I was installing a Powertrax yesterday and when I began to install the pinion shaft the bolt fell apart in my hands. It looks as if it was sheared at some point and gave way when I grabbed it. Anybody have a spare or know where I can get one quickly?
Original 8.5 rear I assume... A major consideration... If the small pin bolt did not come out in one piece, there is a distinct possiblity, the lower portion of the pin bolt is still bottomed out in the carrier. If so, one can try & rotate it with a small pick, & get it to come out with a strong magnet. No luck that way, will have to buy (or borrow) the $22 Matco kit to extract to the lwr portion of the bolt. Have a lathe, can give you directions on how to make your own pin bolt extractor "kit", it's very simple. :3gears: Roger
I was fortunate in that the bolt came out in one piece and later broke while I was reinstalling it. I am really kinda baffeled as to how it was sheared, I only use a 1/4" combination wrench to remove it. o No:
I don't know if you removed many carriers but this is a common problem. I have probably removed over a 100 carriers and I would say at least 20% have the broken screw. They always break where the thread ends and the smooth tip begins. It must be the cold thread rolling process that creates a stress fracture in this area. Has nothing to do with the wrench/ratchet you used to remove it.
Good to know it's common.....it sure seemed strange. Mine broke exactly where you said. I found some at a local GM dealer :beer
As George mentions the small oem carrier pin bolt is somewhat fragile. The odds of getting them out in one piece is increased if one uses a very long 5/16" boxed wrench. 1st, it helps, if one taps around the pin bolt area on the carrier with a ball peen hammer, then carefully pop the the end of the long wrench with head of a big hammer. The sudden jarring CCW impact works significantly better than trying to remove the pin bolt by hand with a wrench or socket wrench. Removing by hand only tends to stretch the pin bolt in the threaded area... the result, usually a broken pin bolt. Overtorqueing the pin bolt will snap them off as well. For good part of the 80's through mid 90's, I used to purposely break the pin bolts off while harvesting r/e parts in Pick-N-Pulls. Did this a lot on tons of c-clip 8.5 rears. Doing so allowed myself & helper to come back later & harvest needed posi(s) or decent ratio set of gears. Not many folks knew what the 8.5 r/e was at that time, & often it came down to situation where we were waiting for a car with a desirable housing to be set in the yard before scoring the posi, gears, & housing & axles as one rearend. This tactic also came in handy when I was on the road & was low on funds & had to find the nearest money machine p Roger
