As the title states, 4WD in the snow in reverse is a very bad combination... I broke the passenger side differential mount. Fucking third time that I had it offroad and the front end broke. I mean, I knew that the front end was a weak point, but the third time I had it offroad... damn...

Pictures as soon as I pull it out... and I'll pull it as soon as I get new parts...

well u gota remember the car isnt really brand new now..most of these things have some prety tuff miles on it

i dont know what part ur talking about though...i can asusme but i dont know for sure..but im guessing maybe it was rusty...

besides now just replace it with a stronger one if u can and itl be all good =)

It was the actual mount on the differential... meaning that I need a new housing (as far as i can tell). But fortunately I have word on a Tracker with a blown engine/rusty body for a couple hundred... gonna look into it tomorrow. Might have the mighty Trackery up and running sooner than I though

Get the new housing, take it to a welder
that can do Aluminum, sometimes called
Heli-Arc, and have the hollow space in between
the bolt holes welded solid, now tap and install
steel threaded inserts, these are sometimes
called Heli-Coil (No I don't work for the Heli Co.)

LOL I don't even know if they are from the same
Co.

Now when you install the new housing, make sure
you use Loc-Tite, the blue Medium strength should
be fine, and torque those bolts to about 35-40 Ft Lbs
with lock washers, you sould not have any more trouble.

The reason these break is the bolts get loose, and the
housing twists the bolts and breaks the holes out.

You could also get the old housing welded up, and then
give it the same treatment as a new one, you just will
have to re drill the broken hole then tap and steel thread it.

Good Luck

Wild

Ya the ear on the front diff carrier broke on me too a few weeks back.

I still need to replace it. I'm going through 4x4 withdrawls.  

I'll have to try that out. I think I'll pick up that parts Tracker and use the front diff out of that, then do what you recommended to the old one and keep it around for spare. Once the other one does the same thing, I'll throw the old one back in and do the same to the other housing

Thanks for the tip, Wildgoody.

Why not go with the GV?

Can I just take a GV housing and transfer all of the internals from the Tracker front into it? Or do I have to dick around with getting a bunch of different parts from a bunch of different vehicles and frankenstiening it together?

I would take a GV housing in a heart beat,
it's the best solution, but when you got to
go Mod on the Cheap you learn how to make
better what the Zuke Engineers should have done.

I also think the Aluminum 3rd member is built
stupid witht he mounting ear drilled with 3 holes in it,
2 for bolts and 1 between those going into the mount
at 90* from the other 2 to weaken the whole thing  

I have yet to figure how to fix this as there is not
much room to get a TIG welder into the little hole.

I Might just have to use the MIG and pre heat the
whole housing to fill it all in and re drill the holes for
a more solid mount.

Jeez I should be a engineering consultant for Suzuki.

 

Wild

Can I just take a GV housing and transfer all of the internals from the Tracker front into it? Or do I have to dick around with getting a bunch of different parts from a bunch of different vehicles and frankenstiening it together?

GV is a steel bolt in replacement, and is the Tits way to go.

How much do you figure that a junkyard would charge for a GV housing?

If you can find one, $150-200 but that's just a guess.

What gears to GV's come with? 5.12's like Trackers?

Also, If I can get the $200 parts truck, I think I might just go that direction, since it'd be a simple bolt right in deal... the GV front might have to wait until I get more monies... I dunno right now...

I'm pretty sure you have to swap your tracker gears into the GV housing because the GV gears are different.

I want to get a GV housing too, but they are hard to come by and the dealer wants $320 for one.

Mac hooked me up with a good deal on one, but I have to wait for it to fall through, which may take a while. So I'm going to go grab another Aluminum housing for the time being.  

This time I'm going to beef it up a bit since we mainly work with aluminum at my uncles shop we can weld it up easy.  And I'm also going to run the steel belt over the housing so it doesn’t hop anymore.

You seem to be in the same boat as me, Kreg. I think I'm just gonna do the same and get the parts truck and put in the aluminum diff and beaf up the mounts...