I noticed while hauling that when I got on the throttle after coasting that there was a clang sound coming from what I thought was my tranny (auto) But when I got under there with my wife shifting from drive to reverse that there seemed to be a lot of play in the drive shaft and diff in relation to the tires actually being driven. What would be the allowance of DS spin prior to the tires moving?? Also when I am turning sharp going either forward or reverse I feel a rubbing sound, almost like a front tire rub on the fender etc. but its not that, I fear that my diff has a problem, checked fluid looks like the proper amount.


BTW it is a posi rear end.

 

My dually with a powr-lok has a helluva clunk when put in gear. I took pictures of the differential cover off and people have told me I need to rebuild it. Mine I need more than just the $60 clutches though.

I want to say I read that 1/8th of a turn of the shaft is allowable for the LS rear end!!?? Sounds excessive to me, but I'm just about there.

 

I would first make absolutely sure that it is not a bad ujoint. Last spring I was fooled by the rear ujoint. It was taking grease and grease was coming out of all four seals and it felt tight. When I took the drive shaft off (to run my truck as a front wheel drive and see if it still made the noise) I discovered that some of the rollers had shattered in the ujoint and it was seized.

When I had the rear cover off I also discovered that the trak lok (or posi, whatever you want to call it) was completely wore out, no friction material at all left on the disks. Also was an easy fix although the new clutches were not cheap.

The new ujoint fixed the noise and it was nice having the trak lok working this winter.

JP.

Oh ya, I forgot to say that my drive shaft seems to move a lot when the wife switches from D to R. The rear end is pretty tight so I think that the shaft moving is mostly from the axle wrapping the springs up a little.

JP.

 

Like they said, check u-joints.

If they are good, it is either worn out diff clutches (limited slip) or a worn out center pin (open diff).

 

If its the clutch disks is that expensive?? I would more than likely do them my self (If I can). It doesn't look like the u joints, I didn't see any play in those.

 

I think that I paid about $200 locally, but the kits were much cheaper on line.

Something else I forgot about. If your trak lok is loose you should fix it because it does make the rear end loose. The spider gears get loose and start riding out on the ends of the teeth. Eventually this would ruin the gears, so you should take a look at the trak lok and fix it if the frictions are all wore out.

JP.

 

I am planning on taking the cover off today and looking at it, will it be obvious or something specific to look for??

 

With the cover off you will be able to see where the slack is. It'll be obvious.

On the limited slip rears, when the clutches wear out then the side gears can move away from the spider gears. If you run it like that for a while, the spider and side gears need to be replaced too. I think I paid $270 for clutches and the gears.

 

I got the cover off and there is little play from what I can see however I did see some play in the rear u-joint so I will replace this and a fliud change and i'll see. Thanks guys for the help!!

 

if you come across the clutches at a reasonable price let me know. I need to replace mine also.

 

Randy's ring and pinion has them for $66, and I saw them today on another site I can't remember for $56. Not too shabby.... I need to look at my gears again to see if they are bad....

 

I looked at my gears and thay all have square edges. There was VERY fine -paste like-metal shavings on the magnet on the cover.

 

Hopefully just clutches then. I had that fine "sludge" which I'm told is clutch material. I saw no shards or shiny stuff either. I need to pop the cover off and look again at the teeth harder.

 

I have been told that the fine paste is normal wear on the clutches

 

Can the entire LS assembly be removed for inspection and cleaned without too much trouble?? I would like to take a closer look at it before putting it all back together.