Upgrade #2 is on its way. Things have been going good on every aspect other then this. I have already logged 17k miles in the first 13 months since the SAS. I think that shows it can be used everyday. Either way one issue I have had since day 1 is noise from this axle. I bought the axle already built, locker, 5.13s, chromoly shafts, full circle clips for the u joints, Etc. either way on deceleration it would make noise. That says pinion preload. I put in new bearings and set preload, nothing...I then swapped out spindle bearings, wheel bearings, carrier bearings, basically trying to track down this issue. Adjusted pinion depth even though the first time it was near spot on. Then I blew my first R&P, after that I set it back up with the new one and realize the bearing race for the pinion can be pushed in by hand. NOT GOOD! To get these bearing races in they should be hammered in with a race driver and it should be challenging to get those ****ers in. I tried to use bearing mount and use a punch to scar the surface to make the race fit right again. It's kind of worked, it fit better but as time went on I put 2 wheeling trips on it. Big bear, gold mtn and gorman. When I went to Gorman I busted my rear locker and sure enough front gears AGAIN! While I have been try to track down this noise since day 1 of doing the SAS I think the bearing race is loose in the housing and allows the pinion to walk. I might take it to a shop when I get the axle out but basically I think the housing is trash. So in need of a replacement I was thinking about getting another stock housing weld on new brackets, etc. but CJ had an unfinished Hi pinion ford housing. The high pinion is a stronger setup then the low pinion 44 but it's driver drop, he had already retubed it and made it pass drop. I still need to attach the Cs and weld in the tubes but this is a nice little strength upgrade and everything will transfer over including the locker. I just need a gear set for the ford high pinion.
So with all that said its been a long time tracking this down and my guess is bearing race. Either way, when buying an axle, I bought fully built which is great. I got about 2k worth of upgrades for 1k but with that said I should of opened it up and inspected it. This housing may have been trashed since day 1 and it slowly got worse and worse. So I will be replacing my low pinion with a high pinion. Hopefully after this it can become a **** free axle....I guess that's the risk you run when buying an axle that's 43 years old.
