I bought a rusty rear axle assembly for $10, thinking there might be something in it I might need. There was no drive shaft visible down the torque tube, so I assumed it was snapped off in there. I fully expected it to be full of rust and useless. I leaned it against the house, poured a quart of ATF in it just to start the loosening process and left it for a year. Today I started to disassemble. I drained the pumpkin and almost nothing came out. When I pulled the torque tube, the ATF spilled out, but there was a block off plate keeping the torque tube sealed off from the main differential. Everything in the differential looked good visibly. There was a fair amount of grease, but it wouldn't come out the drain due to a plug of crud.
So the conundrum. I can accept that someone made a block off plate to keep the differential clean while it was stored. But, why would you safety wire the tube back on. It seems it was blocked off to be used, but what can you do with it without a drive shaft?
So the conundrum. I can accept that someone made a block off plate to keep the differential clean while it was stored. But, why would you safety wire the tube back on. It seems it was blocked off to be used, but what can you do with it without a drive shaft?
