I have a friend who's got a '90 Suburban. He threw a rear ring gear tooth through the cover on his 10 bolt on Friday night. All the oil drained out and he drove it about 2 or 3 miles before parking it in my driveway to find out what was happening. 
What I was planning on doing was removing the ring gear from the axle and putting the shafts back in and sending him on his way in 4 wheel drive until he had the cash to get a new rear end. When we went to pull the carrier out we found that stuff had gotten so hot in there that the big pin in the carrier couldn't be removed, as it was somehow fused to the carrier. Additionally, the set-screw bolt that holds that pin in place had broken off at the neck-down at the end of the threads. I didn't know much about how the axle shafts stay in the axle housing on a semifloat axle, so I just cut the carrier with a grinder to pull it out. Well damn if I didn't think about how I would then have no way to hold the axle shafts in... 
So I found a new axle for him for $100. We went and picked it up. It's a gov-bomb. Oh well. For a $100 to get him on his way, no biggie. However, the seller had cut the e-brake cables, so we had to pull the axle shafts to remove the e-brake cables, so now I've learned how to remove the axle shafts in that style of rear end too. 
Dang. I am glad I have a 14 bolt full float axle. SO much easier on so many levels.
Started raining real hard, so we called it a day after getting his old busted 10 bolt out and prepping the new one. The new one gets installed Wednesday. Pretty easy swap, and everything essentially went according to plan which was a nice unexpected occurrance.
What I was planning on doing was removing the ring gear from the axle and putting the shafts back in and sending him on his way in 4 wheel drive until he had the cash to get a new rear end. When we went to pull the carrier out we found that stuff had gotten so hot in there that the big pin in the carrier couldn't be removed, as it was somehow fused to the carrier. Additionally, the set-screw bolt that holds that pin in place had broken off at the neck-down at the end of the threads. I didn't know much about how the axle shafts stay in the axle housing on a semifloat axle, so I just cut the carrier with a grinder to pull it out. Well damn if I didn't think about how I would then have no way to hold the axle shafts in... So I found a new axle for him for $100. We went and picked it up. It's a gov-bomb.
Oh well. For a $100 to get him on his way, no biggie. However, the seller had cut the e-brake cables, so we had to pull the axle shafts to remove the e-brake cables, so now I've learned how to remove the axle shafts in that style of rear end too. Dang. I am glad I have a 14 bolt full float axle. SO much easier on so many levels.
Started raining real hard, so we called it a day after getting his old busted 10 bolt out and prepping the new one. The new one gets installed Wednesday. Pretty easy swap, and everything essentially went according to plan which was a nice unexpected occurrance.
When I originally got my blazer it had no gears in the rear end. I decided to just put 3/4 ton in right then and there. Never looked back. Glad I did too. What a pain in the ass to change an axle shaft on a semi-floater!
