BAWC Forums

Posted: **Sun Oct 12, 2025 3:01 am**

Tomorrow will be interesting. I think I've come up with a bracket to level this thing out. I'd love to show you pictures, but my web hosting is acting up at the moment.

Suffice to say I got some all-thread and some brackets at Home Depot and attached them to a 2x4. It's not perfect, but I think it's close enough. I've also got an idea for some alignment dowels. We'll see how it goes.

Coop wrote:I think just a jack under it like most would a 3/s would be your best bet.

Seriously? Gatecrasher method. Come on now.

Posted: **Sun Oct 12, 2025 9:27 pm**

Can I tell you guys how much I am completely over doing work like this on my back? Good lord this sucks. My neck and shoulders are trashed.

It was sketchy as hell getting the old case out. I should have had plenty of room, but Ford decided to put some big ass exhaust hanger studs right in the way. I'd have to drop the cats to get them out of the way. Fuck no. I also can't get the truck high enough to roll the case out while it's on top of the trans jack. So I had to slide the old one off to the floor before I moved it all out. I don't know how I'm going to get the new one in there.

Website is still broken. Pics will come later.

Posted: **Sun Oct 12, 2025 10:40 pm**

I changed the oils in the Explorer today, and that alone made me not want to work on my back. Next house for sure will have a garage capable of housing a lift.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 12:22 am**

I got it in. It was sketchy as fuck, and I have some concerns about how much load I put on the transmission output shaft, but it's up there. I wasn't able to use my fancy bracket at all.

I still need to put the driveshafts and crossmember back in, but that stuff is fairly easy. The service manual says I'm supposed to replace all the driveshaft bolts and the little brackets that go with them, but I can't figure out why. Best I can tell is it's because they have threadlocker on them and Ford couldn't be bothered to write a procedure to clean and re-coat them. I'm going to reuse them unless someone gives me a good reason not to.

I'll finish it tomorrow. I'm a wreck. This better be worth it.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 3:41 am**

Reuse those bolts.

I’m sure it has to do with the thread locker like you said.

Time for lots of ibuprofen

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 3:43 am**

I agree add a little blue thread locker and send it

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 1:35 pm**

The only ones that concern me a little are the big bolts that hold the driveline support bracket to the bottom of the transfer case. The transfer case housing is magnesium, so all the bolts have this plastic-like coating to keep them from corroding. If the coating on those bolts is damaged and they end up fusing themselves to the transfer case housing, I'll be screwed if I ever need to remove that bracket again.

Surprisingly they're only $4.50 each. I think I can still get to them once everything is reassembled. Even if not, pulling the crossmember isn't very hard.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 1:49 pm**

I get it. I need to do my Lexus brakes. Everything sitting at it and I don’t want to. Just because I know I’m gonna hurt. Getting old sucks.

Coop

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 1:54 pm**

Jeff V. wrote: ↑Mon Oct 13, 2025 1:35 pm The only ones that concern me a little are the big bolts that hold the driveline support bracket to the bottom of the transfer case. The transfer case housing is magnesium, so all the bolts have this plastic-like coating to keep them from corroding. If the coating on those bolts is damaged and they end up fusing themselves to the transfer case housing, I'll be screwed if I ever need to remove that bracket again.

Surprisingly they're only $4.50 each. I think I can still get to them once everything is reassembled. Even if not, pulling the crossmember isn't very hard.

Those seem worth it to replace, especially for only $4.50.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 2:14 pm**

I might have just gotten a set for $0.98 each. We'll see if the order finalizes

This makes me feel better. This is exactly what my front driveshaft bolts look like. Ford says to replace the bolt and those little clips too. Jeep just says to clean and apply the equivalent of Loctite blue.

https://www.wranglerforum.com/threads/o ... t.2435474/

The rear driveshaft bolts have some kind of yellow crap on them. I'll re-do those with blue too.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 3:31 pm**

I missed all the action. Glad to see it worked and came together. Id reuse those bolts. You'll have another truck by the time you ever need to pull those again.

Posted: **Mon Oct 13, 2025 5:08 pm**

i never replace em.

regarding the aluminum bolts...personally i havent dealt with them but i would replace with steel and use copper anti-seize on em.

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 2:24 am**

I managed to torque all 9 transfer case bolts to spec using a combination of extensions and wobbly joints. That's the part I was most worried about, and it really wasn't that bad.

The cross member on the other hand..

It was a major pain in the ass getting the driveline support bracket to line up with the holes on the transfer case, and then getting the cross member seated was another pain. Literally. Lots of lay down, adjust, get up, walk to the other side of the truck, lay down, adjust, repeat.

All that's left is torquing some fasteners, installing the driveshafts, and doing the electronics. That's just a new module, a new control knob, and one minor AsBuilt change.

Still can't log into my web hosting.

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 2:58 pm**

Jeff V. wrote: ↑Tue Oct 14, 2025 2:24 am I managed to torque all 9 transfer case bolts to spec using a combination of extensions and wobbly joints. That's the part I was most worried about, and it really wasn't that bad.

The cross member on the other hand.. It was a major pain in the ass getting the driveline support bracket to line up with the holes on the transfer case, and then getting the cross member seated was another pain. Literally. Lots of lay down, adjust, get up, walk to the other side of the truck, lay down, adjust, repeat.

All that's left is torquing some fasteners, installing the driveshafts, and doing the electronics. That's just a new module, a new control knob, and one minor AsBuilt change.

Still can't log into my web hosting.

ill have to look at how the crossmember is setup next time one comes in (supposed to have a 25 in today) but....line up and install 1 bolt just a few turns, move to other side and do the same.

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:09 pm**

Two bolts on each side. It's just enough of a friction fit that I had to hit it with a small sledge or use the jack to get it all the way into place so the bolts would go through.

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:29 pm**

Like I said. Sketchy. Even more so when I tilted it at a 45 degree angle.

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:43 pm**

Yea, that looks heavy.

What was the reason for this upgrade? How is this unit superior to what you currently have?

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:45 pm**

I was wondering why you had to go to the other side instead of just slide a little. I see why now.

Coop

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:54 pm**

ChargerX3 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:43 pm Yea, that looks heavy.

What was the reason for this upgrade? How is this unit superior to what you currently have?

It's the unit with the auto 4x4 mode. It effectively gives him a selectable AWD mode for when locked 4x4 is too much but 2wd isn't enough.

Posted: **Tue Oct 14, 2025 4:00 pm**

Oh, so like an open middle vs locked front and rear drive shafts?

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