Carnage on Rt. 13

Well I blew out the rear gears in the Jeep today on the way home from the Dover Homo-Depot. Last thursday the Jeep started to make an ocasional weird vibe noise. I thought it was from the t-case. It would also ocasionaly kinda buck a little here and there when the clutch was in and I was turning tight.

Well today after it blew, and I had it towed home, for $120... I took the rear diff. cover off and drained the gear oil. While the oil was draining I heard some heavy things hit the drain pan... NOT GOOD!

Those heavy things were what was left of my ring gear bolts!

Somehow my ring gear bolts got loose and backed out... all of them!

Aparently that vibe noise was those bolts in there ratteling around. And that ocasional bucking was probably the bolts in there getting caught in the gears and tricking the locker.

When the thing finaly blew today it took the ring gear out.

I dont know how much more, if any, damage there is. I'll start pulling it apart more tomorrow after work... Hopefully the locker didnt take a hit as well.

You should check out my gallery for the pics!

click here

saw them was just waiting for the write up..... that is a darn shame hate to see gear blow on the street.... all damage should be doneon the trail.

note to self lots of lock tite when doing gears....

I pulled the axles out today after work so I could get the Detroit out and see what was what.

Well the ring gear bolt heads were ground to powder and small shavings. There was a lot of it in the housing. There were also 3 bolts, minus the heads, left in the ring gear.

The housing has a couple spots that were gouged and beaten, but nothing too bad.

The Detroit has some battle scars, most are just little dings and scratches... but there are a few biger gouges. They are in the body of the Detroit though. It doesnt look like it is damaged mechanicaly.

My outer axle seals are shot... I wonder if that has anything to do with all the metal shavings in the fluid...?

looks like I should be able to just pick up a new ring and pinion and be good to go.

More pics coming soon.

oh, and about the 4.88's being weak in the D35c... there is only the one broken tooth on the ring gear and and the pinion gear is not broken, just marred. Looks like one of those ring gear bolts got in between the ring gear and the pinion and thats what popped it.

Aaron, I'd like to have you help me out with the ring and pinion again, you did a hell of a job on it last time. The pattern is about as perfect as it could get. The bolts backing out HAD to be a fluke! is there a better locktight than the red? if so we should use that!

I have to order the gears, I'll try to get ahold of you when I get them to set something up if thats cool.

Later.

Ive blown out 4 rear ends and they were all on the street. I just put it in 4 wheel and headed for home. Once the rear goes it is usually trashed anyway so i figured id same some money on a tow job.

Would that be such a good idea to drill a bolt head not designed for safety wire. There are specific design tolerances your messin with. The head could decide to split and pop off. You would be better off buying them designed for safety wire, although I'm sure a bit on the pricey side. Just a thought and based on my aircraft maintenance knowledge not a good idea.

If the ring gear bolts backed out you may have other problems, did you notice any vibrations before this happened? I have been setting up rears for around 13 years now and probably have done 100 give or take and have seen a few that had ring gear bolts back out, but they had other issues that caused the bolts to back out.

Check for anything that would cause a vibration, even the slightest vibe can cause things to loosen over time. When installing the gears make sure and degrease the bolts and the holes the bolts go in before torquing and lock tightning, the bolts and the ring gear usually come with a slight film of oil to preserve them and loctite will not adhere properly with even the slightest bit of oil.

I was curious, are the bolts left or right hand thread? They should be left hand thread, I know they made some dana 35 TTB's fronts but not sure if the ring gears are the same or not, and alot of frontends use right hand thread bolts due to the direction the ring gear faces and using right hand thread bolts in the rear would be a bad thing. Another thing is make sure you are using a good install kit, with good bolts and not the crappy 9/16 head bolts I have seen some come with.

I really dont think you need to drill your bolts for safety wire, there had to be a contributing factor to them backing out. Good Luck!

You mean I am not supposed to drive it like its a race car? I will freely admit that I am VERY hard on the Jeep on the highway about 90% of the time.

I just need to pony up the $ and get that 14 bolt in there! But for now I am going to have to just throw in a new ring & pinion.

There IS some vibration in the rear. I dont think my pinion angle is exactly right. I think that prolly did cause them to back out. I am going to have to pick up new perches and rework the pinion angle while the gears are going in.