Chevy & GMC Vans

I find that Summit and Jegs seem to have great pricing, even when adding in shipping. Currie is always good too form what I hear.

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch ... &N=700+115

Rileysowner wrote:The hole is much cleaner now than it is in the pic I posted. Wow! That is a nice long handle. Mine is probably half that long give or take a bit. It certainly would be nice to add something with a long handle like that.

Grab a scrap piece of steel tubing that has an ID close to the OD of the handle and get er done!!!

lol the "persuader" I use is a tie rod off my old suburban. It's almost 5' long and weighs like 15lbs. I can lift the rear of the van off the ground with it

Rusty nuts and bolts and pretty much anything I can use it on quivers in fear and undoes it's self when I pull it out!

I got it loose. I put the 1/2" to 3/8" adapter on my breaker bar and attached the 3/8" extention. Hit is with the propane torch, a squirt of Release All on the plug, a tug on the breaker bar and it came loose. The bolt for the differential cover were no problem. Now to snap a few pics and get her done.

Now I can't get the one drum off. I know that both were taken off when I paid to have the brake lines done, but for some reason it is stuck. Life is never easy

Edit:
A little persuading with the rubber mallet (once I found it in the backyard :-k ) got it loose.

Sure enough, as I contemplated the guts of the differential, it got dark. So I slipped the cover back on, and packed up for the night.

On the positive side, I am ready to go tomorrow.

The job so far.

1. Loosened the lug nuts on the back wheels, and Jacked up the van.

2. Chocked the front wheels and placed the jack stands to support the van while I'm under it.

3. Found the fill plug for the differential. It is on the passenger side on the side of the differential housing toward the front of the van.


4. Get the fill plug loose. I used my breaker bar with a 3/8" extension on it. To get it loose I cleaned it out, and used a propane torch to heat the area around it. Once it was good an hot, I gave the plug a squirt of penetrating oil, and using the breaker bar, broke it loose.

5. Then I removed the bottom bolts of the differential cover and loosened the other bolts so that the cover could come loose at the bottom and drain the oil from it.

6. Remove the tires and the brake drum.

7. I removed the cover, and this is what I found.

The differential open:


Close picture of the differential:


The pinion locking bolt:


This is as far as I have gotten, but then it started to get too dark.

Looking in the opening in the middle while I still had light, I noticed that the c-clips will be difficult to get to. It looks like one is facing toward the back and one toward the front. I'm not sure how to deal with that, but it can wait until tomorrow.

Don't forget to pull all that nasty gear oil out of the bottom of the diff...

p.s on the pics

That nasty gear oil will come out when I get further. What stymied me was looking and trying to figure out how to get the c-clips off. Since it was getting dark I thought I would quit for the day so I have more time and don't sit there working in the dark. It is more the fact that one has the opening facing toward the front of the van while the other has the opening facing toward the back.

When you get the pinion pin out, push the axle in from the brake side and the clip will be easy to remove if it doesn't fall out, then pull the axle back out.

What Stan said. Real easy. You'll see when you try.

And when you put it all back together DON"T put a bizzilion pounds of torque on the fill plug. It's pipe thread. It only needs a little snug to keep it in place. And when you have the pinion shaft out don't rotate the differential. [-X If you do you'll rotate the pinion gears right out of the housing.

Thanks everyone, next problem, getting the pinion lock bolt out. It won't budge.

First question, what size is it? 5/16" wrench fits, but it loose, next size down that I have doesn't fit. Seems same with the metric ones I have. I am stuck now and had one wrench round off the bolt a little, so I want to wait for answers before damaging it more.

Try a 5/16" 6-point socket. I dont think anything on the rear end is metric, the cover is held on with 5/16" standard bolts. 8mm is the closest to 5/16".

Scott

5/16 is the closest fit. I will see if I can get a socket on it.

So much for that, I can't get the socket wrench in there. There simply is not room. I can get the socket itself on it, but attach it to any of the socket wrenches I have, and there is no way it will fit. I'm at a loss now as to what to do. I don't want to round off the edges any more that I did with my first attempt. Socket wrench won't fit. Do they make 6 point box end wrenches? Not that I can go and get one right now as the van is non-drivable and the wife is out at work with the car. I think I am good and stuck. I even tried to grab the socket with a pair of vice-grips but all they do is slide.

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