Unable to hold 4th or 5th gear up inclines

[Chris]

I mean it would be expensive since it requires two lockers and both Eaton and ARB will be 900+ per axle, not to mention the air compressor on an ARB. Factory all that in with the price of the gears and it gets expensive, but there are indeed 5.89 gears straight from Rev that fit those axles with different carriers. Rev does not say "made for Rubicon TJ" because they are not. They are just normal Dana 44 5.89 gears like anything else that fits a TJ Rubi, only once the factory lockers are gotten rid of.

No, OD can not be changed in the 42 and obviously that OD does not belong in a Wrangler really, especially with all the harmonic vibe issues 5.xx+ gears can cause. But, you can have a beast of a crawler and a good highway cruiser that has pretty good acceleration if those deep gears are installed. The AW4 is a decent unit itself but in a Wrangler it really does not fit well for the demands. It needs really low gears as well. It works real well in the XJ, although I'd still seek out a manual XJ if I were on the hunt, which I sorta am, but never see any good 97+ manual ones that aren't 12,000 bucks or more.

Enjoy the manual and don't pay too much attention to the Johnson Valley wheelers who talk as if an auto is the only transmission worth owning. They have their place, JV is not really that place. For cruising around town, pure fun driving, and ultimate reliability, you can not beat the manual. Some of those guys who talk down on certain things *ahem* manuals and TrueTracs absolutely need to be taken with a grain of salt. Otherwise you will end up building a rig for the necessity of others and not what fits you. For me, what fits is a manual with a TrueTrac.

Yep, my TJ had horrible harmonic vibrations after the 5.38 re-gear that were only able to be solved by a manual locking hub kit. The 42RLE was an afterthought and was put in the TJ for no other reason than to save money. The 32RH before it is preferable to the 42RLE in my opinion.

I didn't much care for the AW4 in my XJ, but I will admit it was slightly better than the 42RLE. I think with these things I've gotten to the point that after owning all the autos that I will only own a manual anymore. Jeep never really put out any good automatic transmissions (well, nothing great at least), and the manuals may take more skill, but I'm fine with that as they are easier to fix and don't have the issues the euros have.

An auto rig is great if all you're going to be doing is KOH (or similar), but if you plan on using it as a dual purpose vehicle, I think the manual is the better way to go these days. And that's coming from a guy (me), who once upon a time was dead set on automatics being the only Wranglers to buy. Like you said, you have to build the rig for you, not for others.

 

[Flyer58]

Question: When lifting or changing the drivetrain is proper shaft alignment considered? Driveshaft angles can have an effect of vibrations as they rotate. CV joints are used when the output shaft and input shaft are not aligned.

Great video about this.