Need ideas for cleaning my rear

[dpuckett]

I have found that the shop who put bearings in the differential on my 93 W250 (P. O. paid for it, not me) did a p-poor job of cleaning out the housing before installing the new bearings. The pinion bearings and passenger wheel bearings are in good shape. I'm undecided on the carrier and left wheel bearings (guy who owns the shop says they are ok, but should I really trust him?)- they have evidence of chunks of metal, etc, getting in the rollers and scoring them pretty good. Still roll ok, though. Add to the bearing issue a limited slip clutch failure, and I had my work cut out for me.



Getting back on topic. I have the center housing almost clean enough to eat out of- not a sliver or fleck of metal in the center, plus 99% of the crud and gunk removed to boot. But, there is stuff in the tubes, which leaves me wondering- what is the best way to make 110% absolutely SURE I get every last scrap of metal out of the tubes, short of removing the axle and having it hot tanked (and is that even a guarantee?). I took a few swipes with a piece of an old towel soaked in kerosene, but I havent figured out a way to get the towel to go only one direction, and not bring the slivers back over the clean area.



Anyone have any better ideas?



Daniel

 

[R C Cola]

clean my rear ? ?

I use Scott 1000/sheets per/roll. sorry couldn't resist. Seriously though if it were mine I could not rest without a dismantle and clean spotless and inspect each part. As for trust what he tells you. If his shop did this crappy job, how could you trust anything he has to say now. He is just trying to get rid of you. You are the one who has to decide what to do now and you are the one that will suffer if that decision is a wrong one. Any marks that you can see on a new bearing are unacceptable regardless of the noise or lack for the time being. If you paid good money, you deserve a top notch job. How could you possibly trust this same shop to correct something they screwed up so badly. ? ? If you are mechanical you could pull it apart yourself, clean and reassemble. Best of luck on finding a solution. R C

 

[dpuckett]

Hey, thanks for the pep talk, RC. But, the previous owner pad for the shoddy work in Jan, and as such, the shop owes me nothing. I think out of decency and for his own conscience, he should buy me some new bearings, but legally, I dont have anything coming my way. I have dismantled it- pulled the carrier, and removed my first pinion today. I have kept track of where every shim was and came from and will go back. I am GOING to get it all clean, it's just a matter of HOW. Then I'll borrow his dial indicator (g/f works there, so it shouldnt be any big deal, plus I have another rear to set up) to reset the carrier preload (read my thread on the D70 carrier R&R). I just need ideas for how to get in that tiny tube to clean it out with my fat arms.



Had I paid for the work, we'd have a court date set by now.....



Was that 2 or 3 ply? :-laf



DP

 

[tkerrigan]

Pull axles, feed wire through from outside to inside, attach clean rag and pull through. Do this many times.

 

[DodgeWarlock]

Pull axles, feed wire through from outside to inside, attach clean rag and pull through. Do this many times.

I use the same technique to clean shotgun barrels. Use a wire to fish a line through and tie a rag in the end. It should work just fine.

 

[JLEONARD]

Daniel,

You can force the rag thru to the inside using a pipe or broom handle, then clean out the center housing again. PIA to clean the housing a second time, but at least you are now skilled at it. LOL



Ditto what RC said about the bearings... ANY evidence of divits from metal chunks, or discoloration and you'll be back in there again soon. Just replace them now.

Good luck. Jay

 

[Bob4x4]

I actually mad a special tool to clean the tubes for the extreme cases. Made a half circle plate welded on to a tube to draw out the big contaminates,then follow up with it pulling a rag wrapped around it. Going through the outer ends.



Bob

 

[PSU-CE]

I actually mad a special tool to clean the tubes for the extreme cases. Made a half circle plate welded on to a tube to draw out the big contaminates,

I've also made one of these. Another good tool to use after this step is to take a small wire wheel made for chucking into a drill, preferabaly a little larger diameter than the i. d. of the tube, and weld a piece of 1/4" or 3/8" round stock to it. Use a piece long enough to reach the whole way down one tube, chuck it into the drill, and use that to clean out any rust. Follow this with the rag methods mentioned above. Once all the rust/metal chunks are out we then use engine degreaser to remove the slime left after the "mechanical" cleaning. Then pressure wash the tubes. You can also use brake cleaner to really clean them out, just make sure to spray in some WD-40 to keep the clean tubes from flash-rusting.



This will put crap back into your center section, but without cleaning your tubes it doesn't matter how clean the center section is the gunk will get back into center section anyhow.

 

[MMeier]

So Daniel, have you figured out what you have to do yet!!??

 

[dpuckett]

Hmmm, let me see. I still have no idea what to do.



I figured on getting chunks back in the center section, but I still got it all spotless, so at least (hopefully) I wont have to dig with a pick and toothbrush to get out 15years of gunk and grime the second time.



Thanks for the ideas, guys. I'm gonna start with the broom stick. wire idea. I actually have a wire fisher thingie, so that may be a good idea too.



DP