12' Gecko Build
- Thread starter desertrunner
- Start date
desertrunner
Hooked
:thumb: Thanks guys! i saved up a bit of cash to do phase 1 of the build and once i get this T case in i am officially out of cash haha. Not to mention my wife and i are looking at putting in offers on our first house here this week so needless to say im glad i got the jeep this far before buying a house to i can run it while my wife has me on house projects haha.
The only think i will say so far that im a little torn about is the 3.21 gears.... im only on 33s and man im just not a fan of how much of a dog it is. Its not terrible but im kinda thinking the 1k might have been spent better on a set of 4.88s instead of the Rubi T case BUT of course i dont wanna dump $$ into a D30 and once you open up the axles id wanna throw lockers in there so really it would have been more than 1k but i thinking it may have been worth it to do some axle work before some of the other stuff i bought but oh well too late now. End goal for this guy is gonna be 37s anyway so that stock 30 will fingers crossed be a PR44 in a year or 2. Hopefully i can live with the 3.21s for now, the rubi case will help in 4 lo for now
desertrunner
Hooked
Got started on the T case swap today. It's times like these when I crawl under my jeep to work on it I regret every second of going out in the Mud.....
Pulled the skid plate and took it over to the pressure washer to mitigate the amount of dirt I get in my face while I do this. And got the rear drive shaft pulled. That's as far as I got tonight but hey its progress. I'm gonna attempt to do it with leaving the transmission cross member in place for now if it becomes too much of a pain I'll pull it later.
And of course my jeep buddy always down to lick me in the face when I'm struggling to get a bolt loose haha
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Pulled the skid plate and took it over to the pressure washer to mitigate the amount of dirt I get in my face while I do this. And got the rear drive shaft pulled. That's as far as I got tonight but hey its progress. I'm gonna attempt to do it with leaving the transmission cross member in place for now if it becomes too much of a pain I'll pull it later.
And of course my jeep buddy always down to lick me in the face when I'm struggling to get a bolt loose haha
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desertrunner
Hooked
Got the drive shafts disconnected and fluid drained, next step the shift linkage vent hose and electric plug then the real fun begins trying to get to those 6 mounting nuts. I can definitely see how pulling the crossmember would make it easier but definitely not necessary at least not yet for me. I also like the fact I don't have to have a jack down there supporting the weight of the transmission so I have more freedom of movement under there.
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desertrunner
Hooked
Made some headway tonight
Tight ass space to get in there even with a stubby
Old one out
New one on the jack ready to be put in
All pulled apart!
I feel like I'm performing a heart transplant haha
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Tight ass space to get in there even with a stubby
Old one out
New one on the jack ready to be put in
All pulled apart!
I feel like I'm performing a heart transplant haha
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desertrunner
Hooked
And the new one is back in and tightened down
Just another pic of what the top passenger side bolt looks like with a stubby
It definitely wasn't easy but overall not terrible. I would say so far the hardest part was getting the new one up into place the motorcycle jack I was using didn't get tall enough and was too bulky for me to lift it into place from there, the normal floor jack was way too unstable, long story short I ended up just bench pressing the damn thing up into place. I know really not a smart move working by myself but it worked the real fun was the one arm bench press stabilize with the knee and turn the rear yoke so the splines on the transmission would line up haha. So that's it for tonight tomorrow I'll get the drive shafts put back in fill it with fluid and go for a test drive.
As far as tools needed for the 6 nuts on the transfer case I ended up needing a 9/16 full size combination wrench, 9/16 stubby combination wrench, and there was one nut I just ended up using my 3/8 ratchet with a 90 degree elbow attachment. They are a bitch but definitely doable and I did it by myself without taking the transmission cross member out.
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Just another pic of what the top passenger side bolt looks like with a stubby
It definitely wasn't easy but overall not terrible. I would say so far the hardest part was getting the new one up into place the motorcycle jack I was using didn't get tall enough and was too bulky for me to lift it into place from there, the normal floor jack was way too unstable, long story short I ended up just bench pressing the damn thing up into place. I know really not a smart move working by myself but it worked the real fun was the one arm bench press stabilize with the knee and turn the rear yoke so the splines on the transmission would line up haha. So that's it for tonight tomorrow I'll get the drive shafts put back in fill it with fluid and go for a test drive.
As far as tools needed for the 6 nuts on the transfer case I ended up needing a 9/16 full size combination wrench, 9/16 stubby combination wrench, and there was one nut I just ended up using my 3/8 ratchet with a 90 degree elbow attachment. They are a bitch but definitely doable and I did it by myself without taking the transmission cross member out.
