Scramble
New member
This morning I was on my home PC, tonight I'm on my work MAC & still dont see them.
theesotericone's Trails and BS Thread
- Thread starter theesotericone
- Start date
This morning I was on my home PC, tonight I'm on my work MAC & still dont see them.
theesotericone
New member
I just upped them all to Imgur. Try it again. Sorry about that. Google sucks balls with sharing. I know better cause it's happened with Google Photo's and my dumb ass figured Drive would be different. lol
Scramble
New member
I tried sharing from my Google drive, it sucked so I signed up to Flickr.
Edit: Cool photos, I like technical but technical the whole time kills my back. My last trip was all tech because the property was small & trails short. I like maybe 20 min of easy & then a 10min challenge & so on. My truck can handle it but the arthritice in my spine cant. LOL
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theesotericone
New member
Yeah. It's not your typical Forest Service road. lol
I have custom kings in the rear. They're 2" longer than the 334's. Worth every penny of having them made custom. I have so much more down travel now.
It's a long hard trail. I've got a small abrasion on my lower left hip. It's from being behind the wheel and taking drops. My belt must have ridden up and got between my skin and the seat back. I didn't even notice it till I got in the shower the night we finished the Dusy. lol
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Plastics guy
New member
Wow, what an awesome time! Carnage and all. Its graet that you were out with a good group of guys because 1 CV can be bad enough let alone 4!
Thanks for the pics and write-up.
Thanks for the pics and write-up.
Scramble
New member
haha, I almost forgot. On my last trip it was so hot out I was wheelin' shirtless & my neck/shoulder got all raw from the seatbelt. Never again, not even a tank-top, t-shirt only! LOL, Still learning at this old age!
theesotericone
New member
Just got done looking over the front end of my rig. After replacing the passenger side CV shaft it wouldn't turn all the way. It was binding at full droop. WTF?
I took a closer look at the diff. It was angled up towards the passenger side, I grabbed my tape and measured both sides from the diff tubes to the frame. Driver was sitting at 3" and passenger was sitting at 4". My Taco shares the same front end so I was able to get some numbers off of that. The diff to frame number was 3 1/4" on both sides.
I took a look at both mounting arms. The drivers side looked fine but the passenger side had a crack on the upper portion of the arm. I pulled both and will replace them. If that levels it great. If not the ADD tube is next.
Here's the crack:
I took a closer look at the diff. It was angled up towards the passenger side, I grabbed my tape and measured both sides from the diff tubes to the frame. Driver was sitting at 3" and passenger was sitting at 4". My Taco shares the same front end so I was able to get some numbers off of that. The diff to frame number was 3 1/4" on both sides.
I took a look at both mounting arms. The drivers side looked fine but the passenger side had a crack on the upper portion of the arm. I pulled both and will replace them. If that levels it great. If not the ADD tube is next.
Here's the crack:
Bandit Runner
Senior Member
Awesome trip report and pics! Sorry to hear about your CV problems. I recently purchased a pair of these Lotus Development upgraded axles, hoping to avoid such breakage. You might want to look into a set. :lmao:
A.D.D. Differential - 3rd Gen 4Runner/1st Gen Tacoma - Single Chromoly Caged Axle - Lotus Development
Lotus Development chromoly caged axles with upgraded boots.
Anyway I have a few questions about how you replaced your CV axles out on the trail. When I installed my new axles, it was in the garage with nice flat concrete, using a floor jack and jack stands. It went pretty well, especially for my first time.
So what kind of jack did you use on the trail? A Hi-Lift jack? I assume you didn’t bring a set of jack stands out on the trail with you. Hopefully you didn't get under the truck and pry out the axles while it was only supported by a Hi-Lift, especially on unlevel ground or loose dirt. What do you use to support the truck while out on the trail, in order to feel safe while working under it?
A.D.D. Differential - 3rd Gen 4Runner/1st Gen Tacoma - Single Chromoly Caged Axle - Lotus Development
Lotus Development chromoly caged axles with upgraded boots.
Anyway I have a few questions about how you replaced your CV axles out on the trail. When I installed my new axles, it was in the garage with nice flat concrete, using a floor jack and jack stands. It went pretty well, especially for my first time.
So what kind of jack did you use on the trail? A Hi-Lift jack? I assume you didn’t bring a set of jack stands out on the trail with you. Hopefully you didn't get under the truck and pry out the axles while it was only supported by a Hi-Lift, especially on unlevel ground or loose dirt. What do you use to support the truck while out on the trail, in order to feel safe while working under it?
theesotericone
New member
I thought about Lotus but I'd rather break the CV then an intermediate shaft in the diff.
Usually for trail repairs I use my hi-lift. This time I used a little trick [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] showed me. He keeps his old bottle jack in his rig. He's also welded a nut to the end of the bottle jack crank handle. You put that under the LCA and get an impact on the handle. That lifts the whole LCA far enough in the air to remove the tire. It's a sweet ass time saver.
