I'm following this on Facebook. Chick I know took her 2012 Sahara wheeling in Disney, Ok

4" Rancho LA lift, 35s, 4.88 w front locker.
Had a Tom Woods front driveshaft and new yoke installed 2 days before leaving.

Here's what happened....

Was climbing a small rock face, didnt know that it was in 2wd, rear carrier broke in 4 pieces.

Reason it was in 2wd..... CLAIMS THE FRONT PINION NUT CAME OFF, separating front driveshaft and yoke.

So I wanna know ... Does this make sense?
If the nut came off the pinion, could the front DS really separate. I looked at my set (factory) and can't put this together how it's possible.

And Yes, she is heavy on the throttle when wheeling

She is trying to blame a friend that installed her DS (for free) that the nut came loose.

I still dont get how the front DS can come completely separated.

And if it did... would it kick off the 4wd light? seems to me the front driveshaft would be slapping around

Just want to know if its legit or full of BS

 

So did the rear diff blow or just lose the drive shaft

Sent from my NSA listening device

 

How would the pinion nut come completely off with the front ds u-joint essentially next to the nut? If the ds did fall off then yeah- it would slap around but the light wouldn't turn off. As far as I know, the light is controlled by a grounded sensor when the lever is in the right spot regardless of what's actually happening on either end of the case.

If the nut did come off of the pinion then the pinion should have slid down into the ring gear and made nasty noises but I don't see where it could have moved too far down to where it could have dropped the ds.



-my 2 cents-

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Diff blew on rear

 

 

It'd be difficult for the pinion nut to come off and cause the driveshaft to drop from the differential, but possible. You'd know almost immediately if you're in 4-anything because the driveshaft would be slapping around. Aftermarket driveshafts don't have the boot that the stock ones do and yes, they separate. My Coast front separated while I was fighting with it to get it out of the box. Thank goodness they have stickers on them to line it back up.

The 4-wheel light won't do anything because the transfer case is still engaged, regardless if there is a driveshaft connected to it or not.

There would be a lot of damage up front if the differential half of the drive shaft was loose. Like busted oil pan or transfer case damage. It'd act as a pole vault on any obstacle, and not in a good way.

If it dropped from the transfer case then it'd just drag behind the differential, but you'd hear a distinct noise as you went over, well, anything.

Either way, it sucks that the rear differential is toast. Those are nasty pictures.

 

Here's another thing that makes this sound like BS...

They drove the Jeep a little ways to meet a someone to trailer them back. They drove it in FWD.

So if the yoke and nut came loose and all.... Amazing how it was able to drive w the front.
Considering they don't travel w tools or the know how.

Only reason I'm curious about this is cause she is blaming a very nice friend over what happened, (with the front) instead of possible her wheeling skills.

Thanks guys

 

Yeah she's full of it. Especially if she didnt reinstall yoke and shaft assembly and drive it back to camp.

 

She has no pictures of the shaft/area?

She was probably bouncing and exploded the diff

 

Just so ya got something to reference what happens when the front pinion nut comes off.. Happened to me about 250 miles from home heading back from Gulf Shores a couple of weeks ago.. Just toolin' down the highway digging on the radio and all of a sudden noises start coming from under the Jeep.. Bad noises.. Noises I've heard before when a pinion bearing gives up the ghost.. Pulled over on a side road and stopped.. Rolled the front tire forward to get a better idea of what was going in and it'd roll forward about a foot and then lock up.. Forward about a foot and lock up.. Jeep would now no longer move under it's own power without REALLY BAD things happening.

3:30 on a Thursday afternoon in the middle of nowhere MS.. Found a small lube and tire joint a few blocks away and they got a wrecker to come lift the front end and drag it in.. To late in the day to look at it, so they helped us find a motel a few blocks away and said they'd look at it in the AM.. Told them I didn't need it fixed, I just needed to get the axles out so I could drive it home and fix it.. At this point, gears and bearings aren't really a big deal to me, if I've got the right tools and some time.. Only thing I was lacking to get the shafts out myself was a axle nut socket (30 something mm) and a 13mm 12 point to get the unit bearings out..

I met them at the shop at 7am the next morning, got it on the lift and they diagnosed a bad pinion bearing.. Try to turn the front tire and the driveshaft would jump up about 1/2 an inch due to binding.. An hour later we had the front axles out, everything back together and we're rolling home.

Got home and tore things apart and found out it was the pinion nut had backed off, letting the pinion gear w/ bearings slip forward out of the races and start banging on the carrier.. Everything looked pretty much undamaged other than some cosmetic stuff on the carrier.. LOTS of metal sludge in the oil making a metal paste of sorts.. Decided to pull everything completely apart to clean it up and replace the bearings.. Looked to be some minor heat damage, so why chance it if you're that deep in anyway.. $130 master overhaul kit thanks to Northridge there and it went back together today actually.. Adjusted the carrier shims .005 to get a slightly better backlash, but that was it other than new bearings, pinion seal and fresh oil..

Anyway.. This is what happens when the pinion nut backs off.. Drive shaft and yoke never came all the way off the pinion gear.. Those gouges happened in about 3/4 to 1 mile at 70mph...



No damage at all to the pinion gear..



The metal grit and sludge you can see on the surface of the ring gear is why I wanted to go on and replace the bearings.. They were bathed in that same sludge..