Ohkay so i found a leaky pinion seal on my front axle. Nothing to extreme. I got a seal and was preparing to replace it. When i pulled the front cover off the front differential i noticed that i didnt have any c-clips next to the side gears... well i foudn them laying in the bottom of the diff.

So my biggest question here is in regards to the cross pin/center shaft that goes through the spider gears... Is it supposed to have a groove in it? If it is then i'd say i got lucky with just a broken bolt that holds that pin in place...

if it isnt supposed to be grooved then i have more things to purchase LOL

I havent been able to find any info in regards to it yet, but by my figuring i think the groove is supposed to be there so you can take the bolt out and rotate it to take the c-clips off and pull the shafts out, since i think the cross pin/center shaft cannot be removed without removing the ring gear and that involves removing the carrier.

can someone let me know if my reasoning here is correct or not? thanks in advance

 

I can not remember if it did have the slots, but a quick look at a replacement pin does show that it does have the slots. http://www.ringpinion.com/b2c/PartsL...D=321&CatID=77

 

mine has those slots, but on the other side (rotate it 90 degrees from the slots and it has like a big groove in the middle, slowly angling down to the middle then raising back out. its had to describe but it looks like a small 1/4 moon shape was taken out of it. it looks to precision cut to me to be wore that way...

but then again i could be wrong which is why i came here for the second opinion

 

Post up a picture of it. To me from your description it sounds like the axle shaft was wearing into it.

 

sorry for the crappy quality, as it is from my phone. Its like this only on one side and also has a slot on top for a straight screwdriver to turn the pin... and how the picture shows is how the pin sits with the bolt in it... i would have taken it out but i cant get it to slide past the ring gear teeth on either side, which is why my original theory was its designed like this to allow removal of the axle shafts to allow removal of the carrier to pull the ring gear and then pin and spiders and such... just looking for a second opinion....

so its currently back in my garage tore down now, after i made a custom pin bolt to make it stay together to get home (wasnt going to use 4wd of course). Now my question is what will work for holding it solid as i loosen the pinion nut? I have always been able to just lock the hubs/cad system in and have someone hold my brakes as i turn the nut... (tires on the ground as well) i tried that with the dak, and the nut wouldnt break loose but the ratchet would go a little under 1/4 turn so i stopped since that seems like to much flexing/twisting of components to me... any tips? or do i NEED to by the special flange holding tool...

 

Normally low gears (High numerical value) have large rings gears where you have to notch the teeth just a tad to clear the pin, that sounds like where your getting stuck. Lots of other axles use notches like that one in your picture. It looks normal from what I can see in the picture.

 

ohkay, so with me having the 3.92 gears, i need the notch. Thanks thats all i needed to know.

Sounds like i got really lucky tho with the bolt broke for who knows how long and no other damage inside the diff...


now its on to figure out the bearings and seals, and as for what i need to do so i can break the pinion nut loose without breaking other front axle components. If i change the bearings for the pinion how to i have to go about setting up the preload for that as well?