Blanca wasn't nice to us this weekend
Started with some horrible "diff" noises from the rear. I haven't wheeled the 4Runner since March. Just some around town driving. Only thing I've changed is a solid 4x Inovations t-case mount and a cage. Load the 4Runner with camping gear for the weekend and start to head out Friday night. Rear end sounds like it's going to blow up while accelerating in 1st & 2nd gear.
Meet up with a couple of Denver Rock Frog members in Pueblo to head down to Medano. I pull the rear driveshaft and check for pinion play. None. Decide to drive down anyways. Get to Medano and the noise is twice as bad going up hill. My buddy James pulled me up and over Medano.
We arrive at camp @ 8pm. I decide to pull the rear 3rd to inspect it for damage. Looks like the pinion has been making contact with the carrier. There's my noise. We tighten the carrier bearing preload adjusters another 1/4 turn (and forget to install the adjuster locks
). Make the decision to pull the front diff and swap with the rear.
Takes us a couple of hours to tear down the frontend. Get the front diff out and it's got the same pinion marks on the carrier (not quite as bad though). WTF?? We've already gone this far so we might as well just swap them. Reinstall the rear diff in the front and get all the front axle rebuilt and tight. Move to the rear and get that done as well. I have to reuse my diff oil since I didn't bring enough for 2 diff changes. By the time I get everything done, it's close to 5:30am
An hour of sleep and time to get up to clean up the tools and stuff. We drive down Medano and head towards Blanca. Andy in the FJ-C blows a sidewall in a KM2 before we even get to Jaws 1. Swap it out for the spare and continue on. Andy almost falls off Jaws 2 and blows a bead in the process. We use all of James' CO2 to reseat the bead.
We continue up the trail getting through each Jaws sections. We drive by Lake Como and head to the top. We eat lunch at Blue Lake and start our trek down. Jeff ends up shearing all three knuckle studs on his passenger side steering arm. We're F'ed at this point. Takes us over an hour to move him 1/8 of a mile down the trail and off to the side. Not fun with no steering.
We work on his knuckle trying to extract the broken studs for several hours. Jeff got one out and we only needed 1 more out to be able to bolt it and get him off of the mtn. Not tonight. Jeff's rig gets to spend the night at 12,000 feet.
We drive down and James looses all the air out of a front passenger side tire. We swap to his spare and continue on. It's 10pm by the time we get off of Mt. Blanca. We head to the Sand Dunes in the nasty wind. We try to air up at the air station at the start of Medano. The compressor is turned off and we use all the air in the tank and it's done.
We head up to camp. It was a nice spot (thanks again Kimo for getting us a spot) but it was all the way up Medano. Takes us 45 mintues to get there and it's midnight. We all head straight for the tents.
Jeff and I pack up camp @ 6:30am to head to Alamosa to try and find something to extract the studs in the knuckle. I turn on the phone at 9:30 (cell battery is almost dead) and get a couple of messages that Eric and my dad are headed to meet us with Eric's knuckle from his YJ (in Denver FYI) in hand along with all of his steering.
We meet them at the trailhead @ 1pm. We packed up my 4Runner with a ton of tools and parts & 4 people. It was making the worst noise I've heard come out of a truck. I honestly didn't think we were going to make it.
Start getting noises out of my frontend partway up the bottom section. Stop to check it out and I've sheared one ARP knuckle stud and all of them were loose (3 on one side and 4 on the other). Same EXACT problem Jeff had
Tighten them up and continue on. Noise isn't getting any better. Stop to tighten the steering studs and Jeff sees that the rear CV on the driveshaft is rubbing a crossmember above it hard. That's the noise Reality sat in when I realized I wasted 9+ hours working on it the night before. Threw some grease on it to quiet the noise and continued up the trail.
Got to Jeff's 4Runner. Everything was still in one piece. Took them a couple of hours to fix it and I worked on my steering. I've now got 1 broken and 1 striped stud on the driver side knuckle. We turn around and head down. I'm riding with Jeff and Eric & Gary are driving my 4Runner. I ask Jeff if he needs a spot through Jaws 2.5. He says no and starts to drive through it. Doesn't take that bad of a line. Truck flops on it's driver side in the V notch of 2.5. I'm soooooo glad Eric was behind us. Strapped him back on all 4's and get him through it.
Starts to rain before we get to Jaws 2 to make the rocks nice and wet We have to stop probably 25-30 times down the trail to check steering studs and other noises & steering issues. Jeff gets hung bad on his driver's side front leaf spring. Eric straps him backwards. Continue down the trail. Jeff stops to see what the hell the clanking noise is on the driver side. Leaf spring is completely bent forward and shackle is inverted
We highlift the 4Runner up and get the shackle back to normal. We get over Jaws 1 and slowly down the trail. Finally got to the trailer @ 8 and on the road at 9. Got to Pueblo @ 11:30. Eric & Jeff continue to Denver and arrive @ 2am Monday morning.
