Question on first axle tear down

[miket961]

Picked up this front axle from a local scrap yard. Don’t remember exact year but D1. This is my first time stripping an axle. Not as hard as I imagined.

However, I found something strange in the diff. It’s a really fine fiber. It’s covered in so much oil I’m not quite sure if it’s some type of nylon or if it’s metal wire. Is this a normal failure? Or something weird in the housing?

Ill try to clean it a bit better next time I’m working on it

 

[MountainD]

It almost looked like a vine may have grown into your axle! Weird! let us know what you find

 

[miket961]

It almost looked like a vine may have grown into your axle! Weird! let us know what you find

This was it! Found a puncture in the casing

 

[Napalm00]

Welp that's a bummer and one strong weed!

 

[MountainD]

Blessing it “showed” you the puncture ahead of time. I recently rebuilt my front, sandblasted, treated and POR15’ed it. Might consider cleaning it all up while your this far apart (if you dropped the axle).

 

[miket961]

Blessing it “showed” you the puncture ahead of time. I recently rebuilt my front, sandblasted, treated and POR15’ed it. Might consider cleaning it all up while your this far apart (if you dropped the axle).

Definitely plan to rebuild it. Haven’t taken the time to teach myself welding yet...so that’s up next. I need to get some metal beater tools to shape it before welding it back together

 

[miket961]

Welp that's a bummer and one strong weed!

Ha

 

[MountainD]

If it is rusted, I’d just grab an axle tube. Too common. Don’t fight it if it’s rusted (surface rust excluded). Basically any disco.

 

[miket961]

If it is rusted, I’d just grab an axle tube. Too common. Don’t fight it if it’s rusted (surface rust excluded). Basically any disco.

Well...I have a rusted RHD axle and a rust free LHD with a puncture...fun times

I’ve thought about cleaning up the rusted one and epoxy coating

thought for a moment about galvanizing a tube. They’ve done it in the UK. I could place thread lock on the spindle bolts and place them closely in so it doesn’t galvanize those threads...mostly worried the diff wouldn’t mate well if the surface is rough

 

[MountainD]

You really need to remove the studs and surface mounting surfaces. I looked at it. Sand blast & Por15 (or other good coating) seemed good enough. I can pay attention and fix as needed.

 

[Napalm00]

its not worth welding it , way too common