Broke my CV

[Muddy Bean]

Whoever said removing the prop shaft and drive flanges was a 15 minute fix must have a warped sense of humor. The cone washers didn't want to come free so that took some definite coaxing. Anyway, all is well. Truck is quite useless in the snow as a 2wd vehicle. Can't wait to get a new diff in there.

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[Chris Sandstorm FJ]

Stan, did you do this mod yourself?

The spider gears are inside the differential. They enable each wheel to spin at a different speed while turning. This is why I believe he's broken the spider gears. He said he only hears the noise while turning. The ring gear is the big gear that bolts to the carrier of the differential (which is the other common failure), the pinion gear turns the ring gear, the drive shaft turns the pinion gear. Kind of.....

These aren't items you could replace/fix on the trail. Carrying extras won't do you any good. The flange wouldn't really fail, unless the c clip popped off and the axel backed out and ground the splines.

The best option is to either know how to isolate the front diff to get off the trail or install the stronger air locker and Nitro gearset.

 

[jgray]

I blew my 99 2 pinion front diff a little over 6 years ago. I also broke the spider gears in the diff and after further inspection determined I had not damaged my ring gear. After weighing and exploring my options at the time I decided to replace the it with a newer 4 pinion diff I found from someone that had recently installed a ARB. I got it for a great deal (around $200 IIRC) and did the labor of removing my old unit and installing the newer 4 pinion diff myself. I only purchased the bearings and seals I needed to install the new diff as I didn't really need a complete master install kit... Since I was able to re-use my ring gear it was way cheaper than $1000 ARB, new front ring and pinion $300-350, master install kit, labor, etc, etc, etc... Another factor for me deciding to go this route was I decided that when I upgraded to a ARB I wanted to move to 4.88 gears if I was going to completely setup a new ARB plus front and rear gear sets I only wanted to deal with all the labor and expense of the complete upgrade job one time. This may not be for everyone but I did this complete job for less than $300 at the time by doing the labor myself. You can probably source a used 4 pinion diff from someone who has upgraded to a ARB or from somewhere like www.car-part.com . Just thought I'd throw another option out there. This worked like a charm for me at a time when I didn't have a few extra grand to throw at the cruiser to do what I really wanted... Good luck - hope everything works out for you. (I have pictures if you want to see any of my install or have other questions)

 

[paflytyer]

Stan, did you do this mod yourself?

If you mean the TJM install, then not totally. After I broke, I drove home from Red Cone in 2WD. It was 10 days before 100s in the Hills. I removed the entire housing and ordered a locker, gearset and compressor from Carl (Just Differentials). They had a core already in the shop, so they set up the gears and shipped that housing to me. I just installed the whole new differential, ran the air and power lines for the compressor, put the axles and everything else back together and crossed my fingers when I put the truck in reverse to back out of the garage.

It was a good learning experience to take apart the broken differential and get a good look at what happened. I'm glad I did the work, but it wasn't fun. Lying on my back trying to lift an awkward 100lbs and hold it in place to install bolts wasn't my idea of quality LC time. I'd rather repack wheel bearings...... Gear oil smells about as bad as a beer fart.

 

[fireball]

Muddy - sorry to hear about your break. Seems like were hearing about a lot of these lately, making me nervous to take my 99 out for any serious wheeling. I've had it for about three months now and probably have a half-dozen days on it and a good number of trips planned in the spring and summer. Probably should've spent the money on a ARB locker instead of front bumper!

Pa - is there a write up for how to remove the front drive shaft and flanges? Might need to do a practice run of this in the comfort of my garage before potentially having to do it Laying on rocks with only a handful of tools in the middle of nowhere!

 

[paflytyer]

Pa - is there a write up for how to remove the front drive shaft and flanges? Might need to do a practice run of this in the comfort of my garage before potentially having to do it Laying on rocks with only a handful of tools in the middle of nowhere!

There are a few. There is one in my broken diff thread, one in skidoo's broken diff thread and RobRed has one on his site. The text version of all of these can be confusing to folks who are not that familiar with working on their vehicle. I'm a visual learner, so the text version was just words to me until I did this job for the first time.

