Heya guys,

Last week I was changing my oil, and was doing my usual check of all the other fluids. I was surprised to see something new on my rear diff. plug:

Metal Chunks!






As you can see, they're not that big, but I figured it best to pop the cover and check everything out; it was due for a rear diff. fluid change anyways.

Oh some background info too...back in early '07 I had the cross pin come loose and cause a bit of damage to the carrier and spider gears, then a few months later back in the shop due to one of the spiders seizing, but everything was fixed under shop warranty and has been working fine since then.

Before any of the initial damage or repairs, I had the regular Ford Trac-Loc limited slip, and it worked pretty well for my likings. After the first repair, it was back to an open differential, then after the second repair, the shop told me they put in a Eaton Posi-Traction unit (shop suspects excessive tire spin cause spider to seize). The rear end was working like a dream, nice solid traction to both wheels; almost seemed like I had a locker instead of a LS!

I pop the cover off and here's what I find:




As you can see, everything looks pretty hunky-dory, but two things stood out and raised questions in my head (hence, this post!)

Q1. Do you see a Eaton LS unit ANYWHERE in there?? I obviously have some sort traction unit, but I don't see no steenkin' Eaton! I'm so used to seeing LS's and lockers that completely fill the carrier and you can't see the spiders. On the other hand...I don't recall what a regular Ford Trac-Loc unit looks like; is that what I have and the shop just told me they put in an Eaton unit?

Q2. On the second picture, if you put your mouse cursor to the right of the two small notches on the differential housing, then your cursor should be hovering over the carrier shims, correct? When I pulled off the cover, two of these shims were out away from the center. I pushed them back into place, and spun the tires to see if they'd come loose again, but they didn't. Should them being out of the shim stack be something I should be worried about?

I refilled the diff with Royal Purple 75w140 full synthetic (didn't want to drive all the way across town for to the only store that had 75w140 Mobil 1). Everything seems fine after a trip around town, I still haven't had a chance to test the LS, but the shims being out of place has me worried!

Any help guys?

 

My experience is limited to the swap out of an 8". Your metal chunks reminded me of the Ford dealer mechanic coming up with some chunks like you show when I took it in for the 3rd repair after I failed to clean out the entire housing, axle tubes and and all. Your bearings howling?

As for the Eaton LS, well, this here looks like a pic:

Eaton Posi from Reider Racing

Your pics look like an open diff.

Maybe some of that crud was locking the spiders....