Convert AWD to FWD?

[Breezio69]

My wheel bearing was seized in the knuckle on the front. Heat, hammer, pb blaster, more hammer, more heat... if its that big of a deal to spent an hour on a 30 minute job of changing a wheel bearing, just meet me half way and take my gst. No need to trash an awd chassis because you can't swing a hammer. This sounds really silly... my jeep has 35's on it, its 21 years old and goes through bearings every other year. That doesn't mean I want to make it rwd with 27" stock tires because of a bit of maintenance.

Just sayin

 

[Paul@RTM]

Yeah, sorry, whichever is different for LSD. I swore I thought it was the outer, but must be the inner if you say so.

It's the inner cups for sure.

 

[1LE]

My wheel bearing was seized in the knuckle on the front. Heat, hammer, pb blaster, more hammer, more heat... if its that big of a deal to spent an hour on a 30 minute job of changing a wheel bearing, just meet me half way and take my gst. No need to trash an awd chassis because you can't swing a hammer. This sounds really silly... my jeep has 35's on it, its 21 years old and goes through bearings every other year. That doesn't mean I want to make it rwd with 27" stock tires because of a bit of maintenance.

Just sayin

Maintenance is not the issue. It would be easier if I DID go through bearings every other year. Then they'd stand a chance of coming out. I'll have to grab you guys some pics when I get a chance, you have no idea how badly trashed this stuff is. Seriously, this isn't just "kinda stuck", I've got stuff rusted into solid balls of what used to be metal that's coming out in chunks. We've stopped just short of borrowing a jackhammer from the local road crew... ;-)

On the plus side, Miller's got what I need! Thanks so much for the recommendation! Funny how so many people on here suggested them, but neither I nor any of the local shops had ever heard of the place before. Are they new? He won't sell *just* the parts I need, so I'm getting a whole rearend (arms, diff, axles, everything), but he says it all comes apart fine, so I should be GTG once that gets here (of course, I won't get my hopes up *too* high, we've already gone through a couple sets from other places that were supposedly good, but turned out to be damaged)! I won't mind having the spare parts, I'm due to break some other stuff back there, it's all original and this car lives a hard life!

 

[turtlebain]

Believe me, I'd much rather replace the parts that are damaged beyond reuse. However, that doesn't appear to be possible anymore as not all the 2g AWD specific rear end parts are available from the factory anymore, the aftermarket doesn't provide them, and all the used ones out there also seem to be trashed. Converting the car from AWD to FWD is looking like my last resort to save the car. Otherwise I'll probably have to part it out (which would be really sad since I just had new custom IC piping/IC install done a few months ago and it just has a bad wheel bearing).

That can't be possible that ALL of the parts out there are trash. Don't look in the junkyard , they are sitting and likely to be trashed. Look at the part outs section. There's plenty people saying I have pretty much any part just PM me.

Didn't read all this but good. Glad you got what you wanted make sure to soak in penetrating lube so you don't turn it into "balls of rust" .

 

[bryanwheat]

Maintenance is not the issue. It would be easier if I DID go through bearings every other year. Then they'd stand a chance of coming out. I'll have to grab you guys some pics when I get a chance, you have no idea how badly trashed this stuff is. Seriously, this isn't just "kinda stuck", I've got stuff rusted into solid balls of what used to be metal that's coming out in chunks. We've stopped just short of borrowing a jackhammer from the local road crew... ;-)

On the plus side, Miller's got what I need! Thanks so much for the recommendation! Funny how so many people on here suggested them, but neither I nor any of the local shops had ever heard of the place before. Are they new? He won't sell *just* the parts I need, so I'm getting a whole rearend (arms, diff, axles, everything), but he says it all comes apart fine, so I should be GTG once that gets here (of course, I won't get my hopes up *too* high, we've already gone through a couple sets from other places that were supposedly good, but turned out to be damaged)! I won't mind having the spare parts, I'm due to break some other stuff back there, it's all original and this car lives a hard life!

Let's see some pics of what you are Dealing with. I would be willing to bet that what you have is no worse than 70 percent of these cars out there.

 

[dsm_94_4ever]

Seriously you might want to just get it over with and sell the car to someone who cares if your getting this down over a wheel bearing buy something new because there plenty of worse problems to come.

 

[Phantom DSM]

Seriously you might want to just get it over with and sell the car to someone who cares if your getting this down over a wheel bearing buy something new because there plenty of worse problems to come.

The guy did mention in his last post that he scored a whole rear end from Miller import to source parts from...Its been over 2 months, i doubt he needs your negativism. Im pretty sure he got it done.... Useless reply on an old thread..

 

[1LE]

Miller supplied some top notch used parts. Brand new wheel bearing ($55) used along with spindle and axle for left side from them. Rest of the rearend parts all going into storage for when the right side fails. Didn't try and force the old rear parts anymore, still don't see anyway they're coming apart in anything resembling a usable form.

Of course, on the first test drive my nice new (only 9 months old) AGM battery cooked off. Switched back to flooded lead acid, I've had nothing but trouble with fancy batteries over the years. Then on the third test drive the left rear caliper seized up. That's normal DSM stuff though.

The whole point of this thread was to save the car, not to get rid of it. I was willing to make it FWD only if necessary. I've had it for 12 years now. Many a track day and rally on it. Many a broken part. The root problem was that I went to buy a part and found it unavailable. Couldn't get it new and none of the suppliers I've used for years could come up with it, so I was going to modify the car to keep it running. Miller (who I've never heard of before despite being around DSMs since the mid-'90's) was the answer to that, letting me restore it to what it should be.

It's as good to go as a DSM gets now, I just need to rebuild that caliper, get an alignment, and install new magnets on the axle for the rally computer pickup.

 

[95talongirl]

Just an FYI. There's a shop in Dearborn, MI, that will rebuild the rear axles. For those who do not live in the rust belt, this is not a simple task or matianece issue. I, as well as, the shop in Dearborn, could not believe the extent as to how the axle rusted into the hub like that. His 20-ton press could not get the pieces apart. And yes, prior to taking it to him (broke the axle and took it in with the end in the hub, and the other piece) we tried to use heat and beat on it. I have never, ever seen anything rust together that solid before.

Anyways, it's a shop called Dearborn rack and axle. They rebuilt the axle shaft for about 100$. Might be more now, as that was a few years ago. I anti-seized the hell out of it when putting it back together.

 

[1LE]

Anyways, it's a shop called Dearborn rack and axle. They rebuilt the axle shaft for about 100$. Might be more now, as that was a few years ago. I anti-seized the hell out of it when putting it back together.

Good info, thanks! Dearborn's just a short run up into MI for me. When (if?) the weather breaks I might just go ahead and see if they can do anything with this bad one. Wouldn't mind having another spare!