Steve Williams
Caught the Bug
Last Saturday eight Jeeps from our local club were 20 miles from pavement on the rarely traveled but very easy White Ridge trail off of Reddington Road, east of Tucson. The trail leader called on the CB and reported a problem so we all stopped and waited to hear what his issue was. He came back and let us know he had broken his axle and we would be there a while. I started to pull on up to him and when I put my 2011 JK back in gear, she wouldn’t roll, no gear forward or reverse. I tried everything, as you do in those situations, and finally gave up and got out to see if I could see a problem. A bunch of fluid on the ground under the rear diff was the first clue; the 1 inch jagged hole in the ARB diff cover was the second. I let the crew know I had a problem too and got out the tools.
I pulled the cover that revealed a real mess. The ten ½ inch ring gear bolts were all loose or completely out; 4 or 5 were laying in the bottom of the housing along with a huge pile of metal shavings, and the rest were jammed at an angle with a couple threads in the gear. One had blown the hole in the cover and worst of all, one bolt was jammed between the locker plate and the back of the ring gear jamming it against the pinion and housing. We were going to be there a while.
I had just had a regear done in May by a very well respected local shop ( in business 45 years) that installed new 5.13 gears and the ARB locker when I put the Dynatrac ProRock 44 in the front. It looks like they had not torqued the bolts and there is no evidence of any thread locker. There is about 4000 miles on the diff since they rebuilt it.
I was on a pretty steep downhill in loose gravel and leaning to the left about fifteen degrees. We needed to clear the jammed bolt or she wasn’t going anywhere. I was running as the tailgunner so everyone was between me and the lead who also wasn’t going to move. Six Jeeps were stuck between us on the narrow trail. We tried for the next two hours to clear the bolt. We tried to drive forward/backward to clear it. The gear would turn about 5 degrees then lock up, no good. We tried jacking up the rear axle to get some leverage on the tires, back and forth, no good. We removed the rear drive shaft and tried turning the pinion yoke with a big lever arm, no good. We had to get down the hill on flat ground and get to a spot where the other Jeeps could get past me. So with the rear drive shaft out, we drove her forward about 30 yards using the front axle and just dragged the rear tires through the dirt to level ground where we could safely work on the Jeep.
The only thing we could think of was to pull the axles so we could remove the diff and get the damn bolt clear. We used every jack I carry and then some to raise the rear end so we could pull the axles. We had two floor jacks under the axle, my Hi-lift was on the left side rock sliders to level her, and my bottle jack was under the axle tube as a safety.
We pulled the tires, rotors and axles and pulled my buddies JK around behind her in order to use the winch to pull the diff out. The shop I used doesn’t use a spreader but instead machines a close tolerance spacer so we were able to pull it out without pulling the Jeep off the jacks. All the parts were really beat up but 4 hours after we stopped the bolt was clear. The initial plan was to clean it up and get it back together to at least hold the axles in place so we could drive out on the front wheels. We used a grinder that a guest had in his rig to level out all the torn up metal but we couldn’t find three good bolts to reinstall the ring gear. All the threads were chewed up too badly. We went after a couple of the best ones with thread files but no joy.
We were almost back together but were frustrated, it was hot, upper 90’s, no shade and we were starting to share water with folks who hadn’t planned on a long day in the sun. I felt terrible for the rest of the folks who were patiently waiting and helping with tools and moral support. The Tucson Rough Riders pride themselves on never leaving a member in the desert but this was way past what anyone should have to deal with. We were just about to the point of taking apart another D44 to scavenge a couple of bolts when The trail leader Jeff came up with the idea to bolt the two plates together without the ring gear. Did I mention that the guy whose axle was broken spent the day helping me instead of beating feet back to town to fix his own ride? He’s building up a fresh axle and we are going back out to do the swap this week.
We found two bolts that would work in the bottom of one of our tool bags, bolted it up, used a cutoff wheel that someone had to trim the bolts so they would fit, reinstalled the axles and brakes, put the tires back on, reinstalled the cover, filled the diff with a quart of fluid through the open hole, picked up all the tools and drove out.
Well it wasn’t quite that easy, a couple of the long hills were too steep for front wheel drive only, so I got a tug from my buddy. We had been out there since 9:00 am, it was 8:00 pm when we got the twenty miles back to cell coverage so I could call a tow truck.
So I told you all that to ask you guys “What the heck do I do now?” I don’t trust the yahoos that did the work any further than I can throw them. The whole housing is gouged and pretty much toast. All the bearings in the entire assembly have to have metal shavings in them. The ARB locker is full of metal. The ring gear looks like someone used it for target practice. I’m talking to them tomorrow.
