Crunchy Taco? - 1st gen on 35s BS

Got the switches for the compressor and locker all wired up and working well. Truck has an occasional rotational click somewhere but we couldn't narrow it down to anything like the u joints, CV, or front diff. it doesn't sound catastrophic sooo send it.

With the new perches and thicker axle tube the truck sits even higher in the rear than it did before

 

Dude you're already enroute and I didn't even give you my address

 

looks like you need some more toys for that beast of a trailer

 

Yeah, the trailer is overkill

I'll be picking up another Jeep on 35s on the way out.. but the trailer will still have space

 

where the hell do you store that absolute unit of a trailer?

 

I don't have to worry about that right now, it's a rental. I could have used a trailer about 10 foot shorter and hung the rear bumper of the Tacoma off but there weren't any available that didn't have flip up ramps

 

Who needs flip up ramps when you have 4wd

 

NICE! looks like youve achieved the same amount of flex as my corolla!

 

The problem is that they take up the deck space

 

So....did you make it to Moab?

 

Just a bit ago

 

I have a mix of pics from Moab so I'll start posting some report stuff.

Thursday the 28th: Poison Spyder Mesa

We met up with our friend Paul in the FJC at the trailhead. The conditions were just about perfect with temps in the 40s-50s and partly cloudy skies despite rain in the forecast.








Lissa and I both opted to take the first optional ledge and we both made it up without much trouble. The front locker was really helpful here, I was able to drive up without having to bump it too much











The waterfall is easy







The upper waterfall is a bit more of a challenge but with some encouragement and tire placement we got the FJC and Jeep up



After driving up the Wedgie

 

Day 2: The weather was nasty so we opted for something a little easier. It had been raining all night and rain with a chance of snow was in the forecast for the day.

Chicken Corners








The rain actually gave us a break right at the end of the trail where you have to turn around and we even got to see a bit of blue sky. Not long after the weather picked back up.





On the way out we were driving in alternating pouring rain and hail

 

Day 3: This is where things got a little interesting...

The weather was being cooperative so we ran Seven Mile Rim from East-West (which was tough late in the afternoon because we were staring straight into the sun). Despite running into another group in the parking lot we didn't see anyone on the trail until much later in the afternoon...but more on that later









Near the top I managed to break a CV while just going up a slick rock face. I was just crawling up in 1st and 4 low and heard a pop and started coming backwards down the rock.

I brought spare CVs and hubs with me but there wasn't much I could do in this case. I sheared off the splined end of the passenger CV, leaving it stuck in the axle tube. Right when I got things torn apart 2 jeeps caught up with us and lent me a magnetic pick up tool and a rare earth magnet, neither of which was able to get the stub out.










Since there was nothing else to do I made some zip lock and zip tie condoms for the back of the hub and the axle tube to do the best I could to keep dust out and grease/oil in before we kept going.




Even though the best I could do was 3wd I decided to attempt one of the cracks near the lookout point.






The views at the top are pretty













We continued on the trail and took Wipeout Hill out (after a little pep talk for the other drivers) as we headed back to Utah 313. We headed back into Moab to grab some burgers and beers before loading up the trailer and heading out

 

Yesterday I took the front end apart to get to that broken stub. In addition to the two other magnets I mentioned I tried a "15LB" parts pickup tool with no luck (no surprise either).

I was able to weld a rod to the broken axle shaft in the truck but I couldn't pull the CV out. I had to pull the axle tube out and then hit it with a BFH to get it to break free. If I had a slide hammer I may have been able to pull it out without having to take the axle tube out (maybe I should order one preemptively)

Between the twisted splines and c clip it's no wonder the magnets weren't enough.



One of my neighbors throws trash on the corner of my property... I haven't caught them yet but whatever this thing they threw away turned out to be useful. The smaller rod spins on a bearing inside that cartridge tube and the cartridge tube made a nice landing spot for the BFH when getting that stub out.



I cleaned up everything and put the axle tube back on with some fresh RTV. After putting in a new axle seal and Toyota CV I refilled the front diff with the Lucas 85W140 that ECGS prescribes. That was all I needed to get the truck ready to snow bash today...

 

Damn sorry to hear about the trail break. Sucks that it wasn't on anything crazy either. Such a shitty place for a CV to break.

Was it a toyota axle that broke?

 

It was not, I believe it was an Advance Auto parts one.

The other side has a parts house CV and now I'm inclined to pull it and put in my other spare Toyota axle as well.

 

gotcha.
well hopefully your OEM ones fair better next time around.

 

At the least I hope they less catastrophically so it's possible to do a trail fix