Back from the dead, and armed with a few questions!

[AdamsGuitar]

Good morning, all. Some of you may remember me from a year or so ago, but then again, maybe not. Just as a quick recap, I'll give a quick description of my truck in the context of offroading:

1995 Explorer
6" Superlift suspension lift
3" body lift
Custom front bumper with Warn X8000i winch
No-Slip in the rear
LockRite in the front
Manual switch for the front vacuum engagement of the passenger side halfshaft
35" tires on 15" wheels

Now that you have the basics, here are a couple of questions to get everyone's minds working.

1) The last time I went wheeling (well, the last time I when wheeling and had PLANNED on it, but that's a different story), I managed to completely obliterate the driver's side front halfshaft. When I say obliterate, I mean it; I couldn't even find the thing on the trail, just an incredible BANG that left nothing behind. I had set out long ago that once I broke this Dana 35 I was going to go all out and swap in a solid axle in the front. However, time has come and gone and I'm getting to where I'd like to go out again, but I don't have the funds or the time right now to do the conversion. The problem is, because I had planned on this, I hadn't done anything to seal up any of the broken areas, so I am afraid at this point that it may be too far gone to do anything but swap the axle, IFS or solid. Any thoughts on the probability that this axle is still usable, and how I'd be able to tell if it is?

2) The last time I went wheeling (which I did NOT plan on; I had to rescue a friend from his ill-advised foray into a rain-soaked trail by a nearby rock quary), I ended up shorting the winch. I was standing to the side attempting to pull him out with a snatch block when I heard a pop and zapping, and turned to see the connector on the winch smoking and smoke coming from the solenoid pack. I replaced the remote, still didn't work. I wrote down the locations of all of the wires in the pack and replaced the solenoids, but neglected to note the orientation of the solenoids. I tried about 6 different orientations with no results (nothing whatsoever; no pop, no click, no movement or visible sign that anything was going on of any sort) before I finally gave up and was able to get him out with other means. This still, however, left me with about 25' of winch cable coiled up and sitting in the passenger seat since I couldn't respool it, and a winch that didn't work. Does anyone here have any idea of the proper orientation of the solenoids, and what else could have happened in that situation?

Thanks for any help! I'll be hanging around here more often.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

1) The last time I went wheeling (well, the last time I when wheeling and had PLANNED on it, but that's a different story), I managed to completely obliterate the driver's side front halfshaft. When I say obliterate, I mean it; I couldn't even find the thing on the trail, just an incredible BANG that left nothing behind. I had set out long ago that once I broke this Dana 35 I was going to go all out and swap in a solid axle in the front. However, time has come and gone and I'm getting to where I'd like to go out again, but I don't have the funds or the time right now to do the conversion. The problem is, because I had planned on this, I hadn't done anything to seal up any of the broken areas, so I am afraid at this point that it may be too far gone to do anything but swap the axle, IFS or solid. Any thoughts on the probability that this axle is still usable, and how I'd be able to tell if it is?

So basically - you are three wheel drive right? One of your front half shalfts are gone (pulled out completely?) and you're wondering if the front D35 is still usable? I would say no. Reason being, if your vehicle has been sitting for awhile you may have rust (more than likely) that will cause problems down the road or immediately. Rust will never get out of there. But if the pumpkin of the D35 was sealed and protected from weather, you should be alright. Take a picture - that would help. Hope my rambling helped a little.

-Drew

 

[AdamsGuitar]

Thanks for the response. I can have a picture up tomorrow, but I think you're right, as it was my initial thought as well.

Actually, I'm 99% sure it's gone anyhow. In the last excursion I spoke of (to pull them out), I ended up submerging the truck up to the rear bumper in water because of a hidden sinkhole, so I'm sure water got all inside it. She still seems to operate fine for now, but I'm sure it's going to rust. I guess my next question is if anyone has a link to the most suitable writeup for a SAS for a 95 explorer