Broke my diff.

yakuza wrote:

Lambert wrote: That's impressive. Diffs are usually quite reliable even with quite big tyres. Was there any evidence of prior wear in the pinion bearings or were you working it quite hard when it failed?

At the time I had my Suzuki trailer with approx 3-400kg total weight and took off from home in first gear.. Wet partly icy paved road.
I am very pleased with the power in it now and I must say I do like to floor it as well.. So it has probably been strained a bit.
And I did break my gearbox too last year.

So you were being a heavy footed vandal then? :laugh:

Guilty to most of the above..
Still I do not see why the diff broke now. There was no sound in it, there was very little debris in the oil except for the obvious three large teeth. The oil was not particularly sparkly and shiny from metal particles with only very small traces of shavings.
No obvious reason as to why it broke.
I haven't been smoking the tires either, if I thought it was possible i might done it though.

Anyways I got an axle from a 2012 car on the way. the complete axle will cost me approx 500£ freight and all. (this is Norway)
On the up side I will put an ARB in there now and get an extra pair of half shafts.

My 2000 rear diff did the same with the pinion gear but not the whole tooth, so it drove ok still, just with noises every now and then.

Kirkynut

Got the new diff on the car now with the ARB too, took longer than I thought it would..

Now I can hear what a properly set up diff should sound like, and comparing the new one with the old, it seems the old one made a noise on take off, and had less bearing pteload, and too much backlash.. The noise I thought was the transfer case gearing as that was when I first noticed it, but now it is gone.

kirkynut wrote: My 2000 rear diff did the same with the pinion gear but not the whole tooth, so it drove ok still, just with noises every now and then.

Kirkynut

My noise was hard to describe, mostly first gear take off, more if going up hill or pulling the trailer.
Clearly at peak torque.

Maybe its just the way the light is hitting the teeth but the tooth on the far right looks like the material has pitting around the edge of the fracture.