OK, I go out to fix my parking brake bellcranks this morning. Shot PB all over them yesterday. I pounded off my drum on 1 side (what a frozen mess, but that's another story. The 8mm bolt cracked it....sniff sniff).

I had cleaned my rear end yesterday, scraped off scale etc., in preparation for fixing what I think is an oil pinion leak. There was fluid all over there, at any rate. But I got it off well enough.

Today, it's weeping oil on the FILL PLUG SIDE. This can't be fixed, right??

So, I should stop working with the emergency brake and get my buddy to find me a rear end, eh?
Luckily, altho I am a noob and don't have the experience to deal with this, I have a friend who is very busy but can handle this crap. I just ask here for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinion! At least parts are cheap around here....and the wisdom on this forum rocks!

 

You could fix that.
Take it to a welding shop and tell them to weld over the crack.

 

I'm all for it. I'll see if my buddy can help out (he's about the only person I know that can weld). In preparation, I should probably grind it down with a wire brush to get the area clean around it, and see how bad it is, eh?
I may have to drive it there, tho, so don't want to drain it yet...

All the things I thought would have to be done to this thing, and it's not ANY of them! It's stuff like this that just pops up...toasted my drum getting it off, now I have to find a junkyard replacement (likely both)...
OT, but How does one collapse the breaks to get a new drum on??? The pads look fine; I am dinking with the parking brake cranks.

'93 pickup 4x4 22RE

 

Got it....'star wheel'...took a while to figure out how this thing works.

PB Blaster, a hammer, some determination = working bellcranks (at least for now - need 'em for inspection, though, so locking up again later is ok).
Maybe the brakes will self-adjust like they should, too, after I put it back together.

 

This is gonna get interesting; pulled out the rear axle, completely....my buddy got me a whole 'new' one! It's going in on Sunday. So that will be one less problem (had a rear oil pinion seal leak anyway, which we're taking care of same time, of course).
Axleshafts look good, brakes and lines look good, so this SHOULD be pretty easy. The hard part is done, like breaking free the driveshaft bolts etc.

Question: If I'm gonna have a bunch of repairs like this to get my rig into 'normal' condition, should I make a "build thread" to follow those repairs - for getting info from the forum and also to help people coming along behind me? Seems more logical than to keep posting "problem X" and "problem Y" questions as they come up - the history of the truck would be right there in a build thread. A lot of this is just going to 'get done', and it would be cool to post the 'historical line' as it goes along and how problems were dealt with. But I'm not 'building it up' into a crawler or anything....thanks

 

Glad you got another axle. Doesn't look like you could have gotten the drain or fill plug off the other one....

 

'zactly, OC! I messed with the fill & drain...no way they're goin' anywhere. I drained the thing under the pig before I got the last nuts off. Only had to cut 1 stud off ;o)
It's out, now I have to drop the axle housing and we're good to go.

So, is it ok to start a "build" thread for this rig? Then I can keep track of where things are at rather than do individual posts....