Mitchell Differential

Baseshakers · Unread post by **Baseshakers** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 5:30 pm

As many of you know I purchased a front axle from Mitchell Differential a few years back. I had tons of issues with them; weeks late, bad axle shafts, etc. Add one more to the list. The front truss broke off one end... It was barely welded at all! No penetration on the welds. Unbelievably poor workmanship, just one more reason not to go there.

Kurt · Unread post by **Kurt** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 5:35 pm

Wow...

Frank · Unread post by **Frank** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:28 pm

Dude : You should be a Fireman , The way you get Hosed ! Thats bad Dude. I had the boys look at your picture and they said the same thing. No penetration and or two passes and they had porosity in between ! FjR68

del_TJ · Unread post by **del_TJ** » Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:35 pm

Damn. That's on top of the previous problems you had... let me know if you need a wrenchfest day.

Hoodoo Man · Unread post by **Hoodoo Man** » Sun Mar 15, 2015 5:31 am

honestly I couldn't be less pleased with a vendor than these guys. I had a crap ton of debris in my rear diff fluid after they did my R&P. It was just scary. I have no idea what caused it as it seems to be fine now and thankfully it didn't destroy by ARB locker. they tossed my lube lockers in the trash and when I bitched about it they said they would send them to me, never did. I'm not impressed with this place at all.

Frank · Unread post by **Frank** » Sun Mar 15, 2015 6:38 am

I think they also did Fishs 9" rear that blew up the first day he wheeled it ! FjR68

Baseshakers · Unread post by **Baseshakers** » Sun Mar 15, 2015 7:06 pm

Yep franky, I got hosed. Well it's all welded back together now, with my 240V at peak power so it better hold! Not the prettiest welds in the world given the gap I had to deal with but a lot better than what was there.

Glad your ARB survived Jeff, I wouldn't be surprised if they screwed up the pattern initially. I remember the day Fish broke at F&F, he wasn't even romping on it! Unbelievable all around.

Hoodoo Man · Unread post by **Hoodoo Man** » Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:43 pm

Baseshakers wrote:Yep franky, I got hosed. Well it's all welded back together now, with my 240V at peak power so it better hold! Not the prettiest welds in the world given the gap I had to deal with but a lot better than what was there.

Glad your ARB survived Jeff, I wouldn't be surprised if they screwed up the pattern initially. I remember the day Fish broke at F&F, he wasn't even romping on it! Unbelievable all around.

I guess we are just the outliers in the process, that are too rough with our stuff.

Or they suck...

84cj · Unread post by **84cj** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:52 pm

Sorry for your bad experiences guys. But on the flip side, I had my rear axle tubes replaced (after a punishing trip to Rausch Creek a few years back) from Mitchell and I have had zero issues with it so far. Wait, maybe that is why I started flopping every other run.

I have no affiliation with the guys over there.

Curtis

Posimoto · Unread post by **Posimoto** » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:33 pm

I'm curious if you talked to them and presented pics, if so what was their response?

Frank · Unread post by **Frank** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:33 pm

Dude : There is no excuse for that bridge to rip off the housing ! I welded Ryans Jeep back together in Rausch with a welder that was so bad Dennis had to twist the amp knob for it to put out enough to weld the control arms back on to drive it home. It was a bad weld from the begining. Poor prep, wrong heat setting, porosity between the beads. Some thing a professional Co. shouldnt have an issue with. Its what they do. Jeff had the same thing happen at F&F ,The bridge ripped off and cost him a driveshaft at the same time. Fish was doing a rock a stock JK might have made and a brand new R&P blew up. To many issues with them. FjR68

Posimoto · Unread post by **Posimoto** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 9:03 pm

I'm thinking your not addressing my post because nothing you posted has anything to do with my question, but I figured I'd ask because I wasn't sure.

Baseshakers · Unread post by **Baseshakers** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:14 am

Hey Posimoto, sorry, I wasn't trying to avoid answering your question. I haven't approached Mitchell with this latest issue as it has been a few years since they built the axle. I wouldn't expect any vendor to take care of a customer after this long (though some will go out of their way to do so). Honestly I could barely get Mitchell to call me back when they were smack in the middle of my build, so anything I send them now, many years later, will most likely go nowhere. Hell, when they screwed up my axle shafts they still charged me to fix them! I just welded the damn truss back on myself and called it a day.

Hoodoo Man · Unread post by **Hoodoo Man** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 7:17 am

Posimoto wrote:I'm curious if you talked to them and presented pics, if so what was their response?

he accused me of not breaking the R&P in properly. _ I did stopping several times for cool down on the drive home and it was fouled diff fluid due to off road use. there were a chit load of metal flakes that were either from before the swap or a bad setup. Its working OK several years later but he does not stand behind the work he just did and never was able to send me a pattern which I requested. the slap em together and call it good without documenting much. Im sure they would either a) remember Ryan and say look at the abuse to your Jeep or b) outright ignore him. #vendorFail

Posimoto · Unread post by **Posimoto** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 7:32 am

Baseshakers wrote:Hey Posimoto, sorry, I wasn't trying to avoid answering your question. I haven't approached Mitchell with this latest issue as it has been a few years since they built the axle. I wouldn't expect any vendor to take care of a customer after this long (though some will go out of their way to do so). Honestly I could barely get Mitchell to call me back when they were smack in the middle of my build, so anything I send them now, many years later, will most likely go nowhere. Hell, when they screwed up my axle shafts they still charged me to fix them! I just welded the damn truss back on myself and called it a day.

Thanks for the reply. I asked because I cut down my front 44 a few years ago and had them cut and respline the axle shaft and all was good. However, last year when I cut down my front 60 I sent them my axle shaft to be shorten and respline, this time it wasn't cut to my specs. I called the owner and he said he cut it personally and was sure it was cut correctly. I told him he was mistaken and the shaft was too long. He did say he was would re-cut the shaft and or send me a u-joint for the trouble. I simply cut down the shaft to my specs and tapered back the splines.

I would recommend contacting the owner and speak only to him. He should know what type of work is coming out of his shop and have a chance to make it good with you, this type of work has no time limit.

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