I have a 2000 Ram 1500 that has been humming for a couple of weeks, getting progressively louder. I narrowed it down to the rear diff. I popped the cover off of the rear diff today and found one of the clutch pack retainers was laying in pieces in the bottom. How difficult would this be to replace? I'm pretty handy with a wrench doing all of my own repairs since I was a kid. Any pointers or suggestions?

 

Humming is generally bearings....... You can get rebuild kits for the stock posi, there was another thread about this not so very long ago.... Or, you can replace the carrier..... (gonna have to pull it to check bearings, or rebuild it anyway....)

 

I had the bearings checked and they are good. The clutch pack retainer on the right side is broken and the clutch pack is out of allignment. I'm needing to know how labor intensive it is going to be to replace.

 

Concur x5

The labor by the dealer is to the tune of $800 iirc. but that was > 2 years ago.

 

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...ml#post1866063

An Oldie Goldie.

 

Hey medshrek.... I just went through this exact same thing... took the diff cover off to check things out and change fluids... found a bunch of metal pieces that turned out to be those retaining clips. Check out the thread "Found this in my diff" if you havent already. It outlines in great detail the fix for this so you can determine if you want to have at it. I'll tell you I'm a novice wrench slinger at best and I did this with half a tool set, some patience... and an absolute ton of help from the guys in this forum. The job itself isnt that tough... the tough part for me was understanding the process of this fix.