You know, I think you're on to something hereYour stock axles never broke or bent. Maybe they were stronger.
Mission Control... We Have a Problem
- Thread starter wayoflife
- Start date
TrailHunter
Hooked
One of my favorite quotes from an Ultra4 guy:
"Take all of your Money... Light it in on Fire.. and put Big Tires on it"
"Take all of your Money... Light it in on Fire.. and put Big Tires on it"
Irish JK
Caught the Bug
I’ve honestly been surprised and impressed with all of the UD60s out there now, how little the failure rate has been for something that is sort of “mass produced”.
To reliably take the desert at 60+ is more in the realm of custom racing axles with 3rd members and even those only last so long. The weight of production vehicles with limited up travel has physical limits.
Well said and I totally agree.
kevman65
Hooked
If the crack doesn't extend to the fluid side of things, and you have a welder who knows how to weld cast iron AND stop cracks, yes it can be welded and be as strong or stronger.
Cast anything has it down sides too, there can be pits or voids in the casting that can cause stress cracking. Then if not caught soon enough, failure.
Clean clean clean, drill the ends of the crack(s), preheat, weld, controlled cooling.
Cast anything has it down sides too, there can be pits or voids in the casting that can cause stress cracking. Then if not caught soon enough, failure.
Clean clean clean, drill the ends of the crack(s), preheat, weld, controlled cooling.
2013rubirick
Hooked
That’s impressive!
I feel super lucky that I just happened to notice it. And, truth be told, I almost missed it due to dust on the diff.
Would love to run a fabbed 9 but then, I would need EVERYTHING else custom made, as in, brackets for the suspension system. Essentially, it'd be a whole lot of money and time out, again, and for something that I can't see myself really needing and I'm already chomping at the bit for an LT4. Maybe if I planned on racing this thing but I'm not really into that. At the moment, it would be nice to just take it out wheeling again.
Oh yeah. I suspect that I could drive on this axle for thousands of miles on the highway and around town and without any issues. However, using it for how we just built it... yeah, I could totally see it being one hit away from a major break.
So, I decided to open up the diff to give things a look on the inside and this proved to open my eyes to a couple of new things and one of which may or may not have played a roll in the crack we have.
First up, it took a lot more effort to remove the lower most differential cover bolt on the passenger side. And, when it finally came out, I could see why - the bolt is bent.
A closer look at the diff cover bolt hole, you can see that it had taken a hard strike to the corner and to the point where it deformed the hole. Essentially, it was no longer round.
Clearly, this hit and deformation is what caused the bolt to bend.
Looking at the diff housing, you can see there is some deformation at the hole as well.
However, the threads seemed to be clean and straight all the way through. Still, I chased it with a tap just in case.
With that said, I tried to give the inside of the housing a good careful look or at least, the best I could without pulling the carrier and couldn't see any signs of cracking.
With that said, the other thing I noticed and thought it was worthy of posting up is that, this is the very first time I've pulled the cover on our UD60. Yes, I have serviced it a couple of times now but it has a nice drain plug on the side and so I haven't felt a need to open it up. Of course, being that this axle has manual locking hubs, the ONLY time the differential spins is when we're in 4WD and, as much as I'd like to think we wheel a lot, it clearly isn't as much as I think.
If you look carefully at this pic, you will see evidence of white marking compound on the ring gear teeth when the 5.38 gears were installed.
And, this should be a reminder that all new aftermarket axles, even ones from Dana, should be treated as though they just got new gears installed. AS IN, they still need to be properly broken in.
Last but not least and I know this is nothing new but... I just LOVE that gear oil is now sold in these AWESOME bags!!! It just make filling up a diff so much faster, easier and cleaner. Kudos to whoever came up with this
First up, it took a lot more effort to remove the lower most differential cover bolt on the passenger side. And, when it finally came out, I could see why - the bolt is bent.
A closer look at the diff cover bolt hole, you can see that it had taken a hard strike to the corner and to the point where it deformed the hole. Essentially, it was no longer round.
Clearly, this hit and deformation is what caused the bolt to bend.
Looking at the diff housing, you can see there is some deformation at the hole as well.
