This will be one bachelor party never to be forgotten. Me and a bunch of my guy friends went to wheel our cruisers at Beasley Knob. We hit the trails about 11:30 on Saturday and had a great time mapping out the trails. We remarked that most of what we had ridden were pretty mild trails and knew there was at least one really difficult one. Well we found it.
These pics are of the trails before we found the hard one. When this place is dry, the trails are really enjoyable. But when they're wet--I've heard its murderous on vehicles. We had mild weather, a little overcast but no rain.
It started off as a pretty rocky trail and then quickly as the incline got steeper the dirt got looser as we approached the top. About 300 yards from the top I was taking a line that didn't seem terribly difficult terrain, but ATRAC was not getting me over the hump. I tried the locker on and bumped the spot a few times then POW! Something was not right in the rear diff and we suspected the locker was not disengaging. So we winched up to a flat spot just beyond the small ledge I was trying to pass. We pulled the locker actuator to see if we could pull the fork out of engagement. It seemed to be fine but it did move a little with some manual help.
[Sorry, we don't have much for pictures at this point, but we were all focused on recovery]
Tried moving forward again and it sounded like a machine gun under the rear end. We all knew what that meant. The ring gear was chewed up.
But before I even got my actuator pulled from the rear diff, Lab601 came up behind me and grenaded his diff on the same spot! Holy Crap! Two FJ's stuck on the trail! The guys behind Lab601 stayed back at that point and we all proceded to drop the drive shafts on the broken rigs and get the heck off that mountain.
I went through a series of winch pulls and tow strap sessions up the rest of the hill. Then we continued down the trail out and back to town. Me and Lab limped back to the Blairsville Home Depot and purchased jack stands and proceded to tear the rear ends apart. FJCRUZR took off to find gear oil and then the wrenching began. DanKunz directed the activities after getting K9crazy and subsequently the Central FJTT on the phone to get some guidance. We had to drain the pumpkin, remove the wheels, discs, hubs and axle shafts. Inspection of the axle shaft splines didn't show any damage and we pulled the third member out next.
The third member is a real b!tch to pull, as you have to disconnect the sway bar, remove the locker actuator and remove about a dozen 12mm nuts on the case. Then you have to pull a 40-50lb chunk out of the front of the rear diff assembly without breaking your arm or losing a finger. Once that was out DK disassembled the carrier and removed the ring gear, then reassembled the third. I'd lost about 8-9 teeth on mine and Lab lost about 5-6 on his.
We raced to reassemble everything since it was already dark and the parking lot lights were about to go out at 11:30pm (as we were told).
We finished up around midnight and then drove to the cabin where the bachelor party resumed with full force. We got the ribs, steaks, salmon and mahi mahi on the grill and dove into a great meal. Then at around 3AM, much to everyone's surprise our host had some visitors of the scantilly clad female variety drop by to liven things up. No more story for you!
These pics are of the trails before we found the hard one. When this place is dry, the trails are really enjoyable. But when they're wet--I've heard its murderous on vehicles. We had mild weather, a little overcast but no rain.
It started off as a pretty rocky trail and then quickly as the incline got steeper the dirt got looser as we approached the top. About 300 yards from the top I was taking a line that didn't seem terribly difficult terrain, but ATRAC was not getting me over the hump. I tried the locker on and bumped the spot a few times then POW! Something was not right in the rear diff and we suspected the locker was not disengaging. So we winched up to a flat spot just beyond the small ledge I was trying to pass. We pulled the locker actuator to see if we could pull the fork out of engagement. It seemed to be fine but it did move a little with some manual help.
[Sorry, we don't have much for pictures at this point, but we were all focused on recovery]
Tried moving forward again and it sounded like a machine gun under the rear end. We all knew what that meant. The ring gear was chewed up.
But before I even got my actuator pulled from the rear diff, Lab601 came up behind me and grenaded his diff on the same spot! Holy Crap! Two FJ's stuck on the trail! The guys behind Lab601 stayed back at that point and we all proceded to drop the drive shafts on the broken rigs and get the heck off that mountain.
I went through a series of winch pulls and tow strap sessions up the rest of the hill. Then we continued down the trail out and back to town. Me and Lab limped back to the Blairsville Home Depot and purchased jack stands and proceded to tear the rear ends apart. FJCRUZR took off to find gear oil and then the wrenching began. DanKunz directed the activities after getting K9crazy and subsequently the Central FJTT on the phone to get some guidance. We had to drain the pumpkin, remove the wheels, discs, hubs and axle shafts. Inspection of the axle shaft splines didn't show any damage and we pulled the third member out next.
The third member is a real b!tch to pull, as you have to disconnect the sway bar, remove the locker actuator and remove about a dozen 12mm nuts on the case. Then you have to pull a 40-50lb chunk out of the front of the rear diff assembly without breaking your arm or losing a finger. Once that was out DK disassembled the carrier and removed the ring gear, then reassembled the third. I'd lost about 8-9 teeth on mine and Lab lost about 5-6 on his.
We raced to reassemble everything since it was already dark and the parking lot lights were about to go out at 11:30pm (as we were told).
We finished up around midnight and then drove to the cabin where the bachelor party resumed with full force. We got the ribs, steaks, salmon and mahi mahi on the grill and dove into a great meal. Then at around 3AM, much to everyone's surprise our host had some visitors of the scantilly clad female variety drop by to liven things up. No more story for you!
