MrMarty51
Well-Known Member
That shalt be done from here on out.
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CV Axle Seperation
- Thread starter Paveltolz
- Start date
Paveltolz
Доверяй, но проверяй
On my most recent trip out to El Mirage for some more crew chief duties I hit an unexpected big dip in the road and, yeah, another roadside swap for a busted Half-Shaft, Driver's side. Was hoping to have it repaired before hitting El Mo but, long story short, parts weren't on the truck coming down from out of state with Chris. His buddy has a strip yard and got them for me but, still in the back of Chris' Duramax which is at the yard still waiting on an Engine & Transmission swap (previous road trip).
I got my hip rested up from the other chores I've been doing since I got home and last Thursday I went to a pick-a-part yard to get the parts myself. I got the passenger side carrier brace ok but wasn't able to get the driver's side part cut out of the donor truck with the grinder and cutting wheel. There was plenty of room to do the cutting but, there is also a lot of quite dry cheat grass under and around the vehicles and I didn't want a grinder generated spark to make me an unwanted customer.
Passenger Side Carrier Frame Brace.
Driver's side part I need to cut off to replace the one that was removed back in 2007 for dropping the front diff. for the suspension lift.
I need to cut along the red dotted line.
I went back the next day with a Sawzall/Jigsaw but, the metal was too tough for even a 'Heavy Metal' blade. "Have a plan B (C, D, E...) because plan A won't work" Ranger Patrolling Rulz.
While at the yard, I did find a differential skid plate that my truck doesn't have (if it ever did have one, I don't know/remember). I had to take it off the donor truck to get at the piece I needed to cut out and figured I'll want one when I get things put back up where they belong. There was also an aluminum splash plate on the donor so I grabbed that too. Everything was covered in a half inch layer from 32 years of grease, oil and dirt but, after a couple of hours of work scraping with putty knives, degreaser and pressure washing the pieces cleaned up pretty nice.
For correcting/restoring the driver's side differential carrier:
Upper is easy because nothing was cut. I'll remove the upper mounting bracket and, after removing the lower bolts, return the upper bolt through it's OEM location.
Aftermarket bracket to suspend the differential. The green arrow shows OEM Bolt Location. Red "X'd" bolt will be removed and the tab probably cut off so I can reweld things.
I figure I'll repurpose the drop kit's lower mounting bracket instead of waiting on weather or others. Remove the two bolts marked with a Red "X"
After determining how much of the aftermarket bracket to cut off, the Green marked OEM bolt go through the OEM location on the suspension and clamp things together so I can then well things back to the frame.
I'll have to recenter the bushings on the differential, of course, before finalizing anything.
At least I'll have my Father's Day gift to play tunes to help keep my head calm while muddling through all this. I've got the best wife.
I got my hip rested up from the other chores I've been doing since I got home and last Thursday I went to a pick-a-part yard to get the parts myself. I got the passenger side carrier brace ok but wasn't able to get the driver's side part cut out of the donor truck with the grinder and cutting wheel. There was plenty of room to do the cutting but, there is also a lot of quite dry cheat grass under and around the vehicles and I didn't want a grinder generated spark to make me an unwanted customer.
Passenger Side Carrier Frame Brace.
Driver's side part I need to cut off to replace the one that was removed back in 2007 for dropping the front diff. for the suspension lift.
I need to cut along the red dotted line.
I went back the next day with a Sawzall/Jigsaw but, the metal was too tough for even a 'Heavy Metal' blade. "Have a plan B (C, D, E...) because plan A won't work" Ranger Patrolling Rulz.
While at the yard, I did find a differential skid plate that my truck doesn't have (if it ever did have one, I don't know/remember). I had to take it off the donor truck to get at the piece I needed to cut out and figured I'll want one when I get things put back up where they belong. There was also an aluminum splash plate on the donor so I grabbed that too. Everything was covered in a half inch layer from 32 years of grease, oil and dirt but, after a couple of hours of work scraping with putty knives, degreaser and pressure washing the pieces cleaned up pretty nice.
