Broken 1/2 Shaft and Differential Housing

Hoo boy what a weekend I just had. Went deer hunting on Sunday and was heading up a steep hill in 4x4 HI and I ramped over a rock by accident as I tried to progress up the hill and hit a rut with my left from wheel. It completely broke the half-shaft from the front differential housing and I had to back down the hill a good 300 yards with it grinding. Had to drive it 1/2 mile back home in 2HI thru mud and creekbed.

Upon returning back to the house, I notice more was broken as I went to replace the broken half-shaft late Sunday night. I noticed that the housing on the front differential broke away from the support bolts. So that means that is basically being held in place by the drive shaft and my right half-shaft.

My problem is that I am not sure how much will be involved in getting everything out to be inspected. Would I just be better off going to a junk yard and buying one there to slap in? Or could I just weld the the differential back to the frame and put a new half shaft in? Put a new casing on it?

I am really at a loss for words on this. Nothing else looks bad or out of place. The front drive shaft did grind agaist something underneath and made a cresent place what looks like in the transmission housing. But nothing that looks like it's destroyed.

Almighty Blazer guru's shed some light on this for me.

This is bad.

You might want to check out a junkyard for a complete replacement.

Hmmmmm........if I am going with a replacement. What window of models do I have to work with. 98-02? Do I need to grab a Blazer specific model or a special gear ratio?

Seeing it is an LS, most will have the same gearing.

I dn't think they changed much.

GT4 on glove box is 3.73 and GU6 is 3.42 - have to match rear of course.
G80 is posi. Ask junk yard cause my 98 has larger front drive shaft and CVs bolt on vs that 99up snap ring wack to release type on inner CV.

Local Junkyard has one for $150 bucks and the gear ratio is 3.42. Dunno if that will fit my Blazer yet or not as I couldn't find any serial info on the differential itself. Maybe I can figure it out after I call the VIN into the Dealership.

Local Junkyard has one for $150 bucks and the gear ratio is 3.42. Dunno if that will fit my Blazer yet or not as I couldn't find any serial info on the differential itself. Maybe I can figure it out after I call the VIN into the Dealership.
Thats your best bet. Get the dealer to give you the info and while your at it get the part number from them.

Damn what a day. Im glad you were able to limp home and didnt get stuck up a creek.

Holy crap folks I would not do this change myself ever again. I have roughly 19 hrs into this and I am just getting into trying to fit the salvage-yard differential back into the truck.

The process for me to even get this thing out was to remove both front wheel hubs, left lower control arm, sway bar links, driveshaft, idler arm, battery, battery holding stand, vacuum thingy that controls the front differential.

Needless to say the whole front end is practically ripped out. Luckily I have had 60 degree days to work on this thing but there is some cold air coming this weekend and I don't think I will have it done.

I do not believe there would be enough room for me to get this differential in if I didn't take out that left lower control arm. I am begging my g/f to come out and give me a hand with this so that I don't have to waller around in the snow this Saturday.

My MAIN problem with putting this thing back in is keeping control of it when I raise it on the jack. I am able to lift it up prolly 10" with just one arm, but that isn't enough to get it into position. You have to manuever the differential into place some how. I can't seem to figure out how to get it back up in there as there is not very much space to stick it back up in there.

In the process to tearing everything apart, I damaged one of my new ball joints. Gotta replace that and an outter tie rod that I damaged.

So IFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I get this thing back into place and I find all the bolts and nuts. I will probably have invested about $500 bucks in the replacement of front end parts.

I am half tempted to go out and buy a Jeep now to go off-road. But the fiance wouldn't like that at all.

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This is an update to this thread. I am sure some individual whom did a search on this wondered what it would be like to attempt this removal.

DON'T DO IT !!!!!!!!

This thing is getting put halfway back together and going to a garage. In order to even get the differential back in you have to pull the pitman and idler arms. Once you do that you have to rotate it into position and it is just way too heavy for me to lift on my own.

Might as well have the guy put on a new idler and pitman arm while he is in there and see if he won't give me a labor discount since I got half the stuff out of the way for him already.

This thing is getting put halfway back together and going to a garage. In order to even get the differential back in you have to pull the pitman and idler arms. Once you do that you have to rotate it into position and it is just way too heavy for me to lift on my own.

Might as well have the guy put on a new idler and pitman arm while he is in there and see if he won't give me a labor discount since I got half the stuff out of the way for him already.

C'mon dont give up yet.

If you can pull the pitman arm, you can finish up the job.

Pull both left and right inner or outer tie rods and get the center link completely out of the way. Actually you dont need to pull the pitman arm. The steering box is held on with three bolts in the left wheel well. Remove those the one bolt that holds the column on and the two lines. Voila with the tie rods off and the steering box detached you can pull the complete assy out of the side that you have the cv out of.

The axle comes apart in the middle. Once tha axle is apart and drained you can surely lift it into place. I used a floor jack then took over when it got sitcky.

I think you want to make sure youre cvs are placed first cause I dont think you can get them in when the axle is up. Loosly bolt the diff into place then put the right half of the axle into place.
I know its a PITA but the hard part is done.

If you want some pointers let me know. I pulled my oil pan last year between christmas and new years, so I had to go even further than what you are. Took me 20 hours with air tools. Thats remove and replace.

Well the weather is taking a turn for the worse and a local mechanic will put all the stuff in for $100 bucks. I just called yesterday.

Still pondering my decisions....

Well if ur doing it outside and dont have a compressor $100 doesnt seem that bad. But you gotta get it to the shop too.

I feel for ya, I went through about 30 gallons of propane when I did mine. (Garage isnt insulated.) Cant imagine trying to do this in the dirt.