Rear diff bracket

I cut all of this out of my newbie post so I'll just throw it up here.  It was dark and I was drinking when I took the pics so they're not the best.   I'm just putting it here to chronicle what I've done, I never remember when I fix my stuff so when someone ks about it it's nice to have a place to tell them to look.

It'll also be nice to get some opinions and thoughts on the best way to fix this.

"Then this happened....













The only way I noticed this happened is that I looked behind me in a mudhole and noticed the driver's side wheel wasn't spinning.  Not a bad hole, not a bad trail before it. 
 
The diff disconnected itself from the frame.
I put a new, outer CV boot on the passenger side, and as far as I can tell it's all that has survived.  "


Now then, here's my progress so far tonight.  



Broke the welds out of both sides of the frame and snapped tube in half.   The majority of these breaks look rusty and old, so I'm kind of ashamed I didn't see them, but I had my head stuck down there a lot the last few days and nothing really stuck out so I guess shit happens.



I am extremely embarrassed I never caught that bubblegum though...




After looking at things for a while, I think I may be better off just putting the stock rear bar back in and bolting everything up the way it was, then making some bottom braces and then redoing the two wasted top mounts.  

Anyone know of a better way?








Well, it was a good first ride. 

Don't know what to say!! Even if you know how to weld and wrench, there is a lot of work involved. The second to the last picture shows that someone had welded in it before.

well with the new pics you took from first post , I don't blame you for drinking it away      I would too. now all I got to say HOLY GRAP what a fubar . might see if you can find another cross member then beef up the uprights it bolts too , good luck an keep us updated

I hate to see that!!!  Think I'll double check mine tomorrow.

not good!! I check my rear diff before every ride mine has come loose 3 times on me. sometime here im going to fab a support bracket before this happens to mine. good luck with the rebuild!

happened on a bud of mines 04, took mine apart and red loc-tited the bolts , but always check them, looks like someone did a shitty weld job there on an old repair, good luck getting it up and running againlooks like you know what your doing, lots of people here that like to help

UTV Inc sells a cheap support bracket that bolts to the receiver hitch and then both sides of the diff for cheap.  Mine is being delivered today.  Hopefully I will get it put on tonight and get some pics up.

Good call on the aftermarket brace, I typically do anything I can to keep from buying simple stuff like that since I can make it myself (and I'm a cheap bastard), but I may be time and $$ ahead to grab a cheap one to locate it for me.  

I'm being slaughtered with hours at work these days so progress will be slow on this.  My only salvation is that I've got to go to a wedding this weekend so I wouldn't get to ride it anyways. 

I'm sure this wouldn't be hard to make.

http://utvinc.com/yamaha/rhino-700/utv-inc-yamaha-rhino-700-08-rear-diff-gusset-blk/

I grabbed their 660 brace for ~$50 shipped, thanks for the heads up, Kevin.   

If I had a known, good mount to build off of I'd make my own in a heartbeat but I'm wary of trying it on this.   I noticed the splines on the DS were somewhat rounded lengthwise, to take up misalignment between the diff and transfer, but I don't want to make it work any harder than it has to.

I have both front and rear diff brackets on my Rhino. Those same ones from UTV Stink, lol. I had to modify the front one a little bit because of the way my Viper winch mount bolts to the front of my Rhino frame, but both work well. I have not had one bit of rear diff mounting trouble with 30" tires and a nice running high compression motor.

It took all of about 5 minutes to install even with my bum hand.

Tacoclaw that shit looks scary, I think that that bracket of Kevin`s is the way to go, looks good easy and strong.

Got some stuff done tonight, after I finally cleaned off all the CV grease on everything.

Finally ground down that bubblegum to see if I could possibly reuse it.  I was feeling lazy and figured it doesn't hurt to hope.

Nope.  



The crack just kept going, so I hacked the bracket off to use later on, like this.  I figure I'll sandwich the framerails between some 1" washers and run the 1" solid bar through them, then weld it up solid.    I'll cut the rest of the stock bar out of the bracket then weld it to the solid 1" bar.



I also decided to try to plug up the hole the diff made when the head pipe decided to ensure it didn't hit anything else under there.


Drilled a couple holes in it and used a screw to bend it back out best I could,


Then started slobbering all over it with the MIG before grinding away all evidence with the flap wheel.





Haven't decided what to do with the front mount yet, I may just finish welding the driver's side and weld a washer in the passenger's side.

Nice looking work looks like you have thangs under control.

Thanks. 

I've got my doubts on that header holding, but worst case scenario I'll just wrap some sheetmetal around it when if pops again.

Starting to look strong again,like that diff brace.

looks like its coming together   , was the diff ok ?

The bracket that Kevin posted is mitt that strong.  I have the same one have have broken out a few times.  The last time was in the HHR ride last weekend.  It's time to make my own

Dang, where are you breaking them at.  I may need to alter mine some.

The tabs that bolt to the rear keep breaking.  I want to make new ones that go to 2 bolts on ea side and extend to the rest next to the bolts the mount to the frame

flimmy  that's what I decided to do I think the mount ears/tabs should be thicker so not to brake out I 'm going 5/16 or 3/8 on my tabs  an 3/16 on mount plate think that should hold

The diff seems ok, I bought both the seals where the CVs go in but that's about it.  

I noticed that brace was a little flimsy myself, when I tried to fit it up the shorter arm that the diff bolts to was bent pretty badly at the very end where it gets thin due to the bolt hole.   I smacked it with a hammer to straighten it back out and it bent right over in the other direction.   All I'm interested in it for is to locate the rear end and it served that purpose beautifully.    I'm not going to take it off though.

I think she's good to go, I decided to just reweld the front mount that I could, then u out the other side and weld a washer back in the ruined steel's place.

Here's some pics I grabbed as I went along.   I had to unplug my phone/music from the speakers to get them so I hope you all appreciate them. 

Any questions/comment feel free to throw them out there.  It's probably a bit late to tell me something is horribly wrong, but if you see it let me know.  I ain't scared to hack it out and try again.

I had a rag over the diff while I was welding, no spatter made it inside.  





















I'm not a welder, but I play one on TV.
Also, I wrecked myself with weld burn.   There was a lot more welding involved that I figured there'd be, and I kept forgetting to get a jacket when I went in for a beer.   All 6 times.   

You are gonna need to order another warning sticker for the back now.