I just had some fun. (not really) I was driving down the road and bang, bunch of noise and vibration and the truck wouldnt move. Put it in park and it started rolling backwards. (I was on a hill). I recently had driveshaft troubles, so I was thinking that. Parking brake on and looked under and everything looked fine. Tryied again, same thing. Locked the front wheels and shifted to 4wheel, drove home.

I figured the splines were gone in the rear driveshaft. Got home, took the shaft off and it was fine. Took the back cover off and the ring gear was off the carrier! Four bolts laying in the bottom, the rest sheared off. The ring gear cant really go any where, just spin without turning the carrier. I installed new bolts and all is well.

I put the gears in this truck about a six years ago. I guess they worked loose. I think they should have safety wire on those bolts. Now I'm thinking about them all the time.

On a side note, I had to tighten the pinion nut. I recently told someone on here to hold the yoke with a pipe wrench and torque the nut. I forgot my current Bronco doesnt have a yoke. I had to install two bolts in the plate and put a bar across. I'm going to have to make something to hold this.

 

did you use red lock tight on those bolts when you installed the ring gear?