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WJCO
Meme King
How many hours would you say it took?
desertrunner
Hooked
To be honest I have just been taking my time and doing it before and after work a little at a time. If you were to dedicate a whole day to just doing that and already had all the right tools and oil pan and new fluid ready to go I'm sure you could knock it out in 6-8 hours solo. The biggest pain is getting the new one back into place but if you have an actual tranny jack it would help a lot. Or just a buddy to help lift it into place. Not the smartest move but I did just bench press it in there and I'm like 5'9" 150lb so it really isn't THAT heavy.
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jkwebbie
New member
Looks good man. It took me and my buddy around 2.5 hours to put his Rubi case in his Jeep, but we did have all the tools we needed laying out and ready. Trying to line up those splines with the tranny was the biggest PITA, I bet it took us 30 minutes trying to do that lol.
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desertrunner
Hooked
Damn that's impressive that you got it done that fast, but yeah I had to go out pressure wash it after pulling the skids then try to struggle with the tools I had then said F it went and bought stubby wrenches so yeah it's taken me a while. Those splines were a bit of a pain a buddy really would have helped out there. That alone took me at least an hour by myself haha.
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desertrunner
Hooked
So new update I got everything in place and torqued down filled it with new fluid and took it for a spin. Everything turned out good it shifts perfect to high and low crawls like a mother in low love it and no issues with the Limp mode in Lo with the manual transmission so that's good. Now time to get all my new evo skid plates in place.
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jkwebbie
New member
Haha yea we were pretty impressed too. The swap is pretty easy but it does make it go a lot faster with an extra set of hands and a shop full of tools. It probably helped that we didn't have any beer either lol. But we were definitely cussing when it came to lining up those splines, that's the hardest part of the install hands down.
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desertrunner
Hooked
well i finally completed my move to MT and finally got my garage all squared away to do some jeep work.
I just ordered a set of the Black Bolts to go with the evo rock skins thanks to the tip from sharkey and Benatc1
http://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/Flat-Socket-Screw-1-4-20-Black-Oxide-Stainless-p/12270000.htm
as soon as those arrive i am going to tackle the skin install and a huge thanks to Catahoula for the nutsert tool that should make the install this time around much easier.
I also need to figure out whats going on with my Evo Cross member skid i currently have it installed without 2 of the bolts on the outside where it goes into the frame, for the life of me i cant get the holes to line up. not sure if the skid is a little warped or what but i will probably just drill the holes a little bigger so i can shift it a little and make the holes line up. :idontknow:
I just ordered a set of the Black Bolts to go with the evo rock skins thanks to the tip from sharkey and Benatc1
http://www.albanycountyfasteners.com/Flat-Socket-Screw-1-4-20-Black-Oxide-Stainless-p/12270000.htm
as soon as those arrive i am going to tackle the skin install and a huge thanks to Catahoula for the nutsert tool that should make the install this time around much easier.
I also need to figure out whats going on with my Evo Cross member skid i currently have it installed without 2 of the bolts on the outside where it goes into the frame, for the life of me i cant get the holes to line up. not sure if the skid is a little warped or what but i will probably just drill the holes a little bigger so i can shift it a little and make the holes line up. :idontknow:
desertrunner
Hooked
Got the skins on, thanks catahoula for the Astro tool made a world of a difference. Much smoother this round than on my last jeep haha
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catahoula
Caught the Bug
Look awesome Dawg! Thanks as well. It was a pleasure to meet ya!
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AZ Explorer
Caught the Bug
Just noticed this thread for the first time. Great build so far with lots of info. The Gecko is a really cool color too.
Skins look great, nice job and yes, the tool makes a world of difference :crazyeyes:
desertrunner
Hooked
Love this color! took me a while to find one and im so glad i was patient enough to wait on one, I even had to buy a one way flight, hope it was everything the dealership said it was to buy it and drive it 2 days home haha.
Thanks! its coming together nicely. The build is going to stop here for a while until i figure out what im going to do with axles gears locker etc haha
Yeah my first set on my 08 turned out terrible, the holes didnt line up that great had a few rivits pop loose and spin with the bolt halfway out it was ugly haha.
but this time around i used 2 big quick grip clamps marked the holes, triple checked that they all lined up, used a punch so the drill bit didnt walk around, put a little bead of red locktite on the rivets, astro tool worked its magic, and all the bolts went in smooth :thumb: