I was disappointed to your phone call yesterday asking for a ride and hearing that you broke on Carnage. Glad I could give you a ride. But, I was also glad I decided not to go and do maintenance instead. It does make want to start carrying a spare axle. But how realistic is it to replace it on the trail?

Any special tools required for removal and installation? I hear you need 35mm socket and a pry bar?

Others correct me if I wrong, but couldn't have Mike just removed the inner boot and slide the axle out so that it wouldn't flop around? Then he could drive safely in two wheel drive.

The ORS hub conversion is a CONSIDRATION. But a lot of money. If the parts are 1039.00. I wonder how much he charges for labor.

<small>[ April 13, 2003, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: JadeRunner ]</small>

i drove home almost 2 hours after this on the hwy. it just spread grease everywhere, no biggie. as long as youre in 2WD, its fine.

<img src="http://www.pmibags.com/Ryan/pics/Rich-10-13-02/CV2.JPG" alt=" - " />

Thai - get a lift. and at the same time, get a locker, you will significantly reduce your chances of breaking a CV.

BUMP for info on CV trail fix.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by JadeRunner:
<strong>I was disappointed to your phone call yesterday asking for a ride and hearing that you broke on Carnage. Glad I could give you a ride. But, I was also glad I decided not to go and do maintenance instead. It does make want to start carrying a spare axle. But how realistic is it to replace it on the trail?

Any special tools required for removal and installation? I hear you need 35mm socket and a pry bar? </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">It takes about half an hour to replace an axle in the garage... so figure about an hour on the trail, but it's very doable. Just remove the tire, unbolt the axle from the hub (35mm socket required), unbolt the 4 bolts that hold the spindle to the lower A-arm. Pull the spindle off of the axle, and then pound the axle out of the differential.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by JadeRunner:
<strong>
Others correct me if I wrong, but couldn't have Mike just removed the inner boot and slide the axle out so that it wouldn't flop around? Then he could drive safely in two wheel drive..</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Yes, he could have disassembled the inner tripod joint and driven.... but only if the breakage occurred at the outter CV joint. Otherwise, there would be a piece of axle dangling and flopping around.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by JadeRunner:
<strong>
The ORS hub conversion is a no brainer. Just need money and time. If the parts are 1039.00. I wonder how much he charges for labor.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">For me, this boils down to pouring $1039.00 into the front IFS vs. carrying a $150 CV spare... or two.

Then again, I'm weird <img border="0" alt="[Alien]" title="" src="graemlins/alien.gif" />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans"> I'm thinking I might just ask the Boulder dealer to pull the axle out for me so I can drive, and than I'll order the Offroad Solutions kit and wait in queue for an install. Does that sound like a good plan to you? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Mike,
from what I understand since we only have a "semi-floating" axle you must have the drive shaft in place to drive. In your case the outer broken part. So your best bet for now is to remove the inner boot and remove the inner part of the shaft. Depending on where it's broken I think you could drive close to highway speeds to get home. Not sure.

Then based on what Jeff and Phong say, you could potentially buy an axle (and 35mm socket) locally and come over to my garage for the install. I would like to see a write of on that though and get some opinions on the difficulty. I haven't completed a search on it yet.

I agree with Phong. If you get good at the install, a 80.00 spare part sounds like a good alterative to ORS hubs.

Scott

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by JadeRunner:
<strong>
The ORS hub conversion is a no brainer. Just need money and time. If the parts are 1039.00. I wonder how much he charges for labor.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">You could have a solid axle for that kind of money <img border="0" alt="[Satan]" title="" src="graemlins/satan.gif" />

