Thread: Ford 8.8 Differential Woes

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Originally Posted by 36 sedan

Ahh, it is a floating pin design held ridged at one end, it is doomed to breakage. Luckily, the bolt end traps it and prevents it from backing out. I would bet there is a service bulletin on this from Ford somewhere.

This differential design is common to Ford, GM and Chrysler, including JEEP's. It's one of those things that is cussed and discussed, but has never been changed. Seems that drilling the pinion shaft a bit larger, and then drilling and tapping the carrier through to the opposite side would increase the strength a bunch (longer threaded bolt, all the way through the pin into the opposite side, but not to daylight), but it's only an issue when the differential requires service, which on most vehicles seeing normal highway service is never. Other than Jeeper's who are in & out of high water, how many people even drain & replace the gear lube, much less change an axle seal? The payback on a design change is just too small and it causes no safety concerns - it's just a maintenance headache. Pity the poor guy who breaks an axle 20 miles back in the hills, crawling in the rocks, and then finds the locking bolt sheared, preventing him from getting the splined stub of axle out.... Makes a guy think about the need for a battery operated drill and an extraction kit in the spares box....

I have been lucky that all I needed was a magnet to get the rest out.

Originally Posted by junkyardjeff

I have been lucky that all I needed was a magnet to get the rest out.

Looking at the threaded part on mine, I really thought that it had broken just below the threads, Jeff, but it had just enough thread to have to be spun out. I tried several different magnets before ordering the extraction kit.

I also was able to work them out with a small screw driver on the 8.8 thats in my bronco,its howling now so its going to get a 9 inch when I find some 3.50 or 3.55 gears.