Hey guys!

Working on a friend's 1st Gen 94 S10 Blazer 4x4 with the 4.3.

A forklift ran into the driver's side rear wheel and bent the end of the axle shaft at the hub. I need to replace his axle shaft, bearing and seal.

I've been doing some reading here and I think I have a decent idea of how to get the axle out, but I'm not quite sure what I need to remove in the rear diff.

What am I looking at here? What's involved removing and replacing the axle bearing and seal?

I'm also concerned that I'll need a special tool to remove the rear wheel bearing and seal. What do you guys use?

What have you experienced with this job? I'm more of an engine tech guy, have most of my experience with engine rebuilds, timing belts, and minor suspension work (balljoints, tie rods, etc).

Thanks guys! Good to be here, looks like a lot of great info and wealth of knowledge!

Thanks,

Justin

 

I'm just doing a backing plate myself which is pretty much the same. Remove diff cover, unbolt the cross shaft pin bolt (about a 5/16's), shaft will pretty much fall out on it's own, then push the axle in from the end to remove the c clip. My c clips just fell off themselves when I pushed the axles in. I've never done this either and taking it apart has been pretty straight forward. To do the bearing you might need to rent/borrow a slide hammer or puller.

 

Most guys I know (me inclided) have just taken the axle shaft to the auto parts store and they cut the bearing off with a torch and then press on a new one. That's how it used to be done. Haven't done one in a while so I don't know if they still do things this way or not.

 

Axle bearing is inside the axle tube housing on these.

 

You're right. The manual says to use a slide hammer with (of ciurse) a special tool to pull the bearing. Might go to an auto parts store like O'Reilly and see if you can rent or "borrow" one. You usually just have to lay a deposit down if you don't bring it back or break it. Autozone actually rents tools. My only experience with S10 rear ends is when I blew a ponion seal and had to drive the thing home 10+ miles at about 10 miles per hour. Rear end was toast so I went to a salvage yard and managed to buy another one for $150.00. Cheaper than I could fix mine for. Sorry. Shoulda looked in the book first.

 

any body got pics or a rightup on removing the whole rearend? I think this is the method i will be using on my 97 4x4 4.3