Can You Come Home from Work, Now!?

Amber called me and asked if it would be possible to come home a little early.  She went on to explain this detailed account of haircut for Bryson, going to do a little shopping over here, getting the stroller out, slamming her head with the liftgate, gushing blood, feeling dizzy, not sure she can drive, etc.  She just wanted me to come home and look at it to see how bad it was.  I could see the cut was deep enough that it wasn’t going to heal on its own,  so I said, lets go get you some stitches.  I can’t help comparing this incident to something that would frequently happen to Amber’s dad!

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Bryson Pictures

Amber, Nana, and Bryson had lots of social events planned this weekend.  Here are some of the pictures I found on the camara!

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Pictures from the Texas State Fair

We ate our way through the state fair again this year.  I think we all had a good time!

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Hoodlums Texas Fall Gathering

Here are a few pictures from my trip this weekend.  Most are from the fire starting class.  I learned lots of good information from some very experienced folks.

Tool for making a Net

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Bryson Pumpkin Pics

The yearly obligatory pictures of Bryson and pumpkins are below!

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Bryson Cracks Himself Up

Bryson was making lots of noise tonight in the bathtub.  It started by him counting to 3 and then a loud, forced laugh.  Amber did the candid camera trick and got a short video of him.  He was using one of his toys to ‘blast off’ water.  For the most part all the water stays in the tub, so I have no complaints!  I told him today that I didn’t want him to grow up, but he said he wants to get bigger.  I guess that is the way it works.

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Differential Damage

Here is what the differential carrier looked like while still mounted in the housing:

The ring-side bearing fell apart as soon as I took the carrier out of the housing.  Here are the bearings and the carrier.

Close-up of the rollers. Continue reading

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It’s Worse Than I Thought

I noticed this area inside the differential housing was ground down.  I guess the carrier bearings were so worn that the bolt-side of the carrier was flexing into the housing.

That’s not so bad, but this next part is.  I did more reading this morning and found an article about what to look for when you are buying a used axle.  When I read the caption of this photo, the proverbial gears in my head started turning, and when I walked out to go look, my heart sank.  That critical surface has in fact been ground down all to hell.  Even if I did have a carrier that fit correctly, I would never be able to get the preload right.   Continue reading

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Quadrasteer / Dana 60 Axle Differences and Similarities

The quadrasteer variant of the Dana 60 has 12 bolt holes instead of 10.  A standard gasket is shown on the right.

If you call a Dana Spicer dealer, they will want to know the “Bill of Materials” or “Build Number”.  Mine is 606932-3.  This is  not a very common axle, it won’t be in their database, and the dealer will have to call Dana directly to get you what you need.  Most likely, unless you spend lots of money with the dealer and they know you well, they will not be very helpful or friendly.  Such is life.  So far, I’ve found that everything inside the housing are normal Dana 60 parts, except the carrier.

Continue reading

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Quadrasteer Carrier – Trac-Lok

The new Dana Trac-Lok carrier I ordered doesn’t fit.  (Supposed to be a standard Dana 60 component)  It is overall about 3/16″ shorter than the one that came out of the axle.  I didn’t think that would be necessarily wrong, so I looked at the dimension between the carrier shim surface and the ring mounting surface.

Original: 1.255″     New: 1.120″

Comparing the ring side edge of the carrier to the ring mount surface, I get:

Original: 2.266     New: 2.134″

Overall length:

Original: 8-18/32″ (8.5625)     New: 8-12/32″ (8.375)

Shim surface to shim surface:

Original: 6-1/2″ (6.5)     New: 6-10/32″ (6.3125)

This seems like it will take 3/16″ of extra shims.  I don’t think this is right, that is a big hunk of shims.  I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish this project today, I’ve gotta get the right carrier.  

Original Carrier 1.255"

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NOTE:  to see all my posts about the Dana 60 Axle, click here.

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