What's wrong with this picture?

[gavin]

I do believe there is some debris in the case that caused this.
If anything with the R&P itself grenaded, there would be horrible, horrible noises.

Seeing as how I never felt anything abnormal on my way to work, or on my way home, I'm pretty sure the R&P is (somewhat) fine, except for whatever caused the (almost) hole.

I'm actually gonna drive the thing to work today. I did manage to get the gear oil to stop leaking; I lightly hammered the chunk back into the case, then took some JB Weld to band-aid the leakage.

We shall see.

 

[gijoecam]

That pin is the main cross shaft that holds the two vertical spiders gears in place. That is the one I suspected to have slipped out. It is held in by another tiny pin that is pushed into the carrier and through the the cross shaft.

The cross shaft can not slide out all the way with the cover on -- there is not enough clearance between the housing and the carrier for it to slide out vertically. Chances are, when the pin impacted, it was pushed back up into the carrier. The pin might be bent at this point and the carrier's hole might be elongated. In addition, the carrier cap might have cracked.

But this is all just speculation, time to drop the differential.

I do believe there is some debris in the case that caused this.
If anything with the R&P itself grenaded, there would be horrible, horrible noises.

Seeing as how I never felt anything abnormal on my way to work, or on my way home, I'm pretty sure the R&P is (somewhat) fine, except for whatever caused the (almost) hole.

I'm actually gonna drive the thing to work today. I did manage to get the gear oil to stop leaking; I lightly hammered the chunk back into the case, then took some JB Weld to band-aid the leakage.

We shall see.

I'm with IZ on this one... It's got all the symptoms... The location lines up... You don NOT want to drive it like that... It's just a matter of time before either the pin works its way out far enough to hit again, or it works its way out far enough that the spider gear drops off one side, and then it's ka-BLOOey!! A spider gear rolling around in the diff is hella bad news...

-Joe

 

[gavin]

unfortunately, I have no choice.
Gotta work, and no spare vehicle.

The drive to work this morning was fine; nothing abnormal (for my truck, anyway).

and I don't know a whole lot about R&P's, but if a pinion shaft/cross-pin were to work it's way loose, wouldn't there be additional noise coming from the diff?


and I have sourced a front axle assy; going to find out what gears are in them. May just lower my gearing if they have a 4.10 front available, since they do have a 4.10 rear for $245.
Would make my truck (namely transmission and gas mileage) happy when I get my 33's back on.

 

[ExploringNC]

Just my opinion but that looks like an old repair is starting to come loose and leak. Could a previous owner have made the repair and for some reason the weld came loose and is now leaking fluid?

Damage like that would be very noticable when it happened and I don't think something would cause that damage then just slide back into place and be drivable.

 

[gavin]

I bought the vehicle used with about 97k miles on it.
My odo hit 159k yesterday (although my odometer is off due to 33" tires and stock gearing/speedo gear).

Before I purchased it, it was a commercial vehicle (per CarFax), so any work would have been done by (most likely) a dealership, or atleast a shop.

 

[gavin]

so I sourced front and rear axles with 4.10's, for $245/ea.

My question; are there any differences in the front axle assy's in the 2nd gen Explorers? I don't believe any of the Explorer's had a vacuum disconnect or axle disconnect of any sort, correct? So they're all the same? Just want to be sure...

as for the rear axle, there is no differences except that the V8 'Sploders except for maybe the "traction bars"? or were those on all 2nd Gen 'Sploders?


I'm gonna stop by the yard when I get off work to make sure they'll work, but thought I'd check here first too!

 

[gijoecam]

95-96 axles will have the center axle disconnect on the passenger side axle tube. For a 98, I think any axle from 97-01 will work, and possibly some from 02-04, but I can't be sure on those...

 

[AMMO_HOOAH]

If you want it I've got a front non disco stock i'd sell cheap. By the way guys the cross pin in the d35 can't come out with the ring in place even if the roll pin somehow came out or broke. I'd say it's a ring bolt.

