trans to replace this darn thing every year to every other year. It's getting VERY old. And every time I pull it out the grease is totally gone and sound like sand paper when I rotate it.

So here is my solution. I went a Howe throw out bearing for a T5.



It's a AN-4 fitting. I simply got the line/bleeder kit to go along with it.


This little guy converts from the -4 AN to a typical 3/16 brake line.


My buddy 3D printed out a flexible plastic boot for the bell. Of course he made it in a ridiculous color. Lol.

 

[Ron84cj]

The Throw out bearing comes with shims and a couple of studs. The stud (you only need one) is only there to prevent the slave from trying to spin. Bolt your bell to your adapter and keep adding shims until you have approximately 1/16" gap between the throw out bearing and the clutch.


The little stud I drilled and tapped the adapter. I was careful not to drill all the way through. If you do, don't worry about it. Just make sure you use thread sealant or you will have yourself a leak. The top line in the pic is the bleeder. As per instructions it should be pointing at roughly the 2:00 position.

 

[Ron84cj]

Beyond this point I just reassembled the jeep like normal. I did not switch out the master cylinder. It is still the 3/4" bore.

Took it for a test drive last night and there was already a huge difference with how the trans shifted/drove. And now today after putting some miles on it it shifts super smooth.

And now my clutch.....I should have done this in the first place!!!! That internal slave so soooo smooth! The clutch pedal is extremely comfortable now. I cannot put into words how happy I am about this. Between the clutch and the trans my Jeep has never been this nice! I very highly recommend the Howe kit. It's very nice quality and very easy to install. The only "mod" was drilling and tapping ONE hole.

 

[Ron84cj]

I'll update the LS to AX15 thread too. This makes the swap a lot easier.

 

[Chamba]

I did the external slave conversion from Novak which worked really well too. Anything is an improvement over the mechanical. Great to hear yours is smooth now.

That boot is cool as hell. Can he print one for a clutch fork? Mine is from a Ford f100 which i modified. It works Ok.

 

[Ron84cj]

I did the external slave conversion from Novak which worked really well too. Anything is an improvement over the mechanical. Great to hear yours is smooth now.

That boot is cool as hell. Can he print one for a clutch fork? Mine is from a Ford f100 which i modified. It works Ok.

That's basically what my first setup was but without the big price tag. I somewhat copied that setup. Novaks slave is a 3/4" bore which is exactly the same as the RX7 slave that I used. Advance Adapters uses a slave from a Toyota Land Cruiser which is also a 3/4" bore. I just liked the idea that the RX7 slave was only $17 at AutoZone and usually either in stock or I could get it within a day. Once I put a hose clamp on the boot I didn't have anymore issues. But constantly killing throw out bearings sucked.


As far as the boot goes...yes, he can make one for you. However, I don't know how long it would last in that environment. It is flexible plastic, not rubber. And that fork will be flexing it a lot. Mine shouldn't really move because it's basically just flexible brake lines that pass through.

 

[Chamba]

I'd love to replace my Novak slave with a Land Cruiser one. Very good quality and i have a brand new Toyota slave in a box. I have a 351W so I used the ford slave- style bell. I couldn't come up with a way to mount the land cruiser slave and didn't know about the rx7 slave.

That Novak ain't cheap.....I hope it lasts. If I'd seen yours before my swap I would have gone your way.

 

[Belizeit]

Your bracket looks different from the pictured Novak and the one they sent me.

 

[Chamba]

Mine is for the Ford Bell housing. Yours is Chevy.

 

[Ron84cj]

So on my way back from our lake cottage today I start hearing a rotational noise. I get home and jack up the front expecting a bad wheel bearing. Nope, those are fine. I threw the rear end up on jack stands, started it up and put it in gear. The noise is coming from the transfer case. I drained the fluid and there was a lot of metal flakes/sparkles. I know you will always see some on the magnet/drain plug, but this was excessive. Argh! I just can't win. I'm supposed to be leaving for sandblast 3 1/2 weeks from now. I was going to drive it there this time. Well, forget that. I really wanted to do the 4-1 gears for this thing but I can't right now. I just finished the trans as well as replace all the windows in my house. I'm really not in the position right now to spend anymore on the jeep right now. Assuming the original gears are fine I could just rebuild it with new bearings/seals. Sucks I would be rebuilding it a second time in a year or 2 from now. This sucks.

 

[Randyzzz]

So on my way back from our lake cottage today I start hearing a rotational noise. I get home and jack up the front expecting a bad wheel bearing. Nope, those are fine. I threw the rear end up on jack stands, started it up and put it in gear. The noise is coming from the transfer case. I drained the fluid and there was a lot of metal flakes/sparkles. I know you will always see some on the magnet/drain plug, but this was excessive. Argh! I just can't win. I'm supposed to be leaving for sandblast 3 1/2 weeks from now. I was going to drive it there this time. Well, forget that. I really wanted to do the 4-1 gears for this thing but I can't right now. I just finished the trans as well as replace all the windows in my house. I'm really not in the position right now to spend anymore on the jeep right now. Assuming the original gears are fine I could just rebuild it with new bearings/seals. Sucks I would be rebuilding it a second time in a year or 2 from now. This sucks.

Man, that sucks. Good luck!

 

[spankrjs]

So on my way back from our lake cottage today I start hearing a rotational noise. I get home and jack up the front expecting a bad wheel bearing. Nope, those are fine. I threw the rear end up on jack stands, started it up and put it in gear. The noise is coming from the transfer case. I drained the fluid and there was a lot of metal flakes/sparkles. I know you will always see some on the magnet/drain plug, but this was excessive. Argh! I just can't win. I'm supposed to be leaving for sandblast 3 1/2 weeks from now. I was going to drive it there this time. Well, forget that. I really wanted to do the 4-1 gears for this thing but I can't right now. I just finished the trans as well as replace all the windows in my house. I'm really not in the position right now to spend anymore on the jeep right now. Assuming the original gears are fine I could just rebuild it with new bearings/seals. Sucks I would be rebuilding it a second time in a year or 2 from now. This sucks.

Let me know if you need any parts. I think I might have some spare output shaft seals, maybe even some good used bearings. I might even have some good used other parts and pieces.

You could rebuild this one with the stock low ratio, buy another 300 to install the 4:1 gears. Once you install the 4:1 case, sell the stock rebuilt case to recoup some $$$ ??