Bit of front end work/clutch work on gq ute

[Jingles]

Gday this is my first post appart from introductions. Planning on a fair bit of work in next few weeks, thought I’d post my plans see what advice I could get from those who’ve done these sorts of jobs. Hadn’t even put oil in a car till I got this ute bout 18 months ago but so far I’ve managed to do all my servicing(all oils, wheel bearing, belts, axle seal here and ther), fitted gauges, stainless snorkel, airbox, swapped guards, made my own 3” exhaust, changed alternator and turboed it and a fixed bunch of annoying little bugs that seem to stop you in your tracks. Pretty happy only time a mechanics touched it is for a road worthy, got a lot of help browsing here so thanks everyone. I’ll be mostly around front diff and clutch but a few other spots aswell.

Quick overview on my ute, it’s my baby, daily driver, its a 93 coil cab 4.2, 4.6 gu diffs, bit of a saggy 4” lift, just bought some 35 nittos, Running dts kit with 15lb boost no intercooler but exhaust and water temps really good. Got a front locker just no air compressor haha. She’s pretty heavy for a ute, lotta weight in and under tray, sits about 3100kg full fuel and me in it.

First issue is I had 35 bighorns but nittos seem abit bigger and getting some scrubbing door side of quarter panel, got heaps of room in front of tyre so thinking cheap way out is radius arm spacers but it seems like a cheap fixamd not a huge fan of it. If anyone’s tried that some input would be great as new radius arms could be a fair way down the track for me.

Next job all new bits and bobs on the front diff, all new bearings, seals ect minus the diff centre itself. New chromoly cvs, drag link, tie rod+ ends and a steering damper. Already got a good panhard and new bushes so that won’t be touched. That all seems pretty straight forward(hints and tips welcome please)but I discovered other day passenger side free wheeling hub got a crack in it. To hard to explain so I’ll add a photo. After I’ve spent what I have on new parts, a new genuine hub won’t happen for abit so will this be able to handle abit of 4x4 or is it not even worth trying?

next to the clutch, I replaced the clutch about 10,000km ago, was sudden and complete loss of any go. I had been having issues with changing gear it was grinding, hard to push in, all disappeared with new clutch. Well these problems have recently resurfaced, worse in hot weather, and I avoid reverse in public spaces cos the grinding is pretty shocking in particular.
The clutch pedal is incredibaly soft to push and play in clutch sits about 1 inch of floor. Adjusted clutch pedal all the way out, bled out of slave cylinder few times, haven’t touched bleed nipple passenger side firewall, very hard/impossible to access with new airbox and last resort is pulling airbox out. nothing really helps, is this most likely air trapped in the line or what? I’m thinking of replacing whole lot, ,master cylinder, booster and rubber hose. did new slave cylinder didn’t help at all. Seems excessive but I do long trips and would rather do it properly then be stuck in scrub 1000kms from home. Again any advice on either fixing or tips when replacing would be amazing.

That’s for now the big jobs, I’ll also be doing the tail shaft unis, gear selector bushes, resealling and new bearing in steering box(only oil leak on whole ute), diff breather kit, new reverse switch and that’ll do me for a while I reckon.

Also just remembered I put a warn xd9000 in, worked a treat until one day I accidently when from spool in to out while she was pulling in and since then I just get a click from the solenoids but no movement on the winch. Not super electrically minded so help me please.

Any advice even if it’s fuck off and go to a mechanic would be great. I’ve tried using search for similar posts with half/limited success on exactly what I’m stuck with.
Have a good one.

[PeeBee]

Welcome. If the FWH has a crack in it, its weakened and waiting to fail completely; remember its the drive frame between the wheel and the axle. I would not risk it unless you are going into either a pretty easy area where the failure won't give you too much problems getting out, or with mates who could tow you out. I can't actually see the crack though.

I think the winch needs a strip down to see what you have broken. The solenoids are only the electrical switch, so the resistance must be significant if the dc motor wont drive it.

[Jingles]

Cheers mate, still free spools no worries will have to pull motor apart maybe. edited picture so it stands out abit more

[PeeBee]

Cheers mate, still free spools no worries will have to pull motor apart maybe. edited picture so it stands out abit more

Looks a bit iffy's to me, but depends on your circumstances I guess. I mean, it wasn't cracked like that from new is maybe a different way of saying it is not functionally fit for use?