Bender - 2010 JKUR

[Jdofmemi]

4 hours ago, fiend said:

Thanks Jerry. The Mud Grapplers will drown out any driveline noise, along with everything else.  

 

I’m a little torn between the .010 and .012. I guess it’s one of those things that can always be second guessed. 

The pattern you have with 0.010 is stronger than the 0.012 pattern. 

 

That's what I would go for, or back to 0.009. 

[Dave]

You can lap the shims if you need in between sizes.

[fiend]

My high school wood shop teacher would be horrified to see what I’m using a wood router for.

[AJK]

If it works, then its the correct tool.

[fiend]

8 minutes ago, AxK said:

If it works, then its the correct tool.

That’s why the 5lb sledgehammer is so commonly the correct tool. 

[fiend]

So the junkyard 14 Bolt is finally done. I picked up the axle, along with a Dana 60 front from a 2005+ Ford Super Duty, for $1500 from a guy off Facebook marketplace.  That was last fall. I’ve been chipping away at the project since then, mostly on weekends.  It’s been slow but rewarding.  I figured I would start with the rear because it’s a bit simpler, and some of the parts for the front were back-ordered. 
 

There are various bracket kits for these axles.  I looked at the Barnes and Motobilt. kits. I eventually went with the Artec Apex truss/bracket kit. It’s a second generation kit that’s supposed to involve less welding than other kits.  It went on pretty smoothly. No complaints.  My welding got a bit better as the project went on. 

 

It would have been nice if the truss came pre-drilled with a hole for an air  locker, particularly since the only selectable locker available for a 14 bolt is the ARB.   It was kind of a pain drilling through the truss and then into the housing for the bulkhead port, but I made it work. I just tested the locker and it functions as it’s supposed to.  
 

One of the downsides of a 14 bolt is ground clearance.  The chunk is huge.  Since I’m going to stay with 37s for a while, is was looking at losing about 2 inches of clearance versus the Dana 44 I currently have.  No bueno. One option is to grind the housing down a bit, which gains about 3/4”.  Another is a full shave kit: cut off the bottom of the housing, weld on a plate, and shave the 10.5” ring gear down to 10”.  After doing some research on it and realizing I’d hate to lose clearance, I went with a TMR customs full shave kit.  That was a lot of work to install but in the end I think it came out pretty well. Welding the bottom steel plate to the ductile iron housing with nickel/manganese MIG wire was new for me. I had to pre and post heat the housing up to 400 degrees with a propane weed burner. Hopefully it holds up to plenty of abuse. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on shaving the ring gear with a grinder and flap disc.  The technique looked kind of hillbilly on the videos but it actually went pretty smoothly.  
 

The bearings on the junkyard axle were a mixed bag. The hub and carrier bearings looked ok, but the pinion bearings were toast. I don’t know how many miles were on it, but i figured it been ridden hard and put away wet quite a few times over the years before getting broken down at the boneyard. So I ended up replacing all the bearings and seals. I changed the gears to 5.38s (Yukon) and changed the carrier to the ARB locker.  The brakes were questionable. The rotors were pretty worn, so I replaced those. The calipers may or may not have worked.  I maybe could have rebuilt them, but ultimately it was easier to use them as cores for new calipers.  So the brakes are all new. So I pretty much replaced everything other than the housing, pinion housing, hubs, and axle shafts. 
 

I put on some 1.5” spacers so that the width will match the front axle, 72” WMS to WMS.  
 

I didn’t document this with step by step photos. Here are some pics of the finished axle. 
 

Now, on to the front. 

[Jdofmemi]

Looking good Greer

 

On to the front. 

 

Looking forward to seeing it in person. 

[Gruff]

37 minutes ago, fiend said:

So the junkyard 14 Bolt is finally done. I picked up the axle, along with a Dana 60 front from a 2005+ Ford Super Duty, for $1500 from a guy off Facebook marketplace.  That was last fall. I’ve been chipping away at the project since then, mostly on weekends.  It’s been slow but rewarding.  I figured I would start with the rear because it’s a bit simpler, and some of the parts for the front were back-ordered. 
 

There are various bracket kits for these axles.  I looked at the Barnes and Motobilt. kits. I eventually went with the Artec Apex truss/bracket kit. It’s a second generation kit that’s supposed to involve less welding than other kits.  It went on pretty smoothly. No complaints.  My welding got a bit better as the project went on. 