For correcting/restoring the driver's side differential carrier:
Upper is easy because nothing was cut. I'll remove the upper mounting bracket and, after removing the lower bolts, return the upper bolt through it's OEM location.
Aftermarket bracket to suspend the differential. The green arrow shows OEM Bolt Location. Red "X'd" bolt will be removed and the tab probably cut off so I can reweld things.
I figure I'll repurpose the drop kit's lower mounting bracket instead of waiting on weather or others. Remove the two bolts marked with a Red "X"
After determining how much of the aftermarket bracket to cut off, the Green marked OEM bolt go through the OEM location on the suspension and clamp things together so I can then well things back to the frame.
I'll have to recenter the bushings on the differential, of course, before finalizing anything.
At least I'll have my Father's Day gift to play tunes to help keep my head calm while muddling through all this. I've got the best wife.
Glad I don't like lifts 
Paveltolz
Доверяй, но проверяй
Agreed.Glad I don't like lifts
This truck has been a learning experience since purchased almost 20 years ago. The 'learing' continues.
Big T
Well-Known Member
This is so cringy. FUBAR’d to the max!
Paveltolz
Доверяй, но проверяй
The lesson learned, at least one of them here, is that these things are engineered the way they are for a good reason. Yeah, bean counters….got it. When you change things from their original design, there are other systems that will change that one isn’t suspecting or overly concerned about that can bite you in the wallet later. In my previous life, we called them ‘Second and Third order effects.’ Still do.
OEM suspension and drivetrain in this case from the suspension lift. Raise the ride height, lower the differential, insert different upper control arms, change drive angles, change suspension geometry and suffer accelerated tie rod, ball joint, pitman arm, idler arm wear and tear. Even the new cross-over pipe’s bung fitting for exhaust gas temperature gauge sensors is affected
Remove the lift kit but, as in my case, not completely because one doesn’t know what went on during the installation and, suffer even greater $$ costs and inconveniences.
Yes, if I’d done the lift myself…got it. But, I didn’t. To quote Otter from Animal House, ‘You [screwed] up. You trusted us.’
That’s life.
Now, to further attempt to unscrew things and get the differential back up where it was designed to be.
OEM suspension and drivetrain in this case from the suspension lift. Raise the ride height, lower the differential, insert different upper control arms, change drive angles, change suspension geometry and suffer accelerated tie rod, ball joint, pitman arm, idler arm wear and tear. Even the new cross-over pipe’s bung fitting for exhaust gas temperature gauge sensors is affected
Remove the lift kit but, as in my case, not completely because one doesn’t know what went on during the installation and, suffer even greater $$ costs and inconveniences.
Yes, if I’d done the lift myself…got it. But, I didn’t. To quote Otter from Animal House, ‘You [screwed] up. You trusted us.’
That’s life.
Now, to further attempt to unscrew things and get the differential back up where it was designed to be.
Big T
Well-Known Member
I glanced through the pics wondering how do you know where the original positions should be?
Honestly feel for ya. I would have given up long ago.
Will L.
Well-Known Member
Seen this issue over the decades- many times people don’t understand why brand X vs brad Y costs more. Often it is the difference of actual engineering vs estimated design, and or the difference of R&D vs just making parts.
Factory is not always best. GmX turbo, factory exhaust, factory intake, factory glow plugs, the list goes on. I can’t say which lift kits were the good and bad ones. But I bought used gmt400 that were lifted& had friends with them who never had an issue.
I think either your’s was something designed wrong, installed wrong, frame tweaked somehow… idk.
I hope going back to everything stock fixes your issues.
Factory is not always best. GmX turbo, factory exhaust, factory intake, factory glow plugs, the list goes on. I can’t say which lift kits were the good and bad ones. But I bought used gmt400 that were lifted& had friends with them who never had an issue.
I think either your’s was something designed wrong, installed wrong, frame tweaked somehow… idk.
I hope going back to everything stock fixes your issues.