Might be time for a new axle housing

[alia176]

I'm back on this project finally. Got the axle bracket reinforcement plates tacked and bent around the tops of both brackets. My plan is to weld my plates to the brackets AND to the axle housing. I'll finish up with welding them this week then move to final welding of the trusses on top.

 

[alia176]

all welding completed, ready for sandblasting and powdercoating. According to Rampt Customs , it was suggested to place a mechanical jack under the diff then crank her up as much as possible during the welding and cooling phase. My jig captured the ends of the axle housing and the jig acted like a rotissaried while the radius arm brackets were getting fortified. Thanks to @Tank5 for letting me borrow his true bar, I was able to check if I had any warpage after the job was completed. Thankfully the true bar came out easily.

The top trusses were formed out of 3/16" steel, the bottom trusses for the eye balls were out of 1/8" steel, as well as the bracket fortifications.
Random pics below

 

[alia176]

The new other woman is ready and waiting

 

[alia176]

Ran into a snag. There was grease inside the housing not too far from the birfield balls. Looks like some grease escaped the balls and lived there for many years. Sandblasting sand loves to stick to grease and removing that was a major PITA. Took the housing to a local buddy's house who has a special tip for cleaning out pipes for his high pressure washer and that removed bulk of the grease, along with generous application of Purple power. Brought it home, then soaked each end in a solution of 50/50 gasoline+diesel. Followed by a SST toilet brush i made up, then the chimney sweeper came into play. Finally, she's clean at both ends and ready for reassembly.

 

[alia176]

Looks like I added 17# of steel to this housing. I started out with 67# few months ago.

 

[Tank5]

Looking good!

 

[OGBeno]

Nice work, Ash.

 

[alia176]

My reward for getting everything ready for a trip to UT paid of handsomely. Beastie worked flawlessly and tirelessly on this trip.

The Timbren bump stops can no longer work in their current positions so I'll move them inside the coil springs shortly. I didn't drive stupid but the front did fine w/o any bump stops.

The last thing I had to do was a quick alignment and we were off to the races.

 

[alia176]

Thought it was time for an unfortunate update. Remember when I showed (previous post) a pic of the Timbren external bump stops contacting the truss? I removed them before a trip to UT and everything worked out well. I then went on a second trip to UT where the truss made contact with the upper oil pan. Yeah, that was a bad scene all around.

Guess what? The front axle housing has a huge amount of up travel if you don't limit it with bump stops I remember exactly when I hit a whoops a little too fast and felt that contact. Think Exon Valdez action under the engine and spraying oil all underside as I was madly rushing to get to Bluff, UT. I poured in two quarts of engine oil plus 1 quart of ATF just to make the 20 mile hwy drive. Thankfully the drive was mostly downhill so I coasted quite a bit in neutral. Smoke was billowing out from behind me, and the low level oil came on that I've NEVER seen before, in the dash! It was stressful to say the least but all was fine.

The oil pickup screen grabbed all the alum chunkettes, which was a huge relief. I've since installed a fresh set of internal bump stops from OEM, and extended them by one inch. I still have the original bump stops but they're rock hard.

Could I have TIGed the crack closed is the question lot of you are thinking about. The answer is no due to the myriad of cracks in the cast alum piece. Field repairing this was out of the question so I bought an used one and all is good now. What a hard but stupid lesson to learn. I'll take some pics of the damage once I clean up the area a little bit more. It was a doosey.

 

[baldilocks]

Written like you’ve read some books and been on plant earth a few decades. Bump stops matter as a matter of fact. I thought everyone knew this.

 

[alia176]

Written like you’ve read some books and been on plant earth a few decades. Bump stops matter as a matter of fact. I thought everyone knew this.

yup, bump stop matters and i forgot to install them then paid a hefty price.

 

[chappysfj40]

i had a similar experience on my 80 with trans cooler line cracking and spraying fluid into the fan. what a mess. so i can relate to the mess. good for rust ") glad you caught it before crazy damage....

 

[alia176]

i had a similar experience on my 80 with trans cooler line cracking and spraying fluid into the fan. what a mess. so i can relate to the mess. good for rust ") glad you caught it before crazy damage....

thanks, your sounds nasty too. My issue tried to leave me stranded in the bush but thankfully, made it back home with a AAA flat tow up to 100 miles than some shenanigans with an Uhaul van + trailer.

 

[GeoRoss]

Dang Ali, your adventure was much more exciting than mine. Glad you made it home in OK.

 

[alia176]

Dang Ali, your adventure was much more exciting than mine. Glad you made it home in OK.

thanks, this adventure was a while ago and it's quite memorable.