Mugatu
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Everett
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2019
- Threads
- 4
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 118
- Location
- Bay Area, California
- Vehicle(s)
- 19 Ranger Lariat FX4, 99 SVT Cobra, 23 Mach 1
- Occupation
- Consultant
- Vehicle Showcase
- 1
- Thread starter
- #16
Broken OEM Driver's CV Axle & RCV CV Axle, Cracked oil pan, Bent Front Differential Mounts, Realignement Attempt
Son of a... biscuit....
While wheeling with a buddy out in Mendocino National Forest, my inboard driver's side CV axle grenaded itself. This happened while climbing out of a rutted trail on a decent incline. Of course I had an audience of Jeepers and plenty of Tacos. After blocking the trail for a few min, I finally was able to get up to the top and move out of the way for the folks behind me. The tripod bearings had ripped themselves out and were laying on the trail.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I do know that the drive side wheel was at full droop. I was in 4Low, I had some slippage while the wheels tried to gain traction. I also remember slightly turning the steering a few degrees either way. I "think" advantrak was on, but don't remember sure. Rear locker was on for sure.
I of course was stuck about 40 miles deep into the national forest on top of a old fire look out a top of Hull Mountain. On top of that, I was about 200 miles overall from home. Fortunately it was only noon, but I absolutely had to be out of there before the end of the day to start a new job. Talk about pressure.
Fortunately, the truck was movable albiet slowly. Of course during the course of trying to get a recovery, no one would come get us unless we were closer to the main road 40 miles away. I wish I could've called Matt's Offroad Recovery!
Long story short, we made it to civilization and FINALLY got someone who was willing to come get my truck. We made it home just past midnight and I was able to start my new job the following day thanks to my buddy, the folks at Soda Creek Store, and a few other friendly offroaders along the way.
At the time I heard that the early model rangers (2019) all had tripod inboard bearings which were known to fail in a higher percentage versus the updated models that came with dual rzeppas. The photo below: top CV axle is the updated dual rzeppa, and the bottom one is the early model with the tripod bearing on the inboard side. Just below that I think is my dead CV.
During this time, parts were hard to get. But fortunately APG had teamed up with RCV to create APG specific CV Axles, so I ordered a pair of those. Dual Rzeppa forged goodness!
Until I broke this one too.
A few months later, I was out on another trip out to Usal Beach with a caravan of folks (the same trip where my adaptive cruise control wigged out). We rolled out to the beach area which was pretty sandy. A good number of people got stuck and had to be pulled out. I had my full overland load out with RTT and equipment in the bed etc. The last day we were there, we planned to do a group photo by the water. When I packed up and pulled out the driver side CV popped out. Again I had an audience of toyotas etc and had to be recovered.
Sigh... Man, that was a rough day.
I eventually made it home, but the hits kept coming. I had taken the truck to my friends at APG who discovered that the root cause of my issue wasn't the CV axle, but the alignment of the front drive unit (front differential). Apparently when the original axle broke, even at low speeds everytime the knuckle on the shaft hit the rim of the race it had enough force to jostle the mounts on the FDU to go side to side. The repeated force going back and forth was enough to bend the mounts towards the passenger side and slightly puncture the top of the oil pan with the head bolts from the differential.
With APG's help, I was able to get the oil pan sealed up again and out of the way. APG went above and beyond dropping everything to attempt to realign the mounts for the differential. They threw everything at it, but ultimately it was still off enough that any CV axle that I put in there is too close to the edge of the plunge and could pop out at full droop. But they were able to get me street worthy again.
It's not easy to see from the photo, but this mount is bent pretty badly. This is the driver side mounting tab that is bent towards the passenger side.
Same thing on this photo. Hard to see the bend, but the ears are shifted over and the rubber bushing is shot.
No photos of the punctured oil pan, but it was only weeping a little. The bolts on the FDU had impacted the side of the oil pan at the top close to where it mounts to the bottom of the block. Got it sealed with JB Weld.
Ultimately, the general consensus at the time was that I needed to have the mounts completely redone to fix the diff alignment problem. Fortunately with the truck in a running state, it bought me time until I can figure out how to solve the problem. I needed to find a shop with fabrication skills to make it offroad worthy again.
