The dif cover does its job. I had a good bump into a chunk of concrete hiding in the grass down by the river and it barely scratched the cover ( left of the drain plug on the edge of the armor.) It would have definitely bashed in the housing without the armor.
It did make me kind of wish I had covered the portion with the drain plug as well. I may add a bar across/in front the drain plug.
New rotors. All the studs were good as well as the bearings.
My method:
Install washers and lug nits upside down.
Flip it over and clamp it loosely in the vice onto 4 of the lugnuts. Torque it to the same torque as you would for the wheels more or less. I went with 100nm.
Mark as you go
Bearings are prepacked so just grease the race and pop it in- then the seal. I should have prepacked the hub but I did it after.
An aside....
Need a brass hammer or drift? I recommend this company:
The 70 series cable locker front studs are NLA. But the E locker studs are still available and they are the same as the rear 70 series studs. They are a little longer by a cm or so for the addition of a guard to prot3ct the rear locking mechanism.
The KTC stud puller set that I bought is just one of those tools that makes the process so much better- but even so some of the studs were damaged. The torch of course makes it all easy...
I didn't get any assembly pics cause I just wanted to focus and as we all know it's a messy job.
It's too bad the 70 series axle had to come out as it is trussed. But I figure it was really for carrying the added weight of the 6 cylinder diesels and with my 3b the standard axle will be just fine.
Since this is my daily driver I really had to get this done over the weekend. Was just about buttoned up late Sunday evening when I felt that all too familiar "it's not tightening" feeling. The top left caliper bolt stripped out as I a torqued down to spec. We all know the deal. Getting tighter you get a closer spec getting tighter and then all the sudden it's not getting tighter. It's a sinking feeling. I had to Rent a car..... I'm so used to driving my 46 every day for me driving a regular car is like wearing someone else's underwear.
Well this extended my work time by day. So I took the opportunity to extend my rear brake hose with part number 96940-34805.
And extend the front breather hose as well.
I really didn't want to pull the knuckle off again. I managed with the help of this kit to get it done in place. The recoil kit #38128 12x1.25 was about as good as a kit can be. Very highly recommended product.
All buttoned up and looking sexy. Since I almost never use the highway and spontaneously go off-road I decided to skip the Aisin lockouts and just go with standard drive flanges.
Test run. I'd say the axle's doing its job just fine. The lift springs are a little stiff as were the stock springs. I'm still planning on pulling the bottom leaf front and rear to see what that does. But I do like the clearance! Hopefully it'll soften but not drop too much in height. The 33's have not been rubbing much that I've noticed while driving 9still on the stock bump-stops.) There is some paint missing on the inner rear wells but no bad noises. I'd say the overall setup is just about where I want it.
The only problem is find somewhere to wheel that is challenging! I live for winter......
Just a note - any time a wheel gets airborne and is spinning is a chance to snap an axle or Birfield joint pretty easily . That shock load when the weight comes down will far exceed the strength of even the best parts . Trick is to momentarily get off the power when it lands...
Sarge
Words of wisdom! Truth be told I can just crawl up that slope without issue without even engaging the lockers. I was just having some fun for the camera.
I actually have very little experience off road relative to yourself and many others on this forum and aside from what I've read here I'm pretty much self taught so any advice is welcome.
With the RCV axles in there I guess the next weak link would be the drive flange splines or the dowel pins/hub flange bolts.
So, it's been a good while since I've many reports but I've been keeping up with regular maintenance:
In terms of the body and really taking a maintenance approach. When I find rust I wire brush it away priming with it Red oxide primer. Then brush some 653 acrilic paint for the time being. Eventually when the time comes I'll dive in and give her a good paint job – if the time comes. But for now i'm doing my part to keep the rust at bay.
Also removed much of the factory seen caulking for the wheel wells and replaced it with an oil based putty. I oil the seams every Fall and the putty holds up really well. It's a maintenance based approach rather than applying a long term epoxy coating. But to do that well the seams should be sandblasted.
I like your approach to rust management. Even folks with super-duper coatings and sealants and epoxies and whatnot are going to end up battling the elements if they drive their truck regularly... ongoing, routine maintenance is the key. Need to see someone spell out their process.
