Got laid off in the oilfield, so I figured to head for the property in Canada loaded for bear and a summer's work. Between the family and my girlfriend we have almost 1000acres of timber in B.C., plenty of work, cutting timber, milling, fixing fences, remodeling, and solar. Two mistakes right away, took the '03 1500 OffRoad 'cause I was in a hurry and the big truck wasn't ready, also figured as a tax payer they'd let me through the virus barricade. Canadian Border Patrol to be fair thought about it for awhile, trying to fit me in, but ultimately told me to go to hell, or Nevada, whichever I could find fastest. Politely, but nonetheless, F***Off. 'Bout 200mi from home headed back, pulled up lame with an odd whistling that I could only hear with the windows up. Windy that day so I figured must be the cab/topper. Pulled over and found the right axle bearing had unloaded most of my diff fluid, not good. They never unload like that unless a bearing has given out. Jacked it up, confirmed the worst, good 3/4in play up/down. My mistake, loaded the back and the car hauler with too much weight, now I'm screwed.
For the second time this year a Samaritan helped me out. First was in January at the beginning of that vicious cold snap we had in B.C. Near Tete Jaune Cache, I put my truck off the road on packed snow/ice and 15ft down an embankment into 3ft or so of snow. -32F that night. Wanting to run the engine to keep some heat, I climbed out the window to shovel everything clear, keep the air in the cab exhaust free, figuring to sleep there. Exhaust, doors, engine bay, grill, undercarriage, totally packed/surrounded with snow. In the 2 hours I was there, 3 folks drove by, including the LDM snow plow! No way I looked like I was there on purpose or for fun, but nobody stopped. Finally a frac hand headed to work in Alberta stopped around 11pm or so and gave me a lift 30 odd miles to McBride. Naturally, the engine heat melted all the snow around the front and overnight froze the truck solidly in place. Took a full and I mean semi-sized wrecker to lift that truck out for the flatbed haul back to the shop to be thawed. Not them boys first rodeo by any means, lucky for me they went prepared.
Got a ride to town and back, picked up a bearing, lube, and seal at NAPA, figuring to fix it in place and limp home. Then the fun started.
Got the cover off and pulled the bolt holding the cross pin to drop the axle. Couldn't figure out why the pin was so hard to remove, usually they kinda fall out. I rotated the differential and got the pin free. BIG mistake number 3. I had rotated the carrier and let the spider gears out trying to free the pin. On an open diff, no problem, but the 4x4 OffRoad has a limited slip diff. The pin was free, but the C-clip was jammed.....couldn't push the axle in far enough. The clutches were pushing the side gear in against the clip. Nothing about this in the cheese d**k Haynes manual I carry around. My HUGE mistake number 4, poor judgement based on lack of accurate/credible information. Just as bad, big mistake number 5, I had only 1 jackstand. I took it to hold up the front of my car hauler after I bent the jack off road in Texas, another summer fixit project. Since I blocked only one side of the rear end up, to pull the axle, there was enough side load from the left wheel to push the axle tight against the cross pin, making it hard to remove. Now I'm thinking I'm truly f***ed. I can't get the axle to load back against the clutch pack, even with a pry bar, gonna have to pull the carrier and rig up a press to collapse the clutches and let the cross pin/spider gears back in. Do NOT let the spider gears out, they hold the side gears in place.
Worse, after the usual struggle to get a rust frozen rear rotor off, I can't get the axle free. Bearing has got to be trashed and binding up the axle, no other possibility.

Big carrier is the LimitedSlip, can see the side gear collapsed in after I got the axle out


Left side clutch pack pinning the C clip in.
I have a ton of stuff with me for the summer's work so I build a slide hammer from bolt stock, a strange little shackle I found in the dirt in Texas which I believe is for pulling valve seats out of a mud pump, some 3/4 nuts/coupler left over from framing in DeathValley, and some .250 wall DOM tubing I bought to make bushings for my snowplow.


I had my Lincoln Ranger on the trailer and thought about welding a nut onto the axle for the slide hammer to bite, but settled on the little shackle and a chain bolted to the lug studs.
Slide hammer does not do the trick, so I need something else. Had I known before hand what I needed, could have left the trailer off to the side and used the loading winch to give it a tug. Like wise, the come along and straps/choker I had were not quite long enough to reach the fence post nearby.
What I settled on was a "Swing"hammer.


I rigged this up at the house to show how it works. Swing it like a golf club, the chain and cable does the pulling.


This is the axle and why it stuck.


Carnage, never seen a three sided roller bearing before


Rigged to push the rotor off with a couple of spare V-10 head bolts. Be careful, it was tight enough to bend the caliper ears before it popped. The park brake fought me as well. For those old enough to remember drum brakes, these are not self adjusting. Turning the star wheel down backed the shoes out of the way.

So. f*** me. Got the axle out, but with the spider gear situation and the condition of the axle, I knew for sure it was time to give up and call the hook. 900USD and 8 hrs later I was loaded up from the middle of nowhere back to my home on the edge of nowhere. This axle is a disappointment, the worst setup possible, never thought about it, always had 2500s. An axle bearing riding directly on the axle itself is asking for a wheel to depart from the truck prematurely. I checked lube as always at service before departure, but my fault for loading the trailer tongue heavy, and overloading the back. Also, I'm not suggesting that everybody has or should carry the kind of gear I happened to have for my summer projects, I was really lucky. I just want to show what can be done with limited means, a person can see how this could be adapted to other materials/tools.
I set this in 3rd Gen, but it applies to all Chrysler 9.25 differentials. I'll post part numbers as I put this back together.