ld50 Explorer mods revisited

[ld50]

Thanks Premier, I have pondered trying to get my Avatar changed, that pic is when I had the 31 inch tires on, no flares, or antenna mount...

I got the corner on and you`d never know that it used to be American....




Kinda got a little bit of left side lean coming back, go figure.

 

[fedexed]

Wish you were my neighbour.. wait

Sunday night.. just before midnight.. i just spent the last 2 hours reading and researching.. All i can say is .. I wish you were my neighbour.. and well you very well may be. Fellow Explorer owner. 1991 EB. No real modifications.. lights stereo. CB etc. Had some probs with mine but I really enjoy the truck..

I have the body lift kit sitting beside me. Just waiting for a couple dry days. I am figuring i will take it to a cheap shop and get them to put the air tools on the body mounts as i don't have air tools . Should be fun..

Anyhow,, I will honk if i see your truck.. Nice work on the station wagon.. !!

-Shane

 

[ld50]

Thanks Shane, good luck with the lift!

I have a new write up coming:

next episode:
Front locker install!

 

[Premier]

What front locker are you planning to run?

 

[ld50]

Detroit E-Z locker

 

[ld50]

Front detroit EZ locker install into open front diff

Kay, I bought this second hand for $180 US off a member of the site (rightname) There was a little wear on the teeth and actually a small chip on one of them, but I guess if you go cheap you take what you get. If it explodes perhaps its SAS time.


First of all when you crawl under there and plan on what has to be done it seems like a huge job, but it`s not that hard to do after all.

The main plan of attack when getting the front diff the heck out of there is to pull the whole part of the TTB that it is attached to, right out of there.
It is secured to frame at three points, at the frame under the engine, at the coild spring, and at the radius arm.
There is also the matter of disconnecting your drivers side shock at the radius arm, your sway bar where it connects to the drivers side of the TTB arm, the steering has to be unhooked from there as well, AND the brake has to come off, and you also gotta disconnect the ABS sensor.


The first thing I did was jack it up on the driver`s side and put a jackstand under the radius arm bracket at the frame:

 

[ld50]

You might wonder about the axles, well the axleshaft from T-case to front diff has a boot on it, undo the boot on one side, this will allow it to slide apart when you pull the TTB out. Then look at the shaft that goes from the diff to the passenger side tire. Undo that boot on one side and you can see that this comes apart also. This is all I did in order to pull the TTB arm out of there.

*note, later you will undo the forward most u-joint on the input of the diff, before re-install. I don`t care how skilled you are, you aren`t going to slide both axles in while manipulating everything back in place.

Here`s a pic of the shaft going to the passenger side tire, with boot undone:

 

[ld50]

Don`t forget, while undoing all this stuff, you need to support the TTB with the floor jack. You can manipulate the Jack when taking out the coil spring, and undoing the sway bar as well. I suggest undoing everything in this order:

-take tire off
-take brake caliper off, tie to something so it is not hanging by hose.
-optional to take off rotor, this is a good time to re-pack those bearings.
-undo ABS sensor line, I undid mine at a connector just inside the wheel well.
-undo shock at TTB, let hang
-undo sway bar
-disconnect tie rod end at wheel (steering linkage)
-undo coil bolt, when it is undone, NOTE POSITION OF COIL, let off the jack and let it hang, if you push down on the TTB the coil will practically fall out.
(the coil should sit about where it was originally when you re-install)
-support with jack again, undo boots on axles.
-undo differential breather line at diff.
-undo radius arm at frame bracket, we will pull the TTB with the Rad. arm attached
-Undo where TTB attaches at the passenger side frame.

Once everything I mentioned is undone you can weasel it out, the axles should just slide apart as you work them apart, careful not to put too much strain on them while you do it. Mine came apart easily.

Here is a pic of it out, you can see the axle shafts with the splines there too:

 

[ld50]

so you end up with the part of the TTB out:

 

[ld50]

The cheat!

This is the only place where you can see the cheat that the shop used to break the diff from the TTB arm without having to undo the radius arm I didn`t know they had cheated till I took it apart, and in retrospect, I`m glad. There is a bolt and nut which is kept inaccessible because of the radius arm. The shop cut a recess in the arm to access it.
If you don`t want to cut it, you will have to take off the radius arm. It is obviously easier to get at now, so it wouldn`t be that hard to do.
Sorry I don`t haver a better pic of the cut, I didn`t think of it.

You can also see how I drained the axle here:

 

[ld50]

Then it`s a matter of undoing the mounting bolts, Then I pulled the diff up and away from the axle:

 

[ld50]

This is when I kind of got messed up. I expected to see a pinion shaft lock bolt in the axle. There wasn`t, instead there was a pin, called a roll pin in there. Special thanks to Rangerx for helping me out during this phase!

In order to relase the gears and get them out I had to get the poll pin out, And to do that I first needed to undo the brackets holding everything in, AND pull the passenger side axle shaft out.
The shaft is held in place by a clip, once it is removed, you can slide the axle out.

*note, remember which way the brackets that you have undone to get it out are placed. You want to put them back the exact same way. I just layed them on my work bench in such a way that I would remember easily.

Once it was out, I banged out the pinion shaft lock pin with a small punch, You can see it almost out here:

 

[bates]

God I LOVE this thread!

 

[ld50]

Hehe, well thanks!

Okay, now that the pin`s out, pull out the pinion shaft and those gears will just fall right out, you can keep them or throw them out, just remember to keep the thrust washers that are behind the gears that attach to the axleshafts, they will be placed in the same position as you found them, only now they will have the locker clutch parts on top of them, instead of those gears.

 

[ld50]

After I got the gears out, and remembered to keep the thrust washers, I put the assembly back into my diff. There is enough room to drive the roll pin back in so don`t worry. I put the brackets back exactly as they were.

Now I put the thrust washer on the new locker part, the locker is symetrical, so it doesn`t matter what side goes where, I guess you`ll see what I mean.
I put the clutch part with washer closest to the outside on, then held it and pushed the axle back in, then I put the clip back on to hold it in place. Then I put the other side with thrust washer in place and it is just sitting there in this pic:

 

[ld50]

Next I did some assembly of the locker mechanism. You should have four dowels, four springs, and four seats, that go on the ends of each spring.

Put the dowels in the ELONGATED HOLES.

 

[ld50]

Once the dowels are in place you have to get them in the diff, just make sure you don`t lose the dowels while you do it, And make sure you line up the two halves of the hole that the pinion shaft goes through.
This pic shows how I did it. I put one half on the side with the axle in place, and then worked the other half in, you have just barely enough room here.

 

[ld50]

Now it is a good idea to get the pinion shaft back in, and drive the roll pin back in to hold it in place:

 

[ld50]

Now when you spin everything around you can see that the dowels can be seen in openings on the outside of the locker. Push these over into the holes on the adjacent clutch parts of the locker because once they are pushed over, the springs are put into the holes.

*note, the seats you put on the springs are what contacts the dowel, in case you are wondering.

 

[ld50]

To put the springs in place, I used a small screwdriver to jimmy them in, remember, the seats go towards the dowels: