UKMyers
10-22-2007, 04:46 PM
As I was airing up leaving Pismo 2 weeks ago I noticed my rear third was leaking like crazy. I crawled under to make sure all the studs were tight and sure enough the bottom two were snapped. It took me about 3 quarts of oil to get home. The people behind me on the freeway were loving the gear oil on their windshield. I've also had a pretty significant lean I've been trying to iron out.
Today I pulled the third and replaced the bottom studs with bolts from the stud eliminator kit. After fighting with those for over an hour I said screw it and left the rest of the studs in. Then came the daunting task of cleaning out the housing and the mating surfaces from the thing after it had leaked all weekend in the dunes. My whole housing and third were a nasty combination of gear oil and sand. After a hour or so and tons of elbow grease I slapped it back together.
While the RTV was drying I decided to swap my rear springs to rule that out as the source of lean. I already did the front and it stayed there. I put it all back together and then had to screw with my brakes for a while because apparantly they got a ton of air in the line when I disconnected the hard lines.
7 hours later I got everything buttoned up and after a quick visual check against the top of the garage door and some measurements it appears I'm sitting level again. After a test drive my third wasn't leaking which will be nice as it's been leaving spots everywhere I parked it all summer.
Anyways thought I'd share my wrench day. This is my first real wheeling season with capable rig. I'm still a newbie when it comes to this kind of routine maintenance so I was pretty stoked that it all came out well. Gotta love the other half of this sport.. i.e. rolling around in gear oil on the garage floor all day :rockon:
Today I pulled the third and replaced the bottom studs with bolts from the stud eliminator kit. After fighting with those for over an hour I said screw it and left the rest of the studs in. Then came the daunting task of cleaning out the housing and the mating surfaces from the thing after it had leaked all weekend in the dunes. My whole housing and third were a nasty combination of gear oil and sand. After a hour or so and tons of elbow grease I slapped it back together.
While the RTV was drying I decided to swap my rear springs to rule that out as the source of lean. I already did the front and it stayed there. I put it all back together and then had to screw with my brakes for a while because apparantly they got a ton of air in the line when I disconnected the hard lines.
7 hours later I got everything buttoned up and after a quick visual check against the top of the garage door and some measurements it appears I'm sitting level again. After a test drive my third wasn't leaking which will be nice as it's been leaving spots everywhere I parked it all summer.
Anyways thought I'd share my wrench day. This is my first real wheeling season with capable rig. I'm still a newbie when it comes to this kind of routine maintenance so I was pretty stoked that it all came out well. Gotta love the other half of this sport.. i.e. rolling around in gear oil on the garage floor all day :rockon: