Archived Broken Rear Axle

[GSellers]

I have a 1 ton dualie, 11 ft. body... Dana 80. Is it a common problem for the Spider Gear inside the limited slip differential to break?



About a week ago, my speedometer began acting up, purchased a new speed sensor and when I went to replace it, the old one was broken off in the housing. I installed the new one and added a quart on synthetic gear oil. It worked OK for a couple of days and I started noticing a clicking noise then the speedometer stopped working again. I commute 100 miles daily and Friday on the way home it was making a very loud clicking noise. I pulled the cover this morning, (Monday), and noticed that one of the spiders was broken in 8 pieces inside the differential; it also tore the tone ring off and mashed it up and bulged the differential cover outward. I only saw a couple of minor gouges in the ring gear. I don't know if I should just try to find some spider gears to put into it and new bearings or try to locate an entire axle assembly. The vehicle has 118K miles on it and is maintained regularly... I'm trying to figure out what the best course of action is. Just wondering if anyone knows what would cause this to happen?

 

[Extreme1]

That's a new one. These are expensive to replace, I'd opt for a fix first. New spider gears, tone ring and bearings. You won't have to reshim the bearings unless one of them died and spun on the carrier, but then you'd have bigger woes.



Since there was shrapnel flying around, you might want to pull the hubs off and check the bearings there too just to be safe.