Need to change my front differential....

My four wheel drive does not work at all anymore. When I was off roading the whole front drive shaft came out of the front housing. The gears inside are pretty messed up. Would it be easier to replace the gears or the whole differential? Can I pull those gears out and just put all new ones in?

My four wheel drive does not work at all anymore. When I was off roading the whole front drive shaft came out of the front housing. The gears inside are pretty messed up. Would it be easier to replace the gears or the whole differential? Can I pull those gears out and just put all new ones in?

Welcome to AF.

What year truck?

Is there any damage to the housing?

When you say the drive shaft came out of front housing, are you saying the yoke also came out of the housing or did the u joint break at the yoke?

There is more to just pulling the old gears out and putting in new ones, there are tolerences and such that need to be adjusted when installing new.

Was any damage done to transfer case when drive shaft came out?

My truck is a '99 Ford F-350 Power Stroke Diesel. No there is no damage to the housing at all actually it still looks really good which surprised me. The drive shaft actually popped out of the front pumpkin. where the pinion ring is I believe. I dont think any damage was done to the transfer case because when its locked in four wheel drive the drive shat spins well the front wheels just dont move, because the drive shaft is hanging loose. I took off the front cover of the pumpkin and there was this bearing like object mangled up with a bunch of little round pieces of metal sitting at the bottom of the pumpkin. Something blew.

It may be cheaper to buy a complete unit from a scrap yard for this vehicle.
If you never rebuilt one before this is a fairly easy swap you can do at home.

It may be cheaper to buy a complete unit from a scrap yard for this vehicle.
If you never rebuilt one before this is a fairly easy swap you can do at home.




I agree with this it is a whole lot easier to do a swap than it is to pull the gears this is coming from a guy who rebuilds axles trust me they can be a pain

If you go to switch the whole unit does it have to be from the same truck same year and everything? Is there a website or article that can give me a basic idea on how to switch everything out the right way? I appreciate all the help.

Most scrap yards have cross reference manuals. The big thing is to make sure the gear ratio is the same. Depending on the brakes and other items you may want to swap or change out or keep what you have. You should have a metal tag on it with this information. Take this with you to the yard.

just make sure that the gear ratio is the same and the the axle is from the same style truck