Once the tires off that gets stuffed under the rig. That's safe enough. If the bottle jack fails or slips the tire will keep the truck from crushing you. There's OSHA safe and there's trail safe. The tire as a safety is not OSHA approved. lol
theesotericone
New member
It's a Dusy. lol
I'll figure out reinforcing once I figure out what the actual problem is. Mount for sure. It's possible I bent the ADD tube. It's also possible, though very unlikely, that I bent the frame. Once it's fixed and the diff is level again I'll have a close look at possible reinforcement points.
BigFishAllDay
New member
I think that's a first! How do you even do such a thing? Was your front skid completely mangled and contacting the diff?
I've used my stock bottle jack to deal with a broken CV on the trail, but that part is genius! It takes forever to crank it up with the OE bottle jack rod.
Yup. Standard procedure here, too....
[MENTION=118730]AssBurns[/MENTION] [MENTION=135317]rkntoy[/MENTION] [MENTION=143526]theesotericone[/MENTION]
Absolutely epic trail run, you guys! This is the first trip report I've ever seen on that trail.
Broken parts are part of the experience, but DAMN!!
You guys really beat them up good, but you pushed through, got it done, and drove the rigs home.
You guys broke things in several ways that I've never seen before.
Impressive show, gentlemen. :shocked: :hatsoff:
theesotericone
New member
The skids are still straight. I've got Savage skids and they took the pounding. Nothing is bent skids wise.
There's no contact marks anywhere on the diff or mounting arms. I have no idea how that arm cracked. I'll keep posting updates as I work through the situation.
Breaking things is part of wheeling hard. Usually you can look at something that broke and identify the cause. I spent an hour under my rig just looking at it. Nothing I found can explain how or why the diff was sitting higher on the passenger side. Problem solving is gonna be fun on this one. lol
Road Bull
Senior Member
Hopefully that will sort it out for you. I went on a trail ride / camping this weekend where a buddy of mine in a 4th gen was trying to get up a long, steep hill that was just a long wall of cantaloupe-sized rocks. If you lost momentum, you had to re-cock and start over at the bottom of the hill. He was open / open and pushing the V8 up the hill. He got within 15 feet of the top and we heard a pop, and the deep grinding of the rear differential. I knew what it was immediately but was hopeful that maybe it was just a CV and I was wrong.
Well, it was his rear diff, CV, upper and lower oil pan, and front diff mount. We later found out that this is somewhat common with Tacos and 4th gens. So far as we could reconstruct, I think he took a hard hit to the front skid on the way up, that might have broken his diff mount. Then this caused his CV to fail, sending ALL power to the rear, shock loading the rear gears and destroying them. At any rate, it was a long weekend with a 10+ hour recovery to get him down the hill, through a super technical tight trail and back to camp.
I hope you get it sorted and back out on the trails soon. Good luck!
Well, it was his rear diff, CV, upper and lower oil pan, and front diff mount. We later found out that this is somewhat common with Tacos and 4th gens. So far as we could reconstruct, I think he took a hard hit to the front skid on the way up, that might have broken his diff mount. Then this caused his CV to fail, sending ALL power to the rear, shock loading the rear gears and destroying them. At any rate, it was a long weekend with a 10+ hour recovery to get him down the hill, through a super technical tight trail and back to camp.
I hope you get it sorted and back out on the trails soon. Good luck!
Dirtco
New member
Looks like one hell of a trip!
Sorry for the horrible pun, but it looks like your stuck between a rock and a hard place. Limit straps will help, but only so much. I think I would take my chances with the Lotus axles and know that you "might" break an ADD stub shaft every now and then. After replacing mine two times I could easily replace one on the trail (or should I say camp) if I had the tools. It's not hard, just a little more time consuming than a CV. I would really like to see someone cryo treat the stub shaft and compare the difference.
Sorry for the horrible pun, but it looks like your stuck between a rock and a hard place. Limit straps will help, but only so much. I think I would take my chances with the Lotus axles and know that you "might" break an ADD stub shaft every now and then. After replacing mine two times I could easily replace one on the trail (or should I say camp) if I had the tools. It's not hard, just a little more time consuming than a CV. I would really like to see someone cryo treat the stub shaft and compare the difference.
theesotericone
New member
I've given a lot of thought to Lotus and may go that route in the future. For now though I need to get my diff level again. The extra inch on the passenger side is why the CV's where breaking on that side.
I also just got off the phone with a local machine shop. I'm going to take the NAPA axles apart and chamfer the edges on the inner and possibly outer cup. That should help the CV from binding. Thanks [MENTION=89794]BackOff[/MENTION] for making me aware [MENTION=130999]Inv4drZm[/MENTION] did this in his build thread. It's such a simple idea that may really help limit bind.
I'm surprised no one has offered cryo treated intermediate shafts. There's also this newish Boron diffusion tech that's supposed to be stronger then cryo. There's not a lot of places doing it but Jesse at High Angle Driveline has a guy that does it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boriding
Inv4drZm
Senior Member
Well I've never broken a CV but neglected the maintenance on one and the boot ripped, away from home, which naturally caused a chain reaction where I'm rebuilding everything on the front end.
Seems like 3rd gens break more CV's than 4th gens, you guys probably wheel harder, though I think we have a couple extra splines.
I did the taper twice on my first attempt. 22 degree taper specified by Dirt King I came to realize is an 11 degree angle...
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