So, we went riding on Ft Sill last weekend and found some great trails and got a ticket from the local game warden! Anyways I pulled the front skidplate
today to have a look at the diff and I notice the front IFS diff mounting bracket (the one that mounts to the front crossmember) is bent over to the driver side and pulling the mount bushing out, wow! Also the pinion seal has started leaking. The only thing I can think is that the torque from the axle tried to twist the diff and then bent the bracket, I looked at the other diff mounts and they seem fine. Anyone else had this happen? Seems like it would be easy to plate and gusset this mount, anyone done it or have pics?

 

Having a hard time picturing what you're talking about. How about some pix of this carnage?

 

Nope, no cam sorry. Its the mount on the front of the diff (wher the diff cover usually is) mounts directly to the lower a-arm crossmember.Has a rubber bushing.

 

OK.

Can't imagine how you did that. You would have to bend the other mounts I would think - and no Toyota engine/gearing is going to generate enough torque to do that!

Do the CV's look like they're bending sideways (not just vertically)?

 

Yeah its weird. Well the mounts have rubber bushings in them but the other
mounts bolt in vertically, the front mount bolts horizontal(sp) I guess if the other bushings flexed enough It could bend the front bracket. I DO know that
I was pretty deep into the skinny pedal low&1st gear as the rev limiter cut
me off on a nice ledge climb a couple times. FWIW the front bracket is pretty
wimpy, the bracket only mounts to one side of the bushing bolt. Still I dont
understand how the other mounts dont have any damage, maybe their just stronger?

 

the diff sits level in the "cradle" of the frame and the cv shafts are fine. The
front bracket and bushing are screwed up but nothing else, weird right?
I know it didnt get hit by a rock as my skid plate is made of 1/4 inch plate.

 

If you are running a toy engine in that thing, you didn't bend it with torque. It sounds like to me, if i am reading your descriptoin correctly, that your diff didn't twist at all, but rather something bent your crossmember at some point. Are you the original owner? If not, it may be damage that was ghetto repaired, and now is looking pretty bad.

 

yep, 22re bored out, headers exhaust etc,etc guessing 120 hp. The crossmember is good and so are the other diff mounts. The crossmember did NOT bend, only the single bracket that come off it. I would have noticed if this were an existing problem.

 

yeah, just a thought. Pretty stumped. Hope you can get it fixed.

 

Are you saying there is only one bracket (tab) sticking up from the front crosmember? Or when you are saying bracket are you refering to two individual tabs?

If there is only one tab (piece of metal sticking up off the crossmember) then maybe that is part of your problem.

My truck has two tabs that stick up on either side of the mount on the front of the diff. A bolt goes through tab 1, through the the mount, through tab 2, and then a nut on the other end. Looking at mine, as long as the bolt has a nut on the end of it I can't see any way possible for the bushing to start pulling out.

Even if your setup is the same as mine, if you somehow have the bushing pulling out something is really messed up.

 

Ahhhh, that's the problem.

Y'all need to figure out that there is a direct link between the skinny pedal (we call in the stupid pedal out here) and your wallet (really)









Fred

 

that is normally true, but i really doubt that would be the case here. Not saying that it absolutly isn't true, but it seems really unlikely here.

He says he has a 22re, bored out, with headers and intake.

I have a 22re, bored out, with headers and an intake. Its making roughly 105 hp. His must be really really bored out, as he is saying that he is making 120. i'm guessing his is a race motor. Mine isn't. but, it doesn't matter, as its only 120.

Guys with 2nd gen trucks, IFS, with a 3.4 swapped, 5.29s, and DUAL cases in low low (read: crawl ratio of something like 223:1 powered by a motor with at a min 180 hp), are not breaking that mount. Axles sure, but that mount, never heard of it.

But, that doesn't mean that it didn't happen. However, what says to me that it isn't torque is that his axles are all in the proper alignment, and none of his other diff mounts are bent. IF the driveshaft twisted the diff, there would have to be damage somewhere else, i would think.

FWIW, most folks i know call it the stupid pedal too

 

Axle, yes its an LCE motor, plus 120 hp is a GUESS, I could be way off. It does make good power. The bracket on my truck only has one tab to hold
the diff (maybe that the factory changed this design I dunno) anyways I'm
gonna get an extra crossmember from one of the sas guys and see whut I can do to beef it up. I'll try and get it off a early IFS, sounds like they are stronger. And yeah I should probably take it easier on the stupid pedal!

 

Yeah, i figured if you were making 120 it was LCE. Your IFS is the same as the early stuff. No change there. It should have two tabs. That is your problem right there. Get a new xmember w/two tabs and you should be good to go. Hopefully nothing else was damaged.

 

think I know what happened, had gears swapped out a couple years ago by a shop, Ill bet their POS mechanics cut the tabs to make it easier to install.

 

Sounds like something a shop would do... TISK TISK. I just put my front diff back in today, it's not that hard with a floor jack and some patience.

 

Come on man, 5 year old thread.

 

bahaha, coulda swore I hit NEW THREADS, musta been in my list of open threads from searching for crossmember torque

 

I know this is an old thread but it is the only place where I've seen this.the same thing happened to me, only the drivers side mount was torqued and I had to cut it off and reweld it to the frame. Though in my case I think its due to the bracket lift and v8. Will add a picture tonight.

 

If it was me I would try and get a new bracket. weld it and it could let go again in the heat effected zone just from metal fatigue.

If this broke once was it because the bolt had gotten loose??

Sometimes you need to make do with what you have.