I know what you mean Izero lol.
I hope the op doesn't have mercury for diff fluid and his end caps are intact.
That was a Lot of "c clips" debris in there ;-))
Al.

 

after researching and talking and thinking about these things for the past few days theres a few more Qs that just have to be asked. what are the purpose of these little clips and if they have one? Can we from a engineers stand point argue about there effectivness and right to even belong there. from my expierience thus far i know that the smaller pinion bearing went bad way before these things fell out which was problably about a year ago and have just been setting at the bottom since then. with that being said i cant come up with 1 good reason from a mechanical stand point that i should even put these things back in. like i said it was functioning perfect without them, id almost hate to put them back so they can one day fail/fall and cause catastrophic damage when they do...any thoughts on this?

 

I would advise against removing them or not installing new ones all together.

Those Retaining Clips hold the clutch packs together, which is basically what allows your Limited Slip Differential to act as a "Limited Slip" system, which puts equal power to both wheels. When you remove them the differential will still retain "some" of the Limited Slip functionality "some of the time", but it will put extreme wear on the actual LSD Housing, which will end up causing you much more of headache when it explodes and destroys the inside of the differential...

Do it at your own risk bro, but you're in the situation you are in because those Retaining Clips failed and you kept driving it.

I'll tell you what, do a little experiment if you have the time/money. Install everything without the clips and go drive slowly in a few circles in a big parking lot and just listen to the sounds the diff makes and feel how it acts, my bet is you will get some crazy *** binding and it will sound kinda nasty, then go rebuild it again with them and drive in circles again... it will be much better.

Anyways, back on topic... the rebuild really isn't too difficult if you are fairly mechanically inclined and you have a good amount of time on your hands.

http://www.off-roadweb.com/tech/1011...k/viewall.html

This is from an older Dodge, but the process is pretty much the same for the most part. You will however need a special tool or two to complete the job.


What I would personally do is simply replace the whole rear differential with a new assembly, you will save a ton of $ on labor... b/c rebuilding these differentials is pretty time consuming.

 

thanks for your replt lz. I'm just not seeing how they hold these packs in and by what way. They don't physically touch them, they don't secure anything, all I can see at the moment is maybe they are a weight or counter weight. But even that wouldn't make sense. In my situation these were not the main issue. The main issue was a bad front pinion bearing that went bad way before these things fell down. Lol, actually the main issue was moisture. Moisture Caused by the front pinion seal being faulty that dodge did redesign but for most of us the damage was already done. Lol, But that's for a whole different episode. I do appreciate all the help your giving I just still need to figure out how they do what Dodge claims they do because at this point it doesn't make a lick of sense. Maybe if I can get a few cars moved out here I will give that test a try.

 

I don't have sound at work but this might help?


I am pretty sure that engineers that have many many years of design experience and dozens if not hundreds of patents under their belts know what they are doing....

 

I know that video doesn't show the clutch pack type, but if you search for a video on there I'm sure you can find one.

 

I think many people on the Forums here have opted to just replace it with a Auburn LSD unit. Just so they don't have to go through that again. You'll have to make or buy the tool that goes down the axle shaft to adjust bearing preload and get the correct pattern/backlash. If you haven't done an axle before I've actually seen an article of a dodge one being replaced - and I found it!

http://www.off-roadweb.com/tech/1011...k/viewall.html


I have a 2005 and after 120k miles I still haven't seen any broken clips in there. I know the later models are supposed to have a 'better' design, but I know they break eventually.