Rear disc help and axle advice?

Jeeps on stands and there's a mess in the parking lot.

1. No one anywhere (and I searched) seems to have ever mentioned that the adjusters in the 8.25 can fall out while pulling the carrier, necessitating new adjustment to backlash. I know I am a putz and have bad luck, but if anyone planning on pulling the carrier to check the bearings sees this, keep this in mind. Be careful, or be sure you have the proper tools at hand. My DD is now making a mess in the parking lot until I can rig up an adjuster tool. I'll take a couple pictures of the adjusters later, as I don't think I've seen anyone else post them up.

2. I am swapping rear discs from a '95 ZJ. Here's what's freaking me out - I have not drilled any holes, have not ground down anything, and the backing plate and dust shield seem to fit up PERFECTLY.

Since I do have bad luck and am a putz, this causes me great worry. Can anyone reassure me that it is possible for everything to work "out of the box". I'm thinking since the axle opening matches, they must be off a D44 - but would the axle studs line up then?

3. My axle shafts and bearings look used, but not excessivle worn at ~110k miles. Put in new bearings and seals anyway, or keep them on the shelf until they are needed?

Thanks guys


Pics:
These look okay to everyone else?


Here's the rear. The studs are a little short and I was a little overxealous with the threadlocker, but otherwise it looks good (?)...


The 8.25 adjuster:

Um, maybe its just me but why did you pull the carrier?

I had to grind out my backing plate to fit on my 8.25...maybe yours had less rust than others?

ColoradoXJ13 said:

Um, maybe its just me but why did you pull the carrier?

I had to grind out my backing plate to fit on my 8.25...maybe yours had less rust than others?

Click to expand...

I've been having a howling/humming/"woo-woo-woo" that seems to cycle with wheelspeed since, oh, shortly after last christmas .. The actual reason for doing this was to inspect the axleshaft and carrier bearings. I wanted to do the disc conversion anyway, so since it's my DD, I figured I'd get the parts and then just do it all at once. Otherwise, yea, I'd feel like an idiot for pulling the carrier to replace the brakes

IIRC. the I.D. of the stock drum bracket was 2.97", and the disc backing plate I.D. was 2.93". There was no rust to grind off, and the inside had machined ridges

Good link for reference is:
http://www.dippy.org/svcman/sm03a.html

and the adjuster tool is part C-4164
http://www.dippy.org/svcman/image/0312.jpg
Eddie

When we regeared mine, a buddy had a long peice of conduit pipe with a nut the size of the adjuster welded to it. I imagine that without a welder you might be able to rig up something, but your best bet is to just weld the nut onto a peice of tube and make a handle out of a 90* elbow and a foot or two long peice of pipe making the arm. Oh, have you had any leaking from the tube seal? Your seals look like they might be making a grove in the shafts.

I really didn't want to bum a ride to work tomorrow so I started looking closely at the bearings and adjusters.. discovered that there was some rough surface on the edge of the adjuster (where it presses against the race) that matched up with the race - which gave me the proper rotation of the adjuster. Then I found that the "TIMKEN" engraving on the bearing race had made a visible transfer to the inside of the bearing cap - which let me select the right depth.

Had a lot of difficulty fitting it back in, as the adjuster kept wanting to fall out and jump threads, so after literally dozens of attempts, I got fed up and RTV'ed the adjuster into it's seat in the bearing cap. The RTV broke loose on the fourth try or so, but even broken, it helped seat adjuster in the threads, and I was able to get it in with the help of a prybar on the 10th time or so. If I was reading my dial correctly, backlash was at .007 If I wasn't readin my dial correctly, it's going to be a noisy ride to work tomorrow, I guess.

I don't weld, so I was on the verge of trying to do something with wood - might be fun just to see how well it can be done - but I worried I'd do something wrong and end up with sawdust in my diff, so I didn't. At least it would have been quiet

Haven't had any leaking yet, but I'll definitely keep an eye on those seals. I probably should have replaced them, but I just scraped the grit off them with my fingernail and put a little gear oil on them before I put the shafts back in.