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HELP! Rear differential spider gear's fell out

91Rustbucket

Member
Joined
November 15, 2017
Messages
42
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City, State
Washington
Year, Model & Trim Level
1991 Explorer XLT
Mid-job on my rear axle shaft replacement on my 91X and the spider gears fell out. I was using my impact to try to pull the new wheel studs through the newly installed axle and it looks like the S-spring shifted a bit and the spider gears slipped out. I have the spacers and know which one was on the top and which was on the bottom and I'm really really hoping someone knows a trick to re-install these without dismantling the whole rear diff.
Clearly I'm an idiot for using the impact without the pin installed- but I'm outside and snow is coming my way and I'm in a pinch.
I'll take any suggestions

spider gears.jpg


s-spring.jpg
 






You should be able to slide the spiders and shims in, it is tricky because if you are even 1 tooth off, the pin won’t line up. Get 1 spider in place, then slide the pin enough to hold that side in place. Push the pin through, then try to get the other spider/shim in place and then slide the bolt in all the way.
With the pin removed, if you turn the axles, it will spit out the spider gears
 






Thanks for the info Massacre, I fiddled with it for quite awhile before I finally came to a solution which I'll write out here incase anyone else has this happen to them.
The two side gears wouldn't rotate with the S-spring in place so I carefully knocked the spring out with a brass punch and worked it around the back of the assembly until I could pull it out the bottom. Then I was able to put the bottom spider gear in and rotate the side gears until it was at the back of the assembly then put the top spider gear in and keep rotating. This put both of the gears back in place and I check the alignment with the center pin by sliding it in. Then I used a vice to compress the S-spring and hold it compressed with some vice grips (this part feels pretty sketchy). I was able to get it partially tapped into place before the vice grips popped off. Then some fine tune tapping with a brass punch to get it all the way centered. While I was installing the S-spring the side gears had rotated about 1/8" and I was able to rotate them just enough with a brass punch to get them all lined up again.

Hopefully that helps someone if they ever get in the same situation.
 






Awesome, glad you got it back together!
 






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