Ok, I'm in need of some help. I've used up all my explicatives for probably the rest of the year. I looked at both of my manuals and they both said to take out the retaining bolt and then slide the pinion shaft out. Looking at the picture I didn't realize until after I broke the bolt that it ran all of the way through the pinion shaft and into the other side of the carrier. I've looked at some of the past posts, but I'm still a little confused. Is this bolt threaded on both ends or just the end next to the head? It sounds like just the head end is threaded, but I don't want to waste time trying to get it out if that isn't the case. Next question is how hard is it to get another one of these bolts? It's too late to work on right now, but I've got all day tomorrow. Thanks for any input guys. Steve

if i read your post right you broke the center pin bolt on the carrier......i have done this once and yes it is only threaded on the head side of the bolt......they way i got it out was this and i hope you can do the same thing......i took a small drill bit and i drilled a hole in the center of the broken bolt.........

(i have a supply of those little screw drivers that come in those little plastic cases that sell for a few bucks i think there called like machinist screw drivers set....)

i took one of them phillips head that was just alittle more bigger then the hole i had just drilled and i beat that sucker in there and the darn broken bolt backed out with a pair of pliers turning the screw driver out.....it was a good save....

as far a replacement goes i had another rear end laying around and took the bolt out of it ....it was just a tade to long from the 12 bolt i think it was but i just cut it down with a hacksaw and i was good to go again...

The GM part number for the bolt is 14056196.

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'69 RS/SS396 Pro Street
427 4 speed 9"
Byars Performance
High Performance Drive Train Parts And Service
www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead (http://www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead)

Well I've been on it for awhile now and no luck. I got a replacement bolt to see if I still have threads to worry about on the broken one and it doesn't look like it. I can't get the damn thing to budge. I've tried drilling it and using easy outs with no luck. I tried a screwdriver, but I didn't pound it in. I guess I'll try that. I feel quite sick. Amazing how a $3 part can cause so much grief. BTW, I was wrong; I haven't used up all my explicatives for the year after all.

I've dealt with two busted pin bolts; here is how I dealt with them:

#1:
The current diff under my 71 was out of a T/A w/3.08's. When I went to do a gear swap...broken cross pin bolt! It seemed like it had only like one thread that was left on it and was loose, but I couldn't back it out by turning it with a pawl. So I went and had a beer while thinking it over.

Did the following: I sprayed the broken tip of the bolt with carb cleaner and dried with compressed air. Then I positioned the cross pin so it put absolutely no pressure on the bolt at all. Then I took a nail about 80% of the bolt diameter, cut off the end and roughed tip up so the JB weld would grip. I wrapped the nail with only as much paper as needed so that nail/paper would slide into hole lightly. Mixed up some JB and put a small dab on tip of nail, then slid nail/Jb/paper into the bolt hole till it contacted busted bolt and left it there overnight.

Next morning I removed paper (was there to center nail in hole cause any non concentricity with bolt center might alow it to hit bolt hole as it wobbled and break JB grip). Sprayed WD-40 into bolt hole and carefully spun the bolt out.

#2:
A friend tells me he busted the cross pin bolt taking it off. I told him he didn't break it, that the design allows force from a wheel hitting a curb to be sent down the axle to the cross pin, breaking the bolt; just my theory, but it made him feel better.

Anyway, I figure I'll just use the same method to remove it. Nope, he had already tried to pull it out and it was fubar'd. So I told him I'd have to do something riskier, might possible ruin the posi case. He said go for it. I know that hardened steel (like the cross pin) it much more brittle than unhardened steel, so I considered just hitting the cross pin on either side of the center where the bolt went through so that hopefully it would break the end of the pin where the through hoile for the bolt was at it's thinnest point.

then I thought to help things along by cutting it with the Dremel and a cut off wheel. So I marked the path of the bolt through hole on the end of the cross pin. I then cut through the cross pin along the marked lines, getting as close to the case as I could without touching it on either side. It left some uncut cross pin on either side, but I figured it wouldn't be enough to keep me from breaking the cross pin out. Placed the tip of a drift to the side of the bolt path and whacked it with a hammer lightly a few times just to see what would happen. Uncut end of cross pin startd to break, so I hit it harder and it broke pin through, leaving the threadless end of the broken bolt exposed. Cut it with a dremel, pouled out with needle nose vice grips.

We went junkyard shopping and found that the cross pin of an open diff we found was the same, but it's pin bolt had a longer unthreaded portion. We cut it and it worked fine.

Good luck to you.

Well I got it out, but it wasn't pretty. I tried everything and finally settled for grinding the shaft down as far as I could and "tapping" it loose. I tried the new bolt and it tightened right up so I guess I didn't damage the threads. I guess I'll find out next week when I get a new pinion shaft if I screwed anything else up. Thanks for the help.

The shaft number is 3995896, if you need it.

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'69 RS/SS396 Pro Street
427 4 speed 9"
Byars Performance
High Performance Drive Train Parts And Service
www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead (http://www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead)

bgh, you have way too much info running throughthat big gear head of yours! http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/cool.gif

Thanks Big Gear Head!

This is all I've done for about 6 years now. I built engines, transmissions, rear ends and did chassis fabrication for many years, untill the rear end work took over. Now it is just rear ends.

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'69 RS/SS396 Pro Street
427 4 speed 9"
Byars Performance
High Performance Drive Train Parts And Service
www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead (http://www.lubedealer.com/biggearhead)