Serviced my front and rear diffs today and noticed those chunks missing in the rear. Not all the teeth have it and it doesn't seem to make any noise going down the road. I didn't find any metal shavings either so I was just wondering.

 

my guess is you're on a lift with big tires and a dana 35 that is getting ready to puke the spiders.

 

excessive wear probably due to poor case hardening of the gears. I have a few spare D35 from auto's if your in/close to MI

 

4" lift and 31's is hardly big lift and tires for a D35. In my experience anyway.

TheJerm: Thanks for the offer but I'm pretty far from MI, haha. I'll see how this rear end does for a bit. Like I said, never had any problems out of it as far as whine or anything but we'll see.

 

It may not give you problems now but now that the wear has worn thru the case hardening its basically going to fail all at once one day. Ive help fixed many of friends rides that this has happened to. Stock XJ axles are cheap, just have to look around a bit till you find a deal

 

Thanks for the heads up! I'll definitely keep my eyes open.

 

I would have thought the missing pieces would been lying in the bottom of the housing (they have been when I've had this issue).

Makes me think someone else has already been in there and cleaned it up before closing it up and putting new oil in it. Have you owned it since it was new?

I'd change them out if I were you. Its a weak spot. Once a rotation you don't have full support between those gears and further damage could result in more severe damage if a moment of increased stress occurs when that spot in the gears is carrying the load.

 

I actually bought the truck about a week ago from a member on here.

 

there just the spiders get a new set and install them

 

x2, spiders are cheap and easy to install.

no reason to leave yourself stranded

 

Don't the cheaper lockers like the powertrax just replace the spider gears? Could I just throw one of those in there?


I know they aren't great lockers but I wouldn't mind paying $275 for a locker that solved the issue with my spider gears as well.. Just a thought.

 

Weld dem' things up...

 

nothings better than free

 

Amen.

 

yep, they replace the spider gears