Replacing an axle

Ever have this?

https://youtu.be/SBpvWsUmkw8

Over the next few posts, ill be showing step by step how to tear apart an axle. First, you want to jack up the truck&place on stands on either side of the axle like this:




Now, you'll want to remove the diff cover. I used an impact and she came off pretty easy. 10 bolts&its off, should look like this:

Now you'll want to spin each wheel independently. For me, my passenger side tire spa could spin without affecting the differential. However the driver side wheel did in fact spin the differential(video coming soon). So this means I have something wrong in the passenger side of the differential.

I removed the passenger wheel, and the caliper, which involved relieving pressure in the break line by opening the master cylinder.

Next is to remove the rotor itself. First is removing the pin inside the bolt, which is done with a set of needlenose pliers, and removing the bolt itself. We found it to be near a 1 3/4" bolt, and even with a impact took some doing to remove. These bolts are not to be this tight, so you shouldn't have as much of a problem as we did. Next to remove the rotor. First, there are 3 12 point 14 mm bolts on the backside of the rotor. Once removed, it takes a special tool, and some prying with a crowbar behind the rotor and it will pop out.

Once removed, the axle shaft will slide out along with the rotor. In my case, this axle shaft was good. But there is another axle shaft that connects with this to serve as a halfway point to the dif pumpkin. In between these is an oil seal followed by a bushing/bearing to connect these two axles shafts together. You can remove the second axle shaft by getting into the diff and prying it slightly forward while someone with a magnet is reaching through the axle where the rotor used to be. Will pull straight out if you're lucky.

So now this is how we set as of 5/2.

in the first picture, you can see the bearing that connects to the two axle shafts that you see in pictures 2 and 3. We have yet to figure out how it comes out, but that will come. Good news in this case however is that both of my axle shafts are in good condition, with no beat up on the teeth.

Will update as time to work on her allows&will add video on YouTube of the differential spinning.

simple explanation of how this Dana 60 is set up since I realize it may be slightly confusing:

96 Ram 2500 differential/broken axle: https://youtu.be/U3HTVlnapdI

After some wrenching around this morning, we found a few things. The ID collar(referred to as the 'bearing' in my drawing for simply lack of a better word) is removed by taking off the 4x4 actuator. This actuator is the part I need to replace.