Signs of a bad rear end

So for a few weeks now, every time I go around a turn my rear end feels like my front end when it's locked minus the bouncing. Feels and sounds like a binding of some sort. From a dead stop there is a significant clunk when taking off. (u joints check good) When going from park to drive and the brakes applied the rear yoke spins almost a half rotation before stopping. So this weekend Im gonna pull the cover and hope for the best. Is this a sign of my limited slip going bad or worse? What should I look for besides metal when I pull the diff cover? Truck has 173000 miles and diff fluid has about 20000.

put rearend on jack stands so you can rotate the wheels to look at the whole ring gear.

Sounds like your missing teeth and their floating around binding up.

Biggreen96 said:

put rearend on jack stands so you can rotate the wheels to look at the whole ring gear.

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Wilco....

Cobra 19 & 54 said:

Sounds like your missing teeth and their floating around binding up.

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Would there be any secondary indications like vibrations or out of the ordinary noise?

It only happened to me once, and the only reason I knew something was wrong, was the CLUNK when I accelerated from a stop. The ring was missing 3 teeth, and the pinion was missing 2. What you wrote just rang a bell and I remembered this. The worst part was the damage to the Dana 60 housing was toast. Had to buy a junkyard rear end. It was cheaper than buying parts and repairing.

I would guess pinion or carrier bearings are toast, if you have driven it that way for awhile it probably wore on the gear. I dont think its going to be a cheap fix

Are you sure you have a problem? Some people think they do when they really don't. Others think they don't when they really do.

Snake said:

Are you sure you have a problem? Some people think they do when they really don't. Others think they don't when they really do.

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Hmmmmm....interesting. Good info.


We will see what is behind the diff cover this weekend.

Hope you have better luck than me. I checked mine on my GMC two days ago and found two teeth from the pinion stuck to the magnet on the back of the case. What really sucks is it only had about 10k miles on it. Mine was making the same kind of noise.

Let's hope so!! That would put me in tears...

That wasn't a cheap repair. But it did prompt me to regear and install lockers.

I got the truck on jack stands and the rear axle removed. If I spin one tire one way should the other side move the same way or not? Right now they both move the same way. I had to jam a brick under one wheel in order to get one wheel to move by itself. It was not easy to do either. Is this ok or not?

caladash said:

I got the truck on jack stands and the rear axle removed. If I spin one tire one way should the other side move the same way or not? Right now they both move the same way. I had to jam a brick under one wheel in order to get one wheel to move by itself. It was not easy to do either. Is this ok or not?

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It has limited slip, if the wheels spin in opposite direction it is an open diff. It should take quite a bit to get it to spin like you did.

This was all I found besides a bad u-joint. I'm not a pro but there is a bit of slop in the gears when I move the tires. Clutches all looked good from what I can tell. Maybe I just suck.

caladash said:

Hmmmmm....interesting. Good info.

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LMAO! I was thinking the same exact thing.