Well, it is time to pull the tranny again, for two reasons this time. My transfer case, which had tested just fine on the street, wouldn't go into low range yesterday. I chose to try to run the first trail anyway in high range. That turned out to be a really bad decision for my clutch.

About 1/2 mile into the trail, the clutch was putting out large volumes of smoke. The trail was running uphill, so we got my rig turned around and I made it back to the main road and parked it. I rode with someone else from the club in his Toy truck with a flat bed, dual transfer cases, dual lockers, etc., on 35s. At the end of the day I found out that the saga of the clutch wasn't quite done.

The rigs on the run included a Sammy on Toy axles, a fairly stock TJ, Bryan's Trooper, the afore mentioned Toy Truck, and a really radical Rubicon on 60s, and 40" rubber. Every rig on the run, including mine, had a winch and they were used several times during the day.

If you ignore my clutch, the damage was limited to a tire for Bryan. The Sammy has an exo-skeleton, so there was no damage when he flopped.

Back to the clutch. On the way back to the road, the rig ran fine, but the clutch definitely was feeling soft. I manuevered over a large gate keeper rock and parked the rig. At the end of the day, Jesse took me back to my rig and I fully expected to drive it home, which is only a few miles from the ORV park. No such luck. The clutch was completely gone. The Rubicon towed me back to staging area. We then loaded the rig on Jesse's trailer and I drove his rig to my place. Jesse, John, Kevin and Len came along to help push the rig into the garage. There it sits.

This afternoon, I will start pulling the rig apart, again. I ordered the clutch this morning and it will be in tomorrow for me to pick up after work.