alternative to case spreader? dana 35

[compleckz]

long story short, i have a twisted/snapped piece of the driver side shaft stuck in my lockright.. i couldn't pull it out with a strong magnet, or bang it out from the other side, because where it twisted and snapped, it is wedged between the bearing and the side gear of the lockright.

i pulled the diff. tonight, and planned to remove the lockright piece by piece to get the broken chunk out. but apparently when i had the diff. regeared, the shop jammed it in there pretty tight (old school joint), before (stock) i could yank it out by hand with very little persuasion.

i've read some redneck prybar/long bolt in the ring gear/rag in the pinion teeth tricks.. but the first two make me nervous seeing as this is an aluminum housing. i dont know anyone with a case spreader, nor do i want to buy one. im not completely opposed to making a simple one, but im looking for other options.

thanks

also i'll post pics of my axle carnage later.. the entire drivers side was a mess.

 

[MAKG]

They overloaded the carrier bearings? Nimrods.

If you are going to replace all the seals, you can clean the oil out very carefully and put the case in the oven. The case is aluminum and all the rest is steel. The aluminum expands about three times as fast as steel with heat, so this will loosen it up. But I doubt the seals will be very happy....

You SHOULD be able to just remove the bearing caps and pry the carrier out of the case.

 

[compleckz]

ok well i went back at it this morning since i'm on spring break. got a pry bar, and a 2x4 to pry on so i didnt hurt the case, took a few angles, but i got it to pop out an inch, then pulled it the rest of the way by hand, so i guess it wasnt too tight.

i then removed the crosspin and the lockright springs, but the broken chunk prevented me from removing the first lockright piece, so i tried to pound the chunk inwards now that the pin was removed, and in doing so, i broke off the piece that was preventing it from coming out. so its out, now its time to clean everything up and reassemble.

i guess i was just being too delicate with the carrier, since last time it came out by hand.

thanks for the help MAKG and metalmac!

 

[compleckz]

a few pics for those interested, not bad for my celly:

 

[4x4junkie]

That's some good carnage on that shaft.

Here's the spreader I made:

High carrier bearing preload (up to a point, of course) is actually a good thing, it helps reduce gear deflection under load, which maintains the strength of the gears better.

 

[compleckz]

thanks junkie, your pics were the pics i was looking for actually, i remember them from the old forums, thanks..

as for the shaft, im pretty sure i spit a cap, then bent the inner shaft ear out, and it wedged in the beam, causing the shaft to snap at the splines, it could have been stress cracked as metalmac suggested, from previous beatings--been using that shaft since stock, it withstood stripping the spider gears, and other shaft breakage..

pic of it before i bent it back/ground it to fit it through the knuckle:

my new shafts going in have tacked caps, 760x's, clearanced slip yoke, c-clip eliminator.. beam window is trimmed like crazy.. so all thats left to cause a possible problem would be the bolts protruding into the beam.. but if i break these as easy as i broke the last few sets, im going to have to seriously consider starting a shortened d60 build... i guess i just hammer on the poor thing too hard.

 

[4x4junkie]

but if i break these as easy as i broke the last few sets, im going to have to seriously consider starting a shortened d60 build... i guess i just hammer on the poor thing too hard.

And with (m)all-terrains, too lol

Pretty sure you broke that shaft with no help from the bolts in the beam... only the passengerside shaft can move around to where it would hit the beam bolts.


Yeah, weld the caps in. At least you'll know then other shit has to break first before they can come out again (how you're spitting caps with circle-clips I just don't understand though ).

 

[compleckz]

And with (m)all-terrains, too lol

Pretty sure you broke that shaft with no help from the bolts in the beam... only the passengerside shaft can move around to where it would hit the beam bolts.


Yeah, weld the caps in. At least you'll know then other shit has to break first before they can come out again (how you're spitting caps with circle-clips I just don't understand though ).

lol, ive never heard 'mall-terrains' before.. yea i got those on the cheap, i had procomp m/ts before, and wore em out daily driving the truck (i broke the spiders on m/ts open diff 3.27s), but never broke an axle till the locker, 4.56s and yea the stupid all-terrains, but they've been great in the snow this winter!

my shafts got egged out from the caps spinning in the circle clips, so that prolly is a reason why they were able to spit.

truck should be back together tomorrow, i just did some super crazy extreme fabrication.. drilled out the old steering stops, and tapped a larger hole for these:

 

[4x4junkie]

May want to use a Grade-8 bolt on that.

 

[compleckz]

good eye! grade 5 was all i had on hand! i didnt leave the house all day, so i didnt stop and grab bolts

 

[compleckz]

yup, fixed the truck, and got 'stuck' within 5 minutes. should have airred down! ttb snow plow

then after i airred down, dug out and got unstuck, had to do some posing while i still can:

and then this to.. ya know.. 'make sure the front axle is all set'

 

[4x4junkie]

Not too shabby with having the TTB coils in there.

You have any trouble getting the carrier back into the housing?

 

[compleckz]

Not too shabby with having the TTB coils in there.

You have any trouble getting the carrier back into the housing?

it pretty much slid right back in using a dead-blow.. so that was cool.

i measured the front end travel again today and ended up with 14" (i used a yard stick, usually i use a tape measurer, so this i probably skewed), my best before was 12", i had 1" of shock left to go on the stuff side in the front, and the droop side was maxed out. but if i drove up that with the front, it would measure like 6", lol.

the rear was at 18" with 6" of shock left to go on the droop side and 3" on the stuff side.. i think the rear is limited by the leaves, i might get a bit more stuff, but i think it was pretty much drooped out.

i need to measure at rest so i can determine up and down travel.

 

[4x4junkie]

Cool deal then.

Yeah my Ranger's the same way. Having the nose heavy frontend leaned over (driving it forward up the "ramp") causes a lot more weight to shift off the rear, making it lift up much sooner without really flexing things much.

 

[compleckz]

front pics for hahas