1970 Jeep Rebuild

Me either!

 

Puddle? More like a swamp with big alligators holding on to my JEEP like it was dinner.

 

I'm very happy with mine. I was nervous about leaving it plugged in all night. I set the battery shut off on medium and never had any problems. The Jeep started right up, no problems. One night on the Rubicon I unplugged it at 8pm and didn't plug it back in until 8am. I can't remember the exact temperature, but it was acceptable. It has good capacity for enough food for 3 people for 4 days plus... I've used it a couple times since the Rubicon trip and love it even more...

 

I finally got into the garage today to do a little work on the JEEP.
Still waiting for my distributor to come back from DUI, so I still haven't got the motor running. I did get fuel lines done a few weeks ago.
Today I dug into the front axle, it started to leek out the passenger side while flat towing it to the Rubicon trip, and has continued to leek. Changing the inner axle seals is pretty simple, it just takes the disassembling of both axles and the carrier.
While taking the drivers side hub off I found one of the bolts had broke. This is the hub that after the Rubicon I found 5 out of the 6 bolts missing.

 

I also found that this hub had water in it

 

Everything looked good inside the carrier other than the oil looked a little dirty.


Working with gear oil is my least favorite thing to do.

 

Did more work on the JEEP today, didn’t do as much as I wanted because wife had me raking leaves and cleaning up yards and helping pack up Christmas.
Installed the new inner axle seals:



The proper tool makes this nice and easy:



I wasn’t planning on replacing the bearings as they were about 2 years old and I had re-packed them with grease right before the Rubicon trip.

The bearings on the drivers side were seized and took out the spindle and hub, glad this didn’t freeze up while I was flat toweling it to and from trips this summer.
Didn’t get a picture of spindle or hub, I will and post it later.
.

The rest of bearings were not that bad but the grease was soaked in gear oil.



I went to 4 different parts stores and not one of them carries Timken bearings, so I had to order on line…hurry up and wait….

 

I did not get the chance to dig through my parts stash to see if I have extra hub and spindles for the Dana 30….. I know I have several for the Dana 27, does anyone know if the hubs interchange.
I did get all the other parts cleaned up, just waiting on bearings.

 

D30 hubs are the same but they might not be flat on the back. Unless you have the weird 5 bolt hubs then the 6 bolt hubs won't fit for some reason.

 

Thanks, I might have been running the D27 hubs, because I have the rotor mounted to the rear of the hub. I need to check tomorrow when I go back out to the garage.

 

Do you think that is from the infamous mud pond on the Rubicon? My experience is you have to be religious about packing bearings after deep water. I know, it's easier said, blah blah.

 

Yes I’m pretty sure that it happened while sitting in the swamp on the Rubicon waiting for the alligators to release my JEEP. I had told myself to check the bearings after the trip but I got busy and didn’t do it, so paying the price now.

 

I feel that pain...24' was a hard year for bearings.

 

That’s right you had the same issue

 

If you turn off your hearing aids the bearings aren't soo bad.

 

I have the same issue almost every year!

 

This is the hub that I pulled off the JEEP that was messed up.
It has a recess area on the back side, (2nd pic).





The hub on the left is what I was running on the Dana30, the one on the right is from my stash and was marked Dana 30.


This one doesn’t have the recess on the back side.
The other difference is the studs sit flush in this hub.

the 2 sitting side by side.



I’m going to fit this up with my disc brake conversion and see if the recess in back matters.

I don’t remember what parts I mixed and matched when I built this front Dana 30. I do remember that when I bought the axle I was given a second one for free that was bent and axles and carrier were destroyed. I parted it out and scrapped it.
I did discover that the front end I have is a 1981 model, (found stamped on case), I thought it was a 1972 that came from the JEEP I pulled it from.

 

Probably the 1 on the right is from a drum D30

 

This axle was originaly a drum brake axle.

 

I think either will work, but obviously as you said, check the disc brake clearance. It would also be nice to have a matching set of 2 if possible. This would be a great time to build a 44, just sayin"...