Has anyone even seen this?

[mdixon]

So i went out yesterday to some sand pits with some friends to ride a couple odysseys and ended up havin to pull someone out of the sand. afterwards on my way home my rear end starts binding up and clicking bad. So i limp it home, pop the diff cover, and i find that the unbolted side of the pinion shaft has been chewed up by the pinion gear. An i mean CHEWED UP!! Looks like a die cutter gone wrong.

Anyway i was curious if anyone has even seen this happen before or heard of the pinion depth mysteriously becoming grossly excessive, and destroying a rear end. luckily i have a donor ranger to pull the diff an swap quick to get back on the road.

Id have pictures but i managed to break my phone before i broke my truck lol.
Best sunday ive hade in a while lol.

 

[dla]

So i went out yesterday to some sand pits with some friends to ride a couple odysseys and ended up havin to pull someone out of the sand. afterwards on my way home my rear end starts binding up and clicking bad. So i limp it home, pop the diff cover, and i find that the unbolted side of the pinion shaft has been chewed up by the pinion gear. An i mean CHEWED UP!! Looks like a die cutter gone wrong.

Anyway i was curious if anyone has even seen this happen before or heard of the pinion depth mysteriously becoming grossly excessive, and destroying a rear end. luckily i have a donor ranger to pull the diff an swap quick to get back on the road.

Id have pictures but i managed to break my phone before i broke my truck lol.
Best sunday ive hade in a while lol.

Big tires, iddty-bitty running gear. Or somebody didn't set the pinion depth, backlash and carrier preload right. There's no magic.

 

[mdixon]

its a stock rear diff as far as i can tell. so unless the factory screwed up 15 years ago i dont think thats the case. now that the driveshaft has been removed i cant find anything out of tolerance.

i know theres no magic, more like voodoo... this isnt my first rodeo

once its back on the road im gonna rip the diff apart and find out exactly what went wrong

 

[RangerSVT]

Its possible you had bearing failure, causing excessive play....

SVT

 

[mdixon]

i wont know for sure until i take it apart but i was kinda leaning toward that... i didnt look when i first pulled the diff cover but i mighta sheared off the locking pin on the pinion shaft causeing it to swing out and hit the pinion gear. ill know more when its on a bench.

 

[Captain Ledd]

My guess would be, the flange got smacked hard enough at some point to ruin the crush sleeve pre-load on the pinion bearings. Slowly leading to a failure and was pushed over the edge by being helpful to someone stuck in the sand.

A rebuild with a crush sleeve eliminator/shim stack in the pinion would take care of any problems in the future.

 

[mdixon]

that was the plan for the rebuild. i just got the donor diff in the truck tonight and the one i removed has way to much play in it. thanks for the advice