Growling coming from front differential

The spindle is what holds the front tires on. The axle is what holds the rear tires on. To remove the spindle, you have to remove the brake caliper first the remove the ball joint nuts. hit the spindle were the ball joints go in. The shock will release the ball joints. To remove the axles, you have to remove the differential plate, spin the differential until you see the bolt that locks the center pin in. remove both. push in the axle and remove the C clip. pull the axle out.

Sometimes even with all of the clips off you have to use an axle puller to "knock" it out. The bearing is in the housing pretty tight. One of the national autoparts staore that starts with letter A has a nice rental/loaner program for that.

Good luck!

i had the same problem with my 1996 ram. I ended up having to change the vacuum actuator on the front axle .it is located on the axle to the right side of the differential housing . Mine actually had a pinhole rusted through. It is easier to replace the mounting bracket and the actuator at the same time .

when removing the front axle i believe that you must open the front differential cover and inside the dana you will see a small 8mm bolt located on the spider gear center it holds the pin bar in place and the pin bar holds both the upper and lower gears in place with a small washer below them. be careful when you pull the pin bar out to make sure the gears stay in place (upper and lower) do not let the washer fall out of the spider cage assembly. Then, carefully slide the U pin that holds the axle in (there are two of them one for the left axle and one for the right). Once the U pin slides off the axle the axle should slide all the way out of the whole differential - Note if the U pin you see at the end of the axle does not come off easy just push the axle IN ward towards the center of the differential and then slide it out with a small screw driver ..

Remove those two bearing cap's and the 3rd member will come right out.

On the rear differential there will either be a metal plug or a rubber plug. The metal plug can be removed with a 3/8-inch drive ratchet. the rubber plug can be removed with a small screwdriver. Faceing the axle from the rear will see the plug to the right side on the cover plate. Remember to also check the front differential as well. Hope this will help you.

Has the drive shaft yoke been removed from the axle housing??? If not, remove the drive shaft. Once the drive shaft has been removed, Remove the nut that holds the drive shaft yoke and slid the yoke off the differential shaft. That will let you slid the differential from the axle housing once you unbolt the differential from the axle housing. Good luck and hope this helps. 

they just pop out. i get behind then and pop them out with a screw driver or small pry bar

That works fine on a relatively new vehicle but one that has run in salt etc you'll save a lot of time if you remove the steering knuckle completey by separating lower ball joint and outer tie rod end ball joint and bring the whole steering knuckle to a bench to separate the hub/bearing. Soak everything with penetrant, loosen the bolts a few turns and try hitting right on the bolt heads. I also made a very sharp wedge from a chisel and rammed it hard on the other side to seoarate the hub. It will finally come apart then you'll see all the **** that was binding it due to an alumininum knuckle re-acting with a steel hub. Clean the hole and grease everything and fit new bearings

Rear I take it. Cover off. Push in slightly on axles & look at end of shaft inside housing. Small lip, then groove, then rest of axle to outside. Inside that groove should be a half moon "C" shaped retainer that needs to be taken out, then axles should slide right out if it's like a standard axle.One on both, just push axle in, and you should see it.
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