Well I have been a stranger around here lately and figured I would post up my latest carnage from this past saturday on the trail.

The Monty broke its first front axle right before it goes into the CV. Snapped cleaner than you could hacksaw it off. I got some Remanufactured CVs from a place in SC called CV Unlimited. When I installed them the passenger side joint next to the diff was a Tripod style CV and it just didnt go through its rotation smoothly before I installed it....it was binding on one spot. So I called CV Unlimited up and spoke with a sales rep and they said to install it and if it breaks they would replace it. My OEM joint was a Cardon style CV joint which does better at a little more angle but isnt as strong as the Tripod. So I dont know whether or not that was the cause of this carnage or what. There were too many variables to pinpoint one specific thing that led to the failure. I just send the snapped cv in to CV unlimited here monday and we will see if they honor what they said, cause it hasnt even been 2 mos since these were installed. I beat my OEM axles A LOT harder <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" /> than these replacements have seen and they never thought about failing.

On the trail where the shaft snapped was not a hard spot at all and I was taking it easy all day basically. But for some reason it decided to fail.



This happened at pretty much the top of the trenches. So it was 2wd and winching up the last little bit to turn it around and get headed back down. Once we got it to flat-ground we decided to take the floppy broken cv axle completely out. Well that worked great and we continued on till we got just about 5 min away from the jeepster spot and my brakes felt really spongy and it started grinding bad on that same side. So I stopped and checked it out and didn't notice much.....went on a bit further and looked in there and saw the bearing had grenaded itself. ( Homer simpson moment here DOOOHHHH......the cv shaft shoulda stayed in to hold the bearing together.) Live and learn I guess <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" />. A little voice in my head said that it should stay in when we were taking it out but in the frustration of all this happening I didnt listen.

Basically the monty had no bearing on the front pass side so after some searching, no parts were found and then some "trail engineering" had to come into play. The thought of using a log to skid it out on came into our minds and we were close to doing that when the "Rope Bearing" idea came up.

The hub on the monty is a Unitized bearing/hub assembly. We basically wrapped rope around the inner hub and packed/slathered it with grease and then put it back in and tighten down the broken cv/spline on the inside with the castle nut to keep it in the knuckle and from backing out.

Well it worked fantastic and when I got home I took it apart and the rope was a little frayed where it had gotten the end out on the inside a little but the grease was still in there and so was 98% of the rope. The outer cover on the rope was "fluffy" and coming off but it held up great.





Here are a few more pics of fixing it while out on the trail.











[img]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/icysyrup22/Montero%20Recovery/DSCN3771.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/icysyrup22/Montero%20Recovery/DSCN3774.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/icysyrup22/Montero%20Recovery/DSCN3777.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/icysyrup22/Montero%20Recovery/DSCN3778.jpg[/img]

It made it out off the trail and when assembled with the rope only had about a 1/2" of play/slop/wobble in the wheel bearing.

Once I got it off the trailer and in the garage I decided to rip it apart that night. It came apart actually harder than I thought it would and I had to hit it with a hammer to get the inner hub out, cause the rope was holding it in so good.

All things considered,......ya it sucked that this happened on the trail but it coulda been worse. And a good group of people helped get me off the trail after having roughly a 13 hour day on the trail that should have been only about 6 hours. Oh well, had a great time despite the breakdown. So if anyone looses a wheel bearing feel free to use Rope and grease, cause it works great;)

Very interesting.

You should be out first Gen3 SAS cantidate so you do not have to deal with CV axles. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

SAS front and rear...?

SAS the rear would be easy as hell, just buy all the parts from the gen 2 and it could be done in a day. assuming every thing went smoothly

Easy now boys.....hahaha......dont tempt me any more...cause I have been thinking long and hard about doing it already.

Anyhow an update. CV Axles Unlimited just got the broken shaft today and upon inspection saw that the shaft did not go through the hardening process properly. So thats why it broke so cleanly and easily. It just sucks that I am the guniea pig of a "Monday/Friday built" product. Oh well...they are sending out the new OEM one this time to me tomorrow...so then I just need a bearing and will replace the ball joints while I am in there and then she's back on the trail. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Wow a front only sas. I wonder how that would behave? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Probably the same way a truck with IFS and a solid rear would.

Only if you drove in reverse.

I thought it had a unibody and subframes, how would you sas that? Build it off the sub frames?

You would use the subframe as the frame. It wouldnt be that difficult,...its just to aquire the axles and then do it.