I am installing a PowerTrax posi unit in my diff. and the retainer bolt/roll pin that holds in the pinion shaft broke off in the carrier.

Needless to say I can't push in the axles to remove the c-clips with that shaft in. I can't remove it since it snapped off. There are a few threads left in the carrier that are holding the retainer bolt in.

With the angle involved, there is no feasible way to get a drill bit in there to drill it and/or get an Easy-Out in there to remove it.

I am royally screwed until I get this thing outta there.

My friends and I have even tried pounding on the shaft with a sledge hammer and drive pin, hoping to shear off the bolt, but it's obviously too strong.

Any ideas? I'm pretty much open to any, short of taking the entire rear end outta the car. Although I will if necessary. I honestly fail to see how that would do any good though.

Thanks in advance,

AJ

 

Ouch! I'm going through the same thing right now. Except the bolt sheared completely off, but the shaft was still a PITA to get out. I had to pound the heck out of it get it to come out. This was done with the entir rearend out of the car, I think its a little eaiser to work on rather than being under the car.

As for trying to get the little bolt out, I'm clueless, Maybe someone will have some ideas. I'm like you, I dont see a feasible way to drill it out, break it, or any thing, with it still being in the housing. Did you take the bearing caps off? With those out the carrier should pull out a little, maybe enough to drill it, or easy out. Good luck.

 

I've had this happen at work before. Use a little heat to soften any thread lock in there, grab some little picks and see if you can rotate it out. It's work for me numerous times. Next option is drill or blowout the crosspin with a torch. Unless you have an angle drill, one of these will probably be your best bet. Good luck and be patient.

 

So you think a butane torch would work? I've got one of them.

Just heat it up enough to expand the carrier right? And where would I get a drill bit that small that would be long enough? Or do you think I can just remove the passanger side cap and have enough clearance?

I'm not gonna go at it again tonight. It's 12:15am here now, and IMO, it's stupid to work on something like that if your tired. You start doing stupid stuff, and breaking more ****.

Anyway, I'll try again in the morning. I like the pick idea, I just want to make sure I don't overheat the carrier and do some damage.

Thanks to both of you as well as any other 'good ideas' that some of you come up with.

AJ

 

Ditto crazyrob, I have had to cut the pin out with a
cutting torch before.

 

a butane torch is all i usually use to heat it up a bit, 99% of the time they come out clean. One problem i do see with yours, you might not be able to just stick a pick in there and turn it out if your friends "reefed" on it with a sledge hammer. Your only other option, unless you have a big red wrench (cutting torch) you'll have to drill it out. Not the bolt, but the actual crosspin that holds the spider gears in there. Anyway you look at it, it will be time consuming, so be patient. If you end up drilling it, go at a slow speed so you don't burnithe bit out, and give the bit a shot of lube occasionly to help cool it. Good luck, i really can't think of anyhting else that is a bigger pain to go wrong . Try with a pick first to turn them out. Alot of the times the bolt comes loose but also breaks so it just needs to be wound out.

 

I've had this happen manny times. Rotate the housing, so the bolt side is toward the pinion. Take a bfh and pin just a little smaller and drive it out. It's a bit-h but can be done. I've done it this way on more than one 8.5 carrier. If you don't roll the carrier over and drive it through the wrong way, that little pin,[where it shears off] will catch on the spider gears. Good luck, and wear safty classes. That pin is hardened and could send chips flying into you eye, which CAN'T be REPLACED.

 

Depending on your carrier, the approach may be different. A little heat, an angle drill and left-hand drill bit, or a regular twist drilll and E-Z-Out may be all that's necessary. You may be able to remove the carrier bearing caps and flex the carrier out just far enough to use a regular drill motor (not angle-head) and get it that way.

 

Thanks guys. I really appreciate everything.

Unfortunately I resorted to putting the broken bolt back in for now so I can have my car tomorrow. I searched everywhere (within reason) for that bolt and no place that's open has one.

Don't worry. This is a VERY temporary fix. My wife needs that car for work tomorrow and she works about 4 miles away. So won't be going over 30 MPH.

It's just I have a physical and a **** test tomorrow morning for a new job (finally A JOB!!!!) and I get to take her minivan now.

Thanks again. I'll let you know how everything goes, even after the actual install, whenever I get to it.

AJ

 

What I did--->
Spray in lots of WD40 or Liquid Wrench (or something similiar) to dilute the gear oil so the broken piece of bolt will rotate easier. Then I used one of those telescoping magnetic pick-up wands to reach in and gently pull outward on the bolt while turning it out at the same time; it took a while, but it did come out .

Pete

Forgot to mention: I also used some valve grinding compound on the magnetic tip to increase the 'grip' on the bolt.

 

I first tried to drill a hole in the bolt and use a screw extractor to twist it out. Well the bolt was spinning with the drill bit after it got so far. So I tried the screw extractor anyway, but it wouldn't grab. Well that at least told me that it was spinning.

So next I took an old phillips head screwdriver and ground the tip flat, wrapped a wire around it and hooked it to a 12 volt battery charger. For those of you who may recall from science class, that's called an ELECTROMAGNET!!!

Well the charger was for a remote control car to charge 9.6volt batteries. It was only rated at 300mA. I got a little magnetism out of it, but not enough to do any good.

Then I tried drilling the pinion shaft itself since I knew it wouldn't spin, and was gonna try to drill all the way through the hole for the bolt. Well that didn't work either. I don't have the drill bit made for steel that hard.

Finally, I did something similar to what CrazyRob had suggested. I don't have two picks small enough to get both in there, so I made something along the same lines. I took that same screwdriver I used earlier, cut off the wire, and notched it on the end with my bench grinder. I put a little " V " in the end so it would have the two sharp tips to act as picks.

Well I'll be damned if it didn't work. :lala:

The only reason it worked was because I drilled that little divot in the end, and got it to spin while drilling it. Then by using the electromagnet, I had cleaned out all the metal shavings I had made by drilling. So it made a nice clear path for the 3/4 thread that was left to rotate.

Thank you all for the insight. I believe that everyone's idea worked once that were all put together.

AJ

 

OH. Forgot to tell ya.

I got the PosiTrax in, but haven't gotten the cover put on or filled it with gear lube yet, so I haven't had a chance to drive it yet.

But overall, it was easy as heck to install. I did it all myself with no help from anyone except a pack of cigs and a case of Mountain Dew.

I'll let everyone know how my experience went, as well as the results by posting it in the "Aftermarket Product Review" board.

Thanks again to all of you,

AJ

 

Hey man, was that your first rearend rebuild?
I just finished mine sunday. I repaced the whole rearend before, which pretty cut and dry, but I had never rebuilt one before.
All in all I was pretty satisifed, I amazed myself once again.

 

Shooting this post back up to the top... seems like my "search" couldn't find too many messages on this. I'm off to get a set of 28 spline axleshafts- but first I'm buying a set of picks. If that lock bolt snaps on me, I'll be one unhappy SOB. (Already had one snap, on my original axle, which is still in the backyard...)