Last night I herd a new noise coming from my truck...
I doubt anyone will be able to help me, and I pretty much have it nailed down... But I figured I would post it up just to see if anyone had it happen to them before and can assure me of the problem.

Ok anyways, last night I was going to the store and I went around this corner pretty fast, much more speed than a normal turn., I was probably going like 25-30 around a 90 degree turn... and ways, I herd and felt this clunk... definitely wasn’t right. I went into a open parking lot and just kept turning and felt it, you can feel it in the floor and at this time it was only when I was turning.
I kinda forgot about it the next day, but I felt it alot more so I knew somthing was up... I thought about it a bit and my thoughts went straight to the rear differential.

I already KNOW that this rear diff is bad... In the winter when I spin and get more than like say 25 mph on the tires there is a really loud clunk cluck clunk noise that comes from the driver side axel, and I have linked it to loose spider gears... also when I put the truck in reverse it goes CLUNK... the backlash is correct on the gears also.
And I noticed recently when im on like blacktop, or a type of surface that the tires make a squall more easily, well when I turn my tires will howl like I have a posi, but the tires never like hop or what ever they do with a posi...

I jacked the back end off the ground and stuck the truck in neutral, and there is a definent tight spot when I turn the tires, and I also hear the clunk clunk clunk noise when I spin the tires, when I turn the tires fast enough every few rotaions it will spin the driveshaft fairly hard and will make the tranfercase, or tranny clunck just from the movement.
So im thinking that that is the noise I am hearing, and I can feel it just because there is alot of force into it just because the truck is moving so fast.

Tonight in my testing I went to a dry parking lot and spun the tires just to hear whats happening, but I couldn’t hear anything just from the tire noise, I also did the same test on gravel in a perfectly straight line, and spun them... it only spun one tire... like less than a open differential should... it didn’t even make the other tire ruffle up the dirt... AT ALL.
If I were to do that in the dirt say last week, it would spin both fairly evenly.

Does what I am thinking sound like a logical answer to the problem?

Im Planning on sticking in a LSD or a powertrax to replace the spider gears, which should take care of the problem in the rear diff.
Thanks

 

Failure of the pinion bearings in the 9.25 differential is common
from model year 1995 onward.

These failures may be connected to
the large pre-load nut losing the proper torque due to faulty locktite,
a defective seal design
or Mexican made bearings.

Dodge has just recently announced they have an all new
axle/differential design for the light trucks
to replace the 9.25 differential
that also gives a 1-2% MPG increase

 

Did they acknowledge this as a potential problem?

 

Would my problem be the pinion bearing though? because it only happens when turning and that would lead to the spider gears more than anythign.

Thanks though, thats good to know.

 

parts made in mexico or partsmade in canada too.
you never know.