Lost my rear-end towing my tractors

I lost the rear ring gear in my truck coming home from a show yesterday. Looks like it sheared two of the gear teeth completely off in two different spots on the ring gear and sent them through the cover. Anyone got any ideas on the best way to fix this and maybe upgrade so it don’t happen again. I would love to upgrade to a limited slip or posi unit while I’m at it but money is real tight right now. I think it is a Ford 10.5” diff, looks like I can get a ring and pinion set for $255 and a installation kit for another $290 so that would be $550 just for parts.
Anyone got any better ideas or options I could consider?



Here is a pic of the carnage;

What about a low milage axle assembly from a salvage yard? Most accidents are front-end damage, you may find a good rear axle.
P.S. Not many guys know how to properly set-up a ring gear and pinion, preloads, and pull wear pattern, coast wear pattern, etc. it MUST be done right, or you'll do it over. It's not a matter of just changing out parts.

Check with a salvage yard is the only thing that I can suggest.

www.car-part.com

Is that truck a lifted 1/2 Ton?

Gordo

just get one complete from the salvage yard. like some one said the preload must be set right and now days that is a lost art. the parts changers at most dealers have no idea how to do it. did lost of them in the 70s but a lot of the new rear ends don't have a lot of adjustment in them

I usually lose my rear end in the buying and selling of 'em, towing seems to be less of a problem.

Good advice to just get a whole unit from a salvage yard. Just make sure you get the right ratio to match your current one especially if it's 4 wheel drive. And buy NEW U-bolts!

(quoted from post at 15:06:56 07/19/09) Is that truck a lifted 1/2 Ton?

Gordo

Click to expand...

Nope, she is a 3/4 ton Powerstroke, factory rear height and modified to put down about twice the factory HP and TQ, see pic below for list of mods;

That’s why I’m worried about getting a junkyard rear, I’m worried that it might break just like this one did. I was hoping to find out about some sort of bigger/better kit I could put in it. I found out I can get a set of Yukon gears for $255 and a master installation kit for $290 so that’s about $550 just for parts and I still will not have limited slip or posi, that will apparently add about another $600 to the cost. I really don’t got the extra cash right now to do this “right”. I checked with car-parts.com earlier today and it looks like a used complete rear would be around $750.

I will be doing whatever repair myself because I can’t make myself let anyone else with a wrench near my baby, partially I don’t trust dealerships and partly I want to know what’s going on first hand. I admit I know little about diffs but I do know they have to be setup right and gear mesh checked, surely if I can rebuild the engine I can figure out the rear-end with a little help from folks like yall on the net and my service manual.

YEp i can as what happened is that your crush spacer did what they say and not happen as it crushed more and things started getting looose and the stator ring came off and went thru the gears BTDT . On mine when i put it back together again i did not use the crush spacers to set preload i made up solid spacers out of steel and made them to size of a new collapsed spacer to just a shade bigger and i also had some shims to fine tune the rolling preload and after 287000 miles i never had a problem with it

If you don't know how to set up a diff, you will be money ahead to get a complete unit from a salvage yard. You can destroy $1000 worth of rear diff parts if they don't get set up correctly. The bearing pre load and pinion depth need to be right on. Very little room for error. Too loose and it will be noisy. Under heavy load you can have the same thing happen again. Bearings too tight, not enough gear backlash, and it will self destruct in a matter of a few minutes.
LKQ salvage yards offer rebuilt rear axles for GM trucks, so they likely have one for yours.
The next thing is stop using that tuner when you're hauling. The 7.3 may be able to handle it, but the rest of the drivetrain isn't up to twice the original power.

I really have never had any problems with any 7.3 powerstroke rear ends. One of my trucks has about 247,000 miles and still tugging at the gooseneck. The other is an early 99 and its got around 302,000 miles. I wouldn't say they were trouble free. Replaced a few clutches and slaves, rebuilt a tranny, a few pumps and injectors, so on, so forth.