 

It would have been nice if the truss came pre-drilled with a hole for an air  locker, particularly since the only selectable locker available for a 14 bolt is the ARB.   It was kind of a pain drilling through the truss and then into the housing for the bulkhead port, but I made it work. I just tested the locker and it functions as it’s supposed to.  
 

One of the downsides of a 14 bolt is ground clearance.  The chunk is huge.  Since I’m going to stay with 37s for a while, is was looking at losing about 2 inches of clearance versus the Dana 44 I currently have.  No bueno. One option is to grind the housing down a bit, which gains about 3/4”.  Another is a full shave kit: cut off the bottom of the housing, weld on a plate, and shave the 10.5” ring gear down to 10”.  After doing some research on it and realizing I’d hate to lose clearance, I went with a TMR customs full shave kit.  That was a lot of work to install but in the end I think it came out pretty well. Welding the bottom steel plate to the ductile iron housing with nickel/manganese MIG wire was new for me. I had to pre and post heat the housing up to 400 degrees with a propane weed burner. Hopefully it holds up to plenty of abuse. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on shaving the ring gear with a grinder and flap disc.  The technique looked kind of hillbilly on the videos but it actually went pretty smoothly.  
 

The bearings on the junkyard axle were a mixed bag. The hub and carrier bearings looked ok, but the pinion bearings were toast. I don’t know how many miles were on it, but i figured it been ridden hard and put away wet quite a few times over the years before getting broken down at the boneyard. So I ended up replacing all the bearings and seals. I changed the gears to 5.38s (Yukon) and changed the carrier to the ARB locker.  The brakes were questionable. The rotors were pretty worn, so I replaced those. The calipers may or may not have worked.  I maybe could have rebuilt them, but ultimately it was easier to use them as cores for new calipers.  So the brakes are all new. So I pretty much replaced everything other than the housing, pinion housing, hubs, and axle shafts. 
 

I put on some 1.5” spacers so that the width will match the front axle, 72” WMS to WMS.  
 

I didn’t document this with step by step photos. Here are some pics of the finished axle. 
 

Now, on to the front. 

 

 

Nice job man! 

[AJK]

Wow Greer, you did a amazing job. How long from start to finish?

[fiend]

3 minutes ago, AxK said:

Wow Greer, you did a amazing job. How long from start to finish?

Thanks man. I appreciate it. I don’t remember when I started. Maybe in November some time. Definitely not cost effective to pay someone to do it, vs buying a prebuilt set. 

[Weebz]

Amazing work.  

[BaddestCross]

Wow! That came out great! Good job

[Dave]

Nice work Greer.  Did you take the housing to a machine shop for the shave or did you do it yourself? 

[wjtstudios]

They are such massive axles. So awesome Greer

[fiend]

1 hour ago, Dave said:

Nice work Greer.  Did you take the housing to a machine shop for the shave or did you do it yourself? 

I did it myself. Started with a circular saw with a composite blade for metal. That glazed up fairly quickly so I did the rest with a sawzall and a grinder. 

[fiend]

8 minutes ago, wjtstudios said:

They are such massive axles. So awesome Greer

Haha thanks. Now that it’s all put together, it’s too heavy to lift even one end off the stand!  

[fiend]

17 hours ago, Jdofmemi said:

Looking good Greer

 

On to the front. 

 

Looking forward to seeing it in person. 

Thanks.  Hoping to get it done in time for the annual Rubicon trip. Maybe sooner if I can find the time. 

[Jdofmemi]

Time has been my issue. 

 

I'm glad to be busy with work, but it sure cuts into my Jeeping time. 

[Crawl2Camp]

Nice progress on the project Greer!  

[fiend]

A bit of progress on the front. I cut all the brackets off, including the cast radius arm mounts that are integral to the pumpkin.  Yesterday I welded the driver side tube to the pumpkin, a precaution given that the trim of the cast necessary for the Artec kit cuts off a couple of the plug welds on that side.  I used nickel-manganese MIG wire, recommended for welding steel to nodular iron.  Doesn’t look so great (that stuff is hard to weld compared to normal MIG wire), but I got good penetration. What looks like porosity was just me getting a bit aggressive with the peening.  It should hold up. 
 

 

[Weebz]

Looks good.  

[fiend]

33 minutes ago, Weebz said:

Looks good.  

Thanks!

[Jdofmemi]

Looks like it should be plenty strong. 

 

Glad to see it's coming along

[fiend]

2 minutes ago, Jdofmemi said:

Looks like it should be plenty strong. 

 

Glad to see it's coming along

Thanks Jerry!

[BaddestCross]

Nice job