Builds Blue Cruiser Thread (1 Viewer)

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So the story on the rear end is that when we replaced the rear axle and reinstalled the rear locker we noticed the rear drive shaft would turn easily through part of a rotation, and would then bind up and get difficult to turn through the other part. At Mardi Krawl we just finished putting the rear diff back together and went on, but when I got to Carolina Relic Run there were some forest service roads where we got up to 15-20 mph and I could feel that drive shaft binding up and letting go as I went down the road.

Made it through the event no problem, but now I’ve got some work to do. Will start by pulling the drive shaft to see if the binding is in the rear diff. If I can sort it out before GSMTR I’ll be taking it to Windrock. If not, time to park it and start working on a long list of things I want to fix or modify...

Uwharrie National Forest was the location for the event last weekend. Long haul from north Alabama but was fun.

 
Bump?
 

Thanks for the nudge! Yeah, its been a minute and I have done a few things. Have also been in parts buying mode. Will update my progress soon.
 
Thanks for the nudge! Yeah, its been a minute and I have done a few things. Have also been in parts buying mode. Will update my progress soon.

Don’t worry, half the “builds” in this section don’t do anything other then buying parts so post up! ;)
 
Ha, yup. I'll scrounge up some pics and update this thing tomorrow. Got some things going on that will keep me from getting to it today.
 
As I was going through my pictures it hit me how busy I was over the summer...no wonder I haven’t updated this thread in a minute. After getting back from Uwharrie I got this knuckle head....

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Went to Yellowstone...

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Did a few rides in my FJC while the 60 has been down...

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Although I did (unwisely) take the 60 Windrock in October....it was fun, but the 60 still has an issue with the rear diff so probably not a real smart thing to do, but it all turned out ok.

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Edit: the last pic is not Windrock, it’s the Grand Tetons, can’t move for some reason?
 
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After getting back from Windrock I started working on the 60 a bit.

Removed the smashed front bumper and the rear bumper. Also took off the sliders.

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Reasons why I took all that off

1. Rust.
2. The steel the PO used for the sliders and front bumper was less than 1/8” thick.
3. I got a front bumper to replace the one that was on there before.

The rust I want to deal with is in the rockers and the rear crossmember. The plan is to cut the rocker panels off. I also plan to build a rear bumper that will replace that cross member.

Typical rust on the rockers...

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Along with that I got some RCV Cr-Mo axles to replace what I had up front. This is a big upgrade and will get me back to 2 outers of the right length. They came with Cr-Mo hub gears so I rebuilt the hubs with those today.

Next steps are diagnose rear diff trouble, install RCV and Aussie locker up front, 2-lo mod, and buy steel for new sliders and bumpers

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Took the rear diff apart tonight, think I found the problem. Broken inner race on drivers side carrier bearing. This was the side on which the axle broke.

The carrier is also a little boogered up where the axle broke inside it. So, next steps...build a jig to work on the diff and buy a dial indicator to checkout the backlash (looks like the adjuster moved), mark parts, disassemble, and replace at least the one bearing...

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Ouch, that's some serious carnage

Yeah, I did a number on it...have been referring to it as the "Pit of Misery" since I broke everything in April....
 
I dug into the diff a little further today. I’m going to go ahead and find a new carrier. The portion the bearing pressed onto was deformed into an oval. Also, because I drove on it some the inner race was spinning on this oval and cut a nice grove in it. Don’t think I want to try to correct these problems.

Thanks to a couple guys in the club I was able to borrow the tool to pull the bearing and find a 3rd to pull a new carrier from.

The oval....

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The groove (maybe hard to see)....

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The crack.....

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Thanks to @Skitz for the donor third member, and @nalabama and @roma042987 for loaning me some tools, I was able to put my ring gear on a replacement carrier, set the backlash, and got a pattern that checked out just fine. I’ll be throwing the repaired third member back in the axle as soon as I get a few free minutes. Then moving on to more fun.....:beer:

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Nice work. I'm surprised a broken axle caused so much carnage...although I guess we did need a come-along to remove the cross shaft from that diff. Should have known!

Now get that thing back in, and put the cool new stuff in your front axle!!!

- Brian
 
Waiting on gaskets to finish the diff, so I started the next project....no turning back now!

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What gaskets do you need? Put the third in with just RTV. That’s the way to go.

Rocker chop looks good.
 

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