Ring gear hitting differential cover

[MrTruck805]

Hi all,

Recently I started hearing a noise while driving coming from my rear 12 bolt differential. I took the cover off and the ring gear had clearly been hitting the cover.

Any idea what could be causing this, or is it safe to just buy a high capacity cover that will have more clearance?

Thanks!

 

[centexk5]

I’d think if the ring gear is moving enough to hit the cover then there’s some messed up stuff inside.

 

[Fastereddie]

That would indicate a serious problemo

 

[Bent77]

¡No Bueno!

 

[nvrenuf]

I’d bet those marks were made by either a bearing roller or a piece of a Gov Lock mechanism getting caught between the cover and ring gear. Either way, dat shits broke.

 

[76zimmer]

Is the cover dented? Did any parts fall out when you took the cover off?
Take a pic of the diff for us to look at!

 

[MrTruck805]

Is the cover dented? Did any parts fall out when you took the cover off?
Take a pic of the diff for us to look at!

No dent in the cover, and there was nothing abnormal in the oil that drained. The diff looked totally normal to me, but I’ll take a picture tomorrow.

 

[76zimmer]

Have you ever had that cover off before? Maybe it was a previous carnage event.

 

[doubletrouble]

Did you Jack the truck up and rotate the axles?

 

[MrTruck805]

You guys were right (of course). It’s amazing how much better I could see in the sunlight than pointing my cellphone flashlight at my diff.

There was a broken tooth lodged into the ring gear that was hitting the cover. The tooth was not from the ring gear though, I can see that it is intact. So question is, does a single broken spider gear tooth necessitate a replacement?

 

[centexk5]

Yes. Yes it does.

 

[Bent77]

Looks like a g80, I'm betting you want to start over

 

[skunked]

Gov-bomb go boom

 

[MrTruck805]

Looks like a g80, I'm betting you want to start over

There are springs in the LSD though, which I was under the impression were not used in the g80?

 

[Wes Harden]

to big for spider gear bet it is pinion tooth

 

[MrTruck805]

to big for spider gear bet it is pinion tooth

That’s what I was afraid of. Replacing the pinion is substantially more difficult than the carrier, right?

 

[Wes Harden]

A bit more work yes, but setting up will be much the same either way.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

That looks like a conventional clutch type limited slip to me and not a G80 "gov-lok", been a long time since I looked at a 12 bolt one though.

Either way, need to take it apart to assess damage and be ready to do it all.

 

[nvrenuf]

That’s what I was afraid of. Replacing the pinion is substantially more difficult than the carrier, right?

Yes.

I agree that tooth is too big to be from inside the carrier so it has to be a pinion gear tooth. To replace the ring & pinion you're looking at a full rebuild and setting up new gears.

 

[CharlesC83]

Looked like a Pinion tooth to me also. Either rebuild time or axle swap time. Good luck and ask questions of the Mighty CK5.