I would find out how bad it really is before making a decision. You have to keep in mind that a lot of repair shops will come up with extra work that needs to be done and charge quite a bit to do it. They figure you will say "yes" because they make it sound bad and since you already have it in the shop, they assume you will find it easier to have them just do it now. I'm not saying all places do this, and they may be telling the unaltered truth, but it is from my experience that I need to see for myself what they are telling me, then I get estimates from more than just them if in fact the repairs are too much for me to handle myself, assuming htey are needed in the first place. The latest example of this is the following. I was quoted several hundred dollars for additional repairs to a Nissan Sentra my wife had for the brakes on her car when she took it in for some new "cheap" tires. They made it sound like the brakes were about to catastophically fail at any moment and disaster was eminant. I replaced the pads myself and the brakes were again funtioning like new. I spent less than $60 and a couple of hours going over everything, cleaning, double checking, etc. and nothing else was wrong! The pads weren't even worn beyond normal and the rotors were smooth. They expected her to panic and agree to the extra charges.

It may or may not be as bad as they claim. I would suggest telling them that you will have to wait until later for the additional repairs, then look for yourself. If you're not too attached to the posi unit, and it is in fact damaged, you might be able to just remove it for now and run an open differential until you can afford replacement. As for the gears, you may be able to keep them, assuming they aren't as bad as what they say. Just don't assume that what they are saying is hard fact. Investigate a little for yourself and then come to a decision. In the mean time, I would suggest driving it easy until you can take a look yourself. I just wouldn't go too long before looking though. If they are being truthful about the situation, you don't want to create more damage by ignoring it.

 

Ok. So I'm going down there right now. According to them the ring and pinion gears are OK right now. Tell them to remove the posi for now? And when I can, replace that assembly?

And I am never peeling out with this thing EVER again. Thank You.

 

Ok that sounds good guys, and thank you VERY MUCH. Now what does it mean to drive with out a posi unit? I'm not exactly sure what posi does for the truck anyways, will it mess with it at all? But they said the gears and pinion were ok right now, but he said if I don't address the posi now, it will continue to eat the gears and axle etc. I'm going down there right now to see for myself. But I just want to make sure I'm saying the right facts. Just ask them to remove the posi unit for now, and run with an open differential?

 

The posi is a limited slip that helps both tires have traction. When you were doing your burnouts, did you leave one or two tire marks?

An open diff means that the tire with the least amount of traction will get all the torque. So when you see cars and trucks spinning only one tire, that is an open diff. Nothing wrong with running an open diff, just not going to be able to hook up like you used to, but I don't think you will be driving the same as you used to anyway, so it shouldn't matter. Like I said, most of our trucks came that way from the factory. Yours didn't because its an off-road.

 

Yeah, it always had two peel out marks. Ok, Silver and Ron, thank you guys very much. You literally are a savior to me, really.

I'm going down there right now to look at it. He says the pinion and gears were ok. I'll just tell him to remove the posi unit? And yes you are right, I am never going to floor this thing again. Not only does it not interest me anymore, I CAN'T AFFORD it. Thank you really though.

 

I hope it works out for you. They should be able to tell you what gears you have for sure now by counting the number of teeth. That is the most accurate way anyway.

 

Best wishes, and you're very welcome!

 

DO NOT LET THEM PUT IN A NEW FACTORY POSI UNIT.

These things are pure crap. I think I along with just about everyone other Ram owner that has a factory trac lock(aka trash lock) posi unit has had this exact thing happen. It's a super common issue as these units are just junk. If you let them put another crappy unit in you will more than likely have this same issue again. Go with an Auburn LSD or a Detroit Tru Trac. I went with the Auburn as it seemed to fit my needs better. BTW That price seems pretty high. I paid $400 for install and like $380 for mine. Then maybe $100 for bearings I'm not sure exactly what they costed but I don't think I have that much into my rear diff setup. So thats only $880 and I have a way better setup than stock. I also had one of the best if not the best mechanic in the area install it all. Others say he is more expensive that some but the best. So if he is more expensive it's still cheaper than what you got quoted. I'd for sure just call and order the Auburn LSD or Detroit Tru Trac and just have a shop install it. The stock setup would have been even cheaper for me. If you want the phone number to where I got my LSD let me know. It was the cheapest place I could find and they were great to deal with.

What happens with the factory LSD is the clips break off I think on the clutch packs. I had mine break off and was told I needed to have it fixxed but instead I just cleaned out the rear diff and ran it for a year or more. I pulled the cover and it had another clip or something so I decided when doing my transmission I should just replace it. Well, when they pulled it apart they told me everything else was still in great shape. I think the only issue with just cleaning it out here and running it is if something else breaks there is no guarentee that it won't get in the gears or something and tear it all up. I took that chance and came out fine. Do you want to take that chance or not? If something like that does happen it will end up costing you a lot more.

 

damn neon... and i thought my truck gave me problems. yours is 6 years younger than mine too.

 

Mine is the same year as his same model with slightly less miles and I have had this exact same issue along with many others he has had. Dodge just put a lot of crappy parts on these things.