Wow, Yosemite. That was some post! I think that sounds like the beginnings of a plan.
It looks like the nut that holds the yoke onto the pinion came off over time. I agree that if you don’t know what you are doing, this needs to go to a shop and not repaired based on advice from a forum. Just be glad it didn’t come loose at the FRONT! I have seen some trucks have that happen and they are basically destroyed. Bent frames and all like they have been in a bad wreck.
I guess this could happen with anything but I have never been impressed with the quality control on Chrysler products. This shouldn’t have come loose and may not have been tightened to spec.
I don’t know the torque spec on that nut but it is probably going to be around 200 ft-lbs or more.
Would it be worth pulling the differential cover to take a look at the gears and check for any debris? Probably time for a fluid change anyway?
It wasn’t the driveshaft that pulled out of the differential, itwas the pinion yoke that the driveshaft bolts to. That is why we couldn’t understand what you were talking about.
In this case, a pic is worth more than a thousand words. I have never seen or heard of this happening. Did anyone ever work on your differential ?
I like Yosemite’s plan but would add one more thing, the pinion shaft seal. It should be easy to replace and doesn’t cost much, but I’d be worried that the seal got torn up when the pinion shaft came out and unless it is replaced, the differential wont hold any gear lube in it.
Good point @Keith; & @Bing but I figured he would be taking it in to have that nut torqued and any leaking from the seal or noise from the differential could be addressed then.
I was out of breath just writing what I did.
If he does this himself, I’d advise pulling the shaft out…it’s almost all the way out now… and doing the work on a bench so he can keep those bearing caps from falling off.
Yosemite
I think the main issue here was the pinion to yoke nut came off! Either it wasn’t torqued correctly from the start (I get to blame Chrysler in this case) or someone working on it didn’t put it back together correctly.
I started hearing pops from the front end of a car I bought used when turning or hitting bumps and decided to investigate yesterday. The bolts holding the front control arm on to the car were maybe finger tight at best. Someone worked on the car in the past didn’t put it together correctly. I will be checking out the other side before driving it again.
Somebody suggested that I try spinning the wheels. I put a jack under the differential. If I spin one wheel forward, the other spins backward. That is normal. If I jack up one wheel and leave the other one the ground, I can’t turn the wheel much at all. I believe that is abnormal and I probably have internal problems. I also noticed when the cop was pushing me off the highway that the truck was handling kind of funny. And it didn’t roll off the tow truck quite the way I expected. I didn’t think much of it at the time. But, yeah, I think something is seriously wrong.
Or maybe it’s normal for things to get out of alignment and lock up when that yoke is off?
Again, can’t you pull the cover on the differential and take a look to see if there is debris in there? You’re going to want to change the fluid anyway so why not just take a look?
It could be the needle bearings disintegrated in the ujount allowing enough slack for the differential shaft to fall out. my wag.
Bing, sometimes I can be a little dense. That should have been the first thing I did a week ago. I was just a little chicken. I didn’t know if all the gears would fall out or what would happen if I took that cover off. I’m surprised more people didn’t chime in with that. It took me 5 minutes!
Check the junk yards for a complete rear end. That one is toast.
Uh oh. Time for a used rear end.
By the way, this was a long time coming, didn’t happen in the last 5 minutes of driving.
Ouch. That’s some pretty nasty looking teeth on the ring gear; referring to the ones still attached of course.
I don’t know enough about it to judge but if there are pieces in the bottom and the guys say its toast, time for a new (used) one. At least now you know.
I don’t know how to change a rear end, so I have to pay labor and towing on that. Same truck with similar mileage not far from me is selling for $1500. Mine is probably worth $300 as scrap… I dunno. Is it worth it?
If your truck is even halfway straight and runs decent then i’d say fix it. You might check with some salvage yards in your area about installation of a used rear axle.
Not all yards do this but some of the larger ones will do things like this for a nominal fee which is much cheaper than a regular garage and guarantee the rear axle to be good to boot.
It doesn’t hurt to check around a bit and the axles are not that difficult to change; assuming massive rust is not an issue of course.
Swapping out the rear end should not be that hard. Buy a Hayes or Chilton manual…specific to your vehicle and it should not be that difficult. Jack stands and a good floor jack will make the job pretty easy if you find a friend to help.
Yosemite
If you have any mechanical ability, it’s not that tough a job. If not, I like @ok4450’s idea of seeing if a local salvage yard can swap in on the cheap. Also ask around at some low end used car lots. Those guys tend to know where to get things done cheaply.
Or see if your local dealer has a mechanic who can do it at their facility as a side job. NOOOOO, not a good idea.