I pulled both axles out today to check my wheel bearings. The bearings were fine. I pulled the plug out of the rear end to check the fluid and found this.

It's a crappy cell phone pict, but it looked like a long, thin spring that got chewed up. I'm hoping it is the spring on the inside of one of the pinion seals (2 total) that has been replaced since I have had the truck. The first one didn't seal for some reason. Is there any other small springs in the rear? I cleaned the metal off and went for a short drive and found no more metal. Any ideas or positive encouragement? The rear end doesn't pop or whine or anything.

 

How big are the pieces? If it's just tiny little metal shavings, that's not as bad as chewed up spring pieces. Still a good idea to clean that off and keep an eye on it.

How long has it been since you last changed the diff fluid? Might be worth popping the cover off and taking a look at things.

 

^^^ What Chris said...
Kinda looks like needle bearrings but I do not know where they would come from

 

I'm gonna change the fluid this weekend. Really looked like tiny springs. Anywhere that they could comefrom besides from around the pinion seal? The pieces are small.

 

Took that pict and some of the metal to the dealer who put the pinion seal in today. They acted like it wasn't a big deal and said that is what the magnet was for.

 

I would have left them with a good cussin' and told them that I was going to post this and the picture on the internet with their dealership name in bold print...

 

Well, I pulled the cover today and nothing. Nothing in the sump, no wear marks on the ring and pinion. Spider gears looked good to. Found 2 chips stuck on the cover and that''s it. So where did it come from???? I did find out why Ford replaced the rear end under warrenty. The cover had wear marks where something had gotten into it in the past

 

Maybe it was just left over crud from before? Possibily it wasn't cleaned out properly?

 

Don't know, it does spin the tires much easier now. I finally got it to fishtail when I pulled out. Yea it was raining.

 

It does look "normal" to me. We pull plugs on semis, tractors, high and low rpm gear boxes and they all have that. It's just small flakes of steel mixing with gear lube gunk(assuming that's not actual shards of steel. Could you rub it between your fingers with out feeling any large chunks?) Needle bearings or springs would have left much larger chunks.

 

Where were no big pieces. And it didn't look like hardened steel. A couple of pieces looked like pig tails.