I still have the new pumpkin!

[Ricky-D]

Last year after seeing the wear in the drive flange splines, I built a new pumpkin so I could avoid any downtime when it was going to be necessary to change it out..

I cleaned and greased up the old drive flange splines with my favorite Almagard 3752 and decided to continue driving with the old pumpkin to get the most miles out of it!

Now 10k miles and a year later I took it all apart yesterday and also to look at the u-joint and everything else in the drive line.

The u-joint is still fine, I replaced it about 30k miles and 2-1/2 years ago.

What I found was surprising. The wear to the flange spines was not changed (increased) and the grease was still good and sticky and clean. That was very reassuring and ought to be nice to hear to a lot of other riders with the same problem that I have (worn splines).

I did find the drive shaft end (pinion cup) was very badly worn, however the pinion cup showed little wear and I was not going to put my new drive shaft into that old cup.  When I bought that old pumpkin for rebuilding it came with the drive shaft still installed so I did have a drive shaft that showed much less wear than mine which I just inspected.

There was no rust present in the pinion cup but the grease was very hard and clumpy and packed down in the bottom of the cup.  I cleaned up the mess and greased both mating parts with ample quantity of Almagard 3752. That's some wonderful grease!

I buttoned everything up and now will be riding with much less worrying than I did last year, seeing how well everything went.

I'm still saving the new pumpkin and the new drive shaft for when I'll need it. I've been holding off inspecting things because a new u-joint is not yet available and was not wanting to mate things up with an old u-joint of questionable life. But I'm glad I did inspect anyways, and am extremely happy with the results.

I guess as a final word based on my experience I would say:

Regardless of how worn your drive flange may look or actually be, cleaning it up and greasing it up with a good grease will give you many, many more miles of worry free driving before you absolutely have to change things out.  Don't be in such a hurry!

Ricky-D

[R J]

 Don't be in such a hurry!

Ricky-D

10-04 on the hair up your fuzzy derrière.

People panic when they just need to relax and go with the flow.

Worry and panic is what causes heart attacks.

Relax and enjoy life to it's fullest.

Gee, I think I learned something in my old age.

Ricky-D, I agree with ya 125% on this.

Now, back to our normal programming.

[John Schmidt]

Ricky, I'm curious as to how much trouble it was to tear down that old final. I have two spares at the moment, including a good drive shaft and u-joint. One spare is in near new condition, the other is in need of rebuild....not so much the gears as the splines. I've considered rebuilding the one, not because I need it, but because I'd like to have it chromed while apart(probably not the best of reasons). Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

[Ricky-D]

John, it's the worn flange splines that are the reason for having to rebuild the differential.

To get the new flange splines you must get a new ring gear and there is also a pinion gear to make up the set. You cannot purchase them separately.  Then there is the patterning of the tooth meshing which can involve additional spacers (or not). A new pinion cup is a good idea. The bearings are reusable but new seals are also going to be needed.

***

[John Schmidt]

John, it's the worn flange splines that are the reason for having to rebuild the differential.

***

Yep, same on the one I have. Any issues pulling it all apart...you know, the kind that cause you to forget everything you learned in Sunday School when you talk to it?   

[2qmedic]

Shore nuff, no reason to get rid of this because of a little wear.
I use green grease on my splines and u-joint splines. Check em ever 10k and the splines look as good as when I bought the Valk 40k ago (now 73k). The grease still looks clean and good.