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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