My rear diff cover is rusted. Temporarily, it's covered with two coats of POR-15, and some bedliner spray, but it won't last indefinitely, I'm sure.

Can someone give me an HONEST assessment of the difficulty I would have in just swapping it, drum-to-drum, with a salvaged complete rear end (it's a 4.10 ratio, same as mine, non-locker)? Can I expect a nightmare job knowing most bolts and nuts are pretty corroded, and is it a matter of disconnecting e-brake and brake lines, then un-bolting the trailing arms and shocks and bolting in the replacement? Time estimate?



thanks

not a nightmare at all if you drain the diff. and spray PB blaster on all the bolts the night before you start.

Its actually pretty easy.

#1 Drain Rear Diff. - 24mm Fill/Drain
#2 Jack up car on jack stands.
#3 Remove wheels.
#4 Remove 4 bolts sandwiching 3rd member pinion to the drive shaft I believe 12mm. Drive shaft will fall free.
#5 Next I removed the sway-bar I believe the 2 nuts are either 10 or 12mm.
#6 Upper control arms are 12mm and the lower control arms are 14mm I believe.
#7 Remove the pan-hard bar - 14mm socket
#8 Unhook the abs sensor wires that are clipped in 3 spots on each side.
#9 Remove abs sensors - 10mm bolt and pry out with flathad screwdriver.
#10 Remove E-brake cable mounting brackets ~6 12mm bolts and undo the cotter pin at each drum.
#11 Remove brake lines 10mm wrench and zip tie latex glove fingers to prevent drainage, ziptie to a high point.
#12 At this point the only thing keeping your rearend from rotating or dropping is the shocks. Remove those 2 bolts and TADA!!!! The whole assembly slides out!

If you think about it, it's really only like ~26 bolts. Took me and my friend less than an hour to remove it.

I'd buy a rear axle from the junk yard and all the hardware you will need to remove to replace it. Just assume your axle will be cut off. Use plenty of pb blaster days before the swap which should make it easier.

If it wasn't rusty you could complete the swap in a lazy 4 hrs with rust I'd double it. I think you could look at the axle and figure what needs to be removed.