Just based on my personal experience, if anything like this happened to an old Chevy truck of mine, I would much, much rather swap in a different rear end than try to fight with something like this, cobble it together, and then have to swap out the rear end anyway when it craps out again. It’s a two hour, <$200 job. Do yourself a favor and don’t waste any time or money on your existing rear end.
The problem is, in this area parts are a rarity. I’ve been struggling to find a new axle, but there aren’t many available. I found one this morning for a measley 500 dollars for the pumpkin…
What axle do you have? Does it have a ‘pumpkin?’ Get the part number off your axle and shop it around. Where do you live?
If you had to travel 200-300 miles to a large city to find a rear axle assembly it would still be less expensive than replacing the broken parts and rusted/damaged bearings.
Check Craigs list in larger cities in your state.
Ahem, he’s in South Dakota folks. There are no large cities. (Used to live in the largest one.) There’s a good yard in Sioux Falls and I think one in Rapid City. I would suggest just doing a search on car-parts.com. You can select the area or states to look in and saves a lot of time. Then you can see if there is anything closer.
I’ve been looking in the area, and if I order a pinion pin and spider gear set online, I can get a decent set for only 90 bucks. Otherwise it seems I may end up paying over 500 for a used pumkin. Rod knox, it’s an SUV, the ORIGINAL suv infact. Because it is rear/4 wheel drive, it has to have a pumpkin in the axle. I already have the part numbers, and hace checked out where the local parts are. 500 bucks for a used axle is excessive. I can get a Suburban (complete) with a blown motor for that, and delivered to my house.
Possibly the nomenclature is irrelevant but the component called a pumpkin is the center section of a Ford removable carrier axle or similarly configured live axles. Do some call the carrier in unitized rear axles pumpkins? Not relevant here.
If I could get a known good axle delivered complete with the truck for $500 I’d be clearing a spot to drop it.
Do some call the carrier in unitized rear axles pumpkins?
Everyone I know does. A differential and housing are called a pumpkin. Perhaps it is a midwest thing but I bet it’s not just limited to folks in that area… For grins I googled “differential pumpkin” and it appears a lot of people use the term that way.
A good used rear axle assembly for that setup would run about $125 where I used to live but maybe 2x that where I am now. So I think costs vary greatly depending on location. All that really matters is the OP’s situation.
If you can get a complete truck with a blown motor and good rear axle for $500, you might as well do it. Yank what you need or want from the beast and scrap the rest. Scrap prices are high now, so you will get your money back.
I guess it’s a red neck thing, Twin Turbo. Ford’s “banjo” rear end has a removable chunk as do many trucks and those have been called pumpkins here in the hinter lands. The Ford removable chunks are more user friendly when repairing and certainly more robust than unitized. It seems that a complete axle replacement is the consensus on this problem and I hope beninsd is able to find a good part. I recall some real nightmares trying to repair GM axles when I first opened for business. To this day I won’t attempt to replace a ring and pinion on anything but a Ford “pumpkin.”
Banjo? That is new to me. In the west a Ford 9" or Chrysler 8 3/4" center section is called a 3rd member. I don’t know why it’s called a 3rd member, sounds weird now. Must be junk yard term.
I believe the component between the differential side bearings is called a differential carrier.
Problem even with a 500 dollar truck, I don’t have 500 dollars. Right now, I only have about 50 dollars to my name, and I’m still waiting for that money to arrive.
OK… Do you have access to a reversible drill? If so a left hand twist drill bit will usually get broken bolts out. The bits are available at most parts stores for less than $15. That pin is small and the threads are directly under the head. The threads were coated with a thread locker. If you can heat the bolt first to free up the thread lock it will help. If you don’t have a reversible drill a hammer type impact with a sharpened phillip head bit might do the trick.