Welcome to Page 3 of our Izzy build-up!

This is what the tranny looks like after the transfer case is removed.

On a clean organized workbench ready to be taken apart.

Slip Yoke Eliminator (SYE) Install: We followed the directions on how to do this, although the pictures weren't that clear. We had to have the needle bearings pressed out of the old synchro hub assembly, the hub is reused without the bearings. A little blue Permatex RTV is applied before reinstalling the speedometer gear housing.

Speedometer housing & slip yoke removed

Oil pump removed (be careful handling the oil pump)

Back half of the case removed

Drive components removed

Empty T-case

New short shaft installed

Using Permatex RTV to seal everything up

TCase installed with Slip Yoke eliminator

Time Flies - when you're busy!  Everything went together rather smoothly.  When we were done, we took it for a test drive and had some terrible vibrations and noises. More researching.....  We ended up taking the 2.5* degree axle wedges out of the rear and installing 6* wedges.  This helped tremendously, however, we still had some vibrations.  We had removed the transfer case drop earlier - so now we decided to put it back in to help.  Now, Izzy is back on the road again! Thank GOD!! Time to move on to other things!  

Rear Dana 44 Work:It is now January 2002 and the Holidays are finally over. It's been about a month since we did any work. The last several days we spent tearing apart the rear Dana 44 and cutting off the old shock mounts, trac bar mount, and still trying to remove the axle perches. Here we are, both cutting away!!! We managed to get all the perches cut off clean enough that we can re-use them again.

Rear Dana 44 Test Fit: This weekend we borrowed a mig welder from Joe Sheldon and 2 wheels & tires from Jon Kamanns (THANKS GUYS!!!) and we began to take apart the rear of Izzy. We started by detaching parking brake (disassemble brake drums) , shocks, and brake lines and drive shaft. We disconnected the leaf springs and rolled the Dana 35 out from under Izzy. Our next thing was to take some measurements of the side to side placement of the axle. We rolled the 44 under Izzy as best we could. We still needed to shimmy the axle back and forth to get a good placement. At this point, we test fitted our JKS U-bolt plates and u-bolts and cut them to the necessary length. Installed the leafs and driveshaft and tightened everything down to about 90%. We took the jack stands out from under Izzy and allowed the suspension to be 'at rest'. We pivoted the pumpkin upward to line up with the output shaft on the SYE. At this point, we're done for the night. I did some last minute 'bending' to the brake lines to ensure they cleared everything. Tomorrow we'll fill up the tanks for the welder and Steve will tack weld the perches in place.