Here’s another thread to rile some of the guys up haha
I knew this was going to happen at some point from my young mischievous behavior, but this last weekend I had gotten a horrible clunking sound after peeling out for a photoshoot. At first I thought it was the transmission, until I started to feel around and thought maybe it was a rear axle shaft.
I made a few phone calls and reached out to a few buddies that night to see who might have one, and secured one only an hour away. Thankfully the girlfriend was in town. So the next morning, I tore into it before making the decision to drive down thankfully just as a double check procedure and discovered both of the axle shafts to be perfectly fine. Strange…
Tore the rear driveshaft off in order to diagnose whether or not it was transfer case or transmission related and there was no noise which was a bit of a relief as I know how grueling of a task doing a transmission swap can be. So now I finally get to tear into the differential!
Drained the fluid out and there were some pretty decent chunks on the magnet as well as falling out of the oil. Grabbed the impact and got the 3rd member loose and dropped it out. My original concern fell along the lines of the ring and pinion being shot, but they looked perfect. Until! I looked further inside and saw a nice and polished spider gear!
I was in a bit of a pinch due to the fact that I needed to have the truck back on the road the following day for work as this is my only vehicle currently, so ordering parts was out of the option and buying a used 3rd member was hard to come by and too much money. So what do you do in this case? Well you only really have one option, which is to bring out the trusty hot glue gun. As I don't have lockers and I am planning on re-gearing, and putting a locker in fairly soon, this would be plenty fine for the time being and will give me better capabilities when the summer wheeling trips come around.
So I cleaned it up and my brother is my own personal welder so we cut up some plates to put on both sides and starting laying down some metal. Waited for it to cool down, threw some Permatex green on the housing and torqued it down to spec, same for the axle shafts and let it sit overnight before throwing fluid in at 5am the next morning before work.
Overall it seems to be fine. I got my drive back, but I’m getting a really weird clunking sound whenever I go around turns. I’ve spoken to a few people regarding my concerns and pointed in the direction towards possibly the center diff also losing some teeth as well, which is a project for another day.
I’d give this 2
just due to the fact that its not hard to pull the axles out on the rear and if you have someone or you know how to weld then its an easy 4-5 hour project!
Cheers!
I knew this was going to happen at some point from my young mischievous behavior, but this last weekend I had gotten a horrible clunking sound after peeling out for a photoshoot. At first I thought it was the transmission, until I started to feel around and thought maybe it was a rear axle shaft.
I made a few phone calls and reached out to a few buddies that night to see who might have one, and secured one only an hour away. Thankfully the girlfriend was in town. So the next morning, I tore into it before making the decision to drive down thankfully just as a double check procedure and discovered both of the axle shafts to be perfectly fine. Strange…
Tore the rear driveshaft off in order to diagnose whether or not it was transfer case or transmission related and there was no noise which was a bit of a relief as I know how grueling of a task doing a transmission swap can be. So now I finally get to tear into the differential!
Drained the fluid out and there were some pretty decent chunks on the magnet as well as falling out of the oil. Grabbed the impact and got the 3rd member loose and dropped it out. My original concern fell along the lines of the ring and pinion being shot, but they looked perfect. Until! I looked further inside and saw a nice and polished spider gear!
I was in a bit of a pinch due to the fact that I needed to have the truck back on the road the following day for work as this is my only vehicle currently, so ordering parts was out of the option and buying a used 3rd member was hard to come by and too much money. So what do you do in this case? Well you only really have one option, which is to bring out the trusty hot glue gun. As I don't have lockers and I am planning on re-gearing, and putting a locker in fairly soon, this would be plenty fine for the time being and will give me better capabilities when the summer wheeling trips come around.
So I cleaned it up and my brother is my own personal welder so we cut up some plates to put on both sides and starting laying down some metal. Waited for it to cool down, threw some Permatex green on the housing and torqued it down to spec, same for the axle shafts and let it sit overnight before throwing fluid in at 5am the next morning before work.
Overall it seems to be fine. I got my drive back, but I’m getting a really weird clunking sound whenever I go around turns. I’ve spoken to a few people regarding my concerns and pointed in the direction towards possibly the center diff also losing some teeth as well, which is a project for another day.
I’d give this 2
just due to the fact that its not hard to pull the axles out on the rear and if you have someone or you know how to weld then its an easy 4-5 hour project! Cheers!
I think you should start looking for a s***box to have on stand by so you have a way to work. I ran welded rears for years on mini trucks that I drove pretty often, but always had a back up s***box or at least a center to put in as I knew what I did to the poor bastards on the weekends....