I’ll add a lesson’s learned to this thread later but what should I do with the shop? I hate not being able to trust folks. I’d really appreciate any advice. Ask them to rebuild it again or say screw it and order a Pro Rock 60 from Dynatrac with money I don’t have?
Oh yeah, here’s the kicker. I just got back from a 2000 mile round trip to California where we ran the Rubicon. I hate to think what would have happened if she had locked up at speed on the 10.
I pulled the cover that revealed a real mess. The ten ½ inch ring gear bolts were all loose or completely out; 4 or 5 were laying in the bottom of the housing along with a huge pile of metal shavings, and the rest were jammed at an angle with a couple threads in the gear. One had blown the hole in the cover and worst of all, one bolt was jammed between the locker plate and the back of the ring gear jamming it against the pinion and housing. We were going to be there a while.
I had just had a regear done in May by a very well respected local shop ( in business 45 years) that installed new 5.13 gears and the ARB locker when I put the Dynatrac ProRock 44 in the front. It looks like they had not torqued the bolts and there is no evidence of any thread locker. There is about 4000 miles on the diff since they rebuilt it.
I was on a pretty steep downhill in loose gravel and leaning to the left about fifteen degrees. We needed to clear the jammed bolt or she wasn’t going anywhere. I was running as the tailgunner so everyone was between me and the lead who also wasn’t going to move. Six Jeeps were stuck between us on the narrow trail. We tried for the next two hours to clear the bolt. We tried to drive forward/backward to clear it. The gear would turn about 5 degrees then lock up, no good. We tried jacking up the rear axle to get some leverage on the tires, back and forth, no good. We removed the rear drive shaft and tried turning the pinion yoke with a big lever arm, no good. We had to get down the hill on flat ground and get to a spot where the other Jeeps could get past me. So with the rear drive shaft out, we drove her forward about 30 yards using the front axle and just dragged the rear tires through the dirt to level ground where we could safely work on the Jeep.
The only thing we could think of was to pull the axles so we could remove the diff and get the damn bolt clear. We used every jack I carry and then some to raise the rear end so we could pull the axles. We had two floor jacks under the axle, my Hi-lift was on the left side rock sliders to level her, and my bottle jack was under the axle tube as a safety.
We pulled the tires, rotors and axles and pulled my buddies JK around behind her in order to use the winch to pull the diff out. The shop I used doesn’t use a spreader but instead machines a close tolerance spacer so we were able to pull it out without pulling the Jeep off the jacks. All the parts were really beat up but 4 hours after we stopped the bolt was clear. The initial plan was to clean it up and get it back together to at least hold the axles in place so we could drive out on the front wheels. We used a grinder that a guest had in his rig to level out all the torn up metal but we couldn’t find three good bolts to reinstall the ring gear. All the threads were chewed up too badly. We went after a couple of the best ones with thread files but no joy.
We were almost back together but were frustrated, it was hot, upper 90’s, no shade and we were starting to share water with folks who hadn’t planned on a long day in the sun. I felt terrible for the rest of the folks who were patiently waiting and helping with tools and moral support. The Tucson Rough Riders pride themselves on never leaving a member in the desert but this was way past what anyone should have to deal with. We were just about to the point of taking apart another D44 to scavenge a couple of bolts when The trail leader Jeff came up with the idea to bolt the two plates together without the ring gear. Did I mention that the guy whose axle was broken spent the day helping me instead of beating feet back to town to fix his own ride? He’s building up a fresh axle and we are going back out to do the swap this week.
We found two bolts that would work in the bottom of one of our tool bags, bolted it up, used a cutoff wheel that someone had to trim the bolts so they would fit, reinstalled the axles and brakes, put the tires back on, reinstalled the cover, filled the diff with a quart of fluid through the open hole, picked up all the tools and drove out.
Well it wasn’t quite that easy, a couple of the long hills were too steep for front wheel drive only, so I got a tug from my buddy. We had been out there since 9:00 am, it was 8:00 pm when we got the twenty miles back to cell coverage so I could call a tow truck.
So I told you all that to ask you guys “What the heck do I do now?” I don’t trust the yahoos that did the work any further than I can throw them. The whole housing is gouged and pretty much toast. All the bearings in the entire assembly have to have metal shavings in them. The ARB locker is full of metal. The ring gear looks like someone used it for target practice. I’m talking to them tomorrow.
I’ll add a lesson’s learned to this thread later but what should I do with the shop? I hate not being able to trust folks. I’d really appreciate any advice. Ask them to rebuild it again or say screw it and order a Pro Rock 60 from Dynatrac with money I don’t have?
Oh yeah, here’s the kicker. I just got back from a 2000 mile round trip to California where we ran the Rubicon. I hate to think what would have happened if she had locked up at speed on the 10.
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