Well I know this can't be good. Found this inside the donors front differential. How bad is this? do I need to rebuild the differential? When I move it back and forth I can tell the center piece has play in it. See pictures below. The chunks of metal are about the size of a cereal flakes.








What now? Is this bad enough to have to rebuild it?

 

time to upgrade to a locker

 

"center piece"
Carrier or pinion gear?

Use some paint thinner followed by brake cleaner to clean it up and get a better look at it.

 

Are the gears missing any teeth? If not it looks like bearing chunks to me.

 

Yeah I was going to say bearing chunks. There should be a little play in the gears - not so much that the pinion moves in and out or any other way other than circular. If none of the teeth are missing then look at the seals and bearings.

 

No big deal.

The factory just threw them in there for a joke.

 

Okay well I cleaned it up well and I could not for the life of me find where those pieces came from. I looked at it for 30 mins close up turning it slow and could not find where they came from.

The center spider gear seems to have about 1/8" play when the gear reaches the top it slides up and down a bit that seems to be the cause of the play.

Do you guys think this would call for a spider gear replacement? is it even worth doing so with that little play? if I move the axle back and forth there is litteraly maybe 1/8-1/4 inch play.

Teeth on the pinon and ring look fine other than minor wear.

 

Could it be chunks from axle bearings migrating inwards?

Or you could just button it up and go on down the road. Sounds like you have done about all the inspecting you can do.

 

Look carefully at the center pin where it goes into the spiders and the carrier housing. I've had center pins wear and break on me before.

 

Okay I took a closer look at the chunks of metal during my lunch break. I noticed one of the bigger piece (a little bigger than a sunflower seed) has a noticeable curve on it, kind of like the edge of a bearing casing... So my guess is you guys were right about the bearing.

It must be the bearing on the ring side where you cant see without taking out the carrier because the opposite side looks fine although not all bearings spin some just kind of slide with out rotating. The differential was not taken care off it had water mixed with very old gear oil.

 

Sorry when I said center piece I meant the center bar inside of the carrier I guess they call them spider gears? that small round pin in the center where the spider gears are mounted thats where the play is, it wiggles a bit about 1/8"

 

oh that is a fun thing!

I stripped all the side gears and spider gears in mine



just replace them and dont worry about it.

 

Ring and Pinon not missing teeth just have some wear.

 

How hard is it to replace the spider gears? do I have to take out the carrier? I'm really thinking its actually the bearings at this point.

 

you just pull the carrier out, pop the pins and replace. pretty simple. about an hour to do