August rolls around and I'm on my way to meet some fellow Cruiser heads on the GA/SC state line for a long weekend of camping up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm about 5 miles from the meeting point and had just hit a twisty gravel road that leads to the camp where they were waiting for me. I was in 4Hi and letting the wind blow through the windows when the whole drive train appears to lock up. I'm stuck, but within 2m range, so my buds come get me, my gear and we get my truck picked up and eventually back to Atlanta.
Diagnosis was several things and I still haven't had time to dig into every component, but pretty much rebuilt/replaced everything that rotated from stern to stem: Rear diff toasted a pinion bearing (my fault), rear caliper seized (my neglect), t-case was leaking and suspected it was toast (haven't opened yet), front diff seized (but didn't know it yet). I think a combination of the seized caliper and the starved pinion bearings locked up the rear axle, transferred the load through the tcase and killed the front diff in one horrific instant.
I had my fill with rebuilding diffs, so I opted for an off the shelf/core exchange with ECGS. I found a wrecked FJC at a parts yard and swiped the tcase, front diff and drive shafts from it for a really good deal. Once the rear diff was installed, I could daily drive it again. Over the next several months I rebuilt everything else on the bench until I was ready to swap. First was the t-case which was basically just a bolt on job, but I thought while I'm up in here, I need to replace the rear main seal that has been weeping, so out comes the transmission. While the transmission is out, I think why not replace the motor mounts too? Done. And I added butyl sound deadener to the trans tunnel too.
Replaced a lot of rusty bolts and rubber mounts with factory goodness. Had the extra drive shafts retubed with a thicker wall (although slightly smaller OD) and saved my originals for spares.
Rebuilt the rear brakes with remarkably affordable reman kits from Napa (which turns out are Aisin cores) and ordered new factory hard and soft lines to complete the rehab.
