2003 Explorer dropped its rear gear housing (threaded insert fractured)

[Scoobmaster]

Have any of you guys seen this happen??

I get a phone call at work from my wife telling me that as she pulled out of the driveway to go to work our 2003 Ford Explorer "lurched", made a loud "clunk", then a tire chirp or two. When i got home I saw a 4-5" long bolt with a huge washer laying at the end of the driveway (this can't be good I thought). When she got home she said it was making a clunking noise from the rear end. I scooted underneath to investigate and this is what I saw:

The grey object is the rear end gear housing (you can see the driveshaft coming into it at the front). That hole to the left of the orange letter "A" is where the bolt is supposed to be. It is SUPPOSED to be held flush to the hole above it in the rusty black frame member. As you can see, the entire rear housing has dropped about 2-3 inches!

Here is a closer picture:

There is a square-shaped insert with a threaded top that the bolt is supposed to engage in I have removed from that top frame member. The top portion with the threads had fractured into three pieces (that allowed the bolt to drop out and the whole assembly to drop and rest on the rear suspension arm crossmember).

Here is the threaded insert I am talking about along with the bolt that holds it all together:

Luckily she drives about a mile to work, so i don't think any other damage was done. The local Ford dealer had to order the threaded insert (has none in stock and says he has never seen one break or had to replace one). I have to wait two days for one to get here so I can put it back together.

Crazy stuff always happens to me.

 

[rocco123]

Coulda just brazed a nut to the clip nut & call it a day.

 

[FordLover]

dang! that thing is RUSTY!!! Never seen the underside of a car look like that unless it lived on the beach.

 

[04 EDGE]

dang! that thing is RUSTY!!! Never seen the underside of a car look like that unless it lived on the beach.

Come to Michigan! All of the cars/Trucks look like that, if not worse!

 

[guilateen]

same here in Rhode Island. i hear Maine is the worst dot uses a liquid form of deicer on the roads and it sticks and rots really fast.

 

[swetrid]

Yep it happens every once in a while.

 

[JW]

If the frame bracket is still sound, I say drill it out, insert a proper Grade 8 bolt and locking nut and call it a victory. Can you get to the backside of that hole or is it enclosed? (Never looked at mine.)

 

[Rick]

When you put it back together I would use anti-seize on the bolt threads and then spray some under coating up there to coat the exposed end of the bolt and the nut. That should keep it from happening again.

 

[Scoobmaster]

Hey gang. I know the rust looks awful (believe me - it makes me sick too) but that is "par for the course" here in upstate NY. They put so much salt down in the winter that the roads turn WHITE and salt dust blows around on clear days). The past two winters have been especially brutal. I wonder if that helped contribute to the demise of the nut plate.

Anyway - there is evidence of thread lock compound on the bolt and I plan to put fresh loctite on it when I reassemble it. I will also check the other two differential housing mounting bolts (on the back side) to make sure they are tight.

I am just glad it happened on my wife's 3/4 mile journey to work and the bolt choose to fall at the end of my driveway where I could find it easily. If this had happened halfway through a summer vacation trip towing my camper, I would be a LOT less calm about it!

 

[rocco123]

Scoobmaster...Didn't notice before, but I see you are also from Endicott.