4x4Wire's TrailTalk Forums: Tube Fender DIY Project

Tuesday

On Tuesday we decided to run an easy trail since I had to return home the next day.

We decided to run Top of the World. This is a very easy trail with a great view of the "Top of the World".

No many pictures today but we did have a minor mishap. I was running at the rear of the pack of only 4 jeeps.

During one of what looked like an easy ledge the jeep that was in front of me (John) decided to try a little harder line. He was having some problems climbing the ledge and was giving a little too much gas. His jeep started to jump up with the extra throttle during one of those hops I heard a pop. He stopped back down a little and started to try another line. I was still behind in my jeep and started to see something flailing around the rear of his jeep. Apparently his rear axle had broken and was swing around. I got off and told him to stop.

We looked under his jeep and saw the drive shaft just hanging down. We thought no problem, we will replace the drive shaft with a spare some else had. Upon closer inspection we noticed that the actual rear pinion had snapped off!

Wow, this was not good. Apparently John had upgraded his rear drive shaft and axles shafts, so the weak link was the pinion.

We removed the drive shaft from the jeep and our plans were to drive in front wheel drive the rest of the way. But as soon as he started to move we heard some popping noise coming from the rear carrier.

With that we new that we had to remove the inside part of the pinon that was rolling around. We started by having John remove his rear gear oil. I provided a plastic container to capture the oil to eliminate any trail damage. Once all the oil was drained he removed the screws holding the cover. When we was prying the cover off it came off rather quickly and you guessed it, it landed right on the oil container giving John a nice gear oil bath.

After cleaning up most of the oil spillage, we jacked up the rear of the jeep with the stock jacks and used a highlift to secure the body of the jeep. We then removed the tires, rear brake caliper and the drum/disk to get to the axle retainer bolts. We removed the 4 bolts on each side and removed the axles. After that we removed the rear locker and this is what came out:

We put everything back in and continued the trail. Here is evidence that we cleaned up all our mess.

We used a strap to help John along.

Top of the World views:

And the chair come out.

Mac gets a little close to the edge. He later told me that he could feel the rock move a little as he sat there!

Nice scenery:

It is a long way down.

As you got closer to the edge you could just fill the wind blow you back! It was really an awesome experience!

My jeep:

On the way down:

The easy trail turned out to be a harder one. But it was nice to learn how to remove a rear locker out of a rubicon.

Wednesday

On Wednesday it was drive home day. Took off from Moab at 8:00am (central) and kept on driving until I got home at 3:00am. That's about 19 hours on the road. I stopped to refuel when the tank hit 1/2 to 1/4 just to make more frequent stops.

On the way home I took US191 (from moab) to US491 to I40 to US 285 to I10 to US290 and into south Austin. A more direct route but not very scenic.

It was a nice long ride but I was glad to get home.

--------------------
Jaime

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