I do not, however, have ANY performance chip or power boosting equipment. I have enough horsepower with a straight 5 inch exhaust. Pumps are stock setting. Perhaps this is why my drivetrains are still in great shape.

I don't put the pedal to the medal with these trucks, I tend to torque them. Always have gotten great mileage by just being an easy driver.

I'd go with the guys that are saying just find a rear out of a salvage truck. The 10.5 is a fairly strong axle and should stand up to alot. Might find one with a posi already in it.

my 02 DRW f350 has a dana 80 in it. That should be stronger than the ford 10.5 of you can find one.

You've got half again or more hp and torque going into your drivetrain than it was made to take and you're wondering what to do when it blows up on you.

First suggestion would be to dial the motor back. Second would be to get your foot out of it. All that in support of the advice others have given about the scarcity of people who know how to set up a rear-end any more.

It may be a bit of a comedown for you to have a salvage rear-end in a pickup with so many gauges but that's your best bet.

Time to dump the ego. It's more than your truck can handle.

I think you should bite the bullet and rebuild it. While you're at it, install a posi unit. That way you know what you have. You might find a good rear end in a salvage yard, but you never know for sure.

You can do the work yourself if you have the proper tools. You'll need, at the minimum, a dial indicator to set the backlash and an inch-pound torque wrench to set the pinion preload. And a good manual. If you set up your rear end wrong, though, you will have a very expensive and noisy mistake.

I don't know where you priced your rear end parts, but I got mine from Drive Train Specialists, a local business that also has an online store. I found them to be very knowledgeable and helpful. They can give you some good advice as to which ring and pinion set and posi unit to use.
Drive Train Specialists

Gears can break immediately from loads that exceed the strength of the metal, the stress limit. But lesser loads do cause metal fatigue which will eventually result in breakage. I think work fatigue was the cause in this case.
Metal fatigue

If you can find a good truck axle/gear repair shop you should be able to trust them in doing a good job. You could ask folks who know, which is stronger, your 10.5 Ford or a Dana 80.

I would be scared of a junkyard axle, for already mentioned reasons. Also, I was told by my gear shop that the LH carrier bearing commonly goes out (race spins on the carrier and wrecks the carrier)(ring gear pushes to the left on acceleration) on all pick-up axles from any amount of towing. You have to get up to 2 ton trucks I guess to find bearing races that have tabs to keep them from spinning.

If you think the parts are expensive, wait until you get a labor estimate. (lots of labor involved in setting up gears) But, I would pay a good shop if I didn't know how.

Also, Tractor Vet mentioned the crush spacer. I have heard drag racers replacing the crush spacer with a solid spacer because their acceleration forces will crush it. Your pinion bearings could have gone also, allowing the pinion to flop around. So, since you have all that power, you could have crushed the crush spacer. You could visit with someone knowledgeable about using a solid spacer.

I feel your pain, I have had my 9" Ford rebuilt twice in the last 40K miles (pinion bearings first, then carrier bearing) and I have just been tugging around a JD A or a Farmall M or a car. (stock motor: 351M boat anchor)

I went ahead and bought a $500 complete rear-end and I just got home with it. I opened the cover at the Junkyard and the gears looked okay and I saw a set of clutch packs too! Who-ho, no more one-legger. So as soon as I get time I plan to take the old one out and start swapping parts around and get the new one ready to go in.

When I get the old one out I will inspect it closely but it seems like everything is tight and it just sheared off some of the teeth, the rest of the teeth look fine.

The original one lasted 228,000 but it was just in the last 30,000 or so that I finally got all the power I wanted and I also started tractor showing which means towing 15,000# on a regular basis. I bet what got the gears was all of the trouble I had getting my custom chip to cooperate with the tranny. I had to have it ruburned about 6 times. During that time she was shifting so hard it felt like a Mack truck slamming into the back of the truck when it shifted. She is better now but still slams gears occasionally in some of the tunes.

Thanks to all for the advice.