# found a mess in the pumpkin



## torpedo51 (Sep 8, 2009)

Seems that somebody welded this pin, the weld popped, the pin broke, and now my gears are flying free. I'm happy this happened while parking in the garage, and not on the freeway.

Is there some way that I can fix or replace this without going all out? I'd like to replace the just the pin, or maybe the gears. Maybe an aftermarket spool? I'm trying to avoid a huge exercise in shimming a new kit.


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

You don't want a spool, it locks the rear axles together, great for straight line acceleration but not cornering and they are downright dangerous in the wet.

I would look for a good used differential if you need it, you may be able to just replace the cross pin and use a new cross pin bolt.


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## Pinion head (Jan 3, 2015)

Seen this many times. Spider gear gets galled up on the cross shaft, spins the cross shaft, breaks pin bolt, wallows out the machined holes in the carrier. eventually shaft slides out partially, whacks the pinion gear, something has to break.

What gear ratio are you dealing with? 

Have several nice shape 8.2 Pontiac carriers, both early and late style.
High ratio: 2.56 & 2.78
mid ratio:2.93,3.08, 3.23
low ratio:3.36-5.57

Am heading back out, will ck in later.


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## torpedo51 (Sep 8, 2009)

Thanks for the replies.

For the benefit of others: I bought a kit for $100 that contains the pin, the retaining screw, and the smaller gears.


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