Rancho differential glide plate install

[Fastmover]

My guess is the length due to the cover thickness. The diff cover is fairly thick and the bolts supplied by Rancho are nearly double the length of the stock ones. I'm not sure the stock bolts would get enough bite, or purchase, if you will.

FWIW, the Rancho bolts seem to be a higher quality.

Yeah, I was sitting here eating lunch and realized that it is due to the extra thickness of bolting on the glide plate. Boy do I feel stupid for not realizing that in the first place!

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[Fastmover]

Front Rancho diff glide plate installed.

 

[Fastmover]

Nice! Mine just showed up today. Hoping to get it put on tonight so it's there for the trail tomorrow.

The nuts on the u-bolt, are they fully on? The one photo looks like they barely have any purchase on the threads.

Yes they're on, torqued to 15 ft. lbs. I could have gone further but I was afraid of bending or breaking the u-bolt.

 

[javelina]

I just received the front slide plate, and planning to install it on Friday. I noticed it came with Red Thread Lock "pillow pack". That's not an equivalent of Red Lock Tite? If it is, I wouldn't expect that for this, right? Also, the instructions did not show where to apply. I presume it's for all threads, including the U-Joint, (and not just the bolts that go into the Diff)?

TIA,
-Jav

 

[javelina]

I only put it on the U-bolt. Looked like from the factory there was something that looked like loctite on the factory diff cover bolts, but the bolts came loose pretty easily. I'm sure it was some type of thread locker, but I don't know if it's truly loctite. I open my diffs up as part of regular maintenance so I did not want to loctite them. In all the years I've been working on vehicles I've never used loctite on a diff cover and never had one come off.

cool, thanks. (would agree as well, wouldn't seem right to have a perma loctite of some sort on the diff bolts).

 

[javelina]

I only put it on the U-bolt. Looked like from the factory there was something that looked like loctite on the factory diff cover bolts, but the bolts came loose pretty easily. I'm sure it was some type of thread locker, but I don't know if it's truly loctite. I open my diffs up as part of regular maintenance so I did not want to loctite them. In all the years I've been working on vehicles I've never used loctite on a diff cover and never had one come off.

I reached out to Rancho and asked them about it. My concern being that this looked red, and therefore was afraid it would be a red loctite.

Their response: "Thank you for reaching out to us. The threadlock compound should be applied to all threads, including the Ubolt Threads."

 

[Bryce]

I reached out to Rancho and asked them about it. My concern being that this looked red, and therefore was afraid it would be a red loctite.

Their response: "Thank you for reaching out to us. The threadlock compound should be applied to all threads, including the Ubolt Threads."

Hmmm. Think I'd use my own Blue Loc-Tite. Hate to find out it was Red and needed heat to get apart one day.

 

[javelina]

Hmmm. Think I'd use my own Blue Loc-Tite. Hate to find out it was Red and needed heat to get apart one day.

exactly! I did send a reply back to them, since they did not confirm one way or the other, if their special sauce was red loctite or not. regardless, I'll go get some blue loctite for this.

 

[javelina]

exactly! I did send a reply back to them, since they did not confirm one way or the other, if their special sauce was red loctite or not. regardless, I'll go get some blue loctite for this.

This is what I got back:
"Per my engineering team, the threadlok can be broken if you apply force to the threads."

I'll go blue loctite for comfort... I'll be installing this weekend.

 

[Fastmover]

Rear diff glide plate installed.
I'm having front and rear control arm glide plates installed at the shop today.

 

[pangmaster]

I'll be doing this soon. I took a few rock hits on these low-hanging fruits recently, so placed an order today. Probably should have done it before, but better late than never!

Glad to see they are working well and the install tips are helpful.

 

[Solidaxle]

Functional and they look cool also

 

[Fastmover]

Rear control arm glide plates installed.

 

[sourdough]

Good post. Even thou I hate to loose the ground clearance, I ordered Rancho diff. skids today from Jegs @148 ea.. Also Rock Hards front LCA skids $75 and Rough Country rear $40.

 

[Fastmover]

I just painted my Rock Hard front LCA glide plates to match my Rancho front diff glide plate.

And thank you Rancho front diff glide plate.

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