2wd LJ for a while

[SHoppe715]

So there's been a mildly annoying "clacking" sound coming from my tcase since it was new. I always figured it was normal noisy Jeep driveline sounds. When it started getting worse I got worried. The noise happens in all ranges when load is shifted front and back like on and off the gas or on and off the clutch. Loudest in both 4 hi and lo but still there in 2. Long story short: When I couldn't figure out exactly where the noise was coming from by laying underneath and shaking parts I took the front driveshaft off and gave the front output a twist - found it. The output doesn't seem to have much slop in that the bearing is bad and in 2wd it turns smooth and quiet. However, in 4wd it will turn at least 5-10 degrees back and forth and I can hear that "clacking" sound plain as day.

Here we go with the warranty issues again except I have a while to wait 'cause Gene's can't see me until 16 May! According to Gene's, other shops can do warranty work if authorized by DC. According to GT, since there's a stealership in town DC will never authorize it ('cause they've tried). I know they'll try and say it was abused and not warranty it. As we all know, that's a load of crap. NP241 cases with less beefy internals are put under much heavier rigs with much more power and torque than anything I could ever inflict on it.

When I finally get it in there, what might I tell them to look for first?

[sevenslats]

scratches on the skid plate and tweaked body mounts.
:thefinger:

tell them you here a strange noise in the driveline. Let them trace it down. Don't do them any favors by telling them what you've already found.

^ hypocrite. what do I do for a living? anyone? ^

[SHoppe715]

Unfortunately it's already on record. They have on file that they THINK trail damage is what caused the driveshaft to hit the skid plate bracket. I say THINK because they didn't measure anything. They made a visual inspection, took pictures of unrelated components, and told me to P!$$ off. The only way for damage to make the shaft hit the bracket would be for the t-case to be lifted out of place. A dead giveaway might be an incorrect pinion angle or bent / broken motor mounts. Did they check any of that? No...but they got a good shot of my muffler. Will they blame that same "trail damage" for the t-case now making noise? Most likely.

I've been in contact with DC customer service. There's another miserable story. The canned, generic, pretyped e-mail responses are wearing thin to say the least.

[SHoppe715]

I just won a decisive victory over Gene's. Here's the story...

I had to be at work real early just unlock a door so I got to surfing the www. I came across a similar designed skidplate as the one I have (sitting in my garage next to my front driveshaft). It was Rusty's and they had different listings for different models so I figured I'd give 'em a call and pick their brains. Turns out the Warn engine/trans skid is not designed to fit Rubicon models. I call Warn and the guy says it definitely won't fit my Jeep 'cause it'll hit the front shaft he says. Then I call Gene's parts dept and ask if they have an application listing for the skidplate and they also say it won't fit Rubicon models. Why am I just learning this now. Why should I have doubted the part# in the past if it's clearly pictured in the accessories brochure installed on a '06 Unlimited Rubicon. The picture of the skid installed on a Unlim Rubi was right there on the page next to the listing saying it wouldn't fit!!!!!! They copied that page, I took it over to service and watched jaws drop. "Ohhhh", they kept saying. "We installed it?" "You ordered it with the vehicle purchase?" "Ohhhh..." (They dismissed my opinion that it didn't fit correctly back in January saying I was the one who broke it)

Ahhhh. The sweet smell of "I told you so, b!&#*@$ ". They will now warrantee any dang thing under my Jeep and I bet they just bought me a new t-case & driveshaft. The owner just doesn't know it yet.

[ChevyKev]

Score one for the common man!:rockon: :clap: :headbang: :yes:

This is good to hear on several accounts.
1. Your stuff will be fixed right at no additional cost to you
2. Gene's gets what it deserves!

[TJVigilante]

now if only they would honor my warranty stuff...but I have no proof(rightfully so) that the budget boost was on there when I bought it. :p

Eh, good for you.

[naturalbornmudder]

Mmmm...sounds delicious!

Crow sauteed with some eat this Beetches! and a side of shut the F### up covered in a thick creamy layer of faulty maintenance practices.

[SHoppe715]

Mmmm...sounds delicious!

Crow sauteed with some eat this Beetches! and a side of shut the F### up covered in a thick creamy layer of faulty maintenance practices.

:lol: I don't care who you are, that's funny right there...git-r-dun:lol:

[SHoppe715]

Oh yeah, for some reason 2+2 just dawned on me. When I brought the Jeep in to Gene's in January because the front driveshaft was hitting the skid plate bracket it was before I started hearing the t-case noise...so they had their chance to catch it before it became a big problem. I have that printout and I'll be bringing it with me on Wed.

