hole in the front housing... frickin rough country!

beaujt · May 26, 2009

Ok, is it ok if i weld up a hole in the front axle housing? I pulled off my tires, and was gonna do some work to my truck and bam, i saw the frickin hole, so i'm wondering if it'd be worth my time to either weld the hole up, put a kind of filler plate on top of it, or put a whole new housing under it if i can find one. Its a dana 35. Its not a big hole, but i'm really concerned about how much water and other stuff has gotten inside without me knowing it. I've only had the lift on for about 9 months, about to call rough country up too.. see if i just get told to shove it, either way i'm pulling the lift off, still got the stock components :yahoo:

KENWIL138 · May 26, 2009

When it happened to me I just got some QuikSteel and put it in the hole and filled it up. Its been great for over a year now no problems. As far as the lift, I just used a cutting torch to cut off that part that causes the hole and then welded it togethter. Once again its been great for over a year and I do some hard stuff offroad sometimes. Good luck. :icon_thumby:

AllanD · May 26, 2009

You don't need to remove the lift, to prevent it from happening again you need to extend the drivers side bump stop.

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beaujt · May 27, 2009

AllanD said:
You don't need to remove the lift, to prevent it from happening again you need to extend the drivers side bump stop.

AD

How much should i extend it? or should i just drive my truck up a ramp or something and watch the bracket and then get it set? Would that be the best way? especially as i basically have the whole front end apart on my truck right now :/ been putting spacers underneat the coil springs too and then decided i wouldn't get to hard on wheelin till i get a SJ lift on. Just prolly splashin around in some mud as soon as the hole gets welded up. i'll put some pics up of it soon haha... just gotta find the adapter thing for my memory card, took some of it while it was all opened up :icon_surprised:

beaujt · May 27, 2009

KENWIL138 said:
When it happened to me I just got some QuikSteel and put it in the hole and filled it up. Its been great for over a year now no problems. As far as the lift, I just used a cutting torch to cut off that part that causes the hole and then welded it togethter. Once again its been great for over a year and I do some hard stuff offroad sometimes. Good luck.

Where'd ya pick up some of that QuikSteel at? I'm prolly just gonna get a small plate, like the size of a dime or quarter, and cover and weld it cause we have A LOT of scrap metal around :icon_rofl:

took TONS of it in last summer when scrap prices were high

Do ya think you could post a pic of that bracket, so could see what yours looks like? :icon_thumby:

KENWIL138 · May 27, 2009

The quiksteel you can get at any auto parts store and I think wal mart may sell it as well. It comes in a tube and you cut a piece of it off and knead it with your fingers and then just smear it on. It is very easy to use and it works wonderfully for these types of things. I can probably get a pic tomorrow. It is dark now. :icon_thumby:

canyoncritter · May 27, 2009

jack your truck up, put a jack stand under the frame.

pull your tire off, pull the coil spring out. 1-1/8 wrench.

jack up your beam with out the spring in it,till you have about a inch of clearnce,from the plate and your diff.

now meassure how much longer you need to make your bumpstops.

Roger · May 27, 2009

The old Skyjacker kit we pulled off my 90 Ranger looked like the bracket had hit diff and knocked a chunk of rib out, or someone hammered it off. That way when I bought it.

The Tuff Country kit I put in has more clearance, but it won't matter. Next couple weeks will see the SAS done...

beaujt · May 27, 2009

canyoncritter said:
jack your truck up, put a jack stand under the frame.

pull your tire off, pull the coil spring out. 1-1/8 wrench.

jack up your beam with out the spring in it,till you have about a inch of clearnce,from the plate and your diff.

now meassure how much longer you need to make your bumpstops.

hahaha, i've already got one side peeled apart(just waiting to do the otherside)... thats how i found the hole, but thanks. I'll do that before i put it all back together.

beaujt · May 27, 2009

Roger said:
The old Skyjacker kit we pulled off my 90 Ranger looked like the bracket had hit diff and knocked a chunk of rib out, or someone hammered it off. That way when I bought it.

The Tuff Country kit I put in has more clearance, but it won't matter. Next couple weeks will see the SAS done...

crap... yeah my dad was asking me last night if i'm gonna do a SAS on it. Cause we've got an older dodge axle around here, I don't know anything about it, other than it'd prolly need to be rebuilt before i put it under.

The more i tinker with my front end, the less i like the TTB

beaujt · May 27, 2009

another surprise hahaha

so ya gotta love the broken bracket i found this morning :annoyed:

on the passenger side. So tomorrow i got a buddy who's gonna come help me pull the whole lift off and return it too stock, then when i got the money i'm gonna put a straight axle under it and go from there. I EVEN TOOK SOME PICS :yahoo:

i know ya'll are gonna love those hahaha

hole in the front housing... frickin rough country!

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4x4junkie · May 27, 2009

Thats what happens with a typical cheap lift. Nothing the fault of the TTB...

Patch/weld up the hole in the housing, and get a good quality lift on there (or at least reinforce what you have) and you should see the end of issues like those.

beaujt · May 28, 2009

4x4junkie said:
Thats what happens with a typical cheap lift. Nothing the fault of the TTB...

Patch/weld up the hole in the housing, and get a good quality lift on there (or at least reinforce what you have) and you should see the end of issues like those.

Oh yeah, i'm just pluggin numbers right now for either a SAS(still deciding on the axle) and a 6" SJ lift. I think either way(SJ lift or SAS) to do whichever the way I want, its gonna cost about 2,000 between gears, shocks, lift, axle?, and if i go with SAS, fabbing the axle to fit. but i've got a 96 explorer axle that i'm putting on here as soon as i get my rotors back from powdercoating, and get my dif cover n swap kit from dan at ruff stuff.

We ended up just welding that bracket up and slapping it back in till the new bracket comes in cause it was still under warranty.

Sunk · May 29, 2009

If you're just getting another bracket like you have, you may want to do something like this to it..

It'll probably break again if you don't.

It broke on mine because this is how well it fit:

beaujt · May 29, 2009

hahaha yeah, thats about how well mine fit too. I'll reinforce it before it goes back in, but it ain't stayin in there past december, i'm leaning towards getting a SJ 6" with radius arms and james duff dual shock coil buckets. Its gonna be expensive, but then it'll last a lot longer than anything else(except maybe james duff). I figure i'm gonna be getting a jeep xj here one of these days so i'll hold off on the SAS and see how it does with one before i do one on the ranger haha

hole in the front housing... frickin rough country!

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