Everything is going back together now - slowly, because I only get a few hours a morning to work on it, but I should be done in another day or two. Working around all the filthy oil-cake definitely slowed things down, but everything is cleaned up now. Got the knuckles on and trunion preload fiddled with this morning. I still need to pop the birfields open so I can clean and grease them properly, then bolt everything else up.
Separating the draglink from the DS steering arm was a nightmare. The pitman end came off easy enough, but the ball socket on the other side was literally fused to the draglink with rust. Three days of propane, PB Blast, and BFH didn't free it, I ended up taking it into a machine shop. Red at Hunter Machine got it red hot and still had to work at it for over a minute with the air hammer to get it to come free.
It didn't make a dang bit of sense to have the diff empty and the axles pulled and then NOT yank the third and regear it, so I scraped up the cash and 5.29's are now in the truck, with the Spartan in the rear. So much for wheeling the truck stock, right? I'm talking to a fellow about picking up his used BudBuilt transfer case skid, if I score that I'll install it at the same time as the 4.7 case and I'll be ready to rock.
SWCRunner, I wish I had the luxury of taking my time. With time on my hands, I'd have pulled the axle and done all the work on my bench, I'd have stripped and painted everything, and I'd have taken the opportunity to armor the axle and brace the knuckle balls and steering stops.
But it's a daily driver, and I don't have a backup, so I'm forced to go at it quick and dirty. I'm going to start watching for a deal on a complete axle that I CAN take my time with and do it right.
patiently waiting to blow t4r up with advice on rebuilding this....
It's actually pretty straightforward - of course, it always is with hindsight, right? I worked from the FSM and Roger Brown's (4Crawler's) writeup and didn't run into anything that slowed me down other than rust and dirt. Get the complete Trail Gear rebuild kit with fresh bearings, I loved knowing I had all the replaceable parts and gaskets and such sitting there waiting for me, I didn't have to worry about whether I'd forgotten something.
You'll certainly want a complete set of tools. I found my pickle fork very hand for separating the trunion bearings from the steering arms and end caps, I had to drive all over town to find a place that had a brass punch on the shelf, and you're going to want a pull scale - I grabbed one for weighing fish from the sporting goods store. If you haven't played with cone washers before you're in for a treat, and from the looks of that axle it might be a really fun treat.
eace:
