Ok I have good news, this is officially a rebuild thread?
I was able to get the ring gear out of the housing without applying any heat or force. I soaked it in denatured alcohol ( that's all I had on hand), held the assembly upside down and tapped the sides of the housing until I saw some brown sludge flow between the parts. From here I was able to smack the housing onto a couple of shim to get the gear to drop out.
I followed along with LR live on youtube (3 part series) :
This is a really great series of videos with lots of tips and tricks on things that are commonly seized.
After getting the ring gear out, I saw some pretty nasty corrosion where the bottom was sitting in water. There was also significant scoring on the side of the aluminum housing.
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There was significant corrosion in the lever groove, deep pitting on the shoulder where the lever engages, and overall lots of surface defects.
This gear also had a lot of deformation from where somebody tried to crank on the lever with a pair of pliers or something.
The housing had a couple deep scratches, and corrosion at the bottom.
At this point I realized this sliding interface was going to need some serious work. I was able to get access to a lathe after hours to resurface my ring gear.
Let it soak in evapo-rust overnight.
Got it trued up in the 4 Jaw:
Brought in the diameter of each cylindrical surface as little as possible, the outer grease passage got about a 10 thou diameter cut, which addressed all of the highspots, and created a much smoother surface.
For the lever groove, I brought in the diameter about 12 thou, and did a 2 thou face op to each shoulder to ensure the lever doesn't get caught up in the future.
Then I went in with a file, brought down any nicks, and broke all the edges.
Finished it up with a red scotchbrite pad.
There is still a lot of deep pitting on the part, but none of it is rasied, the part is now a cylinder and there are no protrusions in the cutout for the lever.
The proper grease will make up all of the difference In this pitting, and the small amount I reduced the diameter.
For the housing I just honed the walls with a maroon scotchbrite pad, making sure to move the pad radially ( as opposed to in-out).
The left pic shows the original top of each part ( minimal initial corrosion), and the right shows where all the water pooled.
I also was able to remove the brake, I haven't really messed with it yet but it actually came out no problem.
next steps is:
- address if I want to refinish the exterior of all the components. Do you guys think paint matching it to the jeep would be tacky?
- Clean up and paint the drum.
- order a new motor
- make or order new gaskets/ seals.
Cheers,