Dead Differential

[Fred]

I discovered why I seemed to had lost my meager skills at four wheeling while running China Wall the weekend before last. I went with Jeff and Justin to run Chinaman's gulch this last weekend and at the very first little bump, I was stopped. I said, hmm, put on the rear locker and tried again. Still denied. Backed up, put the front locker also, and still went nowhere. Justin came up, watched underneath while I tried to go forward, and said, Your driveshaft is moving, but your front wheels aren't.

I checked underneath. The driveshaft spins free in two wheel drive. I noticed that after China wall, but didn't think anything of it. The jeep used to have a disconnect front axle, and that's what they do. Non-disconnects don't, duh. :dunce:

So how does a ring gear and pinion gear get so far apart they don't connect at all without any strange noises coming from the front diff??

Fred

 

[Frank Z]

Pull the cover, betcha find some metal in the botom of the diff. Take a real close look at the side/spiders.

 

[Crunch]

Broken pinion?

 

[Fred]

Last time I broke a spider gear, there was noise, and the diff locked up. I should have pulled the cover Sunday, now it's too dark to work on the heep after work.

Fred

 

[Fred]

No broken spiders,:banghead: , I have a locker. No piles of metal, but the gear oil looked like it was metallic paint.

One broken pinion gear shaft, how and when I did that, I have not a clue.

Fred

 

[Crunch]

Broken pinion?

dingdingdingding, we have a winner.

Pretty obvious though.

My shoulder hurts :laugh3:

 

[Fred]

Okay, smarty pants. Now tell me how I broke the damn thing. How the heck did I break a pinion instead of a u-joint? I think I broke it on China Wall, and I didn't spin any tires until I was leaving and didn't have 4WD.

It's not fair, for that expensive of a repair, I ought to have some kind of dramatic story. :bawl:

Fred

 

[Crunch]

Okay, smarty pants. Now tell me how I broke the damn thing. How the heck did I break a pinion instead of a u-joint? I think I broke it on China Wall, and I didn't spin any tires until I was leaving and didn't have 4WD.

It's not fair, for that expensive of a repair, I ought to have some kind of dramatic story. :bawl:

Fred

You were dragging a Hummer over the wall when the front tires got about three feet of air. You had too much pulling power thus ripping the tow-point off of said Hummer. Your hard landing under such a torque load broke the pinion gear.:greensmok

You wanted a dramatic story.

 

[ColoradoRaptor]

You were dragging a Hummer over the wall when the front tires got about three feet of air. You had too much pulling power thus ripping the tow-point off of said Hummer. Your hard landing under such a torque load broke the pinion gear.:greensmok

You wanted a dramatic story.

:roflmao: :laugh2: :laugh: :roflmao: :laugh2: :laugh:

 

[98POSXJ]

Most likely damaged it on a previous trip or something. What brand of gears do you have??

 

[Fred]

Actually, it was none of the above. Upon first examination of the diff by a real mechanic, ie, not me, and done in daylight, not with a flashlight in the driveway, it appeared as though the carrier/case of the locker was made for a low pinion axle, and that the ring gear was too thin since it was a 1/4" away from the pinion. When Mark took it apart he discovered that the carrier/case of the T-locker had completely broken, and allowed the gear to move away from the pinion. Teraflex only warranties the T-lockers for 3 years, so that's some money down the toilet.

Oh, well, at least with an open front, Led can't claim I have the most overbuilt rig he's seen. :sad1:

Fred

 

[Fred]

Pictures

These are ugly, looks like Chinese steel:

Put back together, the ring gear bolts to the ring that sheared off. All that happened was that it allowed the ring gear to move 1/4" away from the pinion.

Apart

Fred

 

[nick86]

Wow, that there is some carnage. Great pic's. So your say you had a LP carrier in a HP diff?

 

[Kittrell]

Wow, that there is some carnage. Great pic's. So your say you had a LP carrier in a HP diff?

Carriers are not Pinion specific. So technically there is no such thing as a LP carrier.

 

[Fred]

NO. It was just a bad carrier. Mark thought it was the wrong carrier because while it was assembled, he could see that the ring gear was about 1/4" away from the pinion. Which really never made sense, since the front diff and locker did work for a couple of years.

Fred

 

[JohnJohn]

Fred I just snagged the pictures...pending call on Friday to Tera. No leverage since we didn't buy them from them direct, but let's see. I got one in each of my difs too. :tear:

 

[Fred]

Cool. That part it replacable. It should be available somewhere.

Fred