I was hauling dirt in a dump trailer to make some extra cash for vacation, on my last load 200 ft from destination my truck locks up kicking trailer sideways. Get out and see fluid every where from rear of truck, look closer and see that the pumpkin on rearend has a tear in the pumpkin about 3/4"-1" and fluid leaking out. I am new to this stuff and not a mechanic in the slightest way. Any ideas on what i could be? and approx. how much? It's an 01' quad cab 6-speed 4x4 w/3:55 108,000 on odometer. Sorry so long any help is greatly appreciated.
Ricky

 

Sounds like it made hamburger in the rear diff. Going to have to pull the cover off to determine exactly what happened, but I predict a rebuild with new bearings at the min if the ring and pinion are OK, chances are they are not if it locked up like that.

 

My '01 did about the same thing about 10 months ago. I was pulling another truck from a pond and heard a grinding noise. Drove it toward home about 6 miles later she had enough, pulled into a buddies and gear oil was everywhere. I'm not a mechanic either but he is, after he checked it out I needed everything in the pumpkin. Ring, pinion, spiders cluthes the nine yards. He called Dodge just for a laugh, they wanted 2800.00. he called a place he deals with and was quoted 1700. I ended up calling Randy's Ring and Pinion, I bought from those guys! I paid 800.00 for eveything. They really know thier stuff. All said and done it ran me 1160. Hope this helps.