Differential fell off jack

[90FoxLX]

Hey everyone, I’m new here and I’m limited on mechanical abilities although I’m able to do many things myself. Question is, the other day I was changing the poly bushings to spherical on my 8.8 axle and had to pull it out to fully get to them. When putting it back in with new UCAs and LCAs my differential fell off my jack (while it was down) when I was trying to re-install. What is the probability that I damaged or knocked my diff gears out of alignment? Any advice would be appreciated

 

[LILCBRA]

Hey everyone, I’m new here and I’m limited on mechanical abilities although I’m able to do many things myself. Question is, the other day I was changing the poly bushings to spherical on my 8.8 axle and had to pull it out to fully get to them. When putting it back in with new UCAs and LCAs my differential fell off my jack (while it was down) when I was trying to re-install. What is the probability that I damaged or knocked my diff gears out of alignment? Any advice would be appreciated

Slim to none. Imagine if you were to hit a pothole and you had to reset the gears every time - I'm sure you've run into bigger bumps in the road than what you've subjected the differential to.

Worst case scenario (that I can think of.....) is if it were to fall from a higher height and land directly on the pinion - that might cause some damage to the mounting face of the pinion and/or some bearing damage. OR - if it were to fall from a higher height and bend an axle tube. A lowered jack just isn't high enough that I'd be concerned with much of anything that I couldn't see outright.

 

[90FoxLX]

I thought the same thing as if driving conditions were to be as rough on it, but then again I wasn’t sure if a direct fall would knock it out of alignment. It wouldn’t be cool to find out after getting it all set up

 

[AeroCoupe]

Spin the pinion by hand and it should be smooth. If you hear some crunching or it is locked up then you know there is a problem. I have "dropped" them off a jack in the past an never hesitated in just putting them back on the jack and continuing about my business.

 

[90FoxLX]

I feel better about it knowing that it should’ve been able to take the fall. I thought I’d be ok but better safe than sorry. The driveshaft is actually still connected so I’ll probably check with it still on. It wasn’t easy balancing a driveshaft and axle on a jack and stand to slide it under and re-install on my own.