OMG Al...sigh....this sucks. This puts me in a very stressful situation. I have to drive it, I must work and I surely can't afford a new LSD right now. Thank you for the information....I think. So they are in there ONLY to "aid" in the installation and should have been removed after assembly by the factory is what you are saying? So, in my other pic is one of them, how do I access the other 4? I don't recall seeing them.

What's the cost of replacing with an Auburn/DTT...does it have to be done by a shop? I'm clueless on rear ends. and...uh...you mentioned fine metal particles? I just so happened to take this pic also....from scraping my fingers across the magnet.

 

I went through ALL of this. When I pulled my cover I found all of the same. i was going to clean everything out and seal it back up but then I called Dodge because it was still under warranty and took it to them. My clips were gone. The oil was like liquid metal there was so much metal in it. As you can see in one of my pics, one clip was against the bearing cap and rubbing into it. I saved samples because i know Dodge. Anyway, since it was under the 7/70 they told me it would be rebuilt the rear end. That was fine by me. Then later i found out the Chrysler rep denied the warranty rebuild??? So they flushed everything out and put it back together. Needless to say i was pissed. How the ***** do you just change the oil in a system where it is obviously got broken parts and contaminated oil. I demanded to speak with the rep but of course was denied. I sent letters off to the Corp office and got nice apology and was told they would look into it.

About that same time I ran into a guy on DT with a brand new Auburn LSD, new Motive 456s and a Motive master kit so i bought it and swapped everything out and havent looked back.

 

As Weed said FireFighter.............it's a real crap deal when this stuff happens and it happens regularly, at that with these totally crap LSD's.

OK on to your problem.

I take it that your not under any warranty? If so, read on, otherwise take her in and get them to spend their money and time.

The clips can be removed. You must do this ASAP. Open the diff and drop that fresh oil. It's useless anyway, as it's now probably contaminated with fine metal bits.
You can run without the clips, I guarntee at least 20K miles as I did with my diff.
The clips are there as many people believe, to aid the initial installation of the clutch pack. The factory leave them in, as it's probably more cost effective to do so than to take them out.
Take the clips out by any safe means, as that will give you time to save up and get a DTT or Aurburn.

It looks to me unfortunately, like one of the clips is starting to cut into the carrier/bearing caps as mine did, as there are "sparklies" in your oil as evidenced in your excellent last pic.
You will have to flush out and clean all your axle, gear sets and such. Being from the UK, I don't know any of your product names you could use to do this, but someone on the board will chime in...................please?
I used a light parafin based solution, to clean everything up. Use lots and lots and make sure all the old oil and crap are gone. Do a "white glove test" like they do in the military for dust and stuff. No sparklies or dirty oil should be left at all. Continue cleaning untill you get to that stage. Any left, will only contaminate your new oil and ruin all your efforts.

There are 4 clips in the clutch packs. Put your truck on axel stands and turn the driving wheels and look into the open diff.
You should see the 4 pockets near the left and right side gears deep in the internals of the gear sets. One set of two retains the left side clutch pack the other two the right.
You have got to remove these clips or at least, ascertain that the clips are at least complete if so, if you can't get them out, leave them in.
They will however over time, have the same problem of the ends snapping off, so if you can get them out now, all the better and every effort should IMHO be made to do so.

Once everything is clean and you have either all the clips out or found the remaining clips are intact, button the axle back up and refill. You have done all you possibly can to temporarily sort this mess out that you can do for now.

I would however, set aside both time and money to get a complete new LSD install in the future and religiously check on the remain gclips if left in, when you do an oil change every 15K.

Hope this helps and good luck as you certainly have had a bad run of late.
Al.

 

That be some REAL good advice, Al...

