Hi Broncohaulics,
So I don't know if these numbers or the story is interesting to anyone but I wanted to share what I pulled off the 79 3/4 ton Bronco Dana 44 HP I got a few years back.
If you have been following the what have you done today thready then you've seen a little of my progress with this axle. The long story is this:
I bought the axle about 7 years ago when I was on a business trip to Lincoln, Nebraska when I was working in the Rail industry. I had gone to the bar the first night I was in town and met a bunch of college kids that were from the area and were also into old trucks. One guy mentioned a farmer a little out of town that had a collection of old rail industry trucks including Broncos and some real old crew cab trucks you never see. Before I got too drunk I made sure I wrote down the guys info and then proceeded to get smashed on some good Ploughshare beer.
After my day of slogging through meetings that meant nothing, I got on to the real business at hand. I drove a lot further out of town than I planned but I finally got to the farm Drunky Mc.talksalot was going on about. In his defense, he was 19 with a fake ID at a bar in a college town, but talking to me was not going to help him get laid. Anyway, pulling up I knew this was going to be good.
As I pulled down the dirt driveway that was about a quarter mile long but completely barren of any trees or apparently working lawnmowers I could see what appeared to be the tops of vehicles under tall weeds, grass, and hornets nests. I have to mention the hornets nests because WTF?!?! these things were the size of beer kegs!
I got to the end of the driveway and was promptly greeted by a nice old man who really wanted to show me his Remington 870...like up close and something about slug rounds but whatever I pressed on...I needed an axle and I suspected he had it. After a few tense moments of explaining how some kid I met at a bar knew about his hidden in the wide-the-F-open treasure trove of melting into the earth former gems, he let me get out of the very please don't shoot me, my only redeemable quality is I'm rentable Kia that my company had secured me.
The old man was hard to understand so I tried to keep the conversations short, plus it was hot as a Dodge Viper in traffic..."Get on with your story old man...I'm about to go full Lambo on your ass and auto-ignite!". I got him to tell me that nothing was for sale except the stuff without a body on it which was still fine by me although a little sad after I saw what he had.
The yard was full of old railroad company trucks, most were regular cab but he had at least 5 crew cab Dodge's and Fords that I had never seen before from the late 60's and early 70's. The stuff was rotting away and covered completely in weeds but still cool from what you could see. I finally found an old Bronco frame sitting mostly buried in the ground but I could see the top of the Dana 44 pumpkin and one brake rotor.
The old man said if I could get it out I could have it but all I had was a rental Kia...and that was all I needed!
Well not really but that sounded awesome.
I used the jack in the car to get under the one rotor after I dug it out a little with a shovel that was conveniently rusting away in the area. He let me use his sawsall to cut the axle out of the frame once I got it all exposed. Then I found a nylon rope someone left in the trunk of the Kia that I assume the previous rental customer had used for tying up their victims after they found out a Kia has no trunk space.
The rope was good enough for the little Kia to yank the axle out of the mud hole and the old guy was then nice enough to offer up his skid loader to load the axle in the car for me...I proceeded to ask why the F he didn't offer that up from the beginning but lets remember how this relationship got started...
So, that's how I got the axle I now have and amazingly after who knows how many years in the mud this thing sat, it cleaned up real nice. I pulled a lot of numbers off it and maybe they mean something to someone. Here are the images of the numbers.
Sorry for the long rambling story but the moral is...Kia makes a terribly boring car that can yank axles out of mud when needed and still get 32 mpg. Oh, and never stop looking because whatever you need is out there somewhere...
So I don't know if these numbers or the story is interesting to anyone but I wanted to share what I pulled off the 79 3/4 ton Bronco Dana 44 HP I got a few years back.
If you have been following the what have you done today thready then you've seen a little of my progress with this axle. The long story is this:
I bought the axle about 7 years ago when I was on a business trip to Lincoln, Nebraska when I was working in the Rail industry. I had gone to the bar the first night I was in town and met a bunch of college kids that were from the area and were also into old trucks. One guy mentioned a farmer a little out of town that had a collection of old rail industry trucks including Broncos and some real old crew cab trucks you never see. Before I got too drunk I made sure I wrote down the guys info and then proceeded to get smashed on some good Ploughshare beer.
After my day of slogging through meetings that meant nothing, I got on to the real business at hand. I drove a lot further out of town than I planned but I finally got to the farm Drunky Mc.talksalot was going on about. In his defense, he was 19 with a fake ID at a bar in a college town, but talking to me was not going to help him get laid. Anyway, pulling up I knew this was going to be good.
As I pulled down the dirt driveway that was about a quarter mile long but completely barren of any trees or apparently working lawnmowers I could see what appeared to be the tops of vehicles under tall weeds, grass, and hornets nests. I have to mention the hornets nests because WTF?!?! these things were the size of beer kegs!
I got to the end of the driveway and was promptly greeted by a nice old man who really wanted to show me his Remington 870...like up close and something about slug rounds but whatever I pressed on...I needed an axle and I suspected he had it. After a few tense moments of explaining how some kid I met at a bar knew about his hidden in the wide-the-F-open treasure trove of melting into the earth former gems, he let me get out of the very please don't shoot me, my only redeemable quality is I'm rentable Kia that my company had secured me.
The old man was hard to understand so I tried to keep the conversations short, plus it was hot as a Dodge Viper in traffic..."Get on with your story old man...I'm about to go full Lambo on your ass and auto-ignite!". I got him to tell me that nothing was for sale except the stuff without a body on it which was still fine by me although a little sad after I saw what he had.
The yard was full of old railroad company trucks, most were regular cab but he had at least 5 crew cab Dodge's and Fords that I had never seen before from the late 60's and early 70's. The stuff was rotting away and covered completely in weeds but still cool from what you could see. I finally found an old Bronco frame sitting mostly buried in the ground but I could see the top of the Dana 44 pumpkin and one brake rotor.
The old man said if I could get it out I could have it but all I had was a rental Kia...and that was all I needed!
Well not really but that sounded awesome.
I used the jack in the car to get under the one rotor after I dug it out a little with a shovel that was conveniently rusting away in the area. He let me use his sawsall to cut the axle out of the frame once I got it all exposed. Then I found a nylon rope someone left in the trunk of the Kia that I assume the previous rental customer had used for tying up their victims after they found out a Kia has no trunk space.
The rope was good enough for the little Kia to yank the axle out of the mud hole and the old guy was then nice enough to offer up his skid loader to load the axle in the car for me...I proceeded to ask why the F he didn't offer that up from the beginning but lets remember how this relationship got started...
So, that's how I got the axle I now have and amazingly after who knows how many years in the mud this thing sat, it cleaned up real nice. I pulled a lot of numbers off it and maybe they mean something to someone. Here are the images of the numbers.
Sorry for the long rambling story but the moral is...Kia makes a terribly boring car that can yank axles out of mud when needed and still get 32 mpg. Oh, and never stop looking because whatever you need is out there somewhere...
I was going to say the inside and the pinion look like new. then I realized that you had already cleaned it up and started putting new parts in lol
