Bed rear end (again) Plan of action

[hrdman2luv]

So my 3rd diff is going out, and I was calling around this morning for a rebuild price. Almost all of them wanted about $2K. I'm just not going to spend that much. So I'm thinking about getting one out of a wrecking yard, and swapping it. But, I'm also going to put mine on the bench and see just how much trouble it is to rebuild mine. Really dig into it and see what makes them tick. Learn how to do this crap, instead of paying someone else $150hr to replace parts and clean. Yeah na.

I was looking online and think I can get diff's for less than $300. That includes the bearings and races.

 

[hrdman2luv]

Ok, plan B. I found a mechanic only a few miles down the road. He seems to know what he's doing. Described the possibilities. And stated the labor would be about $350.

 

[hrdman2luv]

He replaced all the races and bearings an the bill was about $700. Said the pinion was on the verge of needing replacing. But I passed on it. It does howl a little sometimes. So I think I'll find me a good used one this winter and make it a winter project. So I can learn how to do this myself.

 

[DanAR]

I had new gears put in a differential last year and it was somewhere around $350 labor but I provided the gear set. I wasn’t happy wit the noise and took it out and reset it myself. I had to fabricate a bench mount to hold the heavy thing and needed a decent inch-lb torque wrench and then a big yoke spanner wrench that i fabricated to help torque the pinion nut to about 200 ft-lb. Shims were a bit hard to fine and needed dressing and then a lot of trial fit up of the gears to get the pattern right.

What mode of failure are you dealing with?

 

[Hagar1]

One of the most important things when doing a diff is to make sure that the housing and axle tubes are absolutely clean. Any debris left will almost guarantee a repeat failure.