Interesting diff failure

Welp,

The truck had a noticeable clunk between reverse and drive. I just associated it with ring and pinion backlash because the truck has 180k miles on it and the u-joints are all still tight.

It started making a very bad crunchy/poppy noise in the diff yesterday. I decided the ring and pinion had chewed themselves up.

Drained the diff and the liquid looked like slut dust infused chocolate syrup.

It has so much sparkle it would make a unicorn proud.

I pulled the diff out and it turns out that the ring and pinion backlash wasn’t the problem.

The spider gear shaft is busted and the pieces are only there because the ring gear kept them captive. The clunking was apparently that busted shaft giving itself a little more breathing room. I’m all for giving a little leeway for the freeway but this is a bit much for my comfort.

I’ve seen a lot of diff failures in my life. I have never seen one like this.




Haha. Yay me!!

 

Wow. Anyone been in that rear end before?

 

Not the first time I’ve seen this.

 

I've seen this a few times on these trucks. First one was a moron who brought it into the dealer complaining of a clunk as you said, but he was still under warranty. We pulled the diff and found this exact issue. Oddly enough, one of our lube technicians followed him on Instagram, and saw a video of him doing a one tire fire burnout about a week or two before the truck came in. Needless to say, Toyota corporate quickly kicked the warranty claim and he was on the hook for the whole job

 

Yup, 2 pins do this, seen on many different makes and vehicle types over the years. This is why 4 pin diffs were invented.