WARNING: DO NOT RUN OUTERS WITHOUT SHAFTS ON DANA 30's I FOUND OUT THEY ARE LOAD BEARING AND MY HUB IS SHOT!!!!
THINGS COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily I hadn't been driving a lot before I found out. I feel really ****ing stupid!!!


Went to a local U-pull yard and picked these up:


Note the tone rings, yup they are 297's
Then I find that 90+ hubs are not the same as '88 disco axle I have.....
my hubs are bad so I had to order some....


So.........this is where I am atm.....****!:



More to come.........I hope

 

Well I had the axle out so I decided to do a few things to it.

New hubs...nice quality USA, inner bearings made in Spain.
Ball joints, outer seals, ball joint service kit, and the inner seals.



The inner passenger seal is specific to doing a disco-to-one-piece conversion
for the pumpkin:
Spicer#46470 for driver side, and Timken#473426 for passenger.
Passenger results may vary, because that tube/side was not machined for seal. Here's a Naxja LINK on the subject.

After measuring with digital calipers, I ordered one that was close,
and flap disked the surface a little to remove a small amount of material.
It went in pretty tight, and I put a dab of rtv around the seam for extra measure.
__________________________________________________ ____

 

Before putting the new seals in, (duh)
I decided to get some welding practice in.

Its overkill, and risky but I was bored and desperate for something else
to do while waiting for parts to show up.
Gussets on C's and a huge amount of material in the middle.......




......and I have a rock plow.....
Seriously though; don't use your axle as a rock plow...lol
Only time and abuse will tell if this will hold up......

Its pouring rain outside so that's all for today.
Next: re-assembly!

 

Done! it fought me every step of the way....but its done.
Now I need to relax and take it wheeling!



Oh and it rides alot nicer too no more bump steer, and less vibes.
I don't even really need the steering stabilizer anymore.

 

Comments and/or Questions are welcome!

 

Did you make that truss? It looks beef

(Sorry if mentioned before, i haven't read through the whole build)

 

Yeah I did, and its kinda overkill considering that the disco housing already has alot of cast material on it, but hey I was bored.
It works too, I punched through a gravel abutment with it!

 

Im confused WARNING: DO NOT RUN OUTERS WITHOUT SHAFTS ON DANA 30's I FOUND OUT THEY ARE LOAD BEARING AND MY HUB IS SHOT!!!!
THINGS COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What do you mean outers with out shafts?????

 

I was running the driver side without a shaft after it broke.
and apparently this is a no-no.
The unit bearing became sloppy, which could be disastrous.

 

Thanks, this is good to know........Love the front axle truss..

 

ha ha, i found this out the hard way too. i had a broken shaft when i bought my 88, and the short stub shaft was still bolted in with no long shaft that went to the dif, i removed it and 2 weeks later my hub gave out entirely leaving me to tow my rig home, 7 BLOCKS FROM MY HOUSE!!!! but i learned my lesson, kinda funny though. came to a sliding halt


love teh build, how do you like the shackle relocation brackets? may i ask y you went with the stock shackles instead of longer ones? you could have got longer ones and moved them more forward for better articulation and a better ride. just a suggestion.

 

That's actually next on the plate. The bracket is great but,
I'm rebuilding that entire leaf pack too, its way too stiff.
When I get done it will articulate like it was supposed to.
Its funny, you learn things when building these, and sometimes you gotta go back to go forward..........

 

now i couldnt agree more, but where i am from we call that trial and error...lol nobody learns if they only belive the internet, they will only learn if they try it them self! now the one thing i lack that i would like to know is how to weld. maybe when i have some time, i will take a coarse to learn mig/tig. maybe ark welding, but mig is all we need on our rigs, especially with all the galvanized steel that is on it.

 

Hey forum time for another update.

The blazer bastard pack was always too stiff, and did not "unload" enough with the stock shackles.
So I went to work:
I removed one leaf from each pack, now the total is 3 leafs per
It flexes alot more

RC shackles:
(note, it finally was set back one hole on the relocation bracket,
after I noticed it binding)



I'm getting so used to this specific operation, that it took me less than 10min to get the axle dropped:



New shackle was gonna rub tail pipe, so a trim was in order:
(I hated losing the tip, but ya gotta get 'er done!)



And finally, a shot of it at full droop!



It rides wayyyy nicer too!

 

Well for awhile now, I've noticed that my swaybar disconnects were rubbing the coil springs so it was time for another solution!

After cutting about 3" off the swaybar ends, (this moves the new mount point forward)
I then welded the RC disco brackets directly to the bar.
(I also welded on the backside for more strength, there is a slot there)





The one on the driver side ended up cattywampus, but its just a tight fit now no big deal.



And there we go, no more clearance issues:



I would recommend some magnets to help hold stuff like this before burning it in, and lay it out on a flat surface so you can see what your doing.
this is so it doesn't get all sideways. I didn't have anything, and was in a hurry so I just "eyeballed" it.