Numbchux

well, I'm in Alexandria today, and will probably be heading virtually straight to Duluth...but sometime...we'll do something

OK...tell him I got his message, but have been out of town with the exception of half of yesterday, ever since...it's good to hear from him, and I should be in town next week, at which point I'll call him!

yep, the camera only takes 30 second clips of decent quality, so he ran out of time....but he made it. and yes, that clip was all with a broken rear axle, I broke it at attempt #1 of the first rock in the video, and then as soon as I lost my momentum on that last hill, I was done. had to get dragged up it....

let me direct you to my signature...and no, I doubt there's anything cheaper than I got these, they came off my uncle's astrovan before his company sold it. I payed to have them mounted. and they do awesome in virtually every condition I've had them in, save probably my buddies swamp, which just caked up the tread on another buddies real live super swampers!

the mud hole: Carnage: The rock that did it : Morgan in the rock gorge : this is after my 2nd broken rear axle...I had to get towed up this hill...

Here's the pics, videos to come! at camp: lining up for the day: on the trail: my wheels are painted flat black! Look at the water line...and my missing lug couple scenic shots:

yep...had mine adjusted all the way up all weekend. but I'm < 6' tall so I don't have trouble with the roof.

Yea, it was awesome, the whole event raised more than 20 grand!!! about the axles...my '85 has dual DOJ rear axles, and my '88 has outer CV's...didn't know they'd be different, that's why I went with a 'new' napa one for the right car, instead of one off the parts car.

yep, here's a pic of it all the way down, a few days before we left, I put on the adjustable fronts (couldn't get the rears off the parts car), and adjusted them up a bit less than an inch, and then adjusted the blocks in the back to match. see at the bottom of the block, there's a nut welded to it, and that joint actually unscrews out of the lift, I only had mine out about 1/2-3/4 inch (turns out to be a bit more on the side that broke...). I'll be putting them back down before I do anything else like that! I don't know...really...not for me, but it would look pretty cool now wouldn't it?

one OR the other...period The AA rear lift is 4 inch strut extensions in the back, with and adjustment that allows for up to another inch (don't do it if you're hardcore at all!), and ONE inch blocks under JUST the rear diff carrier mounts, which brings the stubs on the diff down just less than an inch. The front has 3 inch blocks under the crossmember, leaving the front joints at very close to stock angles, but the rear end has big angles. If you're going to lift it a couple inches, go with just accord springs, and adjustable front struts, you should get a healthy couple inches out of that combo. problem being that the accord springs are quite a bit stiffer, which hurts your suspension travel severly. If you're gonna be doing some real offroading, get an AA lift, and leave it adjusted down all the way, and cut your fenders to fit ~27" tires. and carry an extra rear axle....or 2. He says he's put ___ miles on his test vehicle with no problems, but he must not hit stuff as gnarly as we did, cuz I, literally, blew up a rear DOJ, and dismantaled another. of course, if you intend to drive it solely on the road, then, by all means, put both, and take advantage of a possible 7-8" of lift.

He does...does he???

Check the skidplate in the second picture!! I want it...not just the skidplate.....btw

nope....2!! well, sort of, the second one (morgan's spare....btw, thanks, I owe you one!) within an hour or so on sunday, came apart, nothing broke, but the cage and ball bearings all fell out into the boot. but I put it back together back at camp, wish I would've thought of it while we were on the trail... Anyway, yea, Shady wanted his comparison....he got it. Both lifts showed their strengths and weaknesses, unfortunately, Morgan just got a couple nasty gouges in his mustach bar, and I was forced to return to camp...Morgan successfully navigated a rock gorge that I didn't even try (didn't want to bash up the 3-week old wagon) and I still blew up an axle on a much easier part of the trail. and it BLEW up, inner DOJ exploded, about an inch of the cage and a big chunk out of the cup, along with the balls landed several feet behind the car! heard the noise, noticed my extreme inability to do anything after it, so I got out and looked, and the axle was hanging out by the outer joint. And sunday's experience was similar, went through a pretty gnarly section, but not too bad, shouldn't have had any trouble, got up the first hill, and just at the top, heard the 'horrible clunk' but looked and everything seemed to be intact. Got through a bunch more of the obstacle (downhill.....) and found that I couldn't climb the next hill. and sure enough, my spotter tells me that my back wheels aren't turning. so I got towed out, jacked up the front end, put it in 4lo, and in gear and watched the cup spin, and not the axle.... AND we were there for such a short time, we didn't even use my camcorder, but got some video with my digi. but we had a blast! a couple of the jeep guys had a hard time seeing these station wagons go places their jeeps were going, and not have any trouble. if we had lower gearing, and wider tires, we would've been serious competition! I'm still not home, so I don't have a way to get the pics/vid off of my camera, but tomorrow I should be able to. so check back in the afternoon!

you'd think so wouldn't you? in all reality, they were very much a last resort!

