This story is kind of long so bear with me.
My old mans car quit last sept. He borrowed my jeep till he could afford a replacement. After using it for a dd for a month (50 miles a day), he was heading down the highway at 70 and the drivers side u joint exploded. (The jeep hadn't been used as a dd for 3 years.) Had it towed back to the house and realized I did not have time to replace the u joint so I drove it very slowly to a shop. (5 miles). They replaced the u and off he went. Well he started complaning of some noise out of the front end. I went over and openned up the diff to inspect the gears and found no issues other than the diff fluid being a bit low. I sealed and refilled the diff and he said it seamed fine.

Fast forward abou 5k miles till last week. The time came to get my xj back. Being extremely excited I piled the whole family in and we went wheeling. The trail is right beside my driveway. After an afternoon and half tank of gas I dropped everyone at home and went out to grab a pizza for dinner. Well I started noticing a bearing noise out of the front end drivers side and figured I needed a new hub assembly. A couple days later the new hub was in and I tried her out. The grinding is now worse and I havn't had a chance too open the diff again and inspect.

My question is. Could the blown u joint at highway speeds have dameged my carrier bearings? I'm a little scared to open her up and see what's inside, but that will happen tomorow.

 

the short answer? Yes.

The d30 has no outer bearings to keep the axle centered in the tube if the u-joint blows, leaving it free to bounce about in the shaft like a overly caffeinated monkey in a jungle gym if it breaks at high speeds.

 

Well if the carrier bearings are dameged and I don't find any gear problems, can they be replaced without a complete rebuild of the d30. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

Here you go. An awesome write-up:

http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/d30seals/seal-1.htm
http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/d30seals/seal-2.htm
http://www.stu-offroad.com/axle/d30seals/seal-3.htm

If you are careful to document and reinstall everything exactly the way it came out (especially the shims), you won't have to re-do your gear work (backlash, preload, etc). I stress again...reinstall everything EXACTLY the way you removed them.

 

Thank you very much, ill go over these links tonight. Here's hoping that's all it is,and I don't have to regear... again thank you.