With the recent hacking of t4r Ill be trying to do duplicate posts over here of my build thread so there is some sort of a backup.
Lots of exciting things happening in the near future to the truck so I need to get this updated. A few weeks ago I decided to get everything as ready as I can for rebuilding the diffs. So I pulled the rear 3rd member out and put my spare that I literally found in the trash at the steel yard way back at the begining of the summer. Its an older V6 3rd member but it has factory 4.30 gears and is in excellent condition, this allows me to still drive the truck while Im building the other two diffs.
With both diffs out I cleaned up the rear 3rd and then decided to do an autopsy on the original front diff since I had never been able to figure out how I managed to break it. First step was to open up the case. Ten bolts and a few smacks with the deadblow later I had the clamshell separated and the carrier removed. And apparently sitting for a year didn't make the damage look any better. Look at all that glitter.
IMAG0817 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
A closer look at the case revealed some heavy scarring from gear chunks getting wedged in between the ring gear and the case. The rig gear also had some light chipping on the toe of almost all the teeth.
IMAG0818 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
I spent some time wiping all the chunks out and then I removed the pinion and the bearings. Not surprisingly several chunks fell out of the pinion bearings but the races and bearing rollers themselves actually were still in pretty good shape all things considered
IMAG0833 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
Now it was time to focus on the carrier, this is where the damage really starts to show. The two small spiders didn't have a single tooth that wasn't chipped, cracked, or other side damage. The side gears that connect to the CVs fared a little better but still had significant damage. I still couldn't see any signs of what could have caused the gears to chip so badly and like I have said before I don't use a lot of wheel speed and compared to some trucks Im running pretty small tires. Then I spun the gears a few times and the cause became very clear
There was an assload of slop in the gears and it seemed like they really weren't machined very well, to begin with. I looked closer though and saw this.
IMAG0821 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
See that nice 1/16th inch size gap between the side gear and the carrier? yeah thats not supposed to be there, this was causing the massive amount of slop and I think at some point what happened was I took a tight turn in 4wd and when the drivetrain went under tension the two side gears slid outward untill they hit the case and this allowed the gear contact patch to decrease a ton and then the teeth fractured and later chipped off.
After all this was done I took the two clamshell halves out to the car wash and spent some time hosing them down and getting all the grease off so I had a nice fresh case to start the rebuild with.
The last thing I needed to do was clean out the ADD tube since it was also full of chunks and gear paste. I was fully expecting the outer ball bearing to be trashed but after a really thorough inspection, I determined it was in great shape and I will be reusing it. Overall shot for those curious of what the ADD system looks like without the tube
IMAG0862 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
At this point with the diffs Im just waiting to buy a press and get everything setup. Should be happening this week.
The next big thing that happened was a surprise to me. I was talking with a friend and they floated the idea of selling my bumpers. At first I was like no way, but then I thought for a bit about how I had been wanting to change some things up with them and they both were in need of some paint. After awhile I said screw it, threw them up for sale and had them sold in less than 2 hours. and this was the result the next weekend
IMAG0875 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
IMAG0877 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
And the naked 4runner lurking in the back
IMAG0876 by
Phoenix Black, on Flickr
Ive got the new steel for the bumpers but Im waiting for the new body mounts and 1 inch body lift to be delivered and installed before I start the fab work. And yes Im running a body lift and I give zero shits. Heres why, it raises the COG hardly at all, doesn't affect suspension geometry, and despite what everyone says, I have never seen a 3rd gen on 35s with no body lift that doesn't rub. It may be limited but rubbing is rubbing. To me it just made sense to save myself hours of work trimming and it will also allow me to get a really good approach angle with the new bumper. I still will be tubbing for 35s but It should be a whole lot less.