Ever seen a spider gear shaft come out?

[Ledslinger]

I took the cover off my 1961 GMC 4WD Sub (Dana 44) off and the pin holding the cross shaft was hanging out. I imagine if the the roll pin comes out, the cross shaft comes out and wreaks havoc. Ever seen a diff that the pin came out? What did it do? Is this pin coming out, or is that what it should look like?

Maybe the cross pin can only go until it hits the inside of the ring gear, but then one of the spider gears would probably fall out.

[kSStamp0182]

most of the ones ive seen are bolts, but ive never took apart a 44. & yes you'd know it if it came out haha!

[awbrown]

I had one that was broken just after the threads , that was fun to remove....

[HEI451]

The actual holder pin shouldn't be any further out than the inner diameter of the ring gear, so, in effect, the holder wouldn't be influenced by trhe ring gear.

Ever seen a holder pin held in place by a stack of 7 or so of those green grocery store vegetable bag ties? I have, it ain't pretty.

Neither is what happens when that holder pin comes out, allowing the cross pin to get out. Nuclear disaster is mostly what happens inside the spider housing, and all over the wreckage.

PLEASE, don't take short cuts in any of this, take it apart, and fix it right, your life is too important to trust to half way, Rube Goldburg "fixes".

[Ledslinger]

HEI451- I hope nothing indicated I wish to do anything other than securely install a holder pin. That is why I started this thread, to be sure I do it right before I put the cover back on.

[Ledslinger]

I looked at the pin on the front carrier (both are Dana 44) and the pin is driven below flush. The hole for the pin has a bevel to ease entry, and possibly to allow the flared head of the sold pin to enter. The solid pins must not be that hard since they are flared from a singe install. Surprising is the hammer marks on the carrier from the installer wailing on the pin. They didn't get it started and then drive it in with a punch or use a brass hammer. They drove it flush with a steel hammer and then used a punch to drive it home.

All modern references use a roll pin, which I assume is preferable to the solid pin. I may just drive the pin home and swage some metal over it to lock it in. Glad it didn't fall out. It looks like it is about half way out.

[MikeN]

Yeah, I've seen one come out, at about 70MPH in my 65 Nova. The lock screw broke off, the pin slipped out, rotated around, and slammed into the pinion gear. It broke the pin into two pieces, knocked three teeth off the pinion gear and about five teeth off the ring gear. Oh, and it made a huge bang and scared the crap out of me. Didn't leave me stranded though...was actually able to drive it about five miles back home.

[1963c-10]

Doesn't give me warm fuzzy feelings.