Got it! a torch and an air chisel....it didn't stand a chance.

You think it's possible to take that 'stub' off with the axle attached? I looked in my haynes and chilton's manuals, and found that there's a piece screwed into the suspension arm that holds the bearings in there, I fear that this will get in the way of the bearings and such on the stub, and keep it from coming out. I will try drilling some more, and then try pulling the stub out of the parts car. and if I don't have any luck with that, I'll ready it for the drive to duluth, and maybe we can figure it out there. enchained: we're heading up to the offroad park tomorrow, so I'll be in duluth for a while. that FSM might come in handy. I'll be in touch.

so...I've had a broken rear axle for some time now, but have had some (read: alot) trouble getting the pins out, finally I broke down and bought an actual punch. before we were using a screwdriver that had been cut off (worked great, right size and everything) but I suspect that the plastic handle was soaking up some of the force. anyway, got a punch, punded out both pins in the parts car, and one on my car (inner). then I start on the outer, the last one, of course. I feels like it's going in (always bad...'feels'), but I reached around and found that it wasn't coming out the other side. well, I'll pound just a bit more, and we'll see, the punch broke off in the hole. :banghead:, but it was a pretty clean break, so I tried it on the other side, just to see if it would budge at all, and the same thing happened on the other side! :dead:. NOW WHAT!!!! can that piece of the axle (I don't know what it's called, the piece in the suspension arm/hub) out without taking off the axle? I need to have that axle in tomorrow! it'll be my first official offroad event in the new wagon, and it'll be ruined if I don't have 4WD!!! HELP! oh yea, and thanks!!

or the bulbs in the corner markers have such a low draw by comparison to the bulbs in the turn signal that the system runs faster. I've checked, as that was my first instinct, it actually blinks a touch faster with the corner marker unplugged than with it, meaning it's drawing power, just not as much as usual. I'm just wondering if his brake light fix helps this.

Did you use both lights, or just one? I did this in anticipation of my bumper replacement (and cause I had a turn signal out anyway), and split them up, so the orange one on the side still lights with the parking lights, and the white one on the front lights with the signals. I just used the existing bulbs, so it blinks super fast, but it works fine. with a brake light bulb, does it blink at the normal rate? I was going to see if the turn signal bulbs would fit in the corner marker housing.

That would be cool, but I too am going up to the Crawl4Cure early Friday. and will be gone well into next week. But if you guys wanted to do something on wednesday or thursday that would be cool! Have a lifted wagon + brat meet

not likely...finding one I mean, closest thing would be putting a scoop in your hood. the newer gen stuff is so different, I dought it will work.

I found that in the 'site help/suggestions' forum, that they are not accepting new articles...readers rides, USRM, etc...until they update the software later this summer, but hang on to the article, awesome info. one question, was it an auto push button you were convertig from? I can't quite tell. I'll be taking on a project similar to this later this summer, taking the D/R 4wd driveline from my '85 GL wag, and putting it under my rust-free 3AT FWD '92 loyale....should be interesting, this info should come in very handy. NICE WORK!!

I have had a similar problem...found that it was grounding. when I lifted the car, a couple of the ground wires that go from the engine to the body were pulled off. I have the mechanical fan removed, and electric fan manually switched, and it doesn't seem to make much difference whether it's on, I'm moving or anything, only how hard the car works. this led me to beleive that there wasn't enough electical 'flow' to allow the t-stat to open, so one day when it was doing this, I let it warm up, and squeezed my rad hoses. and found that there was no pressure to the radiator. found that wire (the one right next to the battery), touched it to the alternator bracket, and spark, and the thing cooled off pretty quickly. maybe you pulled off that wire putting in the radiator....it's worth a try!

nope, it's a percentage thing, mines off by almost 20 @ 80! that's why I like my GPS, the prob with that is, the refresh rate makes it a bit tough.

I will be in the cities (orono, not too far from excelsior) as of Sunday night or monday morning, so you're welcome to give me a call for anything -Matt