I found snow and broke my front end today

[mountainexplorer]

To retrieve one tire stranded up on the property in the middle of winter, I had to venture up my driveway which I may also add seemed to have more snow than any other area around here.

Not that it was a whole lot of snow, but everywhere else we looked there was hardly any snow. 40% tread swampers and open diffs weren't the best combination for this type of snow. When we finally got about to where the tire was at, there was a loud SNAP and then clunk-clunk-clunk from the front end.

The way it acted, it feels like I sheared a couple teeth off the ring gear, but I'm not sure what happened yet. Could have been from those few times I had to get big runs at the hills and the bumps were bad enough I had a front tire bounce up off the ground and land hard. It was rough enough the axles I had sitting on a pallet in the back cracked through the boards.

Either way, after 2 hours and a broken front end, I now have my complete set of matched tires in one place.

 

[mouse]

What front axle did you bust? If its a 44 or 10b, I bet you sheared some ring gear teeth.

 

[mountainexplorer]

Dana 44 front swapped under it from a '77 truck. Last night I just put a new axle u-joint in it too and topped off the gear lube just to make sure it was ready for the task.

Darn these non-Dana 60 axles.

 

[GotBoykins]

That sucks, pm me on the price for the spindles out

 

[mountainexplorer]

Haha, I can't part it out yet. Depending on what replacement I get for it, I may need these outers. When I first got this truck (the 1st time), these outers were on a flattop Dana 44 front that had 3.07 gears in it.

Appearantly someone had blown the original 10-bolt, found a 1/2 ton 3.07 Dana 44 front and stuck the outers onto it without even thinking about gear ratios. So we got a 4.09 Dana 44 front from a '77 and put these outers and hubs on it and it's been this way for 2 years now.

I have a lead on a 10-bolt 4.10 front minus outers, so if I get that I'll need these. If I don't get that I'll be robbing a rebuilt Dana 44 front I have from another project and swapping it under this '84. I already robbed the motor from that project for this truck... so may as well steal it all.

All this parts swapping. Its a wonder I don't get sick and tired of it all.

 

[jk3078]

Sounds like a parts run I went on last week, I went out to an old derilict wagoneer to pull a set of hubs to sell. Snow was over knee deep with no tire tracks all winter for the last 2 miles of the road/trail. Pulled the hubs off in the dark after shoveling the axle out, got them home and they where the wrong ones! Damn Napa parts books, o-well it was a good excuse to try out my "new" 38.5's.