My dad calls me up yesterday and says he had to put a new rear end in his 98 1500. He said on the way home from the shop the day before it was making a light clanking sound, then on the way back to the shop the next day it got louder and louder. He dropped the diff cover and this is what he found:




The truck has about 200,000 miles on it, no clue how many times the diff fluid has been changed. I've seen/dealt with plenty of rear end failures, but I found this one strange. It made no noises whatsoever up until the other day. It's strange that the ring gear would just shear teeth like that under normal use...

 

Whats the pinion look like?

 

More going on there than just a simple failure. Looks like the one solitary broken tooth in the 1st pic may have been the cause of the rest.

 

that almost happen to mine but luckily the magnet caught the pieces of the lsd when it fell apart and prevented this....

 

I had this problem at 105,000 but not that bad. but mine never made any noise til the minute she failed. one loud pop and cling cling cling.

 

looks like my spider gears in my dana..

 

My buddys dad had that happen in his 94 Dakota, only his rear locked up at 55 in the middle of the road.