About the 35mm socket, I found mine at Checker Auto Parts. They're a little hard to find. Someone previously pointed out that a 1 3/8" socket would also work, since that's about 34.9 mm.
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Aurora Sandman:
<strong>Jeff, approx. how much is the manaul hub install (parts an labor)? I'm thinking I might just ask the Boulder dealer to pull the axle out for me so I can drive, and than I'll order the Offroad Solutions kit and wait in queue for an install. Does that sound like a good plan to you??</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Sorry, I honestly don't know the labor hours. ORS installed mine along with gobs of other stuff, like gears and front locker. So I don't know the manual hub labor portion of it. I'd guess 4-8 hours.
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by phong:
<strong> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by JadeRunner:
<strong>Others correct me if I wrong, but couldn't have Mike just removed the inner boot and slide the axle out so that it wouldn't flop around? Then he could drive safely in two wheel drive.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Yes, he could have disassembled the inner tripod joint and driven.... but only if the breakage occurred at the outter CV joint. Otherwise, there would be a piece of axle dangling and flopping around.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">I agree with Phong. Phong also proved that you need the outer CV in place to drive. ORS says it's a semi-floater axle. If the outer CV breaks, the only thing holding the middle axle shaft in place is the boot on the inner CV. Both the innermost and outermost shafts need to be kept in place for it to be driveable. So if you're going to ask Boulder Toyota to remove anything, tell them to just undo the inner CV boot so the middle axle shaft falls off. The inner CV (tripod joint) should be covered with tape or put the original boot back on to keep dirt out, since you'll need to re-use the stock inner CV with the ORS kit. But you definitely need all broken parts returned to you, since you'll need to re-use the tripod joint rollers along with the ORS kit. When you get the kit installed, you'll replace and throw out the outer CV so just make sure it's not going to spew grease everywhere. It doesn't matter if the outer CV gets dirty in that case.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by phong:
<strong>$1039.00 into the front IFS vs. carrying a $150 CV spare... or two.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">I need to carry a spare in addition to having the manual hubs. But your spare axle is different depending on having manual hubs or not so that affects when you make the $150 investment. Oh yeah, and I've been intending to find a spare hub now, too. Argh.

The toughest part about getting a spare axle is that you can't subtract the price of a core return, unless you get lucky and find some Taco or 4Runner that did a SAS or something, even if the core axle is broken. You still need part of your stock axle with the ORS kit, so you don't have a full core to return then.

that stuff is a PITA no doubt, I could swap shafts on the 44 in probably less than half the time it would take me on the IFS...

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by 44Runner:
<strong>that stuff is a PITA no doubt, I could swap shafts on the 44 in probably less than half the time it would take me on the IFS...</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Not from what I've seen with helping friends replace Dana44 U-joints. Takes the same amount of time and it's still a PITA. Except that you have many more small pieces to drop in the dirt when replacing the 297x u-joints.

Just as a follow-up, after reading the repsonses and talking with a couple of the guys, here's my plan:

I'm buying into the idea that getting a spare axle and learning how to install it is more desirable than spending $1-2K on manual hubs.

As it stands, I'm not going to have the dealer (where the truck parked) do anthing to it. Jeff the marmot and Steve Scheafer say this is how I can drive home safely: Using a razor, of some other sort of cutting device, I can cut the inner boot in half by cutting a full circle around the middle of it. I can then pull the axle out easily by hand, no tools required. (If I had known this, I might have done it on the trail. Although I'd probably want to cover the hole somehow to protect it against dirt and water.) After cleaning up all the grease (Steve says there'll be a lot) and pieces of broken parts, it should be fine to drive to my heart's content (in 2WD of course).

If all goes as planned, I'll drive the truck home tonight, order a new axle from Car Quest (or wherever), and then Scott (JadeRunner), Jeff (the marmot) and I will get together sometime and learn together how to install an axle. We're looking at this as a good learning oportunity, at least that's the "spin." I'm glad this is looking like it isn't going to drain my bank account. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

<small>[ April 14, 2003, 02:15 PM: Message edited by: Aurora Sandman ]</small>

sounds like a plan.

maybe im missing something but i drove with my CV busted for a couple days and a couple hundred miles, not sure why you cant.