However, the threads seemed to be clean and straight all the way through. Still, I chased it with a tap just in case.
With that said, I tried to give the inside of the housing a good careful look or at least, the best I could without pulling the carrier and couldn't see any signs of cracking.
With that said, the other thing I noticed and thought it was worthy of posting up is that, this is the very first time I've pulled the cover on our UD60. Yes, I have serviced it a couple of times now but it has a nice drain plug on the side and so I haven't felt a need to open it up. Of course, being that this axle has manual locking hubs, the ONLY time the differential spins is when we're in 4WD and, as much as I'd like to think we wheel a lot, it clearly isn't as much as I think.
If you look carefully at this pic, you will see evidence of white marking compound on the ring gear teeth when the 5.38 gears were installed.
And, this should be a reminder that all new aftermarket axles, even ones from Dana, should be treated as though they just got new gears installed. AS IN, they still need to be properly broken in.
Last but not least and I know this is nothing new but... I just LOVE that gear oil is now sold in these AWESOME bags!!! It just make filling up a diff so much faster, easier and cleaner. Kudos to whoever came up with this
OverlanderJK
Resident Smartass
I wish those bags were out ten years ago. They are a game changer for sure. I am tempted to throw all my bottles away lolSo, I decided to open up the diff to give things a look on the inside and this proved to open my eyes to a couple of new things and one of which may or may not have played a roll in the crack we have.
First up, it took a lot more effort to remove the lower most differential cover bolt on the passenger side. And, when it finally came out, I could see why - the bolt is bent.
A closer look at the diff cover bolt hole, you can see that it had taken a hard strike to the corner and to the point where it deformed the hole. Essentially, it was no longer round.
Clearly, this hit and deformation is what caused the bolt to bend.
Looking at the diff housing, you can see there is some deformation at the hole as well.
However, the threads seemed to be clean and straight all the way through. Still, I chased it with a tap just in case.
With that said, I tried to give the inside of the housing a good careful look or at least, the best I could without pulling the carrier and couldn't see any signs of cracking.
With that said, the other thing I noticed and thought it was worthy of posting up is that, this is the very first time I've pulled the cover on our UD60. Yes, I have serviced it a couple of times now but it has a nice drain plug on the side and so I haven't felt a need to open it up. Of course, being that this axle has manual locking hubs, the ONLY time the differential spins is when we're in 4WD and, as much as I'd like to think we wheel a lot, it clearly isn't as much as I think.
If you look carefully at this pic, you will see evidence of white marking compound on the ring gear teeth when the 5.38 gears were installed.
And, this should be a reminder that all new aftermarket axles, even ones from Dana, should be treated as though they just got new gears installed. AS IN, they still need to be properly broken in.
Last but not least and I know this is nothing new but... I just LOVE that gear oil is now sold in these AWESOME bags!!! It just make filling up a diff so much faster, easier and cleaner. Kudos to whoever came up with this
Disciple Off Road
Hooked
I guess the good news is that maybe the crack in the webbing was from a hard hit to the diff and the tubes are ok 
Thankfully the cover bolt still came out without binding up and breaking!
I have some of these gear oil bags from Amsoil and now just pour oil from bottles into them when needed LOL they are amazing.
Thankfully the cover bolt still came out without binding up and breaking! I have some of these gear oil bags from Amsoil and now just pour oil from bottles into them when needed LOL they are amazing.
bobfriesenhahn
Hooked
Or maybe it was there all the time and was an issue with the original casting?Oh, and the point of all this is? I'm no longer 100% sure what caused the crack or when it happened. Sure, I only noticed it the other day but was it the bombing across big whoops that caused it OR, was it a rock strike on a previous run?
Mike Pierson
Hooked
I’m guessing it was the JTX in 2020. I’d bet the hit responsible for that in the desert would’ve been significantly more disruptive/noticeable than falling off line in the rocks.Oh, and the point of all this is? I'm no longer 100% sure what caused the crack or when it happened. Sure, I only noticed it the other day but was it the bombing across big whoops that caused it OR, was it a rock strike on a previous run?