Kersplosion (1 Viewer)

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Glad to here everyones OK. This could of been worse for sure. As much as we all love our rigs we can repair or replace them but we cant replace a life.

slow91fj90 said:
Maybe the pinion nut wasn't notched enough and eventually it started to come loose?
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Big question did they use a new pinion nut when they installed the ARB? Once its notched and removed the outer area where you notch it is stretched some from setting the notch and then again when it is un-notched to remove it. However small that is it can lead to this type of failure.

JM2C
 
Jon, so glad that your son is okay and that the axle will be rebuilt with a little something - 4.88s - that will help make you smile when everything is back on the road. WOW is right.
 
That stinks, but glad your son was OK!

Hope your truck will not have to get sidelined for too long!
 
Offroads4x4 said:
Glad to here everyones OK. This could of been worse for sure. As much as we all love our rigs we can repair or replace them but we cant replace a life.



Big question did they use a new pinion nut when they installed the ARB? Once its notched and removed the outer area where you notch it is stretched some from setting the notch and then again when it is un-notched to remove it. However small that is it can lead to this type of failure.

JM2C
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That is a good point. I thought it was ok to re-use that nut as long as you had enough area to stake.
 
GLTHFJ60 said:
That is a good point. I thought it was ok to re-use that nut as long as you had enough area to stake.
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X2, I have reused them without issue. My final install method is; clean the threads, apply loc-tite, torque to proper preload and dink the nut. I have never had one come loose, unless a bearing fails.

A solid collar may help. But even with a crush collar, it shouldn't come loose. The torque number to get proper bearing preload is high, add to that the crush, it's a big number.

I'm very surprised there wasn't a warning noise. The nut didn't back off in a few miles, had to be a relatively long event. When the nut first loosened, bearing preload was lost, so one would expect bearing grumble. As it loosened more, gear pattern had to be way off, one would expect gear noise? Towards the end there had to be major "not happy" noises?:hillbilly:

Anyway, not a common failure, chances of it happening again are close to zero. Make sure whomever sets up the new gears, sets the bearing preloads "goot-n-tite".:hillbilly: For a rigs that see off road, at least at the top of FSM preload spec. For big tire rigs, I set them tighter, outside of the FSM range.
 
I'm going to guess that Jon may have heard some "uh-oh" noises before the kerplosion had he been in the truck at the time. My wife was driving our 80 at 70mph when the engine seized due to a major oiling problem and she reported not hearing anything untowards until the engine stopped running. I may have heard something beforehand but the engine would probably still have seized and I bet that Jon might have heard something too but with the same results. Just one of those things.
 
My wife was away on business for the 10 days prior to this and Josh was driving the truck while I had my wife's new Acura. While he's pretty responsible, he is 17 and I can't fault him for that. My first time driving would have been the following Sunday morning on the way to a client. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed the gear noise as they have never made noise before. Might not have known what it was but I bet it wouldn't have sounded good.

In any case, this just keeps snowballing. Both birfields are pretty done and the inner axle shafts have nice DEEP grooves from the oil seals. All are original from 1991 so I can't really complain. I'll try to scare up some for a reasonable price.
The tranny pan gasket started weeping real bad. The truck took a pretty big shock load so I suppose it's not completely out of the question. That is also original. So the parts order keeps growing.
 
Glad everyone is OK. Go with solid spacers this time around. I've pulled down a few diffs with the crush sleeves and things all around had gotten a little loose and sloppy.

What are going to do about FG? With all the crap I have layinmg around I don't have a high pinion 3rd. Luckily cruiserparts is just in NH.

Good luck with the repair.

Oh Ya, go with 5.29s, especially running 35+ tire. I did this for Jim Barton and the truck really responds well to them especially on the highway.
 
jonheld said:
My wife was away on business for the 10 days prior to this and Josh was driving the truck while I had my wife's new Acura. While he's pretty responsible, he is 17 and I can't fault him for that. My first time driving would have been the following Sunday morning on the way to a client. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed the gear noise as they have never made noise before. Might not have known what it was but I bet it wouldn't have sounded good.

In any case, this just keeps snowballing. Both birfields are pretty done and the inner axle shafts have nice DEEP grooves from the oil seals. All are original from 1991 so I can't really complain. I'll try to scare up some for a reasonable price.
The tranny pan gasket started weeping real bad. The truck took a pretty big shock load so I suppose it's not completely out of the question. That is also original. So the parts order keeps growing.
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This whole thread sucks and I'm sorry you and your family have had this trouble BUT, my takeaways with this whole thing are...

1. Glad everyone is okay.

2. Glad that eventually all the mechanical things will be okay.

3. Impressed with how well you are handling things here. To see your statement of "While he's pretty responsible, he is 17 and I can't fault him for that" shows some serious wisdom, realism and love all at the same time. I won't remember this thread for the mechanical aspects as much as the human ones. Again I'm impressed (with him too, must have been hard to bring the beast to such a sudden (and unexpected/unwanted) stop). :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
 
Geez, Jon. What a mess! And a costly mess at that. Glad it was just some steel and also didn't happen at speed. You and your son have my sympathy.
 
jonheld said:
How does this happen and how does one prevent this from happening again? The gearset was changed to 4.56 along with an ARB back in 2004. Has not been touched since. The complete 3rd was pulled 2 years ago, but the pinion nut was never touched.
What could have caused the pinion nut to loosen?
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Aside from the loc-tite and staking the nut, I think I've read that ZUK of gearinstalls.com sometimes hits the nut with a small tack weld just for that little bit of extra insurance.

Just a thought.

Glad everyone is OK, good luck with the rebuild.

-Tucker
 
jynx said:
Aside from the loc-tite and staking the nut, I think I've read that ZUK of gearinstalls.com sometimes hits the nut with a small tack weld just for that little bit of extra insurance.
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LOL, after this saga I'm tempted to run a bead around the whole thing ;)
 
turbocruiser said:
I won't remember this thread for the mechanical aspects as much as the human ones
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Thanks for the kind words, but as soon as I knew that everyone was safe the rest became just parts and labor. It'll get fixed and I'm addressing all the little things I had been putting off while she's down. She'll be better than before when all is said and done.

Many "thank yous" should also be said to the Land Cruiser community as a whole. Dave Crum from Crum's Custom Welding in Butler, NJ needed to get my truck to build sliders for me. He has it now and I cancelled my Yankee Toys Fall Gathering registration so there's no rush. JP Robinson from GCLC lent me his 80 while he's away on buisness so I'm not without a ride.

It's painful financially, but way cheaper than starting over.
 
landtank said:
Glad everyone is OK. Go with solid spacers this time around. I've pulled down a few diffs with the crush sleeves and things all around had gotten a little loose and sloppy.

What are going to do about FG? With all the crap I have layinmg around I don't have a high pinion 3rd. Luckily cruiserparts is just in NH.

Good luck with the repair.

Oh Ya, go with 5.29s, especially running 35+ tire. I did this for Jim Barton and the truck really responds well to them especially on the highway.
Click to expand...

Anything I get will have solid spacers for sure. I'm running 4.56 now and will move to 4.88. I run 33s on the street and don't plan on going bigger than that. This will bring the torque down from 75mph to around 68 which is a more comfortable cruising speed for me, especially when pulling a trailer. The 36" Swampers only see local roads to/from trailheads.
 
Brief Update:

Found the pinion nut living behind the companion flange when I finally pulled it off the front drive shaft. Apparently it hadn't been staked at all. It looks perfectly round and there is no sign of it ever being staked.
PinionNut.jpg
 
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