Mike's 1973 D22 Complete tear out. From the Roof down!

[RockwoodMike]

do you have air jacks at your disposal?

No, just the typical hand pump jacks..20 ton from HF.

The only thing I have that is air powered is this Impact gun from Harbor Freight..Working those nuts off the way they were seized on there would have done me in if I had to work them by a breaker bar.

This Impact wrench totally kicks it hard..It has 3 speeds forward and 1 reverse.

BPBPBPBPBP..EEEuuuuuuu!

[Eyez Open]

Harbor freight has cut my recon costs down by hundreds perhaps close to a thousand. It's just what it is, I missed a clearance sale on one of those earthquake wrenchs...but I watch closely for another opportunity.

[RockwoodMike]

Before I started to tear it all down, I took a backlash reading between the pinion and ring gear..

Came out to .011 when new it is .005-.008. Just the bearings and everything worn out..

Using this magnet base and dial indicator shows the .011 clearance ..

[RockwoodMike]

After checking the back lash, I tried to lift the ring carrier out of the case..It just lifted right out..
Not suppose to do that!! It usually needs to be pried out or have a case spreader to open the case by a few thousands to relive the preload on the bearing..

This didn't have any preload at all..Just worn out bearings

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1 shows the bearing saddle for the ring carrier..Dancing around a bit

Pic 2 shows the pinion way down the hole

Pic 3 The bearing on the ring side of the carrier just fell off..Didn't have to press it off.

Pic 4. Look at the beating the shims were taking..Little bit of looseness and it just slams itself creating even more looseness..

We can fix it.. 

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1  Loosen all the bolts that hold the ring gear to the carrier..BPBPBPBP-EEEUUUUUUUU

Pic 2  Leave 4 bolts threaded to the gear and tap them down Gear comes right off

Pic3  shows the gear off the carrier

Pic 4 shows some more scrap sim pieces. This from the carrier bearing shim.

[RockwoodMike]

Pics show both sides of the ring gear..
It has 41 teeth..Pinion has 9 teeth

41/9= 4.5555555555555555555555555555556

Just round it off to 4.56..With this ratio and the 440 engine, this thing can climb a tree!!
Probable has climbed a tree a few times and then fell out of it..No wonder it is in such bad shape!!

[RockwoodMike]

I made this plate with the hole to measure down to the pinion..The plate sits on the bearing flats of the bearing saddles.That is the mid point of the carrier

The plate is .178 thick..the distance from the bearing flats to the pinion is suppose to be 3.5 inches

with the thickness of the plate...   .178 and 3.5 inches a perfect measurement is 3.678 with the dial indicator..I got 3.680... .002 to low..But all the bearings are worn out..Not really worried about this..All of this will be remade to spec.

[RockwoodMike]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd6yyEfZLn0

I bought this clam shell bearing puller. This video shows how it works

Takes it right off with no damage to the bearing..Works great..

Pics show how it works with the 2 halves surrounding the bearing with the race..

[RockwoodMike]

After pulling the bearing off, you can see the shrapnel of the shims..

I am glad I pulled this out and will rebuild it like new..It would have gone out soon..Mostly caused by a lack of oil

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1. Taking the front pinion drive yolk nut involve a 1-5/16 socket and an impact wrench
BPBPBPBPBP-EEEEUUUUU

Pic 2 just using a lite blow to the back side of the yolk..You don't have to pound it off..Light touches with the sledge slowly lifted it off the shaft..

Pic 3  I will need to buy one of those repair sleeves for the seal surface..deep groove  on this

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1 Pinion with it's worn out bearing

Pic 2 Small bearing of the pinion, preload shims, oil slinger and seal

Pic 3 Large bearing race and shims. Those shims are used to establish the 3.5 inch height needed for the pinion

[RockwoodMike]

Pic 1. Totally empty case..Ready to be cleaned up

Pic 2 Parts is Parts

More later..

[LJ-TJ]

Wow! I'm envious. 

[Mlw]

Pffffff, to be quite honest, you are scaring the bejeebers out of me.

I know you have an older RV then me, but how many miles did this thing run? Is there any story to how this has happened?

At least the first owner had the complete bottom of the RV protected with tectyle, including the axle. Hence the reason I couldn't read the markings on the differential anymore. it's completely dry and even the drainplug is covered in Tectyle. Let's just hope it was enough to keep the gear oil in. Normally that's for life?


On the other hand, I admire your skills    

[RockwoodMike]

Let's just hope it was enough to keep the gear oil in. Normally that's for life?

Do yourself a favor and pull the fill plug out, located in the middle of the cover. The plug should have a strong magnet made into it..If it is covered in gray metallic fuzz..start to sweat!!
Stick a finger in the hole to see if there is any oil in there..

Ideally, there should be little fuzz on the magnet and oil dripping out the hole when you take the plug out..
You loose oil all the time..Little bit of seepage out the front yoke..At the wheel bearing hub seals and just evaporation..

Mine was starved for oil..the bearings loose their surface hardness due to a lack of lubrication..Now the top surface of the bearing is gone..Creating a little bit of play in the bearings..

