I looked around for a good topic on the easy way to remove the rear third on my tracker.. I couldn't find one.. so I will write one.

I put my Mini-spool in today, and it took a little over an hour and a half.. and part of that time was walking to my house to get my welder... and driving it back down to the garage in my truck.. lol.


OK, on a Tracker, it's simple.

Remove rear tires/wheels

Drain oil from diff

Remove brake drums (4 nuts, each side)

Remove top brake springs on each side (it is in the way of the bearing retainer sliding out)

Remove 8 nuts  (4 each side) on back of the brake backing plate. On mine, 7 came loose, and one spun.. so I just tack welded the stud to the bearing retainer, it came right off.

With a slide hammer (mine is  5 lb) break axles loose, and slide them out about 6 inches each side (careful with the seals)

Remove 4 bolts holding the third link to the top of the diff housing.

Remove 4 bolts holding driveshaft to pinion flange, hang out of way

Remove ABS sensor shield and wiring connector (if equipped)

Remove all nuts holding differential housing in

Break the pig loose with a large dead blow, or jack up on it  with some sort of jack.

It's out!


I put a mini spool in mine, then reset the backlash and bearing preload (that's another topic all together)

I used RTV sealant around the housing, and reinserted the pig. Tightened all bolts, reinstalled the top link mount, reinstalled the ABS wiring and shield. Reinstalled Driveshaft.

Ease the axles back in, taking care with axle seals and bearing retainer.

Reinstall nuts on back of backing plate to axle housing flange

Reinstall top spring on brakes, brake drum, and wheel..

Refill differential with appropriate gear lube

DONE


This is what it will look like when you are ready to pull the pig.

NO brake or brakeline disassembly, save for the one spring.. is needed.


Leave it like this:

It was a real breeze...

What is a mini spool and how is it different from an auto locker?

Marc

Mini-spool is a solid piece of steel, machined to drop in and replace the spiders and side gears..

It is like having a solid rear axle, locked ALL the time.....

 What's with the mini spool if you already had the welder out 

  MILLERMATIC TRACTION ADDICT 
 Steve

What's with the mini spool if you already had the welder out 

  MILLERMATIC TRACTION ADDICT 
 Steve

Good lord, why bother welding when you have to take the whole carrier apart to even GET to the spiders... it's a HELL of a lot easier to drop in a minispool than weld these spiders.. yeah, I know it's been done.. but it't not like a GM 12 bolt where you can pull the cover and weld them in place...  I think welding the rear end is good if you are broke, and you can get to them easily, as in a Dana, or GM rear end.. but on a 3rd member style, you can't do that.. so why not drop in a mini-spool?  I think I paid what.......a hundred bucks for it?  no biggie..

I've been looking in my Hayne's manual... Is it important to make sure everything goes back together the exact way it came out.. Did you mark all the splines etc...

ERock

Within reason yes.. why did you bring up such an old topic?

Mechanical sense more than anything is what is important doing this work.. if you are changing gears, or adding a spool, you can't put the splines back in the same holes they came out of.... cause they aren't there....  lol..  Some things are important to put back exactly..

Like.. bearing caps.. bearing races  and just about anything that touches a bearing or gets "worn in"  other things don't make a difference at all.. like individual nuts and bolts...


common sense goes a long way in working on vehicles... and remember  Haynes manuals are written by people. not gods... lol...  People trying to keep the average shadetree mechanic from destroying his vehicle...   

"why did you bring up such an old topic?"


because youre the man who did it!
(and he probbed wanted to know)


honestly wish I was around when people do stuff like this

learning should be like breathing
(you should always do it)

That's right... I was searching the forum for instruction and found this thread... I sent you an e-mail about the PDF for the backlash instruction you made.. Good Stuff!! Thanks for the effort Quaddawg!!!

ERock

It's all good.  Sorry, I didn't realize you found the thread actually searching for info before posting.. I wasn't upset at all, just wondering how you found that article..  hmmmmm, I guess it was a good thing that I posted that topic for others to find...

Good job. See guys, the search feature DOES work after all.. lol...


Peace

Dude your lucky your axles came out with that "little" 5lb hammer - lol..... When I took mine out I had to put a small block chevy harmonic balancer on the slide. Even with the extra weight it took me 1/2 hour to get the axles to come loose...

Bill

getting that drain plug out can be a pain sometimes also...  Yeah, i've always needed a "slide hammer" of some type to get those axles out.

We *made* our slide hammer out of another sidekick broken rear axle. LOL. Just slipped a piece of square tubing around it (2x2 I believe) and then welded a "butt" on the broken end.

The bolt holes line up perfect (axle to axle LOL) and just slide that 2x2 tubing back and smack it against the "butt".

Hah.

And really, if you're just replacing the rear third, just make sure you put everything back together the way you pulled it out (pretty easy) and the only thing that really "exactly" should be in place is the driveline splines. Don't worry about splines in the axles. You can't see them anyway.

It's all good.  Sorry, I didn't realize you found the thread actually searching for info before posting.. I wasn't upset at all, just wondering how you found that article..  hmmmmm, I guess it was a good thing that I posted that topic for others to find...

Good job. See guys, the search feature DOES work after all.. lol...  Peace

Ya know, the ABSOLUTE BEST improvement you could make to that wonderful backlash/preload pdf document is to remake it with your name included as the author!   

Toot your own horn! It's a danged nice one!

I'll be ever vigilant to recieve an updated one for the FAQ! 

Heck, maybe I'll be able to get it online in les than fifteen minutes, this time! 

BTW:  BIG Improvements coming to the FAQ VERY SOON!

if you are broke and want to weld sidegears what you do is weld the teeth together on all but the ones where the spiders gears sit on both side gears grind so the filled in teeth have a smooth profile.  reassemble and with about 2-3 hours work and .50$ of welding wire you have a homemade mini spool

Dustin