My god. How many miles were on that rear end? You guys must have just
stomped it at every light, towed REALLY heavy loads (often) or never changed
out the fluid (it IS recommended about every 12k miles)
Anyways. I had the luxury of replacing a rear end on a chevy diesel. It was
a 10 bolt rear end (nothing too heavy, almost similiar to the dakota's)
and we ordered in a junk-yard rear end (the guy didn't want to spend too
much) and that was about 600 bucks, sure you can find one somewhere cheaper.
U WRENCH IT?
Installation was easy. Take off all the drum brake hardware, disconnect the
brake cylinder's lines, remove the u-bolts for the springs, and disconnect
the drive shaft and she's out. install is just the opposite and you'll have
to also bleed the brakes, but it is a fairly easy job that doesn't require
too many tools (maybe those brake spring tools would help. but pliers work
too)
I would not, however, attempt to remove the ring and pinion and LSD unit and
then try to install a new one if you don't have expertise in rear end work.
Pinion backlash, crush sleeves and all these other "little" things can
really screw ya over if you don't do it right.
So I'd say your best bet is attempting to find a whole differential unit
that's intact and try to do a R&R on that.
-Dester
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:54:26 EDT