I had an 02' Ford Ranger FX4, and the rear took a dump on me. I took to the stealership and when the took it apart they found Auburn gears. They said that I had put in different gears because they were a 4:10 ratio and they would not warranty them. Well I showed them that the sticker said 4:10 gears and that was one of the reasons I bought the damn truck. They still didn't warranty them. So I called my friend who was a Ford fleet manager with the exact same truck. He brought it down, let the technicians remove the diff cover to find the exact same gears in his truck as I had in mine ( Auburn 4:10's ) and those A$$holes still wouldn't cover them. Up till then, I had never bought another brand of vehicle, and that was my 4th Ford truck. I will NEVER buy another Ford as long as I live.

 

I was right then....oversize tyre/wheel combo that DTT will not warranty.
But also right, in reading several pieces in the past, where this has happened as well.
Don't know if it's due to the os tyre/wheel combo, but Eaton will say it is.
Poor quality control, defective locktight compound on the bolts, or incorrect/missed torqing????
DTT have a rep as being bulet proof and is one of their selling points.
They had better get a handle on this otherwise, it'll possibly end up like the Fram oil filter fiasco???
I'm due to replace my fluids front and rear and I have a DTT.
I was going to do it by using suction to remove the old fluids for quickness and ease as I was that confident in my DTT.
Changed my mind now though!
Good luck with the tear down to the OP.
Hope nothing else is goosed because of this and I reckon you right about Eaton telling you to Foxtrot Oscar
Al.

 

Regardless of the DTT, I think you should crack the pumpkin EVERY time you need to do a fluid change. Yeah, I know it takes longer and is messy, but IMO you shouldn't pass up the opportunity to inspect the differential...


I've written many times on this forum about how I came to buy my first Ram (1998, 2nd Gen) after my new 1997 Furd F150 had a major engine failure with 14k miles on the clock and my subsequent battle to get them to honor their warranty when they fought me because I "severely modified the vehicle" with a cat-back exhaust. Yep, their policy of trying to weasel out of doing warranty repairs pushed me away for life...

 

I can't believe how stubborn they can be, they lost alot of business because of that. Myself for sure, my brother and now my father who is on his last Ford. That's at least 3 three people not to count how many others may have lost interest because I have told that story to many friends who have ended up buying different vehicles. It's not like the stealership even takes the hit, they get paid for it. Oh well, there loss and my gain now being a proud owner of my Mega.

 

Since I bought it on ebay, there wasn't a shot in hell of this guy helping me at all, even though it was brand new. He said this could happen if someone tried to tighten the bolts and break the locktite seal. I'll never know what really happened.

Anyway, looks likes I'm rebuilding the rear myself. It needs too much work to take it to a shop. I'm not happy with the last installer and I'll learn something by doing it. I've watched a lot of videos and read a lot of things, so I'm going to give it a whirl.

I took the DTT apart completely, cleaned it up really good and have it sitting in a little gear oil. It's fine to use, nothing wrong with it. I just need to get some new bolts.

You couldn't be more correct. Metal EVERYWHERE! All the way out at the end of the axle tubes, I'm going to have to spoon it out on each side. It really sucks, because I need to do a complete rear end assembly AND both axle bearings (yay more special tools I don't have). The pinion bearing was also falling apart.

On top of that, one of the bearing caps is grooved really bad (I'll get a pic). I don't think I should reuse it, so I'm going to have to try to find a used one I guess. The part catalog says it's part of the pumpkin. Wtf

 

The holes and bolts on the good side were blue. The holes on the other side with missing bolts were not. Hard to say if the gear oil washed it out or someone had a bad day on the assembly.

I can look again, but nothing looked obvious to me.