Something Easy Being So Hard

[enginemech]

Was gonna change the seals in the front dif. Seemed pretty straight forward. Book says use a little pressure to pull out the drive axles ....YEAH RIGHT!!!!! Removed the chunk chained it between the legs of my engine hoist and put probably 1000 lbs of force and neither would budge. UNBELIEVABLE!!! I'll send pics of it if some one wants to see just for giggles, but it didn't work.

[SMITTY]

put a strap on the axle and then tie the other end to a sledge and swing the sledge and the shock should bring it out. Thats what brings them out, shock, I never had any luck with constand pressure. You could also use a slide hamme. I had to take a whole front diff apart one time to get the axle out.

[NMKAWIERIDER]

Originally Posted by SMITTY

put a strap on the axle and then tie the other end to a sledge and swing the sledge and the shock should bring it out. Thats what brings them out, shock, I never had any luck with constand pressure. You could also use a slide hamme. I had to take a whole front diff apart one time to get the axle out.

For the axles that does sound like a good idea.

[enginemech]

!!! I GOT IT!!! On the right side I wedged a screw driver between the lip of the case and the tiny lip of the cv joint (not so tight to damage the case). That lifted it a little but cocked it sideways too so I hit the opposite side of the cv end with a hammer as if to try and straighten it and popped right out. As far as the left side goes, ya cant get anything under it so after thoroughly and i mean thoroughly flushing the case with in a mineral spirit washer I jerked on the axle at different angles and it came right out. wow what a relief i've been fooling with this for 2 days. YEA!!!! But thanx smitty that idea with the hammer sounds like a good one. Wish i had thought of that. But you gotta be carefull cause that ring that holds that cv joint together aint real strong. but i guess if ya snatch it out like i did on the one on the right I guess ya could temporarily replace it with a much stronger snap ring or sumpn' You guys are Great. Thanx again.

[nar]

So how hard is it to get the front diff out? Looks like a pain, hoping it will be easier than it looks. Gonna have to rebuild mine one of these days.

[enginemech]

Sorry it took me so ling to reply. It's not very hard to remove the diff. the hardest thing was getting the D%*#n drive axles out of the diff. But as far as the diff. itself the hardest thing was where the steering linkage bolts to the top of the diff. you have to raise the handle bars as you back out the bolts cause they ar to long to remove them withuot doing so . you'll see what i mean when you do it. But as a whole it wasn't very hard. When are you going to start?

[nar]

I probably won't do it until this winter when I have time and quit using it. Probably needs spider gears, 4wd went away completely. Since I need to use it I changed the oil and to get out what I could and left it alone. Not making any noise now or anything.

Do you have to take the front driveshaft off and then pull it back toward the engine and then out the side? Looking at it seems like that's about the only way it would fit. Take an A arm completely off one side to make it easier to reach or leave it? I'm going to take mine off anyway as the top bushings are getting loose, need to change them and add zerks to the tubes.

[csw1510]

I'll be doing my front diff this weekend. I'll try to take as many pics as possible and do a decent write up on it. Seems to be a common problem.

[nar]

It makes sense that it's a common problem since the same diff is used from the 360 up. It can live with 360 power but not 650 and 750 power combined with tires that grip.

I'm looking forward to your thread and pictures then.

[csw1510]

I tried to do her up this weekend, but I am severely hurtin' for tools :P

I got to the point that I needed to take the nut for the hubs off and realized that I need an impact gun to get them off. Hopefully I'll get through it this weekend.

Chris