While changing the oil seals on the rear axles of my 1990 dakota, I screwed up and now the holes don't line up for the pin to go back in the differential. Is there any way to re align the holes without taking out the whole unit? I've tried banging and prying but no go. Help is needed, thanks!

 

are you talking about the big pin not lining up, the one that goes through the top and bottom spider gears ?
or are you having trouble getting the little bolt into the big pin?
it should just line up with a little jiggling around. whats not liining up?

edit - assuming you have the big pin in place, and the little bolt won't start, can you stick a screwdriver or punch into the hole and jiggle the pin around. careful - don't break the screwdriver and don't booger up the threads. if the big pin seems too tight, take it back out and buff it with a steel brush on the grinder.

 

I assume you have an open differential. If so you can just rotate the axle shafts to realign the spider gears... assuming your talking about the cross pin.

 

It's the big pin. The gears moved out of place and only half of the hole in the gears is visible where the pin goes in.

 

The only thing holding those 4 gears in is themselves and the cross pin. Otherwise they are free to rotate and slide out. Make 100% sure the thrust washers are still in place... they are the cone-shaped washers that are behind the spider gears.

 

The gears don't seem to move at all as far as ligning up the holes goes. They do turn when the axles are rotated. I did rotate the shafts a little, but not much. How much rotating would it take if only half of the hole in the gear is visible? There is a spring loaded mechanism that covers the gears and it has moved out of place and knocks on the pinion gear when the unit is rotated. Maybe I can take a pic and post it later tomorrow so you can get a better idea of what I'm dealing with. Thanks for the replies!

 

A pic would be great, but its starting to sound to me like you have a limited slip diff. I just got done rebuilding one, so I can say, it take a lot of effort to get the spider gears lined up again. I would have posted a write up about it, but I didn't want to touch my camera with my hands covered in gear oil. I'll let you know what to do after I see the picture.

 

Ok, that sounds good, thanks!

 

A pic of the diff is attached.

 

This pic is a bit blurry but it shows the pinhole.