So the other day i got off a long day of work and drove halfway home with my Ebrake engaged. What tipped me off was a smell and a whine from i think the back. so i released the brake but the noise remained. i stopped and the rear was smoking, so i quickly limped it home. at home i crawled under and the smoke was come from the rear axel and pumpkin area. smelling like burning something nasty. weeks ago my mechanic told me a had a small diff leak in the rear cover, he had topped me off with gear oil so i figured i could get away for a bit while i tried to find a cheap diff cover. well in trying to diagnose the whine i popped the diff plug and stuck in my finger (after it cooled of course) and i could touch fluid so i refilled it. i think the whine softened out some but at this point ive heard the whine so much its hard to tell. but it still whines. specifically it starts at 30mph and gets loud at 50+

could the ebrake have overworked the drivertrain enough of exacerbate this leak and blow my diff gears or something? or is this all coincidence and my diff randomly leaked out all its oil right when the ebrake thing happened? or is there a brake thing stuck or something?

its driving fine otherwise, no power loss, dosnt seem to my slipping and compensating or anything but i dont know if i could tell...

thoughts? this really sucks for me as im not flush with cash and love my jeep.

this is not my 87 this is a newer 95 country i picked up, as it was alot nicer than the old one

 

have you popped the diff cover off and checked the internals?

 

I'll bet you have burnt the gear oil in the pumpkin, Change the gear oil and check your rear brake shoes. Drive it a couple of days then if there isn't any noises don't worry about it.

 

i am reluctant to pop the cover cause its a rustyish rig, up here in NY everything is rusty. I am not equipped to deal with stripper or broken bolts.

i thought something like this, but im scared for the worst. so i put new oil in, and it took 1 and a half quarts. like i said though the whine might have muffled but still gets loud at high speeds. is this something that might need to be driven around abit before the oil gets up into the side gears or something? is this what you mean by drive it a couple of days? im due to shange the diff cover when it arrives in a week or so i found one cheap (they are so hard to find for cheap). so i guess ill know for sure by then if the sound dosnt go away?

 

I've pulled the covers off some seriously rusty axles with no problems. Just brush off the loose rust and make sure the socket your using fits tight on the head of the bolt. Remove every bolt except the one at the very top. Put your drain pan under the pumpkin and then loosen that top bolt a few turns and tap the edge of the cover with a hammer to pop it loose. After the oil drains then you remove the top bolt and cover.

Make sure you have a tube of RTV on hand to seal the cover back up and the new oil to fill it back up!

 

im from connecticut, i know all about rust. diff bolts dont usually have any problem coming out. dont be scared.

 

Pull your wheels and drums, check the breaks and also check for leaking seals. I doubt that you hurt the differential, however you could have heated the drums, breaks, axles and seals up enough to have damaged them.