I removed the short side front broken axle from my housing only to find it broke inside at the spline at the diff. 1/2 the spline tip is gone, I assume stuck in the diff somewhere. Since the housing is out of the vehicle for other work I tried tipping it on end and twisting the third back and forth with the good side. Nothing fell out. Anything else to try short of removing diff. ?

Nope your gunna have to remove the diff and quite possably tear the diff apart to get to the side gear.

i broke a shaft in the diff recently,the broken bit had split and twisted too.i got it out by welding a bit of threaded bar to the broken shaft and using that as a slide hammer with a weight and a nut and washer on top.
its a rare day when you can get the broken bit out without removing the diff.

I've busted an inner shaft at the dif once. Right after busting a birf on the other side while in the Little Sluice. Ended up having to tow it out of the box and limping it back to camp and tearing the whole front end apart.

I have seen someone get the shaft splines out of a dif without pulling it though. Marlin (of Marlin Crawler) was with our group and got it out by using a section of straight brake tubing and welding it to the shaft and pulling out the stub.

Heh, heh, heh.

I sheared my Driver's Rear axle, right at the side gears, in Pritchett Canyon during EJS. You gotta pull the diff to get the rest of the axle out - and even then it can be a PITA. I had to drive it out with a long, skinny screwdriver from the other side (It may have been harder, because of the ARB).

Got third out tonite.. Was able to pull broken piece out with fingers. Lucky I guess. Noticed lots of metal shavings in diff. I assume they are from the broken axle. Looks like it was run awhile with the axle grinding on itself.. Whats the best way to flush all that stuff out. Is chemtool spray ok to use? Or?? Also, One of the bearings the spline fits into has like a rust on the top third of it. Almost looks like it sat for a long time and moisture caused rust. I am assuming the gear oil doesn't cover the whole chunk when it is sitting. What should I do? Just clean up or does it need replacing?

ttt

Clean it well with brake clean or a good solvent. Flush all the crap out, inspect everything real well and reinstall.