Quote:
Originally Posted by James
I don't know what type of axle you have. But:
If you have a semi-floating rear axle, then you have a clip inside the differential that had somehow came loose. Opening up the rear cover and looking inside the carrier where the spider gears is at, you may find the reason for the failure.
If you have a full floating axle, then the nut came loose inside the hub allowing the axle to decouple.
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It's a half ton truck, James, with a semi-floating rear axle. The clip did indeed come loose somehow. I ended up having the truck towed to a local shop. After some research, I found that the best one was only 4 miles from my house. The owner, Jim, has been there for over 40 years. He's 70 years old and semi-retired. He said he's had as many as 14 other mechanics working for him at his big shop, but is down to just one helper now. His specialties are transmissions, transfer cases, and rear ends. So I knew it was in good hands.
The Suburban had been ordered by the original owner with 3.92 gears. Some previous owner had replaced the rear gears with 3.54s, probably for better gas mileage, but didn't bother replacing the 3.92s in front. When I discovered that shortly after I bought it in 1997, I had a local 4x4 shop replace them with 3.54s to match the rear. Jim discovered that the amateur mechanic who had replaced the rear gears never set the lash properly, possibly contributing to the failure. The gears were excessively worn and had to be replaced.
So I decided to have Jim give the whole drivetrain, front and rear, a thorough rebuild. The truck is 64 years old with about 170,000 miles on it. I figured that it was time for a major makeover. Jim ended up replacing lots of old, worn parts, including the rear ring and pinion, axles, bearings, seals, brake shoes and cylinders, etc., etc. Cost me a bundle, but I believe it was money well spent. My 44 year old son is already looking forward to inheriting it when I'm gone. Hopefully that's still many years away!