First major trip of the summer, Mt. Blanca (14,000 ft mountain near the Sand Dunes National Park). It was by far the worst wheeling trip I've ever taken. Everything that could possibly go wrong, did
Let's start with the horrible rear end sound when I was leaving Pueblo. I was fully loaded with camping gear and I was getting terrible sounds out of the "rear diff" while acclerating in 1st & 2nd gear. I get talked into headed up anyways
We get to Medano Pass and while headed uphill, the noise is killer. I end up getting towed over the pass and to the campsite.
I decided to tear the rear end apart to inspect the rear diff.
I find some marks on the carrier from the pinion.
I then decide to swap 3rd members to put the "damaged" 3rd in the front and put the "good" 3rd in the rear. I then start to tear apart the front axle.
I start on the front @ midnight and finally button up the front & rear axles @ 5:45am. Best part, the front "good" 3rd has the same pinion to carrier damage
I get 45 minutes of sleep, take it for a test drive and no change, same nasty noise. Guess I'll wheel it until it breaks.
We head up Mt. Blanca
Jaws 1
Jaws 2
Jaws 2.5
Jaws 3
What the majority of the trail looks like!
CUbuff4Runner then proceeds to shear the 3 9/16's studs that hold his passenger side high steer arm to his knuckle near the top of the trail (12,500 ft)
We work on his rig for several hours and decide to leave it up there. We plan on driving my 4Runner back up on Sunday to fix his rig with my brother's D44 parts off of his Jeep back in Denver
Waiting for my brother and dad to bring the parts to head back up the mtn.
My brother drove up Blanca since I was tired of driving. The "rear diff" noise is horrible and I didn't think we were going to make it back up the mtn with 4 people in the rig and 300lbs of parts and tools in the back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obioFSHT-BQThe steering in my 4Runner is very very loose and I get to inspect. All 8 of my knuckle studs are loose and one is stripped in the knuckle. I tighten all of them and we're back up the mtn.
CUbuff figures out what the noise is, it's my CV on the rear driveshaft rubbing the horseshoe crossmember :bang: Scotty from Addicted Off Road told me that it was close to rubbing when we were installing the cage 2 months before the trip. Man, I'm a bonehead and realize I swapped diffs and worked on it for 8 hours was a complete waste of time.
We make it to CUbuff's rig and get it fixed. He then proceeds to roll his 4Runner down Jaws 2.5
Down Jaws 1 in the dark
After many more issues on the trail, we finally get off of the trail and home @ midnight, 48 hours after our trip started.