Things start to slap around inside there and the slow destruction is in progress..

If you find a bunch of fuzz on the magnet, the best you can do is a good drain and fill..Pull the cover off and clean it all out a best as you can.
If you ignore it all, then make sure your auto insurance covers towing.

My odometer reads 15000 miles..It is a 5 digit odometer..So is it 115000 or 215000? 

[Mlw]

Well, at least you doubled my count of 580000. Also 5 digit, but even things in the engine looked to good to be 1580000. Certainly when you look at the fact that i'm always told that most Americans think a 100.000 mile motor junk? (So rivise or throw out.)

I've put up a few links of This guy on CWVRV already. He pulls out the greatest junkyard cars out of fields in the middle of nowhere an make them run again. He's always telling to look at the break pedal and wear and tear on the interior. With me (except for the severe waterdamage) everything looks and works way to good to be more and would equal the milage of many other Dodge motorhomes I saw.

What I don't know is which of the two previous owners put the most miles on it, but as the first one at least bothered tectyling the underneath I'm guessing he took pretty good care of it where the latter did technically everything to distroy it and seem to have had all the well known problems with the chassis electronics. 

[RockwoodMike]

The parts for the differential are still not here yet..I need to clean everything like the main case before I can start assemble with the new parts.

But to keep busy, I thought I would try powder coating a rim..17 inch rim is heavy..I sand blasted and then by hand tried to detail it till it looked clean bare metal.

Pic 1 shows the rim on the tray on the table ready to be coated..

Pic 2 shows the gun actually spraying the powder..Like smoke from a cigarette.

Pic 3 shows the rim partially coated with the powder.

Pic 4 shows the rim fully coated...1 side as I need to flip it over after this side is done..Ready to close it up in the oven to bake..

[RockwoodMike]

Here it is in the oven with that extention I made to fit the rim in the oven..Adds about 6 inches to the depth of the oven to make it fit..

Baked at 395 for 1 hour..I pulled it out and there was some flaws in the finish that bled through the white..

What is nice about the powder coat system, is while it is still hot, you pull the rim out and spray another coat to cover up the flaws..Called hot flocking..So the rim has 2 coats..

Baked it for another 30 minutes and here is the results..Looks brand new!!

[RockwoodMike]

Here is the other side of the rim..

Pic 1..I needed to make a stand for the rim to lift it off the oven rack..Keeps the center of the rim off the rack..If it was setting on the rack, it might ruin the face of the rim..This makes it sit on the holes and the lug nuts will cover where the the stand was..
I designed this stand with Autocad and having a CNC plasma cutter table helps too!!

Pic 2 shows it lifted off the rack with the stand..

Pic 3  Shows the 4 studs of the stand..this rims have a 8 lug 6.5 inch diameter pattern..

Pic 4 shows the finished product straight out of the oven

I only have 6 more rims to go!!

[LJ-TJ]

  Hehehehe What an inspiration. I have a feeling your going to inspector a hole new process for a bunch of us guys. Fantastic work. Keep it up. Your showing us a hole new avenue of possibilities.  Thanks

[RockwoodMike]

The parts are starting to roll in to rebuild it all..I will take pictures to show old to new..

But we need to get the axle pumpkin clean inside and out..
That will involve hand scraping the thick grease..Been doing that a bit and some of the areas have grease that is 1/4 thick..

This thing has never been torn down..

Then a good power wash..Soda blaster..and then sand blaster to clean the outside to shiny metal..

It is a mess that will need some time to get clean.

[RockwoodMike]

I have this well used soda blaster from Harbor Freight..Pic 1

And it uses baking soda as the media to blast your parts..Pic 2

And here it inside the bag..Looks like granular sugar..But what is nice is when you power wash the item, the baking soda just washes away with the water..It is a lot safer on you too..Unlike sand that can mess up your lungs..Pic 3

[RockwoodMike]

The soda blaster works great on greasy parts..The soda sucks up the grease and then blasts it clean..It has a hard time with paint,but rust just blasts away..

The problem area is inside the axle tubes..I came up with a piece of roto rooter clean out wire and attached a terry cloth rag to the end of it..Drill motor at the other end and soaked the rag in mineral spirits..paint thinner,,and just ran the rag in and out while spinning the drill..Mud and grease was just flowing out the tubes..7-8 application of a spinning wet rag and it came out pretty good..

Then a full power wash to do the final cleaning..It flash rusted a bit but air compressor dried pretty fast..

Primer and paint next then assembly..

Let the fun begin!!

[RockwoodMike]

Here is all the parts..Not all that I need..need a good cover gasket..

Ring and pinion...
Bolts for carrier to ring..12 each..
New nut and washer..pinion to yoke
Carrier bearings and races
Yoke seal
Pinion bearings and races..
All sorts of shims..came with the ring and pinion kit and others I have saved from a recent job I did on my e350 Ford Van..It has a Dana 70 HD in it..Has bigger bearing for the carrier..really the only difference..