I recently bought a 2003 F-350 6.0. I've recently discovered this site and thanks for all your help so far. My wife drove it here from California. When she got here I took it out for a drive. During the drive I tried to get it into 4 HI. The street was snow covered and slippery. I selected 4HI and then waited for it to shift. Eventually I came to a stop sign and stopped. The front was locked solid and would not turn. After trying various things it finally unlocked and we drove home. I find out later that the front Dif was destroyed. This picture looks down from the front left wheel well.

<a href="http://s616.photobucket.com/albums/tt243/eprn1n2/?action=view&current=Differential002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt243/eprn1n2/Differential002.jpg" border="0" alt="Front Differential"></a>

Before I knew about this my wife took it to the Ford Dealer. He gave her an estimate of $7500.00!! Needless to say she was depressed. The upside is that the seller of the truck, who is a friend of ours, found a used diff for $600 and a place that would put it on for $300. The used diff has 55,000 miles on it. For the amount of time the front diff is used I think it's great.










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definately go with the used unit. that sucks. looks like the ring gear came unbolted from the third member or broke in two all together. if your'e at all mechanically inclined it's not that hard to change the whole axle out, especially if the one your'e getting is complete. did your friend tell you how this happened?.

 

Thats what i thought to as soon as I saw the price the dealer was asking. Like mentioned above if its a complete axle, it shouldnt be to bad at all

 

I don't think he knows the details. It really bothers me that I probably did this and did it within 5 minutes of first driving it. I'm a meticulous driver. I have a Volvo 240 that has 350000 miles on it. I've maitained it for 21 years. So I am mechanical but at present I do not have a garage to use and I hate working outside in the elements. I'm in Fort Collins, CO.

 

What is the step by step to do this? Any special tools? I have a big Jack and stands with air tools.

 

It sucks you came along when you did with this problem. We need the links to those workshop manuals to work bad!!! They would have been a great help to ya. I have personally never done it but have friends that have and all have said it is pretty straight foward

 

If someone has the appropriate pages I would love to have a look at them.

 

Check the ratio on those differentials. Make sure the front is the same ratio as the rear. Don't use ratio on the tag Count the tooth. Someone could have change one of them. Believe me I have been on that same boat in the past.

Check those ratios on your diff and make sure the one you are getting is the correct one also.

Good Luck

 

Good point. I phoned and both are 3.73.

 

I look at the picture more and more and now i have to ask. How does something like that happen?

 

It is amazing. I now believe it was nothing to do with me. The dif just receives input from the drive shaft. It just let go. When I get the old one off I'll open it up and see what exactly let go. I'll take pictures. Nothing like pictures!

 

Sorry to hear about your bad luck but that is pretty amazing.

Trying to move out there actually. If I was there I would certainly give you a hand. It would be worth it just to see what the inside of that thing looks like! If you want to take a trip out east I'd let you use my warehouse.

 

Now I want to drive out and say hello. I'll take it apart when I get it off and post pictures.

 

haha go for it. I'll buy your a beer if you let me hang that diff on my wall.

I'll be out your way here in a few weeks for some snowboarding. Hopefully there is some more damn snow up there. I went a few weeks ago and you could still see the grass! We did get a good 8 inches the day I left so it was looking promising. Kinda uncharacteristic though as I've been going up there for 5 years or so. First time I've seen the mountains that dry.

 

It has been one dry winter!