[SHoppe715]

Let's just say Gene's came through for me this morning and are doing me up right. Jim and Rick asked me not to advertize what exactly they're doing for me, but I can say I'm extremely satisfied.

[ChevyKev]

Glad to see they're doing somebody right! Maybe they've changed their ways!

[TJVigilante]

I doubt that...it took a ton of pressure from him for this to happen...more than the average person would probably put on them.

[SHoppe715]

So I almost had my ride back. The parts arrived a week later than promised and I had to call to find out since noone called me. (big surprise...) After enough disgruntled P&Ming they got me in at the front of the line instead of in another month and a half. I get a call Fri afternoon saying they can have me on the road by the end of the day. Cool! Its a nice day and I've got time for a nice little bike ride with 7 year old in tow on his 1wheel pull behind. I get there around 5:00. 6:20ish rolls around and it seems we're all set. The Jeep's out front running and the bikes are loaded in the back. Wait a minute, something doesn't sound quite right. Lets go for a spin around the lot and see. That's an interesting noise... Why does the steering wheel jerk around this corner like I'm in 4? "Clunk..." Oh, now it's in 2. I go back in while the last few folks in there were closing up shop and say "Um, somthing ain't right..." The mechanic who was working on it was still there. He came out, played with the stick "Oh, $#!t!, I thought I got that adjusted right." Jeff timidly asked if I had another ride but gave that up when he saw the look on my face, my kid, and the bikes. I say jokingly that I'll accept a 72 hour test drive of anything with an SRT8 badge, but accepted the free rental of a 4door Dakota.

[ajpthng]

WOW, so are they going to have it done Monday?

[SHoppe715]

Let's hope.:errf: I almost wish I didn't have any warranty coverage and had to do the work myself. Yeah, it wouldn't be free, but it would be done by now. I hope it's not the same guy working on it that put my tail lights on backwards...(I wish I was making that one up) It's a double edge sword what I've done with this thing. I'm keeping it stock for the life of the 1st tires to work out the bugs and any possible defective parts for free. If I'd lifted it sooner, though, the skidplate wouldn't have killed the t-case in the first place.

[SHoppe715]

This is turning into a major headache. Long story. I got a flat on the Parks Hwy on the way home from Anch so when I dropped the Jeep off for the work to get done it had the spare on. I haven't been doing a 5 wheel rotation so the spare's quite a bit bigger in the tread. That's what they first tried to blame for the problem. I can understand an odd sized tire binding the gears after shifting into 4 and not allowing the gears to disengage back to 2. So after I brought the patched tire back and they put it on it seemed OK. Well, no, not really. 1st problem was the new t-case was actually resting on the crossmember. Laying right on it. Not just the mount, but the front output side too! I heard the clattering when I started the engine to drive off and had to point this out to the "factory trained master technicians". I know the old one didn't do that because it was the first thing I looked for when I started hearing the noises back in Apr. They took the crossmember off and beat the living $#!t out of it but now that seems OK. The crossmember has taken a beating so I'm sorta OK with this, but why didn't the old one hit? I go to drive off again and the shift linkage feels wrong. It was binding between 2 and 4 again. Another mechanic looked at it, adjusted it, and it seemed OK again. I then drove home in 2 with no problems. Close to home on the gravel roads I decided to play with the gears. BIG problem. Not shifting right. 4 not disengaing right. Loud clunking when it does. Stick hitting N where it should only be 4hi.(forward left stop in the Z shaped gate) Now I think it's just an adjustment thing. I get underneath and adjust the lever to where it should be and the shift pattern at least looked right from everything I see externally. It still wasn't shifting out of 4 cleanly. Sometimes it would be in 2 but then almost felt like 4 was grabbing a little. (Hard to describe.) I dropped it off the next morning. HaHaHaHa. I get it back with them saying the service manager took it for a test drive and it's "operating as designed". Hahahaha. Now it's jumping in and out of 4 randomly without moving the stick from 2. I brought it back, raised some hell, took one of the service advisors for a ride so someone would see what I was talking about. He took the service manager for a ride and they came back agreeing that it wasn't shifting right. It seemed to be in 2 so I said I'd not touch the stick at all, leave it in 2, and bring it back when I had time. I had to get back to work and play music at the Governor's picnic. He made an appointment for a few days later. From there, to work, to Pioneer Park it jumped in and out of 4 at least three times by counting the teeth rattling cluncks. It did it once while turing onto Airport and just about caused an accident by jerking the steering wheel and sending me into oncoming traffic. I get home OK and call the manager. I tell her about the near accident and that I'm removing the front driveshaft for safety until they get this fixed. Aftre laying on my back in the pouring rain I got the shaft out. But now a new concern. It looks like the front driveshaft has been hitting the exhaust. It's been hitting the upper tube just past the forward cat and I'm guessing that's what loosened up the manifold bolts causing the leak. (but thats another story) So I ge the shaft out and when I go to drive down the driveway I hear a ratcheting, clattering, rattling noise that about made me loose my mind. With the front axle turning the shaft the problem wasn't obvious. The drivechain gears are not fully disengaging. Now without the axle turning the front output about the same speed as the rear you can hear the teeth clattering against each other. That explains the jumping from 2-4. I had it towed back since I had to work and just had no time to deal with those people. That's where it sits today.

