Posted by Russ/Wyo on Monday, April 04, 2005 at 7:39PM :
In Reply to: and the Dodge axles . . . posted by Keith on Monday, April 04, 2005 at 6:52PM :
The Scout had a few problems at first - it had a terrible death wobble, but we finally found the pitman arm needed a spacer so the nut could push the arm fully onto the pitman shaft. Ken Hill's 'weldernator' was put to use carving a spacer out of a slab of 1/4" plate - a genuine trail side type repair that worked great. After the wobble went away, the Scout wheeled as good as the best. We tried the Wedge on the Poison Spider Trail twice, trying to lift a wheel at the top where nearly anyone can get a foot of two of lift, and the Scout front wheel would only come off the ground 2 inches at the most no matter how we tried. The ride was also the smoothest I've experienced on any rock crawler. The springs definitely won't last too long in this type of duty, but replacing them is pretty easy and the results are well worth the effort. Devon Parson and Dave Mayo both broke rear leaf springs last week, so I don't feel too bad about my stock Scout leafs.
Chad Taylor broke the back end off the TH350 transmission in his Jeep on a sand hill at the very top of Moab Rim Trail, so Dave Mayo's Scout II was put to use towing him out with my Scout strapped to the back of the Jeep for braking (Dodge CTD brakes are awesome on this type of duty). The trip down the Moab Rim Trail was pretty intense, but the Scouts got the job done. Both Scouts have the Chrysler A727 automatic transmission, which can really take abuse.
My plan to double up an NP-203 with an NP-205 is now changed. I saw 3 Chevy transmissions that broke off the output ends from the excess torque of doubled up transfer cases, and I also heard of another that happened last week with the same setup. I'm now going to just install some high ratio gears in the differentials and call that good enough.
Digger Dan and John Eickhof both broke a rear axle, but were able to fix them quickly.