x2

Welcome to the club. Get the 2 spd Atlas.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...Caught-on-Fire

 

sm_rubi, you shouldn't have to remove your front drive train for travel, nor is an Altas t-case mandatory.



Humor me - when you get your new 37s, adjust your front CAs to give 4.0-4.5 degrees caster. If you're doing this with a dial indicator, have it verified with an actual alignment.

Then drive the Jeep for a week. And come back and tell me if you're unhappy with its handling.

This notion a JK morphs into an evil handling machine threatening to buck a guy into the culvert with the slightest twitch of the steering is nonsense.

Remember, wide tires w/big contact patches slow steering down, countering the effect of lower caster numbers; the positive byproduct of less caster is reduced vibration which preserves your expensive drive train and power train components.

I wish you were local. I'd let you drive my Jeep with 35s and 3 degrees of caster. You probably couldn't tell the difference over factory spec (4.5 degrees), but the Jeep sure can.

Good luck.

 

Not sure if this helps but this is what I think is different. Again it could be just me.

 

Thanks Dude!
Yeah I'll report back after the tires go on. Would love to do the PR44 Unlimited to help with the angles but it isn't in the budget for now. We are removing to front DS for fear that the slight vibration is contributing to the explosions we are seeing. Question does a PSC help or hurt the "slow steering" effect?

 

When going through the replacement of my driveshafts 2 years ago, I experienced significant vib with the shafts that work with the stock yokes. I sent them back and had them reconfigured for replacement yokes. IMO, the joint at the transfer case place too far out and increases the vib issue. I now have the replacement yokes with the joint much closer. I am at 4 degrees castor. Minimal vibe at 45mpg with my 5.13 gears.

The down side, is that i don't feel confident when taking the jeep on long trips...

 

There is a definite difference in those two cases. I have to go crawl under my rig now.

 

I have an '08 Rubicon too. I picked it up December '07. Here a shot of my transfer case - it looks like I didn't get the radius as it goes straight in:

 

Yes, it is a design flaw.

While the common denominator that you speak of is true, it is just as true that the case half’s are very poor castings. I had a Tcase TIG welded in Moab this year and the welder commented that he had to do more grinding to find stable metal to weld to. He kept finding air pockets in the metal.

Also, when I took apart my broken case I found 4 major cracks in the front half and multiple areas of spider web cracking on the inside of the front case half.

Also of note is that when you buy the replacement case half to do this repair, you'll find that the part comes with a label that says "Made in China".

For all of these reasons, I agree with sm_rubi's statement that the case half’s are the problem and that the common denominators that have been discussed facilitate the fracturing of the case half.

 

I agree that we shouldn't have to remove the front DS for travel, but many people are doing this. I've been doing it as well since my TC failure.

Prior to my Tcase failure I was running with 7 castor and no vibration that I noticed. Currently I'm running 4.3 castor and I have no vibration that I notice. My pinion angle is better, but no where near perfect. My steering however has suffered greatly. Your example of an evil machine is greatly exagerated, I do have flighty steering that is controlable and I have a bump steer problem that I didn't have before. It is controlable and by no means would I classify it as an "evil handling machine". There is no question that my jeep handled substantialy better at 7 castor than it does now with 4.3

 

I would agree it is a TC design flaw when we start hearing of t-cases exploding on JK's whose drivelines were set up as designed.

Vibration is something that can't be avoided. So an item is designed to survive whatever vibration it encounters from within itself, and from its associated equipment.

So, a consumer comes along and changes some of the associated equipment. Now the item is exposed to vibration it would never have seen otherwise.
When the vibration hits a certain critical harmonic frequency, the energy it must absorb is greatly amplified. KABOOM!

Since the TC explosions have been occurring on JK's whose front drivelines have been redesigned by the consumer, I believe that is where the design flaw lies.

If there are examples of TC's exploding with stock set-ups, I'll bet, with a little investigation, you will find something about that "stock set-up" has been changed.

edit to add:

Poor castings may be be part of the issue. Mine may be full of air pockets, but it has not exploded.

Poor casting are not designed in, though. That's a quality issue.