Hello,

Story;
I have an 01 3010 and front diff got hit pretty hard a few months back, everything worked except the occasional irregular thunk while driving. I thought the cables were stretching and adjusted - no difference.

Problem:
Everything continued to work fine until a month ago when the 4wd gave out (used for chores near daily). Well, this past weekend, doing winter maintenance, I removed front skid plate, which was smashed right against the diff, and lo an behold theres a chunk o the diff tuck to the grease/dirt mixture on skidplate and an appropriately sized hole in the diff! So, no 4wd, and I guess the diff had the hole for a few months now, letting oil drain and nicely toasting the insides.

Solution:
I dunno! First off, I never replaced a front diff on one of these before, and cannot find any info online as to how to do it. I can find used ones but have no idea how good seals, innards etc are and hate to buy a piece of junk and go thru all the labor to replace. I can find new ones for $1000- sigh.
So, unless theres a special trick to get this diff working again, can anyone provide me advice on how to replace one of these, and if you know where I can locate a new replacement for less than 1k?

Thank you,
Nick