 

This is real world prices on the work you will need. I did mine a couple of weeks ago. I priced several places and got some very scary answers from a couple of places, such as I think I'll need tools for that. This is not a job for Bubba and his brother. Moe sells a kit which includes gear set, Master install kit and differential for $800. I finally went to a defunct Dodge dealer who still had factory trained mechanics and factory tools necessary to do a proper install. They had done another rearend the previous day and finished mine in 4 hours start to finsh. Price $486. I gave the mechanic a $20 for lunch. I used OEM 4:10 gear set and they run as quiet if not quieter than the original 3:55's. OBTW, I highly recommend the DTT for several reasons, but the main is you don't have to modify the center pin or gear set when using 4:56. It uses a spacer slug and a retainer cap instead of the pin, also it is a cone style LSD and doesn't need additives.
Good luck,

 

Yeah, I'd agree on the DTT if you can swing the extra $100 or so it is over the Auburn. Even though I have the Auburn AND IT PERFORMS FLAWLESSLY, I can't use a synthetic in the rear diff which I am not too crazy about.

The ONLY advantage the Auburn has over the DTT is that it engages faster which would only be a consideration if you were purchasing for a track vehicle for better times and the fact that the have a "Pro" series with a comparatively higher bias ratio than the "performance" series or a DTT. Again a bias that is too high is only good for a track vehicle and is not very streetable.

 

Wow, I am about speechless guys. This really sucks...not what I need. Thank you all for your replies, experience and information on this.

Weed, that experience would have sent me thru the roof with it being under warranty.

My 7/70 ended a long time ago. I bought the truck in '05 used with 36K miles, now has 169K (hence the nasty I found under the valve covers in spring thread...my engine would never look like that!)

It came to mind this morning that the 1st time I ever changed the rear diff, I am pretty SURE that I found one of those then, didn't think much of it then nor knew to think about it and forgot about it. So that means two of these have broken off.

So, my new Mobil liquid gold is now rendered useless? Nice at $19 buck a quart. The used lube that came out didn't look all that bad, def not as bad as weed's. FWIW, the rear is very quiet, never any noise out of it.

I had planned on starting my full spring/pushrod swap this Fri or Sat. I guess I will open the pumpkin back up again and see what I can find. Man...I am PISSED and on pins and needles now.

What is the DTT diff? DTT= ?

Guess I need to start checking around here to see who is capable of doing this install when I can get the new parts.

Can someone in the US chime in on what I can use to flush the system out with as Al explained...thanks cuz I haven't a clue what to or not to use.

Al, thank you for taking the time to post your detailed replies/instructions.

BTW, and for future, instead of typing my full member name out, it's easier to just say "Tim"

 

im pretty sure you will have to change the fluid out again but im not positive on that.

dtt= detroit trutrac, which is an aftermarket lsd

http://moesperformance.com/index.php...th=1_1200_1201

 

Tim,
Here is the kit.
http://moesperformance.com/index.php...oducts_id=9046
Good luck...

 

Now let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Tim, there is no reason to think the ring and pinion are shot....yet. Now if you get a false security in that the diff is still quiet and keep running with clips in there and particles in your fluid - it will be.

I went to an Auburn LSD (and yes DTT is the Detroit TruTrac LSD) at only 19k miles, so I didn't have it happen to me.

I am not aware of any specific product made to "clean out" the pumpkin. But a good brake cleaner should do the job. Be sure to completely wipe the inside out with a couple of rags.

If it were me, I'd make sure I had all the clips and residue out and do exactly what Al did and run with the stock LSD for a while. This will buy you time to find out if the gears and/or the carrier has been damaged. At $300-400 labor to set gears or install a new LSD, you do not want to have to pay it twice. The labor involved is quite redundant for both and most shops will not charge much more (if anything at all) to install a LSD if they are already doing the gears. 4 Wheel Parts installed my LSD for free provided I bought the LSD from them and had it done at the same time as my 4.56 gears.

At some point, if the rear end appears to be sound, I'd still get the LSD out of there, even though the troublesome clips will be gone, the stock LSD is a non-functional POS! Even when working correctly, the bias ratio is **** poor and often requires you to depress the brake or apply a slight amount of e-brake just to get it to function at all.

Good luck...