Sorry if this is a little too new for the HAMB but the subject at hand is still relevant. LuckysGal has a 2000 Chevy pickup and she was turning around in a driveway and heard a clunk in the rear end. Then she reversed it and heard another loud noise. After that she put it in 4X4 high and limped it home. It wouldn't move in two wheel drive mode. Today I finally got a chance to look at it and this is what I found. The spider gear on the passenger side was hammered flat. I thought maybe the axle had snapped and this gear stayed stationary as the others beat it into submission. I jacked up the rearend and had her try and spin the RR wheel and it wouldn't budge so maybe the axle isn't broken or everything heated up and welded it's self together. However this is as far as I'm tearing into it, do you guys have any thoughts on what might have happened?
Does she have a teenage Son? Cause I made a bunch of rear ends look like that when I was a youngster!
With the amount of shrapnel that is going to be in and through all of the bearings and gear teeth I think you might be better off with a different rear end. Just make sure its the same ratio.....
The spider and axle gears are notoriously bad in those diffs. You can get an internal kit for them but most of our customers choose to upgrade to a posi unit. I'll need to completely dissassemble the diff to remove all the shed metal. Metal will absolutly get caught between the two pinion bearings so please don't fix it without pulling the pinion and fishing out all the stuff in the recess between those bearings as well as cleaning the tubes. Brick
Find her another rear axle and build her a trophy outta whats left of this one for valentines day....
when GM went to the 8.625 rear the also went to cast spiders(instead of bar stock spiders).... THEY ARE SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Upgrade to something aftermarket. or with spcial bearings you could float an older 8.5 in there. which would last MUCH longer...... Again if you put GM parts back in there IT WILL BREAK AGAIN..... Im a GM guy too kinda sad aint it
In the second picture, on the driver's side spider, up where the top and side spiders meet, is there a chunk of metal wedged in there? Looks like it in the photo. -Brad
So all those donuts I did, I'm assuming, didn't help. Thanks for your help guys... I think I'll be looking in a junk yard for a whole axle assembly. Then, bye-bye Chevy!
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