Mfred.

Sorry to burst your bubble man but.................take a deep breath and do a search on this site and any other Ram site, for "C clip failures"
What you have there, is the retaining clips from the LSD commonly, but incorrectly called, c clips.
It looks like you have two of the four installed retaining clutch pack clips within the LSD.
When these slip out from the clutch pack, they commonly score a groove in the main carrier housing.
Depending on how bad this is...................the ONLY repair, is for a full axel and diff and gear exchange from wheel to wheel.[sm=jawdrop.gif]
It is very expensive unfortunately and many people who own a Ram, remove the stock 9.25" corporate LSD and fit either an Auburn or Detroit True Track LSD, which are man both enough for the job.
This is an altogeather too common a fault with these LSD's.[:@]
I myself have had 1 clip come out in my 03.[]
Apparently, if the left side clips come out, that is a little better than the more cramped right side retainers.
Either way, it's bad news.
Take a look at your manual and have a look at the clutch pack retainers.
Your picture of the internals, doesn't give me enough to view if they are the left or right retainers and if the carrier is badley damaged.[sm=confused06.gif]
You must take this truck into a reputable Dodge dealer and plead with them to try and do a warranty repair. Your drive train warranty should cover it, if you have service sheets for checks and fluid changes on the axel etc. Otherwise, dig deep my friend...................dig deep.[sm=boohoo.gif]
Oh and BTW, welcome to the infamous and dreaded C Clip club.[sm=icon_quiet.gif]
Sorry bud..................
Al.

 

Unfortunatly, abarmby is right, that is the case. It is the dreadrd "c-clip" failure. Shame on Chrysler for never doing anything about this, as this is all too common. Everyone I know of that has had it happen to them has had it repaired under the 7/70 powertrain (although a few have had to fight for it). From what I understand, however, is that they replace with the same, failure prone, c-clips. So, if it were me, I would take it in, have it checked & repaired (you are almost certainly going to need a new ring & pinion, at least) then, if it's in your budget, take it to somewhere reputable and have either an Auburn Gear or Detroit TruTrac put in (about a $400-$500 job, installed).

 

ok had the same thing at 52,000 miles. it IS covered under the 7/70. the clips they replace it with are NOT the same ones. dodge was supposed to have revised the clips in 05. hence it has been the 03 and 04's that have been hit hardest with this lovely factory bonus. once its fixed i wouldnt worry about it. im at 75000 now and no issues to date. you got lucky it seems. mine almost totally locked up on me while driving. sounded like a crow bar was wedged in the gears. refill it and drop it off and tell the dealer what you found and all should be taken care of.

it seems the 03's where the worst hit by this from a poll taken....

 

Thanks for the info. Ill call my dealer tomorrow. Here are some additional pics...

[IMG]local://upfiles/62950/6B2CCD4E8C054361B8D4B7F35355D623.jpg[/IMG]

 

metal shavings??? hahahaa thats great! get some glasses dude! That looks nasty! Even though you don't feel a problem now you are going to very soon without fixing that. Sorry to see that happen to you...

 

Well, I do have some good news to report. I went to myDodge dealerfirst thing this morning, showed him the pieces and they will cover the problem under the power train warranty. They were not sure if they were going to rebuild the differential or what, until they opened it up and got a look inside to see how much damage is done.Theywouldn’t even let me take my truck to work and drop it off later, because they were afraid of more damage to the differential and axle.Ill keep everyone posted...Oyea, they kept the shrapnel so they could send it back to Dodge.

 

Great to see that they're covering that under warranty.
Get them to completely replace both axel bearings and axel shaft seals at the end of the half shafts as well.
A lot of the metal shaving's and debis etc, will work it's way down the axel tubes to the bearings.
Get them to flush the whole axel assyembly out.
This may/may not be missed out if the dealership is into "cutting corners" if you know what I mean????
Al.

 

Thanks for the tip. Ill reach out to them tomorrow. Its pretty tough telling these guys at the dealer what to do. I get the fealing that they will fix it the way they want and whatever I say may not go very far. Ill give it a try...

 

***Update from the dealer***
I called the dealer for an update yesterday (so far 3 full days at the dealer). The service manager told me they were replacing everything inside the differential housing. They even needed to take the rear axle off to fix it all. He said it was a big job and if I’m lucky, I would have the truck back by Friday afternoon. I asked if it was possible that some of the damaged clips and material got into the axle. The service manger said no. I then asked if the parts that were going in, to replace the damaged differential were new and improved, so I don’t have this problem in the future. He didn’t have a clue. He said "I put in whatever parts Dodge send me, I don’t know if they are any different" I told him Ill change the differential fluid every 15k miles and keep an eye on it. Not too thrilled with his answers or the fact that I have no transportation for at least an entire week. I’ll stop my rant now because I’m still ripe over the HVAC housing that went bad 3 weeks ago and don’t want to put a damper on everyone’s day. That cost me $650 and 2 days without a truck.
DocDave78… there were no indications that there was a problem with my differential. The truck drove as new. How many people actually change their diff fluid? Must be tons of people with this problem out there and they don’t even know it. Dodge probably knows this and is thankful.

 

thats exactly why i hate dealers, they don't know ****