Thread: I broke Thumper

Well we packed up the trailer and family and went down to Nymboida for some well earned R&R,4 days of camping and rafting with a chance of some off road fun thrown in for good measure
All went well for the trip down,finally found a good spot to setup camp,and settle in,bro-in-law and mate arrived later and we watched as novice campers got set-up
Next day the rest of the b-i-l-'s tribe where meant to arrive "sometime",so we went and got wet down the rapids and spent the arvo waiting for the younger group to arrive.
Finally they did,so it was off to the 200+ acre paddock and Quarry across the road,YEHAA
All going well,bro-in-law tried to scale a loose gravel pile with his navarra and only got half way b4 loosing grip,so backed down for another look,so engaging cdl and low range ,gave thumper a little right foot,and up and over without a problem,so ventured off to find some more "challenging "stuff,
Half way up a rutted track heard a loud "crack"like hitting a stump in the long grass,and since no lights started doing flashing things ,thought no more about it,until I got back to the main and dis-engaged the cdl and found no movement
got out and took a look underneath to find a small dribble of oil emanating from the rear diff,hmm,seal blown i first thought ,then realised there is no seal on the rear of the diff housing,ohhhhh crud (plus a few other choice words that the word censor wont let me put in)what confronted me was a hole the size of a five cent piece,neatly punched out of the rear of the housing draining the remaing oil,of course the hole had to be on the bottom of the housing,so all fun curtailed for the day whilst a quick limp back to camp was the order of the day,complete with assorted rattles and clunks from rear end
After telling swmbo that the weekend was gunna be shorter than expected,had a good look at things and decided not to change the whole diff housing over and repair the hole instead,giving us back the four day break
Well after removing the rear tailshaft and the rear axles,there was only 3/4 of a turn in the diff ,so obviously something had busted big time,with some bush enginueity(spellcheck Ron) and some info gleaned from the tech pages of AULRO i devised a temporary dust seal for the rear axles ,consisting of a plastic drink cup ,a cut down coke can ,a zippy tie and some orange nylon rope
After trimming the plastic cup to fit,the coke can had the zippy tie attached thru the bottom and the nylon rope was then zig zagged thru the wheel spokes to keep it all in place,this did the trick nicely and stayed there for the trip home from Nymboida to Aratula
Once home ,left the unloading to the rest of the family and set about removing the diff centre.
Upon removal found the pin that holds all the planetary gears in the centre had sheared in three pieces resulting in all the gears in the bottom of the housing,hence only the 3/4 turn motion
Down to the donor Rangie in the paddock retrieve the diff centre and the handbrake drum(it fell off after we left for home,the two screws that were hard to get off just fell out and the drum went west)refit all items ,repair hole in housing with some rubber washers and cup head bolts till later when proper repair can be done and all is now well again with Thumper

Pics to follow

your brother in law is a saint mate! he must spend half his holidays helping fix your trucks!