How do you break down the rear end for a Chevy truck?

Answer 1

This is how I broke down my 12 bolt on my 68.

First, disconnect the drive shaft from the rear end using the two c-clips bolted to the yoke on the rear end. Now you need to drain most of the fluid by unscrewing the square plug toward the fron of the rear end. Once it stops gushing out (you need a drip pan under it the whole procedure just to keep your floor clean) unscrew all the bolts securing the diff. cover. Just inside you can see two C-shaped clamps around the ends of the axles with bolts at the tops and bottoms. Unbolt those. Turn the wheels until you see a bolt going through the casing around the diff and unscrew it. There is a thick cylinder (pin) running through the diff that now slides right out by just pushing it with your finger. The two little gears at the top and bottom of the main pin will then be loose. You may have to turn the axles a little for those to slide out. Then, remove the rear wheels. My rear end has drums. If you have rear discs, the procedure might be different. I don't know. Push the axle in toward the rear end. It should slide pretty easily. Once it's in as far as you can push it, you should be able to see a C clip holding the gears on the ends of the axles. If you can't see them, slide the gears along the axles till you can get to the clips. They too should slide right out. The gears slip off the axle and now you can slide the axles out throught the axle tubes. From here the rest of the diff comes right out and all you have left are the axle bearings at the ends of the axle tubes and the pinion toward the front. For the axle bearings you need to get a special tool from autozones tool loan program. If you don't know about it, you put a deposit down on the tool and they loan it to you. Once you bring it back, you get a full refund. The tools you need are a set of axle bearing pullers and a slide hammer. The design of them is pretty self explainatory so I'm not going to explain in detail how to use them. Remove the bearings using the tools. Next, there is a 1 1/8" nut on the end of the yoke that you need to remove. Unscrew the nut on the yoke and use a hammer banging on the underside of the yoke. Do this carefully but it may take some time because it is pressed into the spline of the pinion. Once you get that off, there is a seal that is fairly easy to get off with a flat head screwdriver. Now, very carefully, us a mallet or ball ping hammer to tap the bolt end of the pinion out the other end. Make sure not to damage the threads or you'll be buying a new pinion. I would suggest using a 2x4 piece of wood so the hammer doesn't hit the bolt directly. This will take some force because it was pressed into the opening and feels like it's not budging at first. Once that's out, it's just a matter of pulling apart the misc. parts you already pulled out. Hope this helps.