Spider gears

I don't mind the tire noises. The tire wear is kind of a deterrent, but the tires were put on in May, so not many miles. Will I see a ton of wear in 3-5K in a year though?
 
RubiconBear said:
Ok, I think I will move away from the Track Lok. Now, True Trac ($$$) or Spool ($)? It will be driven 3-5K miles a year. Some in the winter, but not too much. 99 tj 3-3.5" unknown lift 33-12.50 MTs. Thoughts? I know the spool is a little crazy, but dang it's cheap. I know selectable tends to be the best choice, but too much $$$.
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Why not split the difference and get an open carrier and Spartan? I've had excellent service from all mine....
 
SMH. Forget the spool unless it's trail or mostly trail only. Get a true Trac, selectable, or a used setup, either traclok or even open diff. Heck. If you want to run a spool, save yourself the $150 and weld the ever loving piss out of the existing gears since they are trashed anyhow. Then you'd have your spool, without wasting the money on it to replace it later. Just make sure you weld it good enough to where it's not going to come apart and trash your ring and pinion. There. Someone had to say it.
 
There we go! That's what I needed, a good smack in the head (yes, I know it means your head, but just saying). I know deep down the spool is a dumb idea. Just needed enough "Hey dummy, no don't get that!" Lol. (Asked this question on a couple other forums, too) I'm unfortunately one of the newbiest newbs, despite my age, so I needed professional help. Welding would actually be one of the more expensive routes since I don't even own a welder. (Hopefully one day, but not in the cards yet.) Just saw that ECGS is having a 10% of sale for the 4th. I'll update when I decide.
 
Go full spool!
I had a mini spool in a 8.8 axle I swapped into my jeep. Ran it every day for about 2 years before I had the money for selectable lockers. I liked it better than the auto locking diffs that lock mid-turn.

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We don't even know where you are local to.. there may be someone near you that may be willing to turn those gears into a solid chunk of metal, but don't know where you're at. Of course some people will not want to do and I've seen them just tack the gears instead of burning them solidly and end up making it worse due to the welds popping and sending metal into the r&p..
 
No, I decided against a spool. I knew it was a bad idea, I just let the price blind me. I needed people to help me see the truth of it again.
 
I'll just keep it all going in here. Does my setup for the dial indicator look ok? If so, here's my backlash. Though it did kind of fluctuate between .007 and .0085.
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That's just fine.
Old rule of thumb if you don't have a dial indicator is "if you can feel it and hear it move, but not see it move, you're pretty much good".
 
Good to know, thank you. The main reason I even got one is because the PO had changed the pinion seal before I bought it. Also, there were only a few chunks of the spider gears in the pumpkin (should have been a lot more) so I wanted to make sure everything else was ok.
I'm also going to have to replace a wheel bearing and seal since I found the passenger side one slowly leaking.
 
Got the carrier out. Wasn't too bad thankfully. Heres a couple pics of bearing cap orientation in case my phone screws up.
Just have to get the cross shaft out. Haven't been able to get the roll pin out with what I have, so im going to but a punch and try that. Also going to get a bearing puller loaner tool to get the carrier bearings off. Gonna have to take the axle shaft somewhere though to get the new bearings put on it.
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If you have a sharp ended punch just tap 1 mark on the left cap and the left lip of the dif cover mating surface and 2 marks on a corresponding right side parts then you’re good to go. Easy way to keep everything straight for now and the future if it ever has to come apart again with no reliance on finding pictures.
 
Yeah, I know I should mark them. I probably will when I put it back together.
Yesterday and today got the carrier bearings off so I can measure the shims (though they got a little mangled, probably did something wrong). Thankfully the new carrier came with shims.
Won't be able to work on it the next few days, but I'll be off all next week so hopefully I can finish it up.

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FYI the caps and housing are marked from the factory. They will have an upper case letter stamped on the cap as well as on the flat surface of the housing where the cover mounts.
 
Oh yeah, looking at the last pics I posted I can see the "S" on the driver side. I can almost make something out on the passenger side. I'll look when I clean it off to see. Pretty cool.

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Got the cross shaft out. What are y'alls thoughts on it's condition? The grooves don't really catch a nail except one a little. Also, how about the thrust washers? That's just one, but they're both about identical.
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I'm a dummy, those aren't the thrust washers I need (small spider gears). Since mine is LS, it doesn't have the side ones like an open carrier, so I have some new ones on the way.
 
Jody Treadway said:
It'll be an S also, just turned 90*
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I'm guessing the vertical "S" should match up with the other vertical "S" right? I just realized, while test fitting the carrier, that they were switched (vertical with horizontal). As stated earlier, the PO had been in the rear diff before.
Also, how hard/much can I pound on the carrier to get it in. I just lack about an 1/8" for it to be all the way in, but that last little bit doesn't wasn't to cooperate.
 
You can hit it with a dead blow hammer until it seats. Or if you don't have one, a well placed block of wood on the carrier bearing race will do.
Really, if it's only 1/8", just use the bolts to pull it all the way in. Just do it evenly.
 
Ok, I thought so, but it just felt weird hitting it so hard. I do have a 3 pound dead blow. I'll finish getting it knocked in. What about the "S"s? Vertical-vertical and horizontal-horizontal, or leave it the opposite like it was?
 
Ok, so since I don't have a clam shell pulley for bearings, I got a couple carrier set up bearings. With those I tried to duplicate the amount of shims that were on the original carrier, but got only .004" of backlash. I've subtracted/added some shims to move the ring away from the pinion, but haven't got a bad a putting the carrier back in to check the new backlash.
Assuming this new one (or the next..., whichever gets me to .006-.010" of backlash) will I have to add more to each side (say .002-.003" on each side) once I put on the actual bearings for correct carrier bearing preload? I ask because I have read in a couple forums that you're supposed to (i.e. pirate 4x4, the billa vista page, granted in there he's working on a D60).
This is more stressing than I thought it would be, lol. May just take the axle out and bring to you Jody.
 
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