Rear D60 bad news.. starting over

[jpswapmohn]

Well, I guess you win some and lose some. Turns out the rebuilt D60 I bought is only good for parts.. the case is damaged.

I took it and the front D44 to East Coast Gears in NC last week. I asked them to check the rear axle just to make sure everything was ok, as it was rebuilt by PO w 0 miles on it and I just wanted to verify it was all good. They are also rebuilding the front w/ TrueTrac.

The backlash on the D60 was essentially 0. They called and said it was probably fine for off-road only, but wouldn’t recommend for a road vehicle. I asked them to correct it. They found a bearing not fully seated, and the following:


1) This is behind the carrier bearing cap on the driver side. This the worst damage to the axle. The groove you see near the bottom and the lip around the top should not be there. That should be a flat surface that the bearing race sits up against.


2) A close up of the groove toward the bottom of picture 1, again this should be a flat machined surface.


3) A close up of the lip on the top of the casting, again this should be a flat machined surface.


​4) This is the passenger side. This side has some damage but is not as bad as the driver side.

Also found that both axles are 3.73, not the 4.10 that PO said.. ring gears show 41-11. This is annoying, but I can live with 3.73. Now would be the time to change to 4.10 since the D44 gear break is 3.73 and the front TrueTrac has to be one or the other..unless I want to mess with thick gears someday. Glad I didn’t buy the front TrueTrac believing 4.10..

So, for those with axle experience, what are your thoughts on the pics above? I need to let ECG know if they are building a new axle (new center with heavier duty tubes to match the original) or not. They will not build this axle as they believe it will not allow proper seating and the carrier could move.

My axles just got about $1k more expensive..


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[Tatsadasayago]

I would agree with ECG on this one.

[jpswapmohn]

ECG have done work for me in the past, have always been very fair and honest with me, and very fair on pricing. They make/assemble hundreds of axles a week, and my little project has little impact on their business. I don’t think they are trying to up-sale me on a new axle. I would recommend them to anyone.

I was curious if the carrier surface could be polished and some sort of race be installed to correct..but i am sure that would be time and cost prohibitive for a relatively common D60 case.

[HeavyMetalThunder_81]

Wow! How does that even happen? It looks spiral cut into the case. Manufacture defect?

[Stuka]

Looks like the bearing seized so started to spin in the housing, and for quite a while.

Was this a J-Truck D60?

[jpswapmohn]

Yes, this was the rear from a J20 set that I bought earlier this year to go under my Wagoneer. I am just now getting around to having the front built (was going to try it myself but just don't have time). I only asked that ECG check/verify the setup in the D60 for personal confidence before putting under the rig. PO mentioned that it was the first axle he had set up the gears on, which is what made me think to have it verified. PO rebuilt it, put in a Grizzly locker and disc brake conversion. Glad I did, as it would have exploded under my rig at some unknown moment in the future.

Best guess by the techs at ECG is that the axle locked/froze up at some point in the past causing the damage. Most probably before the PO bought them. He bought them, pulled them out from under a rig, and meant to put them under a J10 he is/was building. I can only guess he didn't know that these grooves were "wrong" and indicative of a serious issue. Otherwise, I can't imagine he would have put all new parts into along with the locker and disc brake kit.. But the grooves are pretty significant.

[Tatsadasayago]

I concur that the bearings had so much pressure on them that the outer race began to turn which created those grooves...