1st post in the axle section - be nice

[Surrey]

What are your stock gears? Your going to lower gears, so your engine has to rev higher for a given speed... Dont expect this to give you some sort of huge mileage increase.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

stock gears were 3.45, with the 14" wheel and tire combo. i swapped from an auto tranny to a manual tranny and took the 3L73 rear axle out of the MT donor truck, went through it and replaced the bearings and seals and clutch plates, and then put it in my truck. then i put 30x9.50x15 BFG ATs on the truck and now 5th gear is useless even on the freeway. i have to pull 4th gear past 70mph before i can shift into 5th otherwise the pedal goes to the floor and the truck slows down.

 

[bilzy7]

lol i got a 2 y/o son and wife i still do truck stuff hehe. itd be diff if she was only income bringer, but i bring in the money. so i say ok heres to you and this is what im spending lol. what i give her is generally saved, i married good into a girl whos about family, not purses and partying.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

shes always been good to me, shes stuck around through the whole ranger build, and shes put up with my shit for 6 years, so i try not to jepordize that loyalty by pissing her off when not needed. we both work so its not a matter of me spending HER money, but we're supposed to be saving to buy a house and stuff, not mechanically masturbating with ranger stuff (im afraid im too sick to save!).

 

[Mutant Pony]

You will do better with the 4.10s. I was pulling 24mpg with my old DD Ranger with 3.73s and 235s. My new Ranger has 4.10s and is much more driveable and still pulls 24mpg with an auto trans. Going to try 31-10.50s on it soon and see how it does.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

well i did alot of youtube searching and watching so yesterday i finally started the tear down. i had a large table like frame/ structure that i brought home for scrap a few years ago and realized it would make a great table for this project so i wrestled the thing into the garge and set up my works space.

i got out my dial indicator and measured the back lash on the ring gear, i came up with .0135 after checking with the magnetic base on both sides of the carrier. then i marked the gears and checked the pattern. this axle appears to be newer because it had all the original Ford brake components on it, but the outer pinion bearing and race were Timkens and the rest were Koyo. also it looks like it was run low on fluid once or twice as most of the bearings were blued.

after strapping the axle to the table i got all the bearings and races out, just in time for dinner!

i brought the pinion and carrier to work to press the bearings off and on, but we were so busy today that i didnt get to them.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

one thing that i found interesting was that aside from the thick spacers on the sides of the carrier i didnt find any thin shims, is this normal? also there was a shim on the nut-side (flange side) of the outer pinion bearing, what is its purpose? this is my first time opening up my own axle with the intention of putting it back together on my own, so im just trying to understand where the shims should be and (since the outer pinion had alreay been replaced?) why someone might have moved them?

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

i took some pics of the bearing surfaces in the axle, it looks like everyone of them spun but they were all pretty tight fitting when i was taking them out so maybe those are just marks from pressing?

this is hole for the outer pinion race and seal

this is the drivers side axle bearing hole

passenger side

heres the spiders and spacers and carrier races, i expected to find some thin shims on one side or both sides of the carrier, but there werent any?

heres a bent shock tab, probably from handling it after it was torched out at the junk yard?

some kind of casting number i havent been able to decode

AND HERES A BOX OF PUSSY! (her name really is Puss!)

i got the pinion gear pulled off, but the carrier is giving me alot of grief!

once i tighten the bearing splitter down it becomes the same size as the ring gear so i cant put the blocks under it for support.

ive started working on the specialty tools that will be needed to finish the install, so far ive figured out the pinion flange tool (pretty simple really, just drill a hole in the steel so the socket slides through and weld it in place so you can put a breaker bar with a cheater pipe in it, then drill the holes for the bolts to thread into the flange - and to think OTC wants $116 for this tool! it only cost $12 and my time)

i still want to make a case spreader, even if i dont need it, just because i like to make stuff!

 

[-Nathan-]

hey that big shim like thing under the pinion bearing is kind of like an oil slinger/seal thingy, it should go back on there. And did you save the old bearings to use as setup bearings? take a die grander and sand paper disc to the inside of the bearings, so that they just slide on/off the pinion. This way you can add/subtract shims without have to press the real bearings on/off and potentially ruining them.

 

[-Nathan-]

yep its a slinger.

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

thanks nathan, i asked out machinist about that shim today and he also said its a slinger. i did buy new bearings for the pinion so that i can grind them out and get my pinion depth set correctly if it doesnt work right with the original one. i also finished making the pinion flange holding tool, i think it turned out ok despite not welding the socket in the correct position.

i also added a drain plug on the bottom of the housing so i dont have to mess with thaking off the guard and the cover to do the routine fluid changes.

heres the begining of making the bash guard

i got the carrier bearings off too, turns out i was just using the wrong bearing splitter... or something like that

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

i got the axle cleaned up (used a wire wheel on my 4-1/2" angle grinder but still need to get into some of the nooks and crannies with a drill pwered brush), and i made the bash guard. i was a little dissapointed in the positions i had to place the rods in, but it turned out ok and with minimal warping.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The bash guard looks good to me.

Richard

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

Congrats on the baby maken! Hope everything goes good for you guys!

 

[ForOffRoadDriving]

thanks viva, ive been looking at houses alot lately, i want to be moved into one before the baby comes so we have a home base instead of bouncing from her parents house to my parents house. once i finish cleaning up the axle housing with a small wire brush on a drill ill be painting it and then hopefully clearing off my cart once again!

ive also been thinking about the smiley design for my new diff cover, since im going to have wicked traction when its done i think a wicked smiley is only fitting? something like this but more symetrical (this is the mushroom head logo, which i acknowledge, and my current cover is a nirvana smiley but i didnt do that intentionally; i taped it off, painted it, mounted it and took pics, then posted it and then someone pointed it out to me) im thinking the guard will look kind of like the Hannibal Lectar mask on the smiley?