weekend axle swap........nearly

[McLean Racing]

Decided to undertake the biggest job on my Colorado myself with some help from my brother this weekend. Basically, i had snapped the drivers side top trailing arm mount off the axle and rather than repair, i thought, "do it once, do it right" and bought a brand new genuine axle case through Milners, plus some extra's

here is the offending item


So i got onto Milners and bought a new axle case, a set of there rear poly bushes, gasket, drain plugs and breather. All received the next day which was brilliant considering the size.


Also ordered a load of bits from RoughTrax, uprated rear springs, bump stops, ARB drop links, ARB bushes, Various brake parts and oil seals, also had a set of Goodridge stainless braided brake hoses which i won in a competition a few months back.

Time to get started, the removal wasnt as bad as i thought, all bolts came out no problem which was nice. was just a pain having to lay on my back all the time. Had it out within 3 hours.


managed to drag the axle 50 yards round to the back garden to strip it. Fairly simple, undo the hubs, pull them out, then undo the diff housing and pull that out, got the new housing into the mancave on the bench, cuz it was warm and cosy and not raining like it was outside, plus i dont do real dirty jobs in the shed as i build race motors in there.

Anyways, got the diff installed, all new stainless bolts (i never re-use bolts if i can help it), installed the oil seals, ABS sensors and mocked up the new brake lines, then had to move the axle back outside before it was too heavy to lift off the bench lol


once outside, i installed the driveshafts and hubs, smearing the new driveshaft seals with lithium grease before installation, also installed the new Goodridge hoses and new bleed nipples on the calipers.


after that, i finished off the brake hard lines, i need to get a few clips to secure it to the axle. Then while my brother was removing the bushes from the trailing arms, i got to work cleaning them up and gave them a quick lick of Hammerite to protect them untill i get the car undersealed and then installed the new poly bushes from Milners.


Thats about as far as ive got for this weekend, but happy that ive got it completed ready to go back into the car. Ill need to wait now untill next weekend to get it fitted, due to the weather and low light i just ran out of time to get it back into the car but hopefully i should be back on the road again by sunday, till then ill need to keep walking to work lol. Now i need to jump in the bath as my back is killing me.

 

[MarkW]

MMM Shiney new axle casing Wish they'd stocked when I did mine, spent almost as much doing up my old one

Make sure you keep the drain holes on those mounts clear and it shouldn't rust out again

 

[BobMurphy]

Oh Yes, nice new parts ; I spent a long time with a grit blaster stripping my axle casing ready for painting .

Good Job - You have done well to get that far in a wet weekend .

Keep the pictures coming.

Bob.

 

[McLean Racing]

Well im back on the road once again. Another 2 days work and i had the axle back in and the brakes bled including new brake hoses on the front. Ill put pics up later.

Now the only problem i have is that my ABS light is on and if i get it to go away. Itll come back again pretty quickly. Now is it possible for it to show a fault if there is still air in the system? Failing that i just hope i havent damaged one of the 2 sensors on the back axle during the swap because i realy cannot afford another £100 each per sensor.....

 

[Sag]

I'd have a look at the wires make sure there ok and by the way you've done a good job there buddy

 

[Jimmyarm]

If there is air in the system your brakes will be chap and spongey, unless it is something modern that requires activating the abs system via diagnostic equipment to bleed then it won't 'know' if there is or not.

It will be a sensor issue, if you can clear the fault then as soon as you go over 10/15mph the light comes on it is not getting a signal or it is getting an incorrect signal from one of the wheels.

Obviously diagnosis is much easier by interrogating the abs controller as the fault code will tell you what the issue is and you can look at the data readings whilst driving.

The basic checks are, sensors plugged in properly, wiring not damaged (stretching the sensor wires cam brake them) and reluctor rings not cracked/damaged/excessively corroded or dirty.

I must admit I am not familiar with the system on these but I imagine it is a fairly basic older style system, checking the sensors is fairly easy with a half decent multimeter although a proper scope is more accurate. There are plenty of videos on YouTube e which can explain how to read them better than I can after a few ciders !

 

[Bob]

Also worth checking the connections on the rear bumper lights. If the earth is bad, it can trigger the ABS light... Took me a while to find that one, only copped it when I pressed the brake pedal while stationary and the light came on.

 

[Shayne]

Wonder if you have just confused the brains , with the axle off all weekend i assume you turned the ignition on at least once to open a window or something , disconnecting the battery overnight might reset it ?

 

[McLean Racing]

I think Jimmyarm is on the money. I can reset the system but as soon as i go over 15mph the light comes on solid. Looks like ill be digging around under the car again 2morrow....oh the joys lol

Im just hoping its a broken cable as ill just remake the cables to the sensor......if not, i best get my wallet out again

 

[Jimmyarm]

Don't get too disheartened yet !

It's actually quite hard to damage the sensors and more likely that you have an issue with a connector plug or the wiring

I'll look under mine tomorrow and see what the setUp is so I can try a different shed a bit more light on how to diagnose it but it could be something like a bent pin in one the multiplugs etc.

 

[StarCruiser]

I think Shayne may have hit on something. Try disconnecting batteries to reset the abs. Generic info, I don't know this model. [emoji4]

 

[McLean Racing]

Thats how i have been resetting it. Disconnect batteries for 5 minutes then that clears the fault. Theres defo something else amiss

 

[StarCruiser]

Gotcha, as advice above, check everything. Even closeness to relict or rings if irbid adjustable. It's got to be something silly.

Good luck with it.

 

[Shayne]

Most have a short term memory to prevent people deleting faults in this way , costs nothing to try it over night and there's nothing more frustrating than searching for a problem that doesn't exist .

 

[BobMurphy]

I assume that you didn't alter the ABS rings and their locking rings on the half shafts when they were out ??

I messed up the positioning of the rings on my '100' when I changed the hub bearings . . . Take the ABS Sensors out, look down the hole and you should see the toothed transmitter ring (not half of it ).

Just a simple, quick check to eliminate it from the equation .

Bob.

 

[McLean Racing]

carrying on from were i left off the other weekend, i woke up and got to work on the truck, while waiting for my brother to turn up i got the trailing arms and arb drop links fitted up loosely ready yo accept the axle


Next up was the axle, we had it in and done up within an hour, there was a bit of blood, sweat and swearing to get it in and all the trailing arms lined up. Also getting the stiffer springs in took a bit of persuading but it was fairly straight forward considering


Next up was to fit the new brake lines and also new brake hoses on the front and bleed the system up.


putting it all back together i snapped a bloody wheelstud on my rear drivers side wheel so ended up ordering a new one, in the mean time, i road tested the car. It handles ALOT better, alot firmer and more like a car, so i think next on the list will be to replace the front suspension bushes and springs to match. I did have an ABS fault as i mentioned above, so this weekend i decided to take a look at the sensors........this was the cause.


cleaned them off and the abs fault had gone but has come back a few days later so need to clean them again, i think the new driveshaft oil seals i fitted are letting diff oil through and washing the white grease off the seal itself and flinging the crap onto the sensors, but for now untill i can get round to replacing the seals, ill just keep cleaning the sensors.

As luck would have it, the new wheel stud came through from Roughtrax on saturday morning so i decided to tackle that job, fairly straight forward to be fair, but lucky i did, because after i backed my handbrake shoes off, took the disks off and the shoes fell out! so that was another hour putting that lot back together



Thats about it so far, very happy that i went with a new axle case rather than a repair, it was alot of work but worth it. i just need to remake the bump stop mounts and fit the new bump stops, ill do that next weekend.