What is this bolt?

[RichLo]

What was the purpose of taking it out?
Did you look up the install instructions from Detroit to see what it was for?

 

[BigReb95]

I'm going thru it because it was from local boneyard. I loosened all the bolts before busting butt yanking it out, but never looked inside it. It felt good turning the yoke and wheels that I didn't bother, also doner truck having 102,000 miles, I ripped the front diff out too (to match ratios.) Mine has 250,000. Anyways, I wanted to yank the shafts and do wheel seals, and well as do pinion seal.

I brought it home, took all the scale and most the rust off the rear end on the outside. Then yanked the cover off 2 nights ago and didn't recognize what I was looking at. I'm use to normal rear ends and diffs. I've never came across a locker set up. The bolt had to come out to get the axles out, it was just in there hard-core like someone put threadlocker on it or something.

 

[BigReb95]

So I cleaned up the inside. Pic is from few days ago I took axles out cleaned them, put new seals in then put axles in. Also cleaned out in the tube and whatever brown gear oil/water was in. Bearings look fine, locker works fine. Still gotta do all new brakes/hardware/drums.

So the ring gear does have some pitting, nothing raised after cleaning up as shown in the pic. Is this ok to run? Everything else is good, including pinion gear.

 

[RichLo]

Depends on how much your going to ignore changing that oil after you start driving it. With that much pitting, I would change it after 500 miles, then 1000, then 2000, again at 2000, and go from there. Maybe 1 more at 5,000 and put the best AMSOIL you can get in it and you should be good.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

So the ring gear does have some pitting, nothing raised after cleaning up as shown in the pic. Is this ok to run?

Depends on how much your going to ignore changing that oil after you start driving it. With that much pitting, I would change it after 500 miles, then 1000, then 2000, again at 2000, and go from there. Maybe 1 more at 5,000 and put the best AMSOIL you can get in it and you should be good.

I'm naive.

Since the pinion to ring gear tooth ratio isn't (likely, ever?) an integer (e.g., 11 pinion / 41 ring for a 3.73), in the course of time every tooth on the pinion will scrub across those pitted ring teeth... and in time I (naively) would expect every tooth on the pinion to wear inappropriately as a consequence. Then, of course, all those worn(?) pinion teeth will cause the remaining ring gear's teeth to wear inappropriately...

Sounds to me like this is a "rear gear whine" situation waiting to happen. Am I nuts?

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Sounds to me like this is a "rear gear whine" situation waiting to happen. Am I nuts?

Nah, just throw some sawdust in it, JK. A new ring and pinion set isn't all that expensive. It does take some experience/research to set them up but...

 

[BigReb95]

I see what you guys are saying. Since its only on the ring gear, seeing as the pinion gear is good, would it be fine to just replace the ring gear?

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Since its only on the ring gear, seeing as the pinion gear is good, would it be fine to just replace the ring gear?

No, they develop a wear pattern with each other. You'll probably get a nice whine at certain speeds. It's best to start over.

 

[BigReb95]

I kind of figured. Really didn't want to end up doing a complete build, just a freshening up. How it is now would it hurt to run it? I'm good with changing the fluid every so often if it would help it.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

How it is now would it hurt to run it? I'm good with changing the fluid every so often if it would help it.

Go for it! The worse you can do is get metal filings in your bearings and seals but, you'd probably wanna replace them anyway when you do rebuild it. The usual disclaimers apply here, IMO, YMMV, etc.