Reccomendations for replacing rear differential on '02 Dakota?

[eric001]

I just had the ever so wonderful experience of my Dak dropping its drive shaft and having the rear differential seize up. Does anyone know of a shop that can cheaply replace my rear diff, hopefully a shop on the north side of Indy??

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated!!

 

[indyjs]

Greens auto swapped mine out, but it has been many years ago. There is/was a driveshaft place out by Plainfield

 

[Butch627]

A rear diff in a leaf sprung truck is really very basic to replace as a unit. You can buy complete rear axle assemblies at self service junkyards for around 150 bucks. They are more expensive at full service junkyards. Craigslist is a great resource for finding parts like that. Paying for labor and new parts to rebuild a siezed up axle on a 92 truck is probably more than the truck is worth.

 

[eric001]

Thanks for the info--I was kind of wondering about the junkyard option, as I've no idea what if anything is still usable in the rear end. And I like the idea of a few hundred a whole lot more than the couple thousand I've seen quoted online to actually repair the existing pieces parts!!

 

[74J10]

Not sure of your mechanical aptitude, but if you decide to swap the entire assembly for a new axle, make sure you know what gear ratio you have currently and what you are putting in, ESPECIALLY WITH A 4WD!!!! You MUST MATCH gear ratios with a 4wd. If it is only 2wd, you can swap to whatever ratio you find, but it will affect mpg/top speed depending on what you do. Also, be mindful of brake changes, some truck use drum brakes till a certain year and then swap to disk brakes on the same axle.

If the rear end locked up it will need all new bearings, bearing races and gears at a minimum. If it was hot enough to lock up, it's possible a race spun in the housing and the housing is junk. If it is just gears, i would estimate $400 for bearings, $400 for gears and $400 at least in labor, so it won't be cheap. Pick A Part at Mass Ave and Emerson Ave on the eastside sells complete axles for less the $100. If you do this, make sure to replace the u-bolts. They stretch when installed and properly torqued, so you never want to reuse an old set. Spring shops can make you up a set (Indianapolis Rack and Axle can as can several others, they like to have an old one though...which sucks cause I always cut the old ones off instead of trying to undo the bolts...)

Good luck with it!

PS as stated initially, not sure how mechanical you are, sorry if I insulted your intelligence by dumbing it down.

 

[downzero]

A ring and pinion set is about $150, not $400. A complete set of bearings and seals is about the same price. The labor is what will get you.

If you can find a junkyard rear axle, that's the way to go. Prepare to spend $150-400 for the complete assembly. If the brakes are bad or whatever, it's pretty easy to swap yours over.

 

[eric001]

74J, no problem at all with you dumbing it down for me--I'm not a total clutz when it comes to mechanical stuff, but I also don't have much innate talent, either. I didn't trust the axle as-is to not develop more issues if I tried to have the differential rebuilt, so I'm going for a whole new axle assembly. At the worst case, it'll get me farther than the one I've got in there now, right?

I managed to dig up the specs on my current setup, and hope to find a matching axle some time this week, if possible. I'm going to have the guys at Confident Auto put it back together for me, as Blaine can do in three hours what would take me 2-3 days worth of stopping, starting, rechecking, discussing, cussing, and recussing the whole thing a few times over.

Though this is NOT how I wanted the start of gun season to go for me, at least the truck didn't decide to seize up when I was going 70 mph on an interstate and REALLY ruin my day!!

Again, thanks for the input and advice guys!!! Just gotta love

 

[downzero]

You really should do this yourself if you can find an assembly.