Front Drive Axle/Differential

Front Drive Axle and Differential

^ The axle housing assembly consists of a cast-aluminum center section, a removable cast-aluminum axle housing tube and a differential housing cover. Both the axle tube and the differential housing cover use silicone sealant as a gasket.
^ The hypoid-design gearset consists of an 8.8-inch ring gear and a pinion gear. Two opposed tapered roller bearings (drive pinion bearings) support the drive pinion in the axle housing.
^ A drive pinion collapsible spacer, located on the drive pinion shaft, maintains drive pinion bearing preload. The pinion nut adjusts the drive pinion bearing preload.
^ Differential bearing shims, located between the differential bearing cups and the axle housing, adjust the differential bearing preload and the ring gear backlash.
^ The differential case is a one-piece design with 2 openings to allow for assembly of the internal components and lubricant flow. Two opposed tapered roller bearings (differential bearings) support the differential case in the axle housing. Removable differential bearing caps retain the differential assembly in the axle housing.
^ Inside the differential case, the differential pinion shaft supports 2 differential pinion gears. The differential pinion gears engage the differential side gears, to which the axle shafts are splined. The differential pinion shaft lock bolt retains the differential pinion shaft in the differential case.
^ An embossed metal tag, bolted to the rear face of the RH axle tube, contains axle identification information.