Rear Tire locking up...

[Jeeper94YJ]

This just started happening with NO warning signs.

I was making a left turn when my rear passenger tire locked up and skided on the pavement and then made this loud clunk sound and started turning again.

Now everytime I turn a corner (seems worse turning left) it does the same thing unless I turn very slow.
Driving stright seems to be fine.
My Jeep (94 YJ) has been parked for the winter but its getting near the time for me to look into whats causing the issue before I put it back on the road for the summer.

Any thoughts on what could be the cause of this ?

 

[TJ_Jeep]

Possibly bad spider gear. Just my $.02

 

[SteelHeadz]

I agree with Chayse. if it made a clunk going straight, i would suspect that it to be on the U-Joints. Pull the Differential cover off and inspect your differential components. check the fluid that comes out and look under the ring gear for chunks of metal.

 

[Utah_jeepster]

You might have to lift the rear end up to spin the rear tires, if nothing visual pull your rear drive line and check for play in pinion gear, also look into the differential housing to check the spider gears.. Check for in and out movement with each tire to see in you have a 'C'-clip going bad on you.

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

Well I took the Cover off the diff, the spider gears look fine to me?
There were NO chunks of metal, just some fine metal shavings at the bottom (very fine).

Here is a couple of pictures of the inside:

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Did you rotate the diff and inspect every spider gear and side gear throughly? Symptoms sound like that's the problem.

 

[SteelHeadz]

Have you checked the bearings?

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

Transfering the gear oil to a container I found a small metal chunk that looks like it came from one of the teeth. I will be turing the diff soon and will tell you what I see.

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

I found broken teeth on the smaller of the Spider Gears.
Already have some others to swap, some nice Jeep addict up here gave me some for free
Now I juust have to put them in (never done it before)...

 

[SteelHeadz]

You can replace the spider gears without removing the differential from the axle. Remove the 5/16 bolt from the pin. pull the pin out. Partially pull the axle shafts out. then remove the spider gears. I might have left something out on this procedure, someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Just the c-clips, but he would have figured that out. After the centerpin is removed, axleshafts must slide in slightly to remove the c-clips, then the shafts will pull outward enough to allow removal of the spiders.

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

Just the c-clips, but he would have figured that out. After the centerpin is removed, axleshafts must slide in slightly to remove the c-clips, then the shafts will pull outward enough to allow removal of the spiders.

Yeah I knew this, the guy that gave me the gears walked me through it.
Going to give it a whirl in a couple of days.

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

What tool is used to take out the retainer bolt for the center pin ?

Like in this picture, it has jagged edges...

http://thexota.org/d/7947-1/Dsc03839.jpg

(Picture is not of mine, I am just using it for a reference).

 

[SteelHeadz]

12 point box end wrench. 5/16".

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

12 point box end wrench. 5/16".

Thanks for the quick response, I hate asking questions like that but I needed to know he-he...

 

[SteelHeadz]

No problem.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

I think mine was a 1/4" 12pt box wrench. Didn't have one on hand so had to go get a special d35 wrench

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

Yeah it turned out to be 1/4 no biggie.

Ok so far I have have...

1. Removed center pin
2. Removed tires and drums
3. Slid axle shafts in and removed C clips.
4. Slid axle shafts out.

So how do you get the spider gears out now ?
Not much room in the housing to work with.

 

[SteelHeadz]

Sorry about the size. It's going to be a tight squeeze. slowly rotate the pinion and the spider gears should start to move out of place to where you can pick it off as they are getting ready to fall out of the case. Be aware that there's going to be shims or spacers between the casing and the spider gears. Make note of which side the spacers came off from and try to re-install them accordingly.

 

[Jeeper94YJ]

Ok I rotated it but the spider gears never moved ?

At this point the axle shafts should be slid out correct ?