It finally happened to me. I ran my SF 14 Bolt over the wrong rock and it peeled back my stock steel diff cover. It took 8 years but it was time to upgrade the diff cover. A long time ago before Crane changed hands they did make a diff cover for it but they have not in years, I have searched long and hard to find a steel and not aluminum cover with no success until now.
To give you a little background I have a 1970 K5 with a swapped 6 lug 9.5" Semi Float 14 bolt from a 1989 C2500. It has 4.10 gears from the factory and I had sourced a GM factory H2 e-locker back when you could get them for cheap. I used to work with a differential shop owner who told me he had swapped a few of these into the front axle in the newer Dodge Ram 2500 and up that uses the "AAM 9.25" solid front axle. This led me to do more research on the front axle which turns out is a slightly modified case in order to run the 3 link suspension but otherwise identical to the housing on my rear axle.
Now for my write up. I found two companies that make a nodular iron diff cover for the AAM 9.25" front axle. AEV and SOLID Axle Industries. I did like the "inspection cover" that the AEV diff cover offers but at 3x the price of the $80 SOLID axle diff cover I thought I would give theirs a try. Plus it has a lifetime warranty which the AVE cover says nothing about. I ordered it in and started by drawing a template for the cover and the bolt holes which revealed that the bolt in the 3 o'clock location is in fact the difference in the case.
This did not bother be too much because it is in the upper half of the case and it looked like there was plenty of meat to drill and tap into. As long as the clearance on the ring gear was acquitted I figured I had struck gold being as no one makes a diff cover for my direct application except for a welded kit for double the price or a cast aluminum one that wouldn't hold up.heres some more comparison pics
I used some plumbers putty I had leftover to check for clearance on the ring gear and carrier. There were only two places where it really even contacted the cover with easily a 1/2" thick of plumbers putty I figure that is more than enough. If my carrier and ring gear deflect that much I have much worse problems ahead. This was done without a gasket and not torqued but snug with a wrench.
To give you a little background I have a 1970 K5 with a swapped 6 lug 9.5" Semi Float 14 bolt from a 1989 C2500. It has 4.10 gears from the factory and I had sourced a GM factory H2 e-locker back when you could get them for cheap. I used to work with a differential shop owner who told me he had swapped a few of these into the front axle in the newer Dodge Ram 2500 and up that uses the "AAM 9.25" solid front axle. This led me to do more research on the front axle which turns out is a slightly modified case in order to run the 3 link suspension but otherwise identical to the housing on my rear axle.
Now for my write up. I found two companies that make a nodular iron diff cover for the AAM 9.25" front axle. AEV and SOLID Axle Industries. I did like the "inspection cover" that the AEV diff cover offers but at 3x the price of the $80 SOLID axle diff cover I thought I would give theirs a try. Plus it has a lifetime warranty which the AVE cover says nothing about. I ordered it in and started by drawing a template for the cover and the bolt holes which revealed that the bolt in the 3 o'clock location is in fact the difference in the case.
This did not bother be too much because it is in the upper half of the case and it looked like there was plenty of meat to drill and tap into. As long as the clearance on the ring gear was acquitted I figured I had struck gold being as no one makes a diff cover for my direct application except for a welded kit for double the price or a cast aluminum one that wouldn't hold up.heres some more comparison pics
I used some plumbers putty I had leftover to check for clearance on the ring gear and carrier. There were only two places where it really even contacted the cover with easily a 1/2" thick of plumbers putty I figure that is more than enough. If my carrier and ring gear deflect that much I have much worse problems ahead. This was done without a gasket and not torqued but snug with a wrench.
Last edited:
