Well I think I am screwed. Bolt broke off using the socket trick to remove the centering dowel. Went to drill it out but my drill bit snapped off inside of it. Applied some heat and some vise grips and a 5 lb mallet. I moved it a bit but not much. Not sure what to do now. 🤬

 

Redneck ingenuity! Got a piece of all thread and a half inch tap. After tapping the centering dowel, I threaded the all thread and added the hammer from the autozone hammer. Heated the flange up a bit and in 6 whacks it was out!


My improvised slide hammer

 

Nine hours working on this thing due to all the complications. First installation went a whole lot smoother. I don’t recommend anyone do this more than once.

Anyways rear wheels are on and assembled properly and the front diff is finally in. On the docket for tomorrow:

• Torque front diff down
• Fill with oil
• Reattach wheel hubs, rotors and brakes
• Mount wheels
• Double check everything

 

Nice work! Way to persevere. What gets me through these things after the first time gets screwed up (usually by me), is my mantra; "just once more, just once more, just once more". Then a restless night's sleep, going over the job, making sure I don't have to do it "just once more".

 

What get's me through these things is that it is my daily driver and if I don't fix it, I have to share a car with my wife and teenage daughter!

Got about 4 more hours of work to do on this but the complicated stuff is behind me (I hope). Looking to have it finished Tuesday night so I can start driving it again on Wednesday.

 

Made some progress tonight but not as much as I had hoped. Got the front passenger wheel assembly put back together and half of the driver front. Should have made more progress but I kept leaving parts out, then have to undo everything and reinstall. Gosh I suck at this stuff.

Then I got stuck (literally) on a frozen brake caliper guide pin on driver side which was rusted up.

Back at it again after work tomorrow. Hoping to have it finished in time for work on Wednesday.

 

those guide pins can be a real PITA...seems like I'm forever greasing them or replacing them every so often. Water and dust/rocks wreck havoc on my brake system during a wheeling season.

 

Thankfully I only found one. Sanded off the rust, sprayed soMe corrosion inhibitor on it than slathered it with silicone. Hopefully that will fix it until the next time I take the wheel off.

 

Finally finished everything. Wow what a pain in the @ss. Two things I don’t recommend you do more than once - replace the steering box and replace the diffs.

in any case it was a good lesson in patience and perseverance for me. Still learning and I definitely got a lot out of this evolution.

Got a few odds and ends left to install and double check bolts for tightness but the test drive was uneventful. The diffs are quiet again. Will do a longer test drive tomorrow but for now I am really have the beast up and running again after 5 weeks. Now I just have to deal with the war zone in my garage.

Glad to have her back and running!

 

How do you like the geolanders? and congrats on finishing a long job.