So, this is not the first time this has happened. One of these days I'll learn. Re-torque your nutz!!
I changed my oil this weekend and while under the truck I noticed the shiny wet spot on the bottom of the diff. I inspect it closer and realize that the FIPG is leaking fairly well. The two lowest studs always take the brunt of the force when dragging my junk over rocks. I have a rear diff skid, but I'm not convinced that it actually prevents much mayhem, and it's inconvenient to remove and replace in order to tighten the rear diff studs. So on my last outing I left it off.
The little M8-125 studs with 12mm nuts that hold the third member in the axle housing worked loose and I popped one trying to re-torque it. GAhhhhhh! No doubt it was compromised once the nuts backed off and there was enough flex. I attempted to drill it out, but the little f'ers are hardened (these may have been ARPs in fact). So that meant I had to pull the 3rd to extract it from inside the housing.
Luckily (or is this some corollary to Murphy's Law?), I had just finished rebuilding my "spare" third member. I just hadn't planned on installing it this soon. But since I was going to have to pull everything anyway, I decided the fresh chunk should go in and the old one would become my trail spare.
I changed my oil this weekend and while under the truck I noticed the shiny wet spot on the bottom of the diff. I inspect it closer and realize that the FIPG is leaking fairly well. The two lowest studs always take the brunt of the force when dragging my junk over rocks. I have a rear diff skid, but I'm not convinced that it actually prevents much mayhem, and it's inconvenient to remove and replace in order to tighten the rear diff studs. So on my last outing I left it off.
The little M8-125 studs with 12mm nuts that hold the third member in the axle housing worked loose and I popped one trying to re-torque it. GAhhhhhh! No doubt it was compromised once the nuts backed off and there was enough flex. I attempted to drill it out, but the little f'ers are hardened (these may have been ARPs in fact). So that meant I had to pull the 3rd to extract it from inside the housing.
Luckily (or is this some corollary to Murphy's Law?), I had just finished rebuilding my "spare" third member. I just hadn't planned on installing it this soon. But since I was going to have to pull everything anyway, I decided the fresh chunk should go in and the old one would become my trail spare.