Headliner magic

 

Awesome, thanks my man

 

Paring down harness

I don't need most of the connectors or the fuse box, so its time to reduce and simplify.




The amount of material I removed had significant weight. Unfortunately, I lacked the presence of mind to put it on a scale.




All that remains is a headlight harness. I left all the trimmed wires pinned in the terminal connector so I can add onto the harness in the future: temp sensor, rpm sensor, cooling fan, etc.

 

Curiosity killed an entire afternoon
Here is how NOT to make the most of a vacation day...

My second-hand front driver's side axle had some stripped threads. I had a spare second-hand passenger axle lying around with good threads, so I endeavored to perform a transplant. Due to morbid curiosity, the process evolved into a CV bearing wear comparison. Since both axles came from similar cars driven in a similar environment, I thought my findings might be of interest to those shopping the forums for a used axle and find themselves wondering how much mileage affects condition (created a separate thread for reference).


My driver's axle, purchased used from a forum member with an advertised 90k miles. Boot has no cracks.





The donor passenger axle also purchased used from the same member, but from a different car with 25k miles. Boot in perfect condition. Notice the threads are in better condition too.





Removed outer assembly.





Comparing grease pack: 25k on left, 90k on right. The grease was noticeably more chunky on the 90k axle.





Cage, ball, and race comparison: 90k top, 25k bottom. The 90k items appear to have been subjected to more intense thermal cycling.





Cages: 90k left, 25k right. Slightly more surface scratches and scoring on the 90k cage.





*****: 25k left, 90k right. It was difficult to light the shot properly to show detail. The 90k ***** appeared to be heat-colored and had an extensive network of superficial fractures.





Cups: 25k left, 90k right. Maybe hard to tell from the picture, but the 90k has some slight bluing. It has quite clearly been subjected to more heat.





My Frankenstein outer axle reassembled.

 

How did you get the outer assembly off the axle shaft?

 

With a hammer. It's only secured by a retaining ring, similar to the inner axles. A few well placed taps and it comes right off.

 

I accidentally separated one of my brothers, it popped right out, he almost slapped me because it was a pain to get back together...

 

Interesting. I tried to get mine off and it would not come off no matter how large of hammer I used

 

It looks like it uses a hog ring, like how the inner is secured in the trans or tcase, so you just have to unclamp the boot, and yank it apart.

 

They can be PITA sometimes, i used axe as hammer one time to separate one that put up a fight, needed few good whacks

 

Great thread! Looking forward to see how this turns out!

 

No progress updates?

 

I've been pretty sick for the last week. Gearbox is rebuilt and should be back to me in a week or so, then I'll put everything back together.

 

Definitely a lot of crap going around lately. Hope you get better soon!

 

How are you feeling bud?

Hope you're on the mend and all is better with you.