So about a year ago I bought an Esoar D5 hydronic coolant heater. I bought it at a time when the end was doing really well compared to the Canadian dollar and I had my friend ship it over. Every morning I hope in my truck and drive less than a mile I make breakfast for the family and drive less than a mike back to work. Not very good for the engine he thinks I needless to say the cabin never gets warm.
My trucks a 24 V right hand drive and I have yet to find an example of a 40 series with the Espar installed so I thought a good document this in case other people want to do it. I chose the Espar over the way bus though because it easier to order parts and get tech support. So far the support I've received is been very helpful and prompt.
The first issue to deal with was trying to figure out how I was going to interface with the cooling system. Originally I thought I might install it under the air cleaner on the right side inner fender. But I wanted to go to the heater first and then to the engine so ultimately I put on the left inner fender. I also thought this is a better choice because it would be easier to install power steering as well as the turbo I have on the shelf.
First up was getting the bracket fit up to the fender. The first thing I did was add press in nuts to the bracket and then I fabricated and additional bracket to fit it to the fender. The 4th photo shows the for bolts where they ended up in the wheel well.
I thought about running exhaust over to heat up the oil pan but I didn't want to have it vulnerable in anyway to snow and branches and other stuff that gets packed up under the engine from time to time so I kept it short and sweet.
The intake hose took up nicely alongside the battery and draws air from the front corner of the apron.
The inlet and outlet on the Espar are 20mm and the lines on the truck are 16mm so two adapters are required. I simply took the fitting on the block and rotated 180° to face down words to feed the Espar. For the section I used a 16mm elbow and a 20 mm 45° hose.
To go from the Espar to the heater valve are used a 20 mm elbow and section of standard 16mm heater hose.
I tapped the fuel line with a 8x8x5mm T just after the sedimentator. I had read here on the forum that it was absolutely necessary to draw directly from the tank however the documentation show the tapping the fuel line was acceptable method.
It's pretty cute little fuel pump that comes with the kit. In fact the kit overall was pretty impressive.
I also purchased a seven day timer to run the unit however I didn't want to see the modern electronics in the cab. The timer is great. They let you set three program schedules. Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, or any single day of the week. I have a scheduled to heat up my truck every weekday morning starting at 5:30 AM. Then comes on again every weekday afternoon at 3:30 PM. Of course you can turn on and off at will as well. In the winter months I turn it on every time I get in the car and basically it provides instant heat from the heater in the cabin. I freaking love it! This is by far one of the best modifications i've done to the truck in terms of making more pleasurable to use.
Well I would come out in the morning And the heater was not despite the fact that I had programmed it The heater automatically shuts down at a pre-programmed voltage. I programmed it for 20 V and what was happening was that the batteries just weren't able to keep up. They were showing their age. In fact I stranded myself several times and had to try out my power all goliath 24 V lithium jump start battery. I must say I'm very impressed with this little item. I bought it just in case I got off of the woods by myself and did something stupid like left the lights on. I've been will jump the truck three times without recharging the Powerall.
The only thing left to do to complete the install of the Espar is to add a relay to automatically start the fan blower in the cabin. The Espar has a circuit that will switch on when the coolant reaches 30°C. I'll run that switch to a relay that will turn on the blower motor. And that will mean that every morning when I get up and climb in my truck it will be super toasty and I'll be very happy.
So I wanted to get as many amp hours as possible while simultaneously grouping both of the batteries over the left side. This will leave room for me on the right side to install my 24v compressor that I picked up cheap on auction where the second battery was. I love to drop pressure in the tires when I go off road but usually I don't simply because it's a good drive to the nearest gas station to pump tires back up again. Hopefully I'll be solving a problem in the near future.
Anyway for now these two batteries were absolutely the largest two batteries with the highest capacity they can fit together on the left side in the engine compartment. They measure 195 mm in width and combined 340 mm in length. Each is rated for 540 Cca and 42Ah.
I started off like this:
I
And this is how far I got towards the end of the day today:
Like always, you really plan things out very thoroughly. Looks good!
What I find real interesting is the brass posts on the batteries. I have never before seen brass posts, always lead. It will be interesting to see how they hold up, and work, over time.
All the odyssey batteries come with brass posts. I've had two of them before and never had a single problem with them. One nice thing is at the top of the post is threaded so you can tap electronics in there as well too.
