Hi all. I haven't posted here in a while. I'll mostly peak in just to read a few posts. My truck is currently up in the air with the differential open and all the gears out. The mechanic let me take a few pictures. He is telling me I need a new, used, or re-man differential. New is in the range of $4600. Used...$2300 with 100K miles on it. My truck is just under 100K now. At what point should I say screw it and get another vehicle? It looks like I bought mine a few years too soon from the list of problems I've seen with the 2004. I'm attaching a picture so you can see what I saw. Hopefully, you can see them clearly.

Pic 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g4fhylhgai...409_131822.jpg

I'm just looking for some info or if anyone else has gone through this and does the pricing see normal.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

Dude,


Take a look at car-parts.com
I made some assumptions just for price, it might be worth the few minutes to take a look for the entire rear assembly with the gears and diff you want, ready to install

 

Thanx. I'll take a look into that. Last call from mechanic was that a re-manufactured one would be $3100(est.) I wonder if fixing it and then selling or trading it in is the way to go after it's done.

 

Throw it back together and trade it in. A dealer will simply stick it in an auction anyway.

You will never get your money back out of it. Problem with a used diff, is what kind of shape it's in. the 2004 and 2005's are nototrious for failure with Limited Slip. Clips inside break off.
You'd probably have to rebuild the entire used unit, so it might not even be worth the price in the end. Reman if anything at all.

 

Yes...I can 100% confirm, that the groove in your carrier bearing face has been caused by one if not several, of your LSD clutch pack retaining clips being damaged.
The little "W" shape on the end of the clip snaps off, causing a very sharp edge. This scores into the bearing face when the diff rotates as the clips are pushed out of the LSD pocket. This causes fine metal particles seen as sparkling diff oil when you open the diff cover.
You can rebuild it, after completely flushing the whole axle, renewing all bearings and seals etc.
My diff is like that now. Been good for over 80Kmiles at least.
I took the opportunity of junking the stock LSD and installing a Detroit TrueTrac.
Al.

 

Great design. :-/ I'll probably keep the truck for another 5 years if I can and then get rid of it. I know I won't get that money back, but I feel it's wasted if I get another vehicle now. I'll see what they'll give me for a trade in. I just got a cover put on it last year. If possible, I'd like to take that with me and get another truck. I can't ride the bike all year round. I'm pretty sure the cops wouldn't agree to me putting a car seat on the back to take my kid to school. lol

 

Yeah...."great design"......NOT lol.
Dodge really dropped the ball on the 03-05 LSD.
Do a search on here for the wrongly names "c clip" issues. There's a heck of a lot of unhappy people me included, who have fallen foul of this crappy stock LSD.
I actually put mine back together after a thorough re-build and ran for over 20K miles without any Clutch pack clips without issue, while saving for my DTT and new install.
Some people on here say that refitting the LSD without these clips causes problems. But i'm here to tell you I and many other had none and the LSD still works.
The only thing that does happen, is the clutch discs do move in their housing and the discs are a little loose.
But as I say....I had no issues.
You can now buy from Dodge modified clutch pack clips and fit those.
To be honest If your that far into your rebuild, that's the way i would go.
New clips were not available when I had my issues.
Good luck and post up how your doing bud.
Al.