How To Remove A GM 8.25" Front Differential IFS

Mine were gone. No force what ever we applied would get the axle out. Hopefully yours will be ok.

 

Cool beans! (Though mine will be in a custom subframe, so I'll probably have a little more room )

Kick ass write up

 

I must be a lot smaller of a person than you Red.... I had to split the carrier at the long shaft side to get it out. (You should put an aside in your writeup that says "For people with small arms you should seperate the long shaft side to remove. " Other than that it was a pretty straight forward job. Thanks once again!

 

Finally got around to swapping my front Diff out today with a used one I picked up from a guy parting his truck out. Had a buddy of mine help out. Once we got it loose, there were not enough 4 letter cuss words to get that thing out. It just wouldn't come out. The wheels wouldn't turn far enough to the right. It was just stuck. We fought it for about 2 hours. Would NOT budge. Finally, we went with our last resort.....Rented a pickle fork from O'Reilly's and separated the Relay arm from the Pitman arm and idler arm. Tied it out of the way.........Differential literally fell out in our hands. We were kicking ourselves for not doing that first! Personally, for anyone trying this for the first time, I HIGHLY recommend the few extra steps to move the steering bar out of the way......it will help you keep your sanity! Thanks for the write up! This helped me tremendously, Plus the extra step we added.

 

Old thread New question

Does anyone have the torque specs for the install of the replacement?

CV axle to differential 6 ea.
Drive shaft 4
4 Mounting bolts
2 Tie rod nuts (removed to make removal of differential easier)

Thanks

 

See above

 

Torque

Thank you
I was referring to the two in the center of the drag link but they are probably the same as the end knuckle.

 

I found this thread via Google and just joined this board specifically to say "Thankyou" to Bigredmariner.

Two comments: On my 04 Avalanche, I had to turn the wheels hard LEFT, not right. Turning them right put the bend of the centre link in the way of dropping the main body of the diff. Not sure if that was a typo in the original instructions or a difference between models.

Also, I found re installation went much easier by supporting the unit on a floor jack. My 7 year old grandson was able to handle the jack while I guided things back into place. Trying to lift and twist by myself just wasn't working -- the creeper kept scooting sideways and the extended strain was eventually too much for my arms.

 

Thanks Torch,
It’s been so long ago that I did this write up, it may be a typo or may be a difference between models. I’m glad it helped you and thanks for adding your info here as well.
That was the intention of this thread anyway. A helpful tool with folks adding their experiences for future use.


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