Differential carnage! Blew the snots out of my rear diff. I had noticed it had been whining, and I don't think the oil was ever changed in the 160k miles. Spun a wheel on dirt, it caught the pavement and hopped, then PING! The shattered pieces got stuck in the ring gear, I had to push the car backwards to free it. I nursed it home 2 miles before it completely stipped, Real nasty noises, and it locked twice. Had to be towed the last 1/2 mile.

 

Took it out, took it apart, shredded the teeth off of 3 of the spider gears, only 1 tooth off of the 4th. Dented the pinion up good, and snapped the Spider gear cross shaft into 3 pieces. The carrier cracked where the cross shaft used to go through.

 

The oil was all sparkly from metal shavings, and the magnetic plug had a forest growing off of it.

 

 

Whoops. glad I have a spare.

i am assuming you are running in rwd?

also

I'm running in NWD right now!

 

But yes, it was RWD before it blew.

Put my spare diff in, had to use the stubs from the blown diff, I couldn't for the life of me get the stubs to come out of the axel cups on the spare diff.

 

No more burnouts on big tires with old rear shocks.

 

I can't get the axels on or off without dropping the diff. I thought that you could get enough slack by jacking the body up till a wheel was off the ground?

i have always had to drop the diff to do it, now about those pics of the blown diff:brow:

1 question..how were you running it in rwd? (what did you pull the front half-shafts?)

 

remind me to never let you drive my legacy

You don't have to drop the diff on stock ride hieght loyals. Just take out the lower shock mount bolt. I had to really push down on the drivers side rear wheel (with my leg) to get the axle to slide off the splines but with a friend it is a piece of cake. Beats the heck out of dropping the diff. For some reason the drivers side is always the harder one. Good luck