Big4x4ride
Red Skull Member
I have a 99-04 60, freshly built last Spring with Yukon 5.38's, Zip Locker, and all Timken bearings. Rig had not been used in 4x4 until this past weekend. Gears set up by myself and a buddy who does this stuff for a living, everything within spec and felt good by hand as well. Took rig out Friday and piddled around for 45 min, no problem. Drove from camp to trails with hubs locked in, and tcase in 2 High, thinking that would sling oil around some before really putting it to use. Saturday AM, driving to the rocks (low speed in 4 High) and I hear a faint squeaking sound. Waiting until the area opens up a bit to let my buddy pull up beside me to listen and all of the sudden the rig comes to an immediate, violent dead stop from 15mph or so. Wont move forward or back more than 6" and feels like something is mechanically bound up. Unlock hubs, and am able to get it rolling again. Head back to camp, pop the fill plug and verify oil level which was good. Head back to trail, wheel all day without issue. Saturday notice some movement in the pinion in and out, no oil leaks anywhere. Verify pinion nut is tight, which it is, and say screw it, we're gonna wheel Sunday too. Wheel Sunday and notice a growl/clunk out of the front end. Load up, head home and open the diff. Lost the outer pinion bearing (cage broken, what left of rollers are welded), pinion had been popping the locker as well. Outer pinion body was welded to pinion shaft, couldn't ever get it to break free. Inner pinion looks perfect. Outer race spun in housing and scarred it pretty bad. SO:
There was no slinger installed (stock gears had no slinger). Should the slinger have been there? That's the only thing I can think of for the cause of this. The deflector was installed on the pinion. Housing is pretty scarred up, plan to emery cloth it the best I can and assemble with new gears/bearings. Planning to use some Loctite 660 retaining compound on the race/housing, and ping the surface if necessary. Just trying to come to a conclusion on what could have caused this.
There was no slinger installed (stock gears had no slinger). Should the slinger have been there? That's the only thing I can think of for the cause of this. The deflector was installed on the pinion. Housing is pretty scarred up, plan to emery cloth it the best I can and assemble with new gears/bearings. Planning to use some Loctite 660 retaining compound on the race/housing, and ping the surface if necessary. Just trying to come to a conclusion on what could have caused this.
