On an MJR run this past weekend, I related a recent experience I had with Tri-County Gear (Pomona, CA) that folks thought I should post here.

It begins with going to Tri-County to have a new 4-speed Atlas transfer case put in my 86 CJ7. This goes smoothly enough. I pick up my Jeep and am flat towing a short distance when the transfer case output shaft siezes. This causes the ring & pinion to blow-up, destroys my detroit locker, bends my dana 44 housing and twists the splines on my superior axels. Now I have a busted up Jeep, a big hole in my wallet from the transfer case, and bad feeling about the whole thing.

This is where it gets good. My Jeep goes back to Jason ad the TCG team who diagnose all the aforementioned problems, and they contact Advance Adapters. TCG has a long standing relationship with Advance, and BOTH companies turn out to be very reputable. We ship the 4-speed back to Advance who agrees that the transfer case siezed, and promptly builds a new one and ships it back to TCG. TCG then performs all the repairs to the Jeep and gets me back on the road. In fact, TCG and Advance take care of the entire repair for me.

Too often we hear about shops that don't stand behind the work they perform. I can tell you from experience that this is not at all what my experience with Tri-County Gear has been. I have found them to be knowledgable and dependable, and I would recemmend them to anyone looking for a Jeep mecanic in SoCal. Personally, I will not be taking my Jeep (or future Jeeps) any place else.

That's the story, and it is 100% true and took place in April of 2007.<br /><br /><br /><br />

On an MJR run this past weekend, I related a recent experience I had with Tri-County Gear (Pomona, CA) that folks thought I should post here.

It begins with going to Tri-County to have a new 4-speed Atlas transfer case put in my 86 CJ7. This goes smoothly enough. I pick up my Jeep and am flat towing a short distance when the transfer case output shaft siezes. This causes the ring & pinion to blow-up, destroys my detroit locker, bends my dana 44 housing and twists the splines on my superior axels. Now I have a busted up Jeep, a big hole in my wallet from the transfer case, and bad feeling about the whole thing.

This is where it gets good. My Jeep goes back to Jason ad the TCG team who diagnose all the aforementioned problems, and they contact Advance Adapters. TCG has a long standing relationship with Advance, and BOTH companies turn out to be very reputable. We ship the 4-speed back to Advance who agrees that the transfer case siezed, and promptly builds a new one and ships it back to TCG. TCG then performs all the repairs to the Jeep and gets me back on the road. In fact, TCG and Advance take care of the entire repair for me.

Too often we hear about shops that don't stand behind the work they perform. I can tell you from experience that this is not at all what my experience with Tri-County Gear has been. I have found them to be knowledgable and dependable, and I would recemmend them to anyone looking for a Jeep mecanic in SoCal. Personally, I will not be taking my Jeep (or future Jeeps) any place else.

That's the story, and it is 100% true and took place in April of 2007.

That's great that everything was taken care of for you! I might have to go to TCG if I have any work done! (r&p for instance!)

im hope they do good work, bcuz they are pricey, im gettin ready to have an axle retubed, shortened, and turning the inner cs, there charging twice as much as currie did. but i want it bad...and currie doesnt do that anymore..sounds like a good company to deal with though.

ummm doesnt sound right. That much damage I would look very closely into how that was installed. I'd suspect a bad pinion angle. That transfer case is long which causes the rear DS to be very short. We struggled a bit with that on my install.

Hope your ax is strapped

I have a high pinion 60 in the rear and it is very very tight on that angle.

Ive had my 4 spd in now for a year, I trash it. Never had any issues. I'll stick with my installer.

Good luck with the repair!

The pinion angle problem is a very probable culprit, but was not the issue in this case. Pinion angle was definitely something we had to address during the installation (re-install rear spring perches, etc). As for the length of the case, again you are right. Roughly 5 inches longer than the dana 300 it replaced, so the rear drive shaft is shorter. To prevent binding the rear drive shaft I had to install limit straps in the rear, so I loose a bit of droop....the next step is to move the rear axle back 5 plus inches (another big job).

As for installers, TCG has probably installed as many or more Atlas cases as anyone. In fact, TCG is one the places most highly recommended by Advance for such installations.

I got the first of the most recent run of t-cases. Advance had had some QC problem with the 3.8 gear set cases, so they had switched to a new supplier (I believe this is correct from my speaking with them). When the whole thing went south, Advance did not question the install because of who had done it.

Nonetheless, everything seems to be 100% now. And like Britain, I am abusing mine regularly and expect no future problems.