Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Really I don't wanna hear theory. I want a guy that did it. 2000 chevy 1500 4x4 V-6.
I have to pull these rear axels to replace backing plates, and don't want to buy a book because i don't own the truck.
I see a steel axle seal lip and think there is clips like older chevy had, but the bearings are pressed in the axel housing and not on the axels. So the axels will pull out, perhaps leaving the seals and bearings in the axel.
I don't seem to find a on line manual. If you know of one please tell me.
A guess it the seals and bearings will stay in the axel housing if i open the final drive case and release pins or clips. I would like to know if that guess is true.
The seal has a steel edge up hard on the axell housing, and is with in 2 inches of the hub flange, so I see no way other wise to install the axel like the old way, with the seal on the axel and the bearing pressed on. The hub flange has no hole to drift the seal into the axel housing.
I have done these on up to 1984, but this one is different. I don't want to buy the book, as it is a one time deal for me, and the truck isn't mine.
I have the backing plates off now, but because they were rusted so bad they turned to dust.
The new flange is a casting that bolts up over a machined welded on square, and the backing plate is sandwiched between the welded square flange, and the removable one.
This is the first time I have seen this set up which also has a one piece parking brak shoe. It looks like a halo. More trying to ID this set up from mentioning that , than anything else.
The answer I would like to read is :There ARE 2 clips in the differential, remove them, and pull the axel leaving the seals and bearings in the axel housing.
The one I don't want to hear is There is 2 clips in the differential, remove them and pull the axel seals and bearing pressed on the axel.
Because if this 2nd is true i have no idea where I will get room to install the seals.
Take the diff cover off. In the center of the carrier will be a large steel pin with a small holding screw, remove that. One at a time, push the axle in from the outside to expose the "C" clip where the pin was just removed. Use a magnetic stick to pull the clips. The inner race for the outer bearings on these axles is the axles themselves. They hold up surprisingly well and do NOT require the bearing to be "pulled" off. After the clips have been removed the axles just slide out. Trying to keep them in their operating position as you pull it out or the seal might get buggered.
If you mess up a seal they are very cheap and easy to install.
Don't spin the carrier after one or two of the axles has been removed! You will be cussing until you figure out how to roll the spider gears back into place.
Lux, so the seals and bearings will stay put in the axel housing right???? I sure hope so. On older model trucks the seal and bearing came out on the axels. If i recall and that is going back a lot then the seal was in a bolted on final flange. If i recall you installed the seal in the flange, dropped it down the axel and pressed on a new bearing.
This isn't like that a bit.
I personally rebuilt my 83/84 rear end, so I know or will atleast recognise the pin you mean the spiders crawl on. That very pin came loose in my 83/84 and cause the ring and pinion to be torn up bad. I saved the ring gear, but had to buy a new pinion gear. All the pinion teeth were sheared off, and laying like beach rocks in the case bottom.
That was in 1990, and that diff case works fine today.
When I say bad and sheared i mean it. I was on I -90 out in Rochester NY getting off the highway, and all of a sudden I heard sounds like a gravel crusher, and the truck coasted to a stop with out me wanting it to.
I had a good ways to travel yet and was towing a horse trailer filled with tools and my things. Thankfully no horse on that trip. I had no choice but to drop into 4x4 high and run as if I were a ft wheel drive only rig.
Getting the parts was no fun either. The Govt taxes stocked parts to the point there were none in NY anywhere and i had to order and wait for them to be milled.
yeah the seal is cake to install so long as it is done with no axel also installed. Thanks.
Lux, so the seals and bearings will stay put in the axel housing right???? I sure hope so. On older model trucks the seal and bearing came out on the axels. If i recall and that is going back a lot then the seal was in a bolted on final flange. If i recall you installed the seal in the flange, dropped it down the axel and pressed on a new bearing.
This isn't like that a bit.
Seals and bearings will stay in. It should be a 7.5" 10 bolt GM corporate. Does the pumpkin look like this?
I know what your talking about with the old, VERY DURABLE, axles. The axle you are working on is much easier.
This has been a long on going project that began with one failed brake line.
There is so much rust and I find salty beach sand every where, that as I WENT every single brake line failed upon a mild touch. ALL of them and ALL 5 rubber flex lines at the caliper ends failed.
The parking brake shoes are trash, they became loose inside the rear rotors. I have the ft flex lines on back order.
So far only 2 bolts have come out with no heat. ox actelenet type heat. Some resist even that and will fight 160 psi air and a good real heavy Chicago Numatic 1/2 drive impact gun, and i cracked a snap on 18mm impact socket too boot. The bleeders are trash and have no hex left of any kind, I used heat on what was left and feared crushing one with vise grips.
If this wasn't for a friend I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. He suffered a major bad stroke, and can no longer do this work himself and he couldn't have done this one anyway.
Yesterday I pulled the 4 perside axel flange bolts with a lot of heat and stood on my 18mm snap on wrench to move these bolts. My whole weight is what it took to move them hot with the axels in place. For the odd opne out where I could not stand i locked 2 wrenches, a 19mm to the 18mm and pulled as hard as i could.
Running the torches in these hot mggies is just no fun. All of this is on a field next to the barn as the barn floor is new concrete for one, and there is 3 big ovens in there anyway. 2 men could go inside each oven so these are big.
I can deal with limited slip and anything else. You and Lux confirmed what I thought, for which I give a hearty thanks. I was expecting this to be the old way. Wrong.
Even the axle tubes are thin rolled pipe, smaller and thinner that 2 decades back.
The weather here today was suck, that there was no way I was going to dive under there and do this. A man must know his limitations and mine at 58 years are not trying to suck hot muggy air in the heat for no real gain. The pressure will be on when the ft flex line arrive. Till then I can fool around and get some stuff done and out of the way, but I ain't gonna kill myself over it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
