Drahcir495

Thank you. Your video made me wince when I thought he was going over 😳 . Had it as a daily driver until I found my Comanche

Yeah, it would’ve needed more than a bearing overhaul for sure. It didn’t stress me out knowing I was replacing everything but the caps on this. It does seem like a lot of work, but you get in a flow and you cruise right through the jobs. Thank you.

Rounded up everything I need to set up the axle -> Dana 30 open carrier Motive Gear 3.73 ratio R&P Pinion nut - 30185 Pinion washer - use the old one Pinion seal - 44895 Crush sleeve - none (pinion pre-load shims) * I forgot to remind you that all the bearings need to be oiled before being used* Outer pinion bearing set - 02820/02872 Inner pinion bearing set - HM88619/HM88649 Carrier bearing sets - LM501314/LM501349 Inner axle seals - 11899 Going to need - Hub bearings and seals # Spindle bearings # TBC - Rich

Alrighty - it’s rebuild time. I first needed to get the axle disassembled. Took off everything holding the axle themselves in. Reminder, You can’t remove the carrier with the axles in (don’t ask 😁)-> Find a spot to lay out the parts while making sure they were separated left from right. During disassembly the spindle bearings fell apart -> I will have to get these ordered along with all the needed bearings. Now on to pulling out the carrier. The caps need to go back the way they came off (left and right sides). The caps usually need to be marked to tell which side they match up to. I use a punch and put one stamp for right and two for the left. This being a Dana axle, the axle caps come from the factory punched with a letter. This axle used the letter T. One stamp was upright and the other on its side. Used my crow bar on the ring gear bolts to free the carrier once both caps are off -> And here is the carrier - not looking good, but not using it anyways -> Now it’s time to pull out the pinion. Pretty nasty in there -> Instead of a crush sleeve to get the pinion preload set up, this axle uses pinion preload shims. Make sure to get all of them out, because they tend to stick to the outer pinion bearing or fall off inside the housing. You don’t know exactly how many of these shims are used, so don’t be too concerned if there are a few. -> You can see what they should look like above ^. The circular steel slinger needs to be used on the new pinion gear. Now over to the press and remove the bearing to get to it -> And it should look like this -> Now I use the race punch to knock out the outer and inner races. The inner pinion race has a baffle and pinion depth shims behind it that need to be reused -> Usually the baffle gets a bit damaged during removal but they can easily reshaped-> There are two inner axle seals that need to be removed too -> Just need to clean the housing up in the parts washer. It needs to be spotless inside. The smallest particles can damage the bearings, so this is an important step. Don’t forget about the axle tubes also -> I forgot to get a picture of the inside of the cleaned axle, but I’ll add that later. TBC

I will do that for sure. Atlanta is 4:49 minute from the new place so that wouldn’t be a trip I could make every week like now

That is horrible. Sorry to hear that.

I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I head upstate? I have 3 really good junk yards within driving distance from me. Any idea how far this is from Tallahassee?

The axle was a Lot heavier than I thought. I couldn’t load it on to the trailer by myself, so I’m amazed I got the axle over the leaf springs and out of the Jeep alone. I had to have a friend load it up with me last night. Got it to the shop this morning and three of us unloaded it from the trailer. We set it on a free stand and I prepared to take the diff cover off and drain out the fluid -> Get the cover off and I was not happy with what I saw-> The rust is everywhere , but I’ve seen worse. Now that the cover is off, I flipped it over to drain out the fluid. I would say if I was lucky I got a cup of “fluid” to drip out -> Not sure how I lost what should have been a couple quarts of conventional lube . The Jeep has been garage kept for over 20 years and I’ve never seen anything draining on the floor? The rust I get, but no lube has me shaking my head. Until I started working on axles, I never really considered that axles may need inspection too. Positive news is that I have a new carrier, gears and bearings going in. I will be inspecting everything else that may need to be replaced while I’m in there. TBC -Rich

It’s a no go on the lunch box locker. I would have to buy the whole locker. I am running out of time to get this together before the move next month. I am just going with the open carrier and new gears. I took this Jeep to Tellico with stock gears and nothing else and I had no problem with anything we tackled. I don’t plan using it for anything more than Florida trails - I will be fine. I managed to get the axle out on my own this evening -> Picking the trailer up tomorrow after work and then bringing the axle in Thursday. I should have it all set up no later than Monday night.

Well this did not go as planned. Got the carrier unpacked and the locker ready to install only to find that the two internal spacers are missing Calling about getting the parts in the morning. Hopefully they will work work with me on getting those pieces

Kick a$$ MJ. Congrats on MJOTM

😆

He is mine - looks horrible but I got fed up with trying to get it to work

Just got the gear in for the Scrambler. Now I have the Motive 3.73 gears, the correct gear break carrier and the lunch box locker ready to go in. Pulling the bearings when I get the axle into the shop -> I will pull all the bearings when I go to set up the axle hopefully next week

Oh no. This is very sad news. My condolences to his family.

I am no fan of the new wranglers, but this I may actually like -> A 4 door converted to a two door with bed. It’s the closest thing to a scrambler that I’ve seen.

Doesn’t get better than that

Fitting in the backpack is just awesome!

I’m just going to keep the stock axle shafts for now. I am moving to north Florida at the end of July, so I need to get the axle done before I no longer have the tools to rebuild it. I have a powertrax locker that I am putting in it.

Started removing the front axle out of the Scrambler. I have a lunch box locker and 3.73 gears going in. The rear is already geared with 3.73’s so I’m just going to stick with that ratio. The gear should be in a week or so. I will have everything ready to go in and set up when it arrives. I borrowed some massive Jack stands and got it up to where the tires could be removed -> Found some unexpected issues while working on removing the axle. Bushings on the shocks and disconnects were disintegrating or completely missing -> It is going to be a little awkward getting the axle out, so I may get some help doing that. I have a trailer I can borrow to get the axle to the shop, but I needed a hitch on the Explorer to hook it up. I wouldn’t have to get one but the Cherokee is sitting next to the Comanche at the Jeep shop not running . Friday after work I put it on the lift and within an hour I had it installed ->

Welcome to the CC. I do like the color and theme of your truck. Start a build-up page so we can follow your progress

You know you have a supportive wife when she makes a card with a Comanche on it Don’t know how she did this

I knew the blue would look great

Thanks Bo. I’m doing what I can until I get it home. Which could be . . .