1950 Ford car rear end

[azandy]

Something broke with a loud bang in the differential of my 50 Ford car. I've pulled the axles and taken out the housing bolts but I can't get the assembly out. Apparently what ever broke is preventing me from pulling it out. Does anyone have any ideas other than taking the entire axle out of the car and flopping it around to clear what's interfering?
Thanks,
Andy

[rotorwrench]

I would have to ask if it is locked up or not? If it still turns then it could be stuck on the studs but you mention it has bolts so it might not be applicable. You can't see much through the axle flange ports unless you pull one of the seals out.

If it had a catastrophic failure in there, then there is no telling what kind of mess there might be. Hard parts are not very available for the damn things so you may have to just look for another complete axle assembly and swap it out. The main housing is 49 & 50 specific but the third member is interchangeable from 49 through 54 as are the axle shafts. It's just the outer cases that are different.

I'm going by Hollander interchange for this and usually they are relatively accurate.

[TJ]

If something broke in there you should pull it out anyway. You want to be able to clean the inside properly before repairing and replacing parts. Pieces of old metal in there can ruin any repairs that you make.

[mountstimothy0]

You should just take the thing that broke out and buy a new one do you agree with me

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J120A using Tapatalk

[rotorwrench]

I don't know how familiar folks are with this grandad of the Ford type rear axle. It has a third member that holds all the guts just like the later Ford axles. After the axle shafts are pulled and bolts/nuts are removed, the third member should just pull out of the main housing. If the hogs head housing was deformed or one of the caps came loose, there could have been a shift or breakage with the carrier bearing components that won't allow the hogs head to come out. A person might have to destroy the hogs head third member to remove it. That could be quite a job. Pulling the whole axle assembly may not help all that much except for better access to tear into the housing.

I've never seen one of these get wrecked up that bad internally. They usually have problems with the pinion shaft but if it was made by man, it can fail just about any way you could ever imagine.

[flathead4rd]

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Don't know where you live but I have a complete, drum to drum, rear end out of my 50 ford. Not sure of the ratio but it came out of a six cylinder non overdrive car. I'm in the Detroit area.

[Frank Miller]

This may sound stupid as you may have already checked but did you pull the axles out completely or enough to remove the third member? If you have a broken axle then there's your problem. They have been retrieved with a snare made from fine wire. Shove it down a wooded dowel the same size as the axle to connect it. If you pull both axles completely maybe you can shine a light through the differential case and see what your problem is. Seeing the hole is bigger than anything else I cannot imagine there being that much of a problem.

[azandy]

Thanks for all the advice, I'll try some of these things. I did break an axle once and used a tube from household vacuum cleaner to get the thing out. I may look into a Maverick rear end. The thing I dread most about doing this job is the hardest part of it anymore is getting down on the ground and then standing back up. By the way I'm in Glendale Arizona.

[JSeery]

Originally Posted by azandy

The thing I dread most about doing this job is the hardest part of it anymore is getting down on the ground and then standing back up.

Isn't that the truth!!