My Chevy K1500

[autumn walker]

So this is inside of this which mates to this ?


You have to remove the axle "housing" from the differential as a whole unit and you are ok (i.e. let the five bolts go from the differential housing and remove the whole axle shaft?).

 

[Mr_Rich]

Look up (Google, Yahoo, etc.) GM IFS axle seals. There are YouTube vids available that explain this repair. They're not the best vids, but they're still very helpful. Five bolts holding the axle assembly to the diff housing. They were installed with something like Loctite Red which means they were meant to be permanent. I chased the threads with a tap and used Loctite Blue and torqued the bolts to 30 ft/ lbs when I reinstalled the axle assembly. Two bolts hold the axle assembly to the frame bracket. I used a 21mm box end wrench and a 21mm socket/ ratchet to remove those. And then you have the six M10 bolts holding the half shaft to the axle flange.

In pic#2 you see the stub axle on top of the assembly...that is the gear/ axle installed in the diff in pic#3.

In pic#1 the gear is held on to the end of the axle via an internal C-clip. You have to tap on the end of the axle with a brass hammer or protect it with a piece of hardwood while you give it a hard tap with a hammer to take it apart or put it back together. That is a bearing surface that has to be protected.

 

[Mr_Rich]

I'm on the road with my K1500. I attended a get-together with my Airborne brotherhood. I've been wanting to do this since I retired and finally decided to do it. My K-truck doesn't have working AC and I could've sure used it yesterday. I experienced heavy winds, and hot, humid weather. It made for a very fatiguing and uncomfortable driving day. I got through it and I'm in a cooler, but still heavy wind climate in AZ. What's amazing is that this old truck is running happily on 49-state gas blends and I'm getting mileage I've seen before after driving this truck for over twenty-five years. I've been getting many 20 mpg tankfuls on this trip. I went 380 miles the day before yesterday on 18.9 gallons of gas. You can do that kind of math in your head...:woot: