It’s a long thread and apologize for it but appreciate any info regarding my situation. Thanks in advance!


I have a 06 1500 4.7L 4x4 with 170,000 miles. I have leveled the front of the truck and put bags on the rear. Put 35x12.50 tires on it. About 2 months after I did this my ABS and Brake lights came on while exiting the highway. After looking into the probable causes and checking the simple things I pulled the diff cover off and found the carnage of a bad rear end. The gears for my slip diff where totally destroyed. After a lot of searching I found a match 392(may be wrong but won’t the 395 or 355) in a junkyard truck with unknown miles. I inspected the donor rear end before I pulled it and it was in great shape. I swapped the rear ends about 2 weeks ago and changed the wheel bearings, sensors, brake pads, and seals. I have since put a little over 1,000 miles on it when today(wet and rainy day) I hit the brakes coming to a stop sign and felt my rear tires lock up and let loose. Not concerning but I have definitely hit the brakes harder than that before and not had them lock. I was hauling my utility trailer but not even close to the weight I have hauled since the swap. Shortly after taking off from the stop sign my ABS and brake light came on and flashed for a few moments, went away for a few seconds. then came back on, flashes a time or 2 and stayed on. I got home and checked the simple items again(fuses, fluids, wire connectors) and nothing was wrong. I jacked up the rear end, got my wife to put it in drive and give it some gas. No noises bothered me other than a potential warped rotor. I don’t know what if any noise out a rear end is ok or normal but everything sounded ok to me(aside the rotor) I pulled the rear sensor and looked for metal. I seen 3-4 flakes (small as a grain of salt or smaller) whipped the sensor off and put it back in. When I started the truck the ABS and brake lights went away immediately. I plan to pull the diff cover off tomorrow and investigate further but I have a few worries and questions.....

1- How worried should I be that this rear end may be trash all ready?
2- When a rear end is good/ok does it make any noise when lifted and run?
3- Could heavy braking on a bad rotor have caused my old rear to fail?
4- Is any metal flakes in the diff a bad sign?

 

Think I would be more tempted to get the codes read, and see what the ABS system was whining about.

 

the light went away when I cleaned the rear abs sensor. I will see if it comes back on driving tomorrow. Got a 2 and a half hour round trip to make.

 

rear abs sensor fault.

 

Fix that first then.