Morning! Having trouble seating my pinion shaft in rear diff...
 

Had to remove driver side rear axle on my '00 Silverado 5.3L 4x4 to drill out that 8mm bolt that holds on the ebrake shoe, and upon reinstall of the axle, I couldnt get that pinion shaft on the diff to go all the way in, just half way. What in the world do I have to do to get this back in???? Ive rotated the axle, the diff, the driveshaft, etc to get the gears to line up. Scary thing is upon visual inspection there seems to be nothing in the way of getting the pinion shaft to slide all the way through and the shaft is aligned with the locking pin/screw. I should mention I forgot to mark the axle before removing it to get a reference point. Could this be my problem? Your help please! TIA.

Re: Morning! Having trouble seating my pinion shaft in rear diff...
 

Im guessing its a locking diff? if it is the thrust block is probably not aligned with the C-clip. heres some info i have.


Important: When removing the axle shaft, do not rotate the shaft. Rotating the shaft will misalign the gears. Misaligning the gears will make the assembly difficult.

On axles with a locking differential, place the lock (1) on the axle shaft (3) so that the ends are flush with the thrust block (2).
Pull the shaft flange outward in order to seat the lock in the differential gear

Re: Morning! Having trouble seating my pinion shaft in rear diff...
 

Thank you. Unfortunately the shaft was rotated. So now to remedy that I was told to remove the axle from diff and rotate it until the gears are align. More or less a trial and error until its right. new prob is I cant rotate the whole diff around to get to the darn C clip to remove the axle!!!!! The whole rear of the truck is up and is in nuetral. WTF??!! this is all over a 8mm broken bolt!!! so aggravated. Im dropping the drive shaft on diff side and ill see what happens