well i put a little more time into fixing my truck today. instead of prying the carrier out of the diff housing i hooked a small chain around the back of it and had a come along hooked to it and the hitch on my dads truck. i had him slowly crank the come along while i was under the truck to catch the carrier with an old pair of jeans on it to save my hands from getting sliced up.

i had to go back to the parts store to get the correct seal because they gave me the wrong one and when i got home i cleaned everything up and started the seal into the axle tube then gave up pretty quick because the misquitos were driving me crazy. i have to work the next two days so i probably won't mess with it again till thursday because 12 hour night shifts screw up daytime activities.

everything has gone pretty smooth so far, i just haven't gone at it for very long the couple times i messed with it because its hot and i don't mess with it till the afternoons and that only gives me about a 3 hour window before it gets dark.

 

well all i have left to do is torque the hubs and the cad unit. i think i have about 6 hours invested all together over a period of a couple weeks so that ain't too bad.

i do have a question, the cad unit has a cork gasket on it and i want to know if it is re-usable. i can't seem to find one at any of the parts stores.

 

Put a thin layer off rtv on it, and you'll be good to go. If you need any parts go here, http://quad4x4.com/

 

i also discarded my cad gasket and used rtv (same as diff cover). it worked good.

 

sounds good to me, thanks.

 

a few weeks ago i changed the driver seal and got it all buttoned up and drove it for about 30 miles all together and i thought everything was good. then i found out that my passenger seal was leaking. after another week or two of it sitting in the yard with the axle out (i know, i'm lazy) i finally got around to changing the passenger seal and so far i don't have any leaks.

after changing the driver seal i re-used the cad gasket and it didn't leak but when i went to change the passenger seal i messed up that gasket so i went ahead and used rtv on it and i believe its all good now.

i know how everyone likes pictures on here so heres a couple


my axle tube scraper. i took a piece of stainless and cut it down with snips and used my grinder to round it off to match the axle tube. it works quite well.


and this is my passenger u joint. when i went to take it out i pushed it too far and couldn't get the cap to go back through the yoke so i broke out my 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cut off wheel and lopped off one side of the u joint, then i took the dremel and cut the cap off the other side.

 

this went from uh oh to wtf?

well i have a different/related issue now. i got the axle right and now i have a brake issue.
does anyone know what would cause front end vibration while braking?
i don't believe it is warped rotors because it only vibrates (pulses like warped rotors) with a moderate pedal push, not with really light pressure and not with a firm stop. and it doesn't do it every time i hit the brakes. maybe 2 out of 3 times.
there is no vibration other than while braking.
the tie rod ends are good, i inspected them when i changed the boots a couple weeks ago.

the caliper bracket came off in one piece, i didn't take the slide pins loose.
i torqued the caliper bracket to 130 ft. lbs when i put them back on and checked the torque the next day after i felt the vibration.

the brake pads have less than 1500 miles on them and the rotors have less than 3000 miles.

the rotors got a brake cleaner shower when i put them back on to remove fingerprints.

the hubs are torqued correctly and feel like they are in good shape.

the ball joints feel right.

I'm thinking it may also be a collapsed brake line or a sticking caliper but the brakes release as soon as i let off the pedal and the truck doesn't pull to one side when i stop.

I'm going to bring my heat gun with me tonight and see if one side gets hotter than the other. at least that will tell me something.



on a side note, i finally got around to checking out harbor freight and i only spent 12$ so I'm proud of myself. if y'all don't have a mechanics stethoscope you need to get one, that thing makes a big difference over just using a metal bar and it was only 3$.

 

+1 on that but i call them beater tools or the kids lost it again tools

 

Well, I dunno what things could be going on in the 4 wheel drive front end, but if it was a 2 wheel drive I would say your problem sounds like either warped rotor, sticking caliper, brake pads may be dirty causing them to catch or not release properly, air in the lines, bad brake line, kinked brake line, etc. I don't know if a bad U joint could cause anything like that. It could just be something as simple as the brake cleaner has left the rotors too slick. Kinda like when you get water on your pads. Maybe it will go away with driving. I always leave mine dirty after the install, since I know it will all wear away quick enough with friction.

 

By any chance when you reinstalled the caliper was it flipped over causing a kink in the brake hose? That could cause braking issues. It wouldn't cause vibration though. Perhaps you should take the caliper back off and remove the slide pins and clean and lubricate them.