My 100 Series Carnage

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Aug 11, 2013
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Location
Charleston, SC
i didn't want to post on the Christmas Party thread because I think Johnny ended it nicely. Still, for those interested in seeing the guts of the 100 Series diff, enjoy!

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If anyone needs the spider gears, they are still good. Also, lesson learned for next time! To go home in 2WD, we could have removed the front drive shaft (done, thanks Ryan!) and the hubs.

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Damn man!

The problem with removing the drive flanges is that it exposes the wheel bearings. There'd be nothing to keep the grease in the bearings if those were gone. Now, if you had selectable hubs, then we could have dissassembled them and removed the inner gear, which would have worked.

Either way, glad it's fixed!!
 
Damn man, well this does give you a good excuse to upgrade to an ARB.
 
Nah, went back to stock... I was apprehensive of the ARB fighting against the ATRAC... I didn't research much, admittedly, just told them to fix it. The 80 is what I'd put an ARB in. :-)
 
JT's tried to talk me in to a LSD for the replacement. That just didn't sound right to me...
 
For a trail fix when removing the drive flanges, duct tape and a "red solo cup" can be used as a temporary cover for emergency use ... don't ask me how I know.

If you want to be really well prepared, buy a couple of spare drive flanges and have the splines reamed out. Then you have some flanges you can install to keep the grease in and crud out ....
 
For a trail fix when removing the drive flanges, duct tape and a "red solo cup" can be used as a temporary cover for emergency use ... don't ask me how I know.

If you want to be really well prepared, buy a couple of spare drive flanges and have the splines reamed out. Then you have some flanges you can install to keep the grease in and crud out ....

Solo cup trick even for a 200 mile highway drive home?

Having the splines reamed/milled out, now that's a good idea.
 
I read somewhere recently that there are known issues with the 100 series front diff. It did not specify what it was. I know my FJC had a bad factory ring gear in the rear diff. It let go.
 
Solo cup trick even for a 200 mile highway drive home?

Having the splines reamed/milled out, now that's a good idea.

The solo cup trick works pretty damned well. The bearing won't throw that much grease out and unless you are in really dusty conditions and/or dunking the rig hub deep in water there is not much concern with short term contamination. You have to tear down the hub and bearings anyway to fix the situation.

The reamed out drive flange is a much better solution. But not everyone will carry one of this won't them.

Trail fixes are always lots of fun ;)
 
I read somewhere recently that there are known issues with the 100 series front diff. It did not specify what it was. I know my FJC had a bad factory ring gear in the rear diff. It let go.

The first year or two came with a 2 pinion front diff, from 99 or 00 on, it came with a 4 pinion front diff which was better durability wise.
 
On the brighter side - we all learned a lesson. Now we know what the inside of the diff looks like after it eats the R&P....
 
Solo cup trick even for a 200 mile highway drive home?

Having the splines reamed/milled out, now that's a good idea.

I'm happy we towed it home, I think that was the right call. Can't thank you enough, Johnny! Seriously! It really meant a lot. I like the idea of having a pair of hubs for the trail - I can imagine this happening again. I drove it hard, but I don't think I drove it THAT hard… This shouldn't have happened, IMHO. Good learning experience, though, and I still had a blast hanging out with everyone! Wish we could've had more time at The Barn together… I need to make it up north for a meeting at some point.

Anyhow, the damage explains the rocking and shaking that we experienced. Because of the broken teeth, the ring gear would disengage and re-engage with the pinion on every revolution. Glenn said we couldn't have hurt anything any worse, but at the time, we had no idea that this was what the inside of the housing looked like… I really thought hard about upgrading to 4.88's… But with the cost of the 80 repair lingering and the 40 leaking every imaginable fluid on my driveway, I felt the timing was bad for an additional $2K beyond the cost of simply replacing the differential (which was not cheap, but LexTech took care of the repair very quickly and I'm always happy with their service).
 
I haven't seen teeth like that since the last time I heard my dad say "Son, you don't have to feed all those horses at once."

Red solo cup gets two thumbs up. The reamed out drive flanges have one condition attached .... they have to be smooth to keep from damaging the axle splines.

Jeremy, are you already back together again? If so, hat's off to lightning fast repair.
 
Yes, sir! Outside is cleaned and waxed, interior is armor alled, and leather cleaned and conditioned. Looks like a new truck and drives like one that is ready to take on a moderate trail. :-). LexTech really got on the repair quickly.
 
Anyhow, the damage explains the rocking and shaking that we experienced. Because of the broken teeth, the ring gear would disengage and re-engage with the pinion on every revolution. Glenn said we couldn't have hurt anything any worse, but at the time, we had no idea that this was what the inside of the housing looked like…

It's an interesting situation when something like this happens to a friend's truck while out on the trail. Based on the sounds your truck was making, it was easy to tell it was the front end. After inspecting the outside of the CVs, we had a pretty good idea that the diff was toast, and they pretty much all look like that when they're toast. The tough part is that it's difficult to drop that kind of news on someone who intends to drive home with the broken truck, know what I mean? It's real tough to dash hopes (for an easy repair) like that.

Blown diffs like that are a common problem with mini-truck guys who run large tires or high output motors. IIRC, the front 100 diff has an 8" ring gear, which would be very similar to the solid axle mini-truck differentials.

Any pics of the freshly rebuilt diff before installation?
 
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