We did make it to Silverton driving the Scrambler. I'll post more later but we wheeled Wednesday and Thursday with the group and had a blast! Amazing trails and scenery. Dan and everyone else are a great group to wheel with.
I did lose 5th gear on my NV-4500 transmission about 4 hours from Silverton. There is a known issue with the 5th gear nut backing off under heavy towed loads. Since it was a used transmission, we don't know the history of it in the donor truck. I doubt by Jeep worked it that hard. I called a few shops that rebuild them and they said I should be fine if no metal shavings or parts get through the other gears. And to drain it and take off the PTO covers and look for any metal shavings or parts. I did that on the side of the road and found nothing. Ran a magnet around too an it didn't pick anything up. Put the fluid back in and drove to Montrose, CO and got some new compatible fluid from an Amsoil distributor and changed it for good measure. Drove to Silverton fine and wheeled the trails. Still working well - just as a 4-speed. I'm checking the fluid every 5-6 driving hours. Let's hope it holds out until I get home. There is a rebuild kit that has a different shaft that has a locking nut to avoid this in the future. If anyone here has experience with this, let me know what you did.
We are heading to Sun Valley Idaho now. My wife is riding MTB's with some friends. We left Silverton yesterday to break up the 12 hour drive since we are in the Scrambler with no AC. Heading out shortly from our motel in Tremonton UT. About 3.5 hours to go and we'll be there. They are riding Sunday through Wednesday then we start our 12 hour drive back to Redding in the Scrambler.
The large "Park Fire" in Northern California is raging out of control. It's burning into Shasta County where we live. If it shifts West, our house could be in the path after a few more days. So we're keeping an eye on that as well. It's spreading faster than any fire I've seen.
