I got pretty Lucky with most everything I had to get fixed on my truck back in October thanks to this website and it was looking like I was about to cruise through into spring without any problems and then Today..BANG,BANG,BANG,BANG,BANG...BANG.
The rear end is just short of detonation.. - I heard, and felt something in the rear end a couple of times this week, and then today I was about ten miles from the house when it went off, and was prayin to make it back home to at least my street, but I got it home just in time for some seriously loud and constant Bangs.- Its rolling, But I dont think for too long. On left, or right turns it's seems to be setting off the Banging, -and almost seems that its kinda locking-up on each Bang..What would make this happen??? anyone lend a thought?
'88 F150 4x4 4:10 L.S.rear

 

Sounds like you destroyed 1 or more spider gears. I have found the ears from the LS clutch disks in the bottom of the diff housing before, if one of these got tangled up in the spider gears it could do some damage.

 

I'm wondering if It would be cheaper to just rip the whole housing out and replace it with another,- I had to replace the locker mechanism and an axel on this 3 yrs ago..

 

maybe.

sounds like 20 year old parts just got tired of the merry-go-round.

 

Open her up and see what gives, depending what's damaged you may have to replace the whole carrier.

 

Yea,... I guess I'm gonna have to pop off that cover...
Here we go..
Thanks for the help.

 

I had the same problem with my truck. it ended up being just the ring and pinion. I reused the differential with no problem

 

Get a box and put it under the chunk for when you pop the cover off mine grenaded and when I pulled the cover off parts came out from shavings to nickel size. Absolutly nothing left of my rear end 310000 miles on it though so this is expected.

 

I had a long 2wd '94 with a l/s. I blew the spiders once and rebuilt the worn l/s at the same time. I drove it really hard. The right rear brake exploded on me one day. Gutted that brake assembly out so I could just drive it for a couple more weeks. Sold it to a friend, he replaced the brakes with good used ones. Then, he hit a pot hole one day and after he went down the road, the rear axle locked up and completely exploded, ripping the pig in half.

All I wanted to say was I've never had much luck with 8.8 axles holding up to my driving. And if you fix it, check the case over for cracks really well as I never did and that axle went flying apart when all seemed well.

 

I kinda had the same problem with my truck, 92 F-150 4X4. It started making some noises every once in a while, Started as a squeek then went away. Few weeks later it came back. I checked everything...or so I thought and couldn't find anything wrong. Then one day it started banging like you mentioned and and kinda lugging the truck down. Anyway it turned out to be the rear U-joint. All the needle bearings were as dry as dust and just fell out like powder. After I replaced them (changed both) it was like a new truck. It's worth a look, eaiser than a gear change. Good Luck

Kevin

 

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. (see here)
Ford part number for the spider gears is 4L3Z-4215-GA this is the spider gears only. I picked up the clutches and steels for the LS from a local parts wholesaler (HI Mtn 4X4). Part # F8.8CPK. The gears were 98 and change, the clutch set was another 60 bucks. I couldn't find anyone that had them both as a set. In my case, it sounded like the rear end had just about fallen out. It actually sounded worse than it was.
Be sure to pick up some friction modifier for when you refil the rear, and make sure you get all the little nooks and crannies when you clean it out. took me about 2 1/2 hours to do the whole job, but I also did some disassembly that I didn't need to do. It doesn't hurt to do the axel seals while you have them out. They're cheap and probably will need it anyways.
Have fun.

 

Thats a good point, I'm going to look at this now as well
Thanks.