I solved the problems with the driveshafts in a very straight forward and relatively inexpensive manner. The rear driveshaft on my Explorer had already been lengthened to accomodate the extreme wheel travel and spring over lift. All I needed was to replace the front flange with a 1310 yoke and have the front of the driveshaft cut off and replaced with the proper splines. I then used a strap kit to attach it to the CV U-joint. My driveshaft shop (Dick's Driveshaft in Phoenix) told me that this was perfectly acceptable.
The front driveshaft came with a CV joint from the factory. I replaced it with a non-CV driveshaft. Once again the shop said this would work well, actually better than stock becuase the single joint can provide more movement than the double joint setup.
Both driveshafts are now equipped with Brute Force U-joints. These U-joints do not have grease fittings which help to make them stronger. The hollow passages in greasable U-joints tend to weaken them.
Both of the shifter handles for the Atlas II now fit perfectly. There is no interference with the 5 speed shifter. All I needed to do was to bend the rear axle shifter to the left a little using a pipe for leverage.
I need to make an appointment at my local speedometer shop so they can recalibrate the speedometer for me. Right now I'm using the speedometer on my GPS unit!
Before I buttoned up the installation I went off-road with the Atlas II. All I can say is WOW. Well actually I can say more
Dead Link Removed There's this hill close to my house which has lots of whoop dee doos all the way up. It stretches the suspension pretty well as one tire goes into a hole and the other gets picked up by a berm. Anyway I dropped it into low range at the bottom of the hill and placed the transmission in first gear. I let out the clutch and let the truck IDLE all the way to the top! The RPM's barely rose to over 500 yet the progress of the Explorer never slowed.
This deep of a low range isn't for everyone. You give up speed on the trail(at least in low range) for extreme torque and throttle control. The manual transmission is much easier to control on obstacles with the deep low range. Decending the back side of the hill was awesome as well the back side is very steep yet fairly smooth. Once again I went into low range and let it crawl down. The engine braking was outstanding.
On the highway, I immediately noticed the lack of backlash that was present with the stock chain drive case.
I was doing all of this driving and testing while my interior was still stripped. I had removed both front seats and peeled my carpeting to the back seat to allow easy access to the transmission tunnel. Obviously I put the drivers seat back in place for the test run.
All I have left to do is to fabricate a small cover for the side of the transmission housing where I had to cut a notch for shifter clearance. I also need to notch the carpeting and install the Atlas II shifter boot which was included with the transfer case.
Photos will be coming soon.
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Rick Horwitz
Editor
explorer@4x4central.com
www.4x4central.com
