12b carrier issues

[ninthoption]

I just picked up a 12b rear axle last night. I pulled the cover and everything looks pretty new, maybe a few thousand miles on a rebuild. Anyway I noticed some scoring on the carrier that looks like it's coming from the pinion. I believe the stamp on the carrier says N4GM which I assume is a 4-series carrier, but the gears are 3.08 which doesn't match up. I really don't have the money right now to have the carrier replaced with a 3-series but was planning on rebuilding my old axles this winter.

Basically I'm wondering how worried I should be about the scoring on the carrier. Is there any chance I might be able to get a few thousand miles out of the diff while I rebuild mine other one? Or are there other options I might have? I imagine it's not a real good idea to take some meat off the carrier to eliminate the rubbing but could it be a possiblilty?

Steve

 

[pauly383]

Does it rotate smoothly, anything rubbing , is the pinion too deep ? Perhaps post up a pic for us. /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif

 

[ninthoption]

It rotates smoothly, doesn't look or sound like anything is rubbing(anymore). I'll post a couple of pics today when I get home.

It's been driven on, I don't know how much but the guy I got it from said it never made any noise.

 

[Shaggy]

So it looks pretty new, other than the scoring on the carrier from the pinion... /forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif I'd say it might look CLEAN, but not new... Pics would help, but you would likely want to figure out why the pinion is hitting the carrier before trying to run it. When torque is applied the pinion might be climbing the ring gear and hitting the carrier, it doesn't mean a whole lot that it's smooth when only the torque you can apply from your wrist is put to it.