Broke Splined Disconnect Housing

[That1Guy]

Best advice i can offer w/ guns is just like i was told by JD when i started moddin my TB. Identify your goals. What do you want the gun for? Liesure, self defense, concealment, hunting, competition, General Purpose, etc. So once thats figured out, go from there.

Perhaps this is a thread hijack... Oh, if only there was a "gun thread"

If I wasn't on my phone I would copy and paste to transfer over. All im really looking at is a general purpose gun that will be shot at the range and carried in the desert. Nothing expensive and not something I would need to worry about too much.

[v7guy]

so i've got the ATP disconnect and I have to say that I am massively underwhelmed by the quality. The face of the mount for the 4WD actuator isn't even machined smooth, it has a significant step. I've read a lot about this piece but I still have a few questions...

Has anyone taken one of these apart?
Is there any desire to see the internals?
Has anyone had a rapid failure?

I guess I'm glad that it's in one piece and it apparently works (due to the lack of complaints), but good god man.

I've got to install this tomorrow afternoon after I drill the stock piece out of oil pan. If there's any desire to see pics of the internals I'll pop er open.

[Nakashige]

Great I just ordered the same part on amazon 400 shipped overnight

[v7guy]

I've taken pics of the machining of the mount surfaces. They give me the impression that water will definitely leak in and degrade the grease. I've siliconed the actuator mount and installed it. But theres no real solution for the mount at the oil pan... I can either silicone it to keep water out and risk the next R&R resulting in a broken housing or I can apply anti seize and know that I'm going to have to pull it every year to regrease it (we get a lot of salt here in the winter).

Given our options, it is what it is. We can't even get these consistently for 300 used now. So the option is to get this or get a stock one for the same price and spend a bit more than a bill to rebuild it.

Ideally the stock housing wouldnt have broke and I could just rebuild it.

[Nakashige]

My hope is I don't break my stock housing when I pull it. and i will rebuild it after. interested in seeing photos of the machining. Surprised your the first to notice this

[navigator]

My hope is I don't break my stock housing when I pull it. and i will rebuild it after. interested in seeing photos of the machining. Surprised your the first to notice this

the previous folks might have been so excited they didn't have to piece it together that they didn't notice!

[Trail X]

I've taken pics of the machining of the mount surfaces. They give me the impression that water will definitely leak in and degrade the grease. I've siliconed the actuator mount and installed it. But theres no real solution for the mount at the oil pan... I can either silicone it to keep water out and risk the next R&R resulting in a broken housing or I can apply anti seize and know that I'm going to have to pull it every year to regrease it (we get a lot of salt here in the winter).

Jason, did they have a gasket material between the halves of the unit? I'm surprised if they don't. The stock unit does, albeit a small one.

Why are you worried about sealing off the oil pan mounting hole? There is no real downside to getting water in the oil pan hole, is there?

I would be interested in evaluating the quality through pics... I deal with a lot of aluminum machining here at work.

[v7guy]

Between the two halves is silicone. Its squished out at the parting line. I guess my only concearn with the water getting in is that it'll seep into the housing and ruin the grease in the disconnect, since lack of grease seems to be the cause of the disconnect failure. Its irritating.
I noticed water in the grease of the stock housing at the actuator and it has good machined surfaces. I reckon the grease in this one will degrade more quickly than stock.

[navigator]

does it make sense to drill/tap and put a zerk fitting in the disconnect housing somewhere?

[Trail X]

Between the two halves is silicone. Its squished out at the parting line. I guess my only concearn with the water getting in is that it'll seep into the housing and ruin the grease in the disconnect, since lack of grease seems to be the cause of the disconnect failure. Its irritating.
I noticed water in the grease of the stock housing at the actuator and it has good machined surfaces. I reckon the grease in this one will degrade more quickly than stock.

As long as the silicon squished into the machining marks, I'm not sure if it's any reason to worry. I'd wager that most of the water came past the CV seal. Ever done a water crossing?

[Nakashige]

My stock disconnect sat in freezing water for 14 hours when it failed

[v7guy]

Between the two halves is silicone. Its squished out at the parting line. I guess my only concearn with the water getting in is that it'll seep into the housing and ruin the grease in the disconnect, since lack of grease seems to be the cause of the disconnect failure. Its irritating.
I noticed water in the grease of the stock housing at the actuator and it has good machined surfaces. I reckon the grease in this one will degrade more quickly than stock.

As long as the silicon squished into the machining marks, I'm not sure if it's any reason to worry. I'd wager that most of the water came past the CV seal. Ever done a water crossing?

I've waded through some deep stuff on a couple occasions.

[v7guy]

I've been drilling the disconnect remains for hours now and it's not budged a bit, I can't really seem to get a chisel in there and I definitely can't get any swing with a hammer. I even put some heat to it a couple times and got nowhere. I'm going to keep at it, but if anyone has any pointers I'm all ears.
They're saying we have the potential for snow this weekend and I'd really like to have 4WD

[Nakashige]

I pray mine is not this hard to get out at least it will be on a real car lift and a full garage of tools

[Gordinho80]

I've been drilling the disconnect remains for hours now and it's not budged a bit, I can't really seem to get a chisel in there and I definitely can't get any swing with a hammer. I even put some heat to it a couple times and got nowhere. I'm going to keep at it, but if anyone has any pointers I'm all ears.
They're saying we have the potential for snow this weekend and I'd really like to have 4WD

I linked my thread before... but here it is again.

viewtopic.php?p=31094#p31094

This is the key...

[Nakashige]

So this morning went very smooth with the installation until we got back to the 4WD Actuator. Found out that was also not functioning. Installing the Disconnect took a little under a hour and a half from disassembling everything and to putting it back together. Having the right tools and a lift makes life easy. I haven't had a chance to pull my disconnect apart its a project for a warmer day or if i move to a place with a garage. So after finding that the 4WD Actuator was not functioning correctly. I asked the mechanic if he knew anyone that could get the part today. In the end I ended up paying the list price for the part plus 20 dollars for FedEx to ship it the same day. List for the part is around 130. Is there any way to rebuild the actuator. I plan on rebuilding the disconnect so I have a backup if this were to happen again.

[MrSmithsTB]

Iirc there was a write up on trailvoy, done by either roadie or teebees. Either way, ill bet it could be brought here with little effort.

[Nakashige]

interesting I will look for it

[Trail X]

I've been on Bill to get that writeup over here (among many others!). He's a slacker/busy man!

http://forums.trailvoy.com/showthread.php?t=46356 Titled: Repairing Front Axle Actuator, and theory of operation

[v7guy]

I got the disconnect out that night, it came out in a lot of shavings and pieces. I ended up using a harbor freight airsaw (like pictured) to take out some slices and then a hammer and chisel to just keep breaking off pieces. Even after I got it to start spinning it wouldn't come out without breaking more off it.




Also of note, i got carried away and hit the oil pan. Fortunately it appears the tube around the intermediate shaft is pretty thick as it didn't break through to the inside.


The disconnect didn't go in easily at all. I ended up having to use the bolts to pull it in cause I wasn't going to be able to push it in the oil pan ( i tried for about half an hour). it never offered any real resistance as I was turning the bolts, just a couple fingers on the ratchet was enough. I made sure to take three or four turns on each bolt in an x pattern to try and draw it in evenly. Seemed to have worked alright. Before I installed the disconnect I used some anti seize on the housing. I still expect it to be a complete bear next time it has to come out. Here's some pics of the disconnect. One of the pics you can see the lip on the mounting flange for the electrical part.