Greyshot

Ok about 4-5 months ago I bought an auburn lsd and a set of 3.73 gears for my 2000 v6. Recently we discovered tht the axle seals were leaking and needed replacement. Well this is were the problem starts we cannot get the c clips out to remove the axles because the retaining pin itself will not drop all the way down. It sticks out just enough to were you can't take the c clips out. The retaining pin bottoms out on one of the teeth of the ring gear. I have no idea on how to remove the c clip other than grinding it in half to take the axle out. I have also read to grind part of the tooth so tht the pin can clear it n drop down more and tht it will not effect the performance of the gear? I'm not to keen on that idea tho. Anyone have any suggestions? I really need some help quick, thanks

dawson1112

Considering that that retaining pin was installed with out grinding a tooth it should come out the same way, have you tried taking it out the other side? .

Greyshot

The pin was already inside the carrier before we installed the ring gear on the LSD. And no it doesn't seem to come out the other side.

PNYXPRESS

Try rotating the assembly. The pin should come out with grinding anything.

If I remember correctly it will not drop out the bottom it has to come out towards you angled upwards.

dawson1112

Problem is you put steeper gears in a 7.5 axle, iirc the 7.5 axles on the old ranger pickups had to have a special pin reinstalled when a steeper gear was installed. The pin has a beveled flat spot on it to clear the ring gear teeth. Personally if it was me I would grind a flat spot on the pin before I would grind on my ring gear.

PNYXPRESS

But he had to install the pin after everything was installed since he is now trying to remove the axle. The gears aren't the problem, he just doesn't have the pin aligned properly to remove it.

dawson1112

If its hitting the teeth on the ring gear then it doesn't matter what direction he tries to take it out. I thought the same thing that it was installed but he says the pin was already in when the ring gear was installed so this leads me to believe he would have had trouble getting the axles in to put the c clips on unless they forced them in place with a hammer and punch or something.

PNYXPRESS

It's impossible to install the c clips with the pin in place. The groove on the axle is not accessible

Greyshot

I ended up gettin it out the day after I posted this. It wasn't the angle of the carrier, no matter how it was rotated the flat part of the pin was going to bottom out on the gear tooth. I was going to grind part of the tooth after speaking to a local shop saying it was ok but after seeing how much I would have to grind I didn't feel comfortable doing so. What I ended up doing is pushing the pin inside of the lsd until just the end was poking out so I could spin it around inside the carrier getting a better view of the flat spot of the pin. I then grinded the flat end flatter so it could have more clearance thus letting it drop further down on the tooth. Worked perfect n was able to get the c clip out with just a magnet.

I then later read the manual on the auburn diff. I bought and it did say to modify the pin when installing steeper gears like my 3.73. I think it should of been tht way from auburn itself but what are you gonna do. Thanks for the input guys

dawson1112

Glad you got it out, its not really an issue on the 8.8 rear diff, but the 7.5 is not as wide so the steeper gears interfere with the cross pin. I wish the gear manufacturers would include a new pin with the gears for all 7.5s. I was really scratching my head on this cause I couldn't for the life of me figure out how you got the axles back in if the pin wouldn't clear in the first place lol .