Congratulations and thank you if you made it through my long rant.

[sevenslats]

lemon?

[TJVigilante]

I didn't make it through the book, Sorry.

[SHoppe715]

lemon?

I don't think it would qualify, yet. None of the problems have been the result of faulty manufacture. The dealer has addressed the problems done repairs under warranty. It's a lemon if the same problem is either unfixable or chronically reoccuring. My problem lies in the quality of their facility and their inability to get this problem fixed. The driveshaft hitting the exhaust is a bit worrysome, though.

[ajpthng]

Thats bad, I give you props though because if it were me I would have told them to stick that jeep where the sun doesn't shine and give me my money back a long time ago.

[AKMark]

I would've run and never gone back.

The LJ is cool, but yours isn't the first I've heard that have had severe issues.

[SHoppe715]

OK. This just keeps getting better and better. It's still there since getting towed and I have a word on what's wrong. But first some juicy details...

I kept calling them after the tow-in to see if they'd looked at it yet. They finally got to it and the manager lady says we will need to discuss some other issues. I ask "Like what?" "Well, Mr. Hoppe, your useage of the vehicle. I have a tech saying he saw you forcing it in and out of gear violently in our parking lot..." so on and so forth... I blew up. I was cussing and swearign so loud over the phone they would have called the cops had I been there in person. (Mel knows the feeling) I asked her if she was seriously accusing me of breaking a brand new transfer case right there in their parking lot and if she realized how ridiculous that sounded. Add a few more 4letter F & S words, crank the volume, and you can transcribe that phone call. To this point I haven't desperately needed wheels but I now have family in town from Minnesota. I need wheels bad. I asked her if the same "factory trained master technician" that put my taillights on backwards was working this issue and pitched enough of a fit over a new t-case taking 2 weeks to install thet she put me in a superpimp town&cuntry minivan mere hours before my folks arrived.

I got the word a few hours later... The shift fork was "not machined correctly." Not broken or damaged? Just wrong? I don't know for sure just how true that is, but for some reason or another they're not trying to blame me for any more breakage and I have the free rental for as long as it takes to get my Jeep up and running.

The thing that bothers me the most is how the new case's front output side rested on the crossmember when the old one didn't. Why does it seemingly hang lower? I know there are different versions of the NP241. Are there slightly different bolt patterns? Jeep / Chevy / Dodge? My new case was on "backorder". Does that mean there were none available and another NP241 had to be retrofitted to the '06 and older Rubicon setup? Like an "07 case getting a yoke style front output instead of a flange? Is the '07 clocked a little different? Seriously, people, WTF?

I just want my Jeep back.

AKMark - what specific problems have you heard of. I'd very much like to know.

[TJVigilante]

I don't know what to say dude....other than I'll be going elsewhere for my next vehicle purchase. I feel your pain...although my issues were more easily and cheaply fixed.

[78calico]

Genes is the only reason I have never owned a jeep. Luckily I never got any farther than dealing with the underhanded tactics of their sales department. After telling them where to stuff it I've never even set foot on the lot. The only way I would ever buy anything from them is if it change owners and they completley cleaned house. I'm not holding my breath.

[AKMark]

Man, how can a place with such a bad rep stay in business.

[ajpthng]

Shoppe, Did you get your LJ back yet? I thought I seen you the other day in NP but wasn't sure.