Pinion gear

[Stoney]

I decided to start putting my other truck together 2000' c3500 single cab single rear wheel , 5.7L 350. 4l80e. .. when I got it the previous owner didn't know it had a bad rear end.. so he graciously fixed it. He replaced it with a 4:10 Dana 1 ton rear end. I thought that was really good of him.. he's an old friend but I didn't expect him to do all that..
Any how, it's been sitting for quite a while on about friends property.. it kinda a bone yard a hand full of us store or extra trucks, trailers, other stuff that we don't have room at our houses to park..
Well awhile back a could guys (hoodrats) went up there and stole a bunch of stuff.. mainly catalytic converters, and some other stuff.. and they broke a bunch of the windshields.. my cat was already deleted, .. but the broke my mirrors, and windshield.. they also come to find out stole the pinion gear out of the rear axel. Imagine my surprise when I started it and put it in gear...bam bam bam..I shut it off quick and then found the problem... Pissed..
Anyhow, I checked our local salvage yards.. they don't have one, was wondering if anyone has one they will sell me or knows a bone yard I can order one from... There almost impossible to get a new one and probably expensive as hell new if a place could get it ..
The pinion is a six bolt pattern, for a 14 bolt Dana rear end.

 

[NVW]

Asshats, I hate thieves.

 

[Stoney]

@NVW .. it didn't get us our parts back. But we have trail cams up there... Ever heard the saying if you're going to be dumb you better be tough..... We don't call cops.

 

[MrMarty51]

How do they get the pinion gear without dismantling the entire differential.
Does the pinion on that come out the back end ?
Usually replace the pinion and ring gear in sets. Might be some excessive wear otherwise, end even in sets, used units have to be set up mighty close to what they were when dismantled.

 

[Stoney]

On these you just drop the u-joint (drive shaft) , and take the 6 bolts out of the pinion and it slides right out of the housing. I only know this because as some of you will remember a few years ago I grenaded the bearing that goes on the end of it on the nose. And it made one hell of a mess I remember posting pictures of it on TTS but I couldn't tell you which thread it was. That was on my dually.. what threw me off is there's only a handful of people that know that my white truck has a 1 ton rear end in it not a 3/4 ton. Which also helped in determining culprits. Anyone that did not know it had been switched to a one ton would have realized right away when they got under it that they were not pulling out a 3/4 ton pinion.. because it does not look anything like the three quarter ton one. I'm not in a big hurry to get the truck on the road, right now we just want to get it here to the house so I can work on it as I have time. I figure either somebody will have one for sale or somebody will know a good boneyard that ships parts.. around here parts for these trucks are becoming very hard to find.. I was at Pick-A-Part today and there was not a single '90s model as in this body style. I did find a 1978 wrecker that had a 410 Dana rear end but after climbing under it the drive shaft was literally buckled up into a V. And there was a lot of oil / grease around the shaft where it goes into the housing so I don't take that as a very good sign. And all four bolts on the u-joint are rounded off.. if I had had my easy out with me I probably would have pulled it and brought it home anyhow but I really don't think it's worth the work because of it took a hit that hard it's probably took damage

 

[Stoney]

This is on my dually. But as I said, it identical..you just take the 4 bolts out of the u joint, and take those 6 bolts out of the housing and it slides right out.

 

[dbrannon79]

@Stoney I still have all the parts left from when I had the 3.73's installed on my truck. I have an extra pinion in the housing like in your photo and the ring gear for 4;10's not sure if it's the same but mine is a GM corporate 14 bolt diff.

 

[Stoney]

@dbrannon79 .I'm not sure if there's any difference in any of them. Hopefully one of the guys will chime in on the matter. I was told any 4:10 ,6 bolt pinion will work. But while we wait for the guys opinion I'll pm you

 

[dbrannon79]

I will post up some pics of the parts this evening when I get home from work.

 

[EWC]

That's a 14 bolt GM rear not a Dana . Ring and pinion are replaced as sets . Would another pinion work ? Maybe , but I would expect a lot of noise and very low life .

 

[Stoney]

@EWC . How do you tell the difference. I was told it was a Dana , so that's what I've been going on. So by what you're saying the pinion and ring gear @dbrannon79 has should go in no problem?

 

[Stoney]

I was thinking of trying to find a stock rear end( 3/4 ton) for that truck. , In hopes of better fuel mileage. And just keep the 1 ton rear as a spare for the dually

 

[dbrannon79]

Here are a couple pics of the parts I have. The pinion is still mounted on the housing minus the nut for the yolk. The guy I had install the 3.73’s couldn’t get the yolk off. I should have the other pinion for the second ring gear that’s loose here somewhere. The ring gear that’s mounted on the spider gears went to the one in the housing.

 

[Will L.]

Me thinks yonder ring gear has to match the pinion gear.
Idk that diff housing but I can’t remember any where you can change ratio of just pinion gear and not the ring.

 

[dbrannon79]

Yes the ring gear has to match the pinion for the gear ratio. you can't mis match them. 4.10 requires a 41 tooth ring gear and 10 tooth pinion.

now I don't know anything about swapping like for like on say a pinion of the same ratio on used gears without changing the ring gear. I would think it would work fine just have to be broken in just like new gears would, given that there is not a lot of wear on ether one! I'll let other with more experience answer that one.

both sets I have are 4.10's one came out of my truck and the other from a dually rear end I picked from a salvage yard.

 

[Stoney]

@Will L. I changed just the pinion in the dually a few years ago when the old one grenaded... BUT it was identical to original.. it didn't grind or anything but that could just be coincidence and I got lucky...with the white truck I'm gonna be working on i want to make sure it's right.. it's got a lot of sentiment to me. So gonna make sure I do everything the way it's supposed to be..