Don't do or do this or expensive mistake...

[IOPort51]

HF Jack stands are plenty good, The 6 tons are 24" tall.

I hope you Locktited the be-jeebers out of the Ring gear bolts.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Hedge, I have been satisfied with a Craftsman,for the torque wrench. I also can take it to one of their repair shops for calibration every so often, and repair if the need comes up.

For that type of work. I use a Sears 'digitork' 1/2" dr. 25-250 ft/lb 'clicker' t'wrench.
Just remember, when done with it. Reset to the lowest setting to maintain accuracy.
Not cheap-but WORTH everydangpenny!
Also-NEVER/EVER reuse ring gear bolts!
LG

 

[Hedgehog]

But but but ..... I'll have to reuse the same ring gear threads! Way ahead of you on that one, the new bolts are sitting on the shelf right now.

When working on my axle housing last year he "u" bolts wore deep rings around the tubing. So, I filled the rings with the welder, took it slowly, weld here, weld there, grind, weld a little more, never pouring water on the steel. The tubes look like new now and as far as I can see they are straight. Do you folks think doing this would create a brittle condition where I need to fear cracking? If not I just might weld up the small hole in my differential, my already set up and running differential and run that one rather than go through all the troubles with the replacement housing.

The Replacement housing sat outside at an angle. The outside is very nice and will clean up with no trouble. On the inside though, the top 1/2 bearing & seal surfaces are in serviceable condition. How ever the lower ones did not survive without some troubles. I'm yet to pull the carrier, it's frozen, so I have no idea how the surfaces are in there and the axle bearing surface is very rusty. I haven't hit that with a wire wheel yet, but it doesn't look good.

 

[Torxhead]

Hedge, if you are concerened about a brittle condition, you could do a "poor mans" hardness test by using a sharp corner of a file and running it along the welded area of the tube and comparing the file cut to non welded areas along the axle housing. I have seen welded tubes split though, I have welded tubes on my CJ also and so far so good. This might have something to do with using the proper rod also.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

Hedge, if you are concerened about a brittle condition, you could do a "poor mans" hardness test by using a sharp corner of a file and running it along the welded area of the tube and comparing the file cut to non welded areas along the axle housing. I have seen welded tubes split though, I have welded tubes on my CJ also and so far so good. This might have something to do with using the proper rod also.

A 1013 'mud-rod' works very well for this use in any arc welder.
LG

 

[Woolyworm]

I have a bunch of pitting at one ubolt set that I am thinking about welding as well.

.030 in my weld pak 140

Wooly

 

[Hedgehog]

I did exactly as Wooly suggests. I think I used .030 in my 140 though. Could have fired up the Thermal Arc, got tons of rod for that, but water under a bridge.

Wooly - turn the power up and get a good melt in, several passes, wire wheel between each pass.

 

[Hedgehog]

Back to my original problem ........

It took a couple of days, could have been fewer but hey I'm getting older, but we are back up and running. The replacement axle took some time to clean up, but it turned out better than anticipated. I ended up replacing my ring and pinion too. So,

$200 for the rear end.
$75 for a used set of gears.
$210 for seals, bearings, oil/grease and a sundry other parts and pieces

ALL FOR A LACK OF FIFTY CENTS WORTH OF LOCK TIGHT! Lesson learned I guess.

On the bright side. I like this axle housing AND internals better than the old set up. I was actually surprised to find how much the old axle spring perches had crushed. This showed up in the U-bolts. In the old set-up, to give the rear end a nice finished look, I trimmed the excess bolt hanging under the CJ off. Now I have a couple shorter than I like U-bolts. Those will be replaced. These spring perches are beautiful, like new. The springs fit far better. The CJ likes'em too. On the road test she handled wonderfully. No sense of the CJ wanting to waggle her tail like we were battling before. I'm poorer for the experience, but pleased over all.

 

[Lumpy Grits]

HH-It mostly was due to go'n cheap on a torque wrench.
Then not hav'en it's calibration ck'd. Lesson learned-
There's some tools, that you never do the 'cheap' with. A good torque wrench is one of'em.
This build will go well for you.........
LG