My dealer recommened changing out the rear end oil at around 8 or 9 thousand so I let them. Glad I did. I'm at 52K now and still had no issues.

 

Update on the repairs. New axle assembly and driveshaft. I was told the rear end was trashed. Once reassembled they need to check the tranny. It could be next week before I get it back due to 3-5 days delivery on the shaft. I asked if the pinion had snapped. He mentioned he thought the nut had come loose but that doesn't make much sense to me since it shouldn't cause a complete axle lock up. Does the nut on the yoke also retain the pinion or is there a second internal retainer nut that holds it in place? If it's just the one nut then I can see how the whole gear would self destruct.

 

There is one nut on the pinion shaft; external of the differential. Improper torque during set up can cause pinion bearings (one inside and one outside the diff.) to overheat and ultimate fail.

Odds are that your inner bearing failed, contaminated the diff. oil and the ring carrier bearings failed which caused the lock up.

 

When I had a similar problem my gear oil was a medium gray color and the viscosity of latex paint. It ain't purdy.

 

The pinion inserts through the inside and pokes through the outside where it gets attatched to the driveshaft. Say you took the nut right off. It would NOT cause your rear end to loc up. You would get noise, but certainly no lock-up, not for a long time and not untill stuff began to heat up and chip away. Yo would get lots of vibration if that was the case. Clearly Dodge still hasn't improved their clutch pack retaining clips that wreaked havoc on 2005-prior trucks and still happens every now and again on 06+ 1500's too.
They did update the retaining clips in late '05 which is why he newer trucks haven't failed near as much, but the are still weak. I worry all the time.
Get yourself a Detroit Truetrac and call it a day. The stock unit could do te same thing again.

 

Interesting because I have noticed a slight humming from mine at around 60MPH, but only under a load while accelerating. It is very subtle, so it's hard to tell if its coming from the rear end or just driveline noise. Is this a common problem with the standard 3.55 gearing? I would think that if it were a problem then it would become more noticable at higher speeds.

 

BS. IF the pinion nut comes off, the pinion will get sucked right back into the carrier when you put it in reverse. Assuming it doesn't jam there, it'll shoot forward when you put it in drive. It's an extremely common problem with Dana 35 jeep rear ends.

 

I got the truck back yesterday, one day shy of 2 weeks. They had rebuilt the axle with new gears and replaced the driveshaft. The driveshaft is what delayed the repairs. So far everything seems back to normal. Maybe I need to buy an extended service plan. At least it would help pay for a car rental.

 

You have a life time drive train (I am assuming you bought it new), which includes that rear end. That is all you MIGHT get out of it, a rental, which will not offset the cost of the warranty

 

And ours do not have the "clips" that came out in earlier models


ARVADA.....was this an open rear end or LSD???