My speedometer has been a little bumpy lately, and at 45mph, my abs and brake light would come on. I figured I was missing teeth on the tone ring in the diff (already replaced speed sensor). I opened the cover to find 4 of 6 bolts on the magnet, 1 very loose / ready to come out, and the last one was partially out and bent (which is probably why is stayed in). This really sucks!

It's hardly been a year since adding the truetrac and once it was installed, I had some whine when accelerating. The ring gear doesn't look great. Not sure if I should just lock-tite and re-install the bolts or start over with new ring/pinion. I definitely need a new tone ring so the ring gear has to come out and be reset. I'm thinking new ring/pinion and probably re-use truetrac with new locktite bolts.

Any advice?

4 bolts at bottom, 2 coming out at top
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Holy $h!t, did you install the Detroit or someone else. Maybe the bolts weren't tightened and were always loose. If a reputable place installed it, maybe they can cover the damages. Either way, that's amazing that no huge damage was done and good job catching it before the last 2 dropped out.

 

WOW!!!!!!!
I have read about this happening regarding the DTT before, but have never actually seen pics of it.
Now that's a massive advertisement for cracking open the pumpkin when doing a diff fluid change out, if ever I saw one!
I was going to suck my old Royal Purple out and just do a refill, but.......... those pics have just changed my mind!!
Can't beat an "eyes on" inspection and this underlines just why.
You have been soooo very lucky with this.
Hopefully, it's just a simple clean up job with new locktite bolts in place and everything checked and new fluid.
I guarantee......you've just woken a lot of people up, posting those pics!!
Post up how you get along.
BTW.....you don't run some really oversized wheels and tyres do you?
I seem to remember that the instructions with a DTT state a specific wheel/tyre size not to exceed when fitting it.
Also (and I'm not trying to catch you out) do you ever "burnout" or really hammer the rear, with a lot of heavy towing etc?
Al.

 

Yeow! Never saw anyone mention that before!! Hope that's not the OEM gear set. Otherwise, it's long out of warranty.

 

it looks like you're really looking at a partial teardown, new tone ring and bolts??????
I'm curious if the bolts got torqued in with permanent locking agent or the removable light blue stuff

When you do pull it down, look to see if the threads got pulled by over tightening or the basic root cause for the failure. For it to fail this soon after install says something is out of spec in the assembly, even down to not cleaning the bolt threads prior to coating them. It does look like you caught it before critical damage was done, but only a really close inspection after tear down will tell the truth.

You might also consider cleaning the ring and pinion off real good with brake cleaner or the like, then blue the teeth on the gear set and check the wear pattern. I doubt if it caused what happened, but it may convince you either way for keeping the current gears or springing for a new set,plus a master rebuilt kit.

Keep us posted on what you find out as you go---a lot of guys here use DTT's

 

With that amount of metal particulates floating around and the damage you have incurred, you need to replace ALL Bearings even on the axles! I would highly reccomend installing a new MasterKit. Especially since you need to take it all apart anyway.

I bet there's more metal flakes up inside the axle tubes as well..
I'd see if DTT will warranty a new tone ring, ring/pinion set.

 

I agree with 'dog.

BTW, what size tires are you running? I looked VERY HARD at a DTT when I did my 4.56 gears but read on Eaton/Detroits site that the DTTs warranty is void if running tires larger than 33s. Called an engineer with the company to verify, so I went with the Auburn LSD.

I'm not going to blame the DTT though, my thoughts are you had a **** poor install (no offense meant if you did it yourself).

If you have tires over 33" I doubt Eaton/Detroit will do anything for you, but it's worth the call as I believe they've softened on the big tire thing in recent years...

 

I didn't do the install, a shop did. I don't know that I can really blame him for not checking torque on the bolts that are on the TT holding itself together? I would think the factory is supposed to do that. Besides, nearly 6,000 miles and all 6 bolts come out? I'm blaming the assembly of the unit.

I'm running 35s, but I found some threads from toyota and nissan guys with the same exact problem running stock tires. Some are saying it started happening when Eaton bought Detroit.

They only warranty the unit for a year anyway. I'll call them, but I'm sure they will tell me to FO.

I bought a new R&P last week for $100 just in case. I was really hoping to just fix the TT issue and set backlash and go. Ugh I guess I'll start over. Hopefully the TT isn't F'd and I can re-use it. I really don't want to shell out more $ for an auburn unit, and no way I'm putting a traclok back in there.

 

Yeah, I'm gonna have to amend my statement. I Googled and found a few with the same problem as you'rn. One and I can say installer, multiple instances of the same issue and I'm gonna blame the product...

 

I know it's not apples to apples but my 03 Ford Ranger FX4 Level II had a Eaton LS similar to the Truetrac. The bolts came out as well and locked my rear axle up.

It does not seem to matter who makes it or who installs it, $hit happens. Sorry to hear about this man!