Re: 2000 Front Drive Spline Question

From: Terrible Tom (silvereightynine@aol.com)
Date: Thu Jul 23 2009 - 23:10:15 EDT


Michael Maskalans wrote:

>
>
> On Jul 6, 2009, at 13:34 , Kenneth M. Berntsen wrote:
>
>> Do I need to get this splined shaft replaced?
>>
>> http://gallery.kennethberntsen.com/dakota
>>
>> The front passenger half shaft went out and sat there chewing up the
>> spline for who
>> knows how long. I tried just replacing the half shaft back in april
>> and when I
>> changed the oil yesterday noticed that it was loose and had slid down
>> about an inch.
>>
>> I'm assuming that normal is for it to not have any play to slide
>> around on that
>> shaft like the driver side shaft.
>
>
> Those splines look completely wasted but I must confess I have no clue
> what I'm looking at. I can't think of anything that has splines like
> that without being threaded for a nut on the end. idler arm in the
> steering linkage of a pre-2001 4x4 is the only possibility I can think
> of but I thought that was just one piece....
>
> confused,
>
> Mike
> cute kota on 4Dz
>

I believe what we are looking at is the splined portion of the passenger side inner axle shaft
on the front IFS differential. In 2000 or so they changed from a CV axle that bolts to a
flange, to a CV axle that splines in place. Funny you should have this problem. It was not
more than a couple weeks ago I had a customer come in to the store (auto parts) with a Dak that
had the same exact problem. The guy was able to find a replacement inner axle stub shaft, but
he had to have it shipped in from somewhere else in the country, from a salvage yard. I think
the dealer wanted several internal organs, first born child, and his soul for the parts brand new.

I did a search for parts myself and found very little out there. He was considering selling
the truck and I wanted to see what I was up against if I bought it and had to fix it. There
were only one or two salvage ayrds reporting having that differential unit in stock.

To replace that inner axle shaft requires popping off the diff cover. You don't need to pull
the carrier out, the inner axles should be held in by C-clip retainers. Remove the cross pin,
spider gears - might need to remove the side gears - not positive. Then the C-clips and you
should be able to get the axles out. Need to pull the axle tube seal however...there might be
more involved with it than I know, because that IFS differential is a bit different from the
Gen I and II Daks I've worked on.

Good luck.

-- 
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"Man is the only kind of varmint [who] sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it"
-John Steinbeck
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