Redog

Crap

Took the Delta and the 8.5 10 bolt rear over to the mech yesterday and I spoke to him today and he said that there is a bolt that will not come out it needs to come out so he could slide the axle out to swap my old brakes over to the the new rear, and so on.

I've done some reading and if I'm reading the right thing, this could be dangerous meaning that the rear wheels could lock up at any time. Not a good thing if your going 70 MPH in traffic

Anyway, I'll be talking to him tomorrow, but can this be rebuilt? I think yes, but want to get other people's thoughts. And about how much would a rebuild cost, if I don't need axles. I have a 3 series posi and will pick up 3.42 gears

Octania

$3000

there is a special long thin LH drill bit that sometimes gets that pin holder bolt out. Snap-on?

507OLDS

I just use a small needle or ***** pin,and usually I can turn the broken part out.

Redog

Are you pulling my chain? It cost me $530 in labor to have the gears changed in my old Delta. I had to buy a master install kit and the ring and pinon though. That was back in 2007

joe_padavano

I assume you are talking about the bolt that holds the pinion shaft in place in the carrier. The C-clip axles require the pinion shaft to be removed so that the axle shafts can be pushed in far enough to remove the C-clips before pulling the axles.

This is a VERY common problem with the newer ten-bolt axles. It's so common that there is a special tool kit available to extract the bolt. As Chris points out, the drill bit needs to be small diameter and extra long to provide clearance. If you would have typed "pinion bolt removal tool" into Google, you would already know that the extractor tool kit is a whopping $31 on Amazon:




Another indication of how common this is (it happened on my 84 Custom Cruiser) comes from the fact that dealerships have the pinion shaft and lock bolt on the shelf in the parts department.

I don't know what you are reading, but I fail to see how there is a danger of the wheels locking up at 70 MPH.

monzaz

This happens ALL the time.

Worse case you just drive the pinion in to the case and it will sheer the tempered retaining bolt too. DO NOT DRIVE IT to the out side of the posi/ open carrier case YOU WILL BLOW THE posi / open case out. AND even this is NOT a huge deal because GM stuff is well designed and you can drill and tap the other side of the posi case. We do it all the time. Harder to find the 410408 cases (3 series)

SO you have MANY MANY ways to get that out

Fiest start withy the brian methaod we do this also with a small shape pick if you get lucky to catch a uneven brake and it is threaded still you can spin it out with cleaning the area with brake cleaner and very light weight oil...This will help the broken rest of the retaining bolt spin out easier.
IF the bolt snapped and there is NO thread you can clean the area and in the hole with brake cleaner and use compressed are and it will sometime shoot right out.

after that try the drilling the bolt out...worse case you will at least weaken the bolt so you will be able to hammer the cross shaft out easier.

That is the order i would go in.


If this is a BOLT IN AXLE rear SHOOT the mechanic!!!!:r olleyes:

Take care, Jim

joe_padavano

While I trust Jim's experience as far as hammering the shaft out, when this happened to me I didn't want to wait for the extraction kit to arrive, and I had not considered brute force, so I simply ground into the end of the pinion shaft until I reached the lock bolt, which let me then rotate the remains of the lock bolt using a punch (in my case there were still threads in place holding the bolt in place). I went to the local GM dealer, bought a new shaft and bolt (for amazingly little money) and put it back together.

copper128

I'd have concerns about letting a mechanic who isn't familiar with lock pin removal put a rear axle together. JMO.

monzaz

This is a WORSE CASE NOT the first thing you try. Just to clarify.