So my mom bought this 2001 about a year ago. The other day, she said it was making a loud banging sound when taking off from a stop. I told her not to drive it, just take it straight home and I would come check it out.

I went over and test drove it, and when turning around up the road, it was like BAM and sounded like a gun shot from the back of the truck. A familiar sound, since I just broke my 4.10 gears earlier this year.

While loosening the bolts, I could tell they had never been pulled. They were very tight all the way out. The oil draining out was weird and bubbly looking. I pulled the cover off and the oil had sparkles all in it. The magnet was covered in metal. The spider gear teeth looked like they belonged to a homeless crack smoker. I guess I shouldn't have assumed the previous owner did this at least once or twice.

Luckily, I have my stock open diff in her garage and it looks brand new. I also have new bearings for it that luckily no one bought in the classifieds

So... since it is a stock-for-stock swap, should the factory shims line everything up? Or does the factory actually use different shims on each truck?

Thanks for the help once again guys.

 

Dude honestly if it was me i would just swap out the spider gears from your rearend to her's. See what happens then.

Jon

 

i agree... just swap the spiders.

You can use the factory shims.. but you still need to check the backlash just to make sure everything is within spec.

i reused the factory shims when i put the Eaton LSD in mine, it was perfet.

 

Thanks. Are the spiders hard to remove? Any tips I should know before I tackle this?

Did you guys use a case spreader to remove/replace the diff?

 

Spiders are easy. I did that same thing to my truck twice when I still had the open diff haha

 

What's the preload on the carrier bearings? Do I get it where it slides in snug and then add a certain equal amount to each side? If so, what is the proper amount? I'm pretty sure it's slightly looser than specs since it has 160k miles.

I don't remember how we did mine but I know when we disassembled it, it just fell out into our hands, and on reassembly we got it much more snug.

Also, do I need a special tool to remove/replace the spider gears?

 

the center pin is held in place by a bolt on the end of one side, it should have about a 7/16's head or so, and it has short threads on it with a long shank after to keep the center pin from moving. remove the bolt slide out the pin, catch the spider gears. then with the center pin removed the axles are free, slide each one in towards the diff about a quarter inch or so and that will free the c clips, remove the c clips and slide the axles back apart about an inch and remove the other 2 spider gears. reverse order for putting it back together. good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

My carrier has a ton of preload. I had to pry it out with a crow bar and built a spreader to get it back in. You should have to tap the shims in with a hammer at a minimum for preload.

 

Hey, under the two side spider gears, between the gear and the inside of the differential housing, there is a metal cup shaped bearing. This bearing was damaged and the housing got scratched up under it. Does the bearing spin on the housing? Or does the spider gear spin on the bearing? I could probably smooth out the housing a bit with a rotary tool, but let me know what you guys think I should do.