Patent ID: 7147585

Claim:
An axle assembly for a vehicle comprising: a differential casing rotatable about an axis, the differential casing including a first pin aperture; a pair of side gears disposed within the differential casing; a pair of axle shafts, each axle shaft being coupled for rotation with one of the side gears; a spacer disposed between the side gears, the spacer having a second pin aperture; and a cross pin received into the first and second pin apertures, wherein receipt of the cross pin into the first pin aperture fixedly but removably couples the cross pin to the differential casing, and wherein a size of the second pin aperture is greater than a corresponding size of the cross pin such that the spacer is moveable along the rotational axis of the differential casing relative to the cross pin; wherein the cross pin limits movement of the axle shafts in a direction toward one another and the spacer limits movement of the side gears toward one another independently of the cross pin.