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14-bolt axle shaving
Looking for more ground clearance from your 14-bolt axle?
I think we all know the answer to that question. The strength and relative
low-cost of this axle has made it a favorite among many off-roaders for
years but at a price, that price is ground clearance. With that being
said, ground clearance can still be improved a bit by simply grinding
(shaving) down the lower lip anywhere from a 1/2" - 1" depending
on how ambitious you are.
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| Large 14-bolt
lip |
Lots of cutting
room |
After first
bottom cut |
After side cut |
There are quite a few ways to clearance the bottom of an
axle, anything from an angle grinder to using a plasma cutter, but because
we only had a few basic tools in our garage we took advantage of what we
had available, a Sawz-all and an angle grinder. The first thing we did was
to pull the cover so we could get a good idea on how much we wanted to
take off. A small hacksaw was used to start a cut across the bottom of the
housing, then we fired up the Sawz-all to make the big cut being careful
not to cut off the bottom bolt hole, we used the same procedure to make
cuts on either side of the differential.
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| Lower lip
removed |
After a little
grinding |
Diff cover
installed |
No rock catching
lip |
At this point a grinder can be used to smooth everything
up and take the differential down to the size desired, we chose to stop
once the lip was even with the rest of the housing but more can be ground
off if desired. We had Avalanche Engineering in Denver add a 1/4"
ring & pinion shield to our rock ring (differential armor) as well as
mill it down to match our new slightly smaller axle, we bolted the rock
ring and cover into place and used the angle grinder to ensure that
everything was a perfect fit in relation to the housing. We installed the
cover and rock ring with a fresh gasket, filled the diff with gear oil and
we called it a night.
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| Side shot |
From the rear |
Rock Ring
installed |
Close-up |
This ranks as one of the easiest and cheapest
modifications we have done to date, with 37" tall tires the clearance
at the lowest point of the axle went from 9-7/8" to 10-1/2",
let's face it, it's still big, but we should now be able to slide over the
rocks with a little more ease. - Steve
Fox
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