It seems all the efforts paid off in my attempts to get this 2002 Ram 1500 project truck on the road. This vehicle had been sitting stationary for over two years when the owner offered to sell it to me for 500 bucks if I could just get it out of his driveway... we jumped it and I drove it to my house just a squeaking and a squealing.. wasn't pretty. Replaced the front axle stub shafts... cv axles... front hub assemblies and rotors. That got the front end in order and the truck back to being a 4x4. When I moved on to the rear axle I drained the diff oil and low and behold.... broken clutch pack clips had wreaked havoc in this 9.25 the way they've done in so many. At this point I had never worked on a differential at all.... but I was willing to give it a shot. After finding so many threads on this forum about the exact same issue "Found this in my diff" etc... I just started asking questions to all those out there who really know about this sort of thing... and they headed me in the right direction towards rebuilding this axle. Bought me a new Yukon carrier.. master bearing kit... axle bearings and seals... and got busy with the wrench slinging. Took the whole axle out of the truck.... got it into the shed.... and took it all apart. After a thorough cleaning I set my carrier up with my existing ring gear and tone ring... redid my pinion bearings.. races.....crush sleeve... and set my pinion pre-load (15 inch pounds). Then set up my new carrier to .0065 backlash....checked my gear mesh (dead on) installed my axles and got this thing back in the truck. No clunking.. no whining... no howling.... nothing but performance. Now this Ram is officially on the road... hooraahhh!!!

To all that I've been chatting with who coached me (a non-mechanic) through this ordeal.... thanks fellers....you guys are top notch.

To all those who may be reluctant to try something like this due to inexperience.... it can be done.... just takes some patience and research. The guys on this forum are extremely helpful and willing to lend a hand when you need it.

 

Well done!

 

Cudo's Great find and Im sure it will be beneficial for years to come

 

My hat's off to you! To date, the ONLY mod on my truck I've not done myself was the gears (and LSD). At the time, my $36k truck was less than a year and a half old and I wasn't going to chance the rear end on a job I've never done.
Now if I had a "beater" truck I would have tried it...

 

Know what ya mean HammerZ71... if this were a nice truck I would've been a bit more reluctant to tear it apart like that. But I'm glad it wasn't ha ha....learned a lot... had a bunch of fun rebuilding it.

 

You got one hell of a deal other than the work you had to put in it but I believe it's beyond worth it

 

Did you have that "in over my head..." feeling when you first started? It's amazing how quickly that feeling goes away once you start getting real hard info on the jobs huh?

 

I believe it was worth it too.... for the knowledge gained if nothing else. Im happy to say I never really got that feeling of dread.... I did a lot of research before hand... and flat out stopped when I had a question until I was sure I had the right answer. So patience paid off. I never really got that "over my head feeling" with this one... I think due to the fact that this project truck isn't a "have to" type thing.. more of a want to cause its fun sort of thing. Haven't had a truck in a long time.... Im diggin it.

 

Talked to my local 4x4 shop , he said don't pull clips this will damage case . Throw in a auburn LSD and all bearings since pinion bearing on these are suspect or service normally dans drive it, he said usually clips make it to the bottom with out grenadeing