Front Diff and Axles are kaput
 

Salutations all.

So earlier this year my dad and I were moving me back to my hometown, while my dad was on his way home there was a grinding sound and then a bang. When taken to a shop we were informed that our front differential and axles would need replacing, they wanted to charge 7,000 just for parts. I am a newer Jeep owner/enthusiast so I have no idea if this is a fair price point or not, sounds like the latter since our transmission rebuild ran about the same. So I figure with the appropriate mentoring and learning here I can either learn to pick the parts up and make the swap myself(ideal) or at least figure out a fairish pricepoint to chase off scummy shops.

Additionally, this is my daily driver and having it down is a big strain on me and my dad, would there be a way to pull the differential and axles and just run it in 2wd until I can get it all figured out? If so, how might I go about doing so?

Jeep is a 2013 wrangler, I will get more info when I get home tonight and post an edit.

Appreciate any advice and tips!

Well, first off, $7k seems beyond stupid, but we have very little information here. Is this is rubicon or a sport/sahara? did shop explain what happened? could be one of several things, the biggest being that the ring and pinion gears blew up, but also could be that just the spider gears in an open carrier (sport/sahara) blew up. probalby guessing we're talking ring/pinion here or maybe everything. Is the differential housing itself damaged at all? is this factory gearing in the axle still? do you know what gearing you have? for example, if it's 3.21 gearing it would be super easy and cheap to source a used axle and have it be plug and play. if aftermarket gearing, a bit more complicated. if axle housing is damaged, a bit more complicated. there are a lot of variables here....including location.

If it is the Diff; check salvage yards for the same .. Bet their price is much less and you can install in a day in the driveway on Jack Stands. Investigate the alternatives. Be sure that these in the salvage yards are the same gear ratios; this is vital.

Your other question is yes you can make it 2WD but need to remove axles and perhaps block holes at the diff outer ends. Then remove front driveshaft.

Any tips on how this might be done, especially concerning the driveshaft, would that need removal if I just kept it in 2wd? Would a swap video on YT be sufficient mayhaps?

Driveshaft you simply undo bolts till it falls on the floor. Axles require you to remove rotor, caliper/bracket, wheel sensors and undo the 3 bolts holding the wheel hub in. You may need a puller to get the axle and hub spline separated but tapping with a 3lb hammer may see it move through the hub once the bolts are loose. Should only take about 2 hours to do if you are fast. Also you need a 12pt 13mm 3/8 drive socket to get the hub retaining bolt undone.

y, no real reason to remove the drive shaft. if you get the front axle shafts out like Sxity is saying, nothing in the diff is going to be rotating, and therefore the front DS is not rotating...AS LONG AS YOU DON'T HAVE IT IN 4WD!!

You need a 36mm socket to get the axle nut off at the hub assembly, and you need to make sure you do that before you remove the hubs, which you need to do in order to pull the axle shaft out. it might sound complicated, but it's really straightforward. at that point you could just drain the gear oil and shove rag in the axle tube just to keep stuff from going in. there's no reason to have oil in there since nothing is turning. I'd really want to remove that diff cover and get a look at what's going on to start with.

If you leave DS on then remember to not use 4WD. :)