Made it to Silver Lake and back home today with my two brothers. Had a blast, even though we broke some parts
. We headed out this morning. In Holland, I figured out what the vibration was in my '72 when the rear driveshaft u-joint let go %). Pulled over on the road, looked to left...there's a NAPA store! With the twin stick, put it in front hi and bungee'd the shaft. Drove over the parking lot, pulled it out and got a new joint, and there was a shop next door that put it in for me! Bolted the drive shaft back on and off we went...
Back on the road!
The '94 my brother took the dirt bike up with:
Made it all the way to Silver Lake! Unloaded the dirt bike, prepped the trucks, got all the stickers, and off to the dunes!
First drive up test hill! I haven't had the '72 off road yet since I got it! Almost to the top of the hill........bang!.....There goes the front u-joint...:-[
I was having trouble getting out of the sand area in 2wd, and had my brother tow me for a bit using the '68. That went well for a few feet.........bang! And there goes u-joint #3 for the day, the front axle on the '68. :-[ I really did not expect any issues with the '68. I've had it up to the dunes before, but with the Dana 30 in it. I "upgraded" to the Dana 44 last fall (disc brakes, new seals, cleaned and painted everything.....new u-joints). From what I've read here, not all u-joints are made equal, so I'll chalk up the u-joint on the '68 to cheaply made parts...my bad on the replacements I used.
Now is where I learned something new on this trip. 2wd works a lot better than I expected, especially in the '72 with a locker in the rear. I also learned how important tire pressure is while on sand. I've always aired down on the sand, but for some reason, I decided that with locked front and back on the '72, I didn't really need to. Well, after losing 4x4 on both EBs, we went back to the parking lot to regroup (and eat lunch). I decided I didn't want to spend the money for another tag and take the '94 out on the dunes, plus I didn't want to break anything on the '94 so we could at least get home with something. The '68 was moving pretty good in 2x4, so we aired down both the '68 and the '72 more appropriately (probably around 5-6 psi) and headed back out. I made it everywhere I tried to go after that in the '72 with just the rear axle going, and the '68 made it everywhere but the steepest parts.
Plus, we all drove home the 130 miles with no further incidents
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So, I posted my question on best solutions for replacing the front axles over in the Bronco Tech section. I appreciate anyone's advice on what to get when I buy new parts to fix the front axles.
Here's some other pix:
