Okay, Atlas update... Some sunshine. Some clouds.
It's in. It drives. It shifts. It makes scary noises. But let's concentrate on the positive for a moment.
Where we left off.
Talked to Advanced and Eric at Atlas. Clear that switching yokes on the Atlas and having my factory drive shafts lengthened/shortened and rebuilt was going to be hundreds cheaper than having either all new shafts built or my factory shafts modified to work with the 1350 yokes the Atlas came with. So new yokes from Advanced went on.
Figured out where I needed to clock it. Trimmed a rib, and cut a new hole for the Atlas drain plug in the belly pan.
Dimpled the tub a bit at the front corner of the Atlas. It wasn't touching, but it was real close. I bet it was going to knock like an annoying bitch once in awhile under drive train movement. BTW, if you need to have every bit of shit stuck to the bottom of your Jeep, rain down on you, laying underneath it and hammering clearance into the trans tunnel works really good.
But the transmission mount was making hard contact with the bottom of the Atlas, which was preventing the belly skid from being able to bolt back on.
The transmission mount doesn't need four bolts. Three is plenty. Isn't it?
Well, maybe three is plenty. Maybe not. But that bolt head in the Atlas inspection plate, above, that is REAL close to contacting, does contact when I introduce the belly pan. Not to where I can't get the frame bolts started on the skid pate and suck it up, but to where I do need the bolts to suck it up, can't just jack it up flush like it likes to.
I'd really like to hear some ideas on the proper solution here. My idea, is to space down the mount from the bottom of the transmission, and then cut and sink the rest through the skid plate an equal amount. This part, sink it into the skid, so the drive train can rest in it's natural position and not have any contact between the Atlas and the mount.
Thoughts and ideas on this are most welcome.
Shifters took me some time, but they weren't hard to get set up.
Had my drive shafts done at Axis and Eric turned them around fast. When I first started messing with this, I noticed one of my rear Falcon shocks had puked out all it's oil. So I sent that to Teraflex and they turned that around real fast too. Also, had been planning to do rear brake pads and parking brake shoes soon anyway, so did that as well.
Adjusted the rear pinion angle down - it was off by 4* now. Pinion nut was loose again, too, gave it many ugga duggas. Front pinion might be just a tad low and need raised, but I haven't messed with that one yet.
First test drive, it's making noise. Kind of scary sounding. Worse on acceleration, but there pretty much always, even at idle. Kind of thought maybe the front axle was unhappy. Disconnected the front drive shaft and went for another drive, it didn't help.
Don't really know what the noise is.
But I'm hoping, that maybe it's just the contact between the Atlas and the trans mount, sending sound and vibes through the whole rig. Even the starter motor sounds much louder and I can feel it a lot more now.
So, could that be it? Anyone with a plasma and a real welder want to help sink that mount in the skid some day fairly soon?
Getting there...
- DAA
