I have 03 F-150, I got a question here. In order to remove the left spider gear, do I have to drop the front diff. and split it? It's been a damn long time since I've worked on a front end on one of these turcks. Any help would be greatful.

 

im going to venture out on a leaf here, you pull both shafts out so you can rotate the spiders or is one of them axle shafts still engaged into the pinion/spider gears?

 

Guess I should of started out with the whole story. About a week ago I had to use my 4x4. After I took out of 4x4 and put it into 2 I had a damn clunk coming from my left front axle and it would jerk the wheel to the left. Before this ever happend every once in a blue moon I'd hear just a light clunk from the left front when I'd come to a stop. It sounded like the caliper would slap the rim. Kind of like when the Ford Rangers would lose one of their caliper bolts and hit the rim. Since I'm way to damn busy to work on my own truck and I don't have a shop anymore to work on it, I took it to the ford dealership here in town and told them that the shift fork is partially engaged and it's causing my steering wheel to jerk. So they get to diagnosing it and called me back and said yes it's the shift fork. The next day they call me back and say my left spider gear is missing some teeth. They said it'll take 2 days to get here and so forth. Now today they call me and said when the mechanic was pulling it into the shop my right front wheel bearing toatlly fell apart.

I know the only way that wheel bearing can come apart. I'm thinking that they did not tighten my axle nut back up when they drove it out of the shop and back into the shop. So that's where my first post came in.

 

the wheel bearing shoulda been making noise if it was wore out that bad.

also, if theres teeth missing, you need to rebuild the whole axle. no telling how much damage been done to them bearings.