 

[gavin]

so the front I sourced was actually out of an 05 Ranger, with only around 30k miles.
And yup, it's the same axle assy.

not sure how old the rear is, but it's def. been sittin a while and needs a good cleaning (they left calipers and rotors, and they're seized up)

 

[brianjwilson]

Is the $245 including shipping? I have a front diff with 4.10's from my 05 sport trac with less than 30k miles sitting in the garage. I haven't posted it anywhere because, well, I'm lazy. I'm not sure what shipping would be, but if you're going to have to ship that other diff anyway, PM me.

 

[gavin]

it was from a local yard, so no shipping.

I picked everything up after work today.

shipping to Alaska on a front axle assy would be spendy.

 

[brianjwilson]

Sweet! Be sure to check out the "how-to" articles on the front diff (I think there are two).
Air tools will help a lot, some of the upper mounts are very hard to reach. Otherwise it is pretty easy. Front right wheel, axle nut, and caliper off, turned full right on the wheel.
CV joint out of the knuckle, then pry out of the axle. Unbolt driveshaft, place jack under diff, unbolt 5 (I think) mounting bolts, pull the diff away from the drivers side CV joint while prying apart. Install new diff in opposite order and fill it up.
Make sure you can remove the fill plug before you mount the new differential up too.

 

[gavin]

yeah, I've tore my front-end down enough times, it'll be cake. And I did read one of the how-to's on pulling the diff, but nowhere in the how-to did he say anything about the diff-to-frame mounting points :scratch:

there's only 3 diff-to-frame mounting points.

shouldn't take me more than 2 hrs (if that).

 

[AMMO_HOOAH]

Getting the stuff out of the way to get youre CVs out is really the only thing that takes any time lol, but if you've done it before you know what you need to do.

 

[gavin]

got the old assy out, and new in.
sans cv's.

When I got home from work last night, I decided to get a head start by removing my half-shafts.
So... I removed axle-shaft nut, hung caliper out of the way, removed upper control arm from knuckle, and removed CV's on both sides. I then reconnected the upper-CA to knuckle, and put the tires back on (it beats fighting around jack stands!)

This morning, I removed the old assy and put in the new. Only took about 1.5-2hrs (if that), without including the time I spent cleaning up the new housing, removing diff cover to inspect innards, and siliconing/replacing diff cover.

gotta say, the hardest part(s) was(were) removing the dri. side housing-to-frame bolt (hard to get to!) and then positioning the new housing.

Have not yet inspected old housing; taking a breather, and gettin some grub, before I put the front end back together and filling up the new diff with lube.

Then need to run to town to get some good degreaser for my rear axle with 4.10's I picked up.

What's the recommended degreaser? I've seen foaming stuff.... but not sure what brand or anything it is?

Got pictures; will post later, when I'm completely done.

 

[gavin]

here's my how-to thread with plenty of pictures, of course.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217459

 

[gavin]

hm... I do believe something is missing.

cross-pin/pinion-shaft bolt-head is missing. But pin/shaft is still held in by the body of the bolt.

no debris in the case.
ring and pinion gears look great.
spider gears have normal amount of wear.

what fluid was left in the case was clean.

either the head of that bolt got ate up, or it drained out with the fluid yesterday, and ended up in the drain pain.

 

[IZwack]

That looks fine -- the cross shaft of most Dana axles are not held in by a bolt (like it is on the Ford 8.8). They are just held in by a smaller pin thats pressed in (and can therefore be pressed out). Should you have a need to remove it, all you have to do is get a small punch and push it out with a few taps from a hammer.

 

[gavin]

That looks fine -- the cross shaft of most Dana axles are not held in by a bolt (like it is on the Ford 8.8). They are just held in by a smaller pin thats pressed in (and can therefore be pressed out). Should you have a need to remove it, all you have to do is get a small punch and push it out with a few taps from a hammer.

huh... ok. thanks for that info, I didn't know that.

well then, in that case, I have no clue wtf happend.

as there's no debris in the case, and the left-over fluid was clean, I dunno.

 

[IZwack]

Well that doesnt mean that the pin didnt fall apart while inside the carrier.

Do you have a picture of the crack from inside the differential housing?