I decided to service my rear differential today for the first time since I bought the truck 15k miles ago. I don't know how often the PO did this service, but I doubt it was often since the truck wasnt in the greatest condition when I bought it. Anyway, when I took the cover off, there were quite a bit of minuscule metal shavings on the magnet as well as a small (1/8in x 1/8in) that seemed to have broken off the very tip of one of the teeth on the side gear. It didn't seem like it was enough to cause the gears to skip a tooth. Is this something I should be concerned about? I plan on dropping the trans pan tomorrow and giving everything a good scrub and eventually re-sealing the T-case, so any tips would be appreciated on that as well.

 

Clean things out REALLY well, and inspect. If you find something questionable, replace it. Rebuilding rears ain't cheap if you let it go too long.

Does the rear make any noise while driving?

 

i would say its probably okay, b/c several teeth are in contact at the same time. when i put my 4.88's in, the instructions said to actually grind one tooth off the ring gear, to let the pin fit, thats what i did, and i have no problems.

 

I already cleaned everything to within an inch of its life and re-filled. I haven't driven it since because I want the RTV to cure before I heat things up. Before the change, though I was getting a whining noise from what I suspect was the rear of the truck. Everything looked good with no play inside the t-case except for that one tooth though.

 

Is there a way to tell what gears are in it? Because the truck has a 6" lift and 36" tires installed by on of the PO's, but I don't know if they installed the right gears as well.

 

If the piece that's broken is part of the spider gears I really wouldn't worry if it's nice and small if it came of the ring gear look and see if it's in the pattern if so I would start looking to replace if not I wouldn't worry too much.

Should say it on the gears if already back together jack up rearend and count the ratio of revolutions between the drive shaft and tire

 

Redhead:
It definitely didn't come from the ring gear. One of the side gears is the one that had a small piece missing.
As far as ratio, and I apologize if I'm being dense, turn wheels, count revolutions on wheels and on drive shaft, divide big number by small number and get gear ratio, correct?

 

If a gear is chipped something caused it to happen. You can get a new set of spider/side gears for around $150. Is this a lsd carrier?

 

you might could pick up a side gear at the junkyard for next to nothing.

its probably been that way for a long time, and its probably not the end of the world, but its likely contributing to your noise. the 9-1/4 rear end is in every ram, ram van, durango, and dakota for like the last 100 years.

good question from merc - if not LSD then its really easy to change out.

 

i dont think thats right. i dont remember which order it is but i think its something like this:

say you had 4.10 gears. it would take the driveshaft 10 revolutions to get 4 wheel revolutions. so basicaly is you spin the rear tires 4 times the driveshaft should spin 10 times.