A big shot out to George and Kenny of APG for going out of their way dumping a lot of time into my truck to get me road worthy again. Can't thank them enough.
Son of a... biscuit....
While wheeling with a buddy out in Mendocino National Forest, my inboard driver's side CV axle grenaded itself. This happened while climbing out of a rutted trail on a decent incline. Of course I had an audience of Jeepers and plenty of Tacos. After blocking the trail for a few min, I finally was able to get up to the top and move out of the way for the folks behind me. The tripod bearings had ripped themselves out and were laying on the trail.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I do know that the drive side wheel was at full droop. I was in 4Low, I had some slippage while the wheels tried to gain traction. I also remember slightly turning the steering a few degrees either way. I "think" advantrak was on, but don't remember sure. Rear locker was on for sure.
I of course was stuck about 40 miles deep into the national forest on top of a old fire look out a top of Hull Mountain. On top of that, I was about 200 miles overall from home. Fortunately it was only noon, but I absolutely had to be out of there before the end of the day to start a new job. Talk about pressure.
Fortunately, the truck was movable albiet slowly. Of course during the course of trying to get a recovery, no one would come get us unless we were closer to the main road 40 miles away. I wish I could've called Matt's Offroad Recovery!
Long story short, we made it to civilization and FINALLY got someone who was willing to come get my truck. We made it home just past midnight and I was able to start my new job the following day thanks to my buddy, the folks at Soda Creek Store, and a few other friendly offroaders along the way.
At the time I heard that the early model rangers (2019) all had tripod inboard bearings which were known to fail in a higher percentage versus the updated models that came with dual rzeppas. The photo below: top CV axle is the updated dual rzeppa, and the bottom one is the early model with the tripod bearing on the inboard side. Just below that I think is my dead CV.
During this time, parts were hard to get. But fortunately APG had teamed up with RCV to create APG specific CV Axles, so I ordered a pair of those. Dual Rzeppa forged goodness!
Until I broke this one too.
A few months later, I was out on another trip out to Usal Beach with a caravan of folks (the same trip where my adaptive cruise control wigged out). We rolled out to the beach area which was pretty sandy. A good number of people got stuck and had to be pulled out. I had my full overland load out with RTT and equipment in the bed etc. The last day we were there, we planned to do a group photo by the water. When I packed up and pulled out the driver side CV popped out. Again I had an audience of toyotas etc and had to be recovered.
Sigh... Man, that was a rough day.
I eventually made it home, but the hits kept coming. I had taken the truck to my friends at APG who discovered that the root cause of my issue wasn't the CV axle, but the alignment of the front drive unit (front differential). Apparently when the original axle broke, even at low speeds everytime the knuckle on the shaft hit the rim of the race it had enough force to jostle the mounts on the FDU to go side to side. The repeated force going back and forth was enough to bend the mounts towards the passenger side and slightly puncture the top of the oil pan with the head bolts from the differential.
With APG's help, I was able to get the oil pan sealed up again and out of the way. APG went above and beyond dropping everything to attempt to realign the mounts for the differential. They threw everything at it, but ultimately it was still off enough that any CV axle that I put in there is too close to the edge of the plunge and could pop out at full droop. But they were able to get me street worthy again.
It's not easy to see from the photo, but this mount is bent pretty badly. This is the driver side mounting tab that is bent towards the passenger side.
Same thing on this photo. Hard to see the bend, but the ears are shifted over and the rubber bushing is shot.
No photos of the punctured oil pan, but it was only weeping a little. The bolts on the FDU had impacted the side of the oil pan at the top close to where it mounts to the bottom of the block. Got it sealed with JB Weld.
Ultimately, the general consensus at the time was that I needed to have the mounts completely redone to fix the diff alignment problem. Fortunately with the truck in a running state, it bought me time until I can figure out how to solve the problem. I needed to find a shop with fabrication skills to make it offroad worthy again.
A big shot out to George and Kenny of APG for going out of their way dumping a lot of time into my truck to get me road worthy again. Can't thank them enough.
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