I just made a video the other day where I had my 7 year old remove the flanges. Obviously, he's not strong enough to hold the drive shaft or smack the studs hard enough to break the cone washers free, so I do some of the work too. The lighting isn't great, so I'm hoping Romer will offer up his clean, well lit garage and I'll re-do it.

 

[fireball]

Thanks for the info I'll go check those out. Would love to see a video though !

 

[phsycle]

Muddy, hope you're surviving with a 2WD LC. Good thing we don't have a "FullTime 4WD" emblem like the 80's as you'd be lying to everyone behind you.

Just a quick question (to anyone) regarding the ARB. After the install, what then becomes the weakest link? Axles?

 

[Muddy Bean]

Muddy, hope you're surviving with a 2WD LC. Good thing we don't have a "FullTime 4WD" emblem like the 80's as you'd be lying to everyone behind you. Just a quick question (to anyone) regarding the ARB. After the install, what then becomes the weakest link? Axles?

Let's just say, it's fun.... Getting my flanges machined as I type this. Until then it's just plastic covering the bearings. I'll have slee do a repack when I have him install the ARB. I wouldn't say the weakest link would be the axles. The diff could still bust...and prob would before the axle. But someone who knows more chime in

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[mcgaskins]

Gear oil smells about as bad as a beer fart.

I had changed out the gear oil in the diffs of a Jeep I bought a long time ago, and I had put it into some containers to recycle it at Pep Boys. I was running late for work and took a turn sharp which caused the containers to fall over and start leaking the oil into the cargo area carpet. It then sat oustide for about 8 hours in the sun, and when I got back into it I nearly barfed! After trying to clean it several times I literally had to replace the carpet and the pad and clean the metal underneath it to get rid of the smell. You're right it's a horrible smell!

 

[paflytyer]

Just a quick question (to anyone) regarding the ARB. After the install, what then becomes the weakest link? Axles?

U Joints

 

[2000UZJ]

U Joints

Really? I've never heard of a 100 snapping a u-joint...my bet is CV while turning.

 

[paflytyer]

Really? I've never heard of a 100 snapping a u-joint...my bet is CV while turning.

For as hard as you drive your truck, you should run down to Napa or Autozone and buy the cheapest U-Joints they have. Make them the weakest point. Easily replaceable for $25. Cheaper than replacing a CV and far cheaper than replacing an entire front diff.


Every system has a weak point. Once you make one thing stronger, something else becomes the next part in line to fail. I chose to have the cheapest part be the weakest part. Not weak, per se, but the overall weakest part of the system.

 

[2000UZJ]

For as hard as you drive your truck, you should run down to Napa or Autozone and buy the cheapest U-Joints they have. Make them the weakest point. Easily replaceable for $25. Cheaper than replacing a CV and far cheaper than replacing an entire front diff. Every system has a weak point. Once you make one thing stronger, something else becomes the next part in line to fail. I chose to have the cheapest part be the weakest part. Not weak, per se, but the overall weakest part of the system.

You have a point. I'm not going to worry about it. It's made it through hell. Flooring it, bouncing, everything I can throw at it. When she blows, she blows. 4.88's and lockers.

 

[hoser]

Just a quick question (to anyone) regarding the ARB. After the install, what then becomes the weakest link? Axles?

My guess... the weakest link would still be the R&P.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Pinion shaft, maybe drive flange.

 

[Muddy Bean]

Pinion shaft, maybe drive flange.

Honestly, I think having something purpose
Built to fail cheaply before something expensive fails isn't a bad idea. drive flanges are cheap. Diff, not so much.

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[spressomon]

just be prudent with the skinny pedal and you'll be fine

 

[Muddy Bean]

just be prudent with the skinny pedal and you'll be fine

This is true....I did it to myself trying to rock out. Lesson learned. On a side note, Slee will be fixing everything for me in July. Just have to limp through the rest of this epic winter.

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[Muddy Bean]

Love having a dad who works in a machine shop. He did this in 15 minutes and shipped them back to me the same day during his lunch hour....for free. Thanks dad. Anyway, one last question as I button this up, do you guys use some sort of gasket tack or adhesive for the flange gaskets or just clean the surfaces and slap em on?








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