Metal in rear diff. FML.

rich67

rich67

Caught the Bug
Doing my routine fluid changes, I pulled the plug off the rear Dana 44 diff and found these two lovely items stuck to the drain plug. I haven’t noticed any odd noises except for a noticeable “clunk” when I back out of my driveway and first start to roll forward. Usually only when the vehicle is cold. I am going to take it to my mechanic next week and have him pull the cover and see what’s going on. I have a 13 Sport with the 3.73s and LSD. I am going on a looooong trip in a couple months and want the Jeep in tip top shape.
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Bummer. If I could guess, you have chipped teeth. If you're lucky, the magnet did it's job and those are the only bits. If so, you can drive for a bit like that. However, it's probably time to have something replaced if not the entire ring and pinion. Might be a good time to upgrade to a locker being that everything will need to come out anyway.
 
Yeah I was kicking the idea around. Is this typical wear and tear? Or has upgrading to larger tires taken a toll?
 
So, I had a similar experience only with VASTLY more metal on the magnet! 90% of it looked just like what you have shown. In my instance, it turned out to be the teeth in the LSD (i.e., Spider Gears). I noted it just before I went on my first wheeling trip, complained on our local Jeep Facebook group, was offered some Rubi takeoffs by an incredibly generous member which I purchased with a lift and a million other things for the incredible price of $1,500, and then, armed with the confidence that I had new axles in my garage, I went on the trip with the damaged rear! AND drove it like that for nearly another year while I built up the Rubi axles in my garage. Assuming yours ends up being the LSD spider gears as well, last I checked, you can get a new LSD carrier for like $160 off of RockAuto...
 
I had seen a few things on various sites indicating the LSD may be the issue. I’m hoping that’s all it is. Thanks- I am going to be doing a lot of driving across the country in the upcoming year, and that gives me hope that I can limp along with it if that’s what it is.
 
If you follow Snboarder113's good advice and pop the cover to inspect, order yourself a Lubelocker gasket for it first! That will keep you from having to play the RTV gasket maker game every time you pull the cover off. Personally, I am not certain I would replace the LSD carrier given the likelihood of this happening again. You might consider using this "opportunity" to upgrade to a locker. Just be cautious as this is one of those slipper slope things (i.e., "Oh, I am upgrading the carrier to a locker, I should get bigger/higher spline count axles now too, and maybe a reagear..." etc.).
 
wayoflife said:
Bummer. If I could guess, you have chipped teeth. If you're lucky, the magnet did it's job and those are the only bits. If so, you can drive for a bit like that. However, it's probably time to have something replaced if not the entire ring and pinion. Might be a good time to upgrade to a locker being that everything will need to come out anyway.
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I just went through the same thing in May. It was my spider gear with the same gear ratio 3:73’s. I decided to upgrade to 4:56’s.
I was told by a Jeep garage mechanic that this is a known issue but not sure if I believe that.3FE38ED8-C6E0-4227-BE0C-83F37007F5E9.jpeg
 
Seems to be fairly common... Happened to me! Resulting in my upgrading to a set of Rubi axles with lockers versus continually having to fix the LSD gears. Sorry this happened to you again! That said, mine looked like yours and I drove it like that for over a year without issue.
 
I Had the same thing happen. I only noticed it when I changed my diff fluid. I cleaned it out and put another 10k on it with no problems.20210914_091458.jpg
 
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