So here it goes. I have a 90 pickup four inch lift 33" tires, tru-trac diff and 4.88 gears. first off, i know i messed it up w/ a rookie mistake. anyways i was wheeling around and trying to climb this mound. Truck started bouncing and i pushed it too far and heard a clunk. i promptly lost power to the front end. my front drive shaft is spinning but no power to wheels. then as i was limping home still in the dirt my front passenger tire locked up. so i backed up and kept driving. the tire locked up a few times more and then once i got on the road i never had a problem. no noise from the front either.

My guess is that i broke something in the diff and a piece of metal then locked my gears and tires. i dont know a whole lot about the internals of the diff but i would think that both tires would lock up not just the passenger one. anyways any help would be appreciated as to what could've broke.

 

Best bet is to open up the diff cover.. that's what gonna tell you what went wrong.
Cleary something is buggered up, drain the fluid first to see if there is any teeth off the ring.. shavings of metal. ect..

 

How did your front end keep locking up, do you not have manual locking hubs?

 

I think me means locking up as in the wheel would not turn. Probably sheared some teeth off, and they were bouncing around, jamming up the ring and pinion as he was driving.

 

Well that's the first time I've ever heard of anyone complaining of a Truetrac
"locking up".

Maybe some of the bolts in the Truetrac back out. I hear that's pretty common.

 

yeah, but with manual hubs, he'd just have to turn them to "FREE" and the wheel would be disconnected from the diff

 

I would check the manual hubs if you have them like already mentioned and also the CV's. Those are usually breaking points before the front diff. Also check the passenger side axle stub at the diff. I had mine pop out half way before and become 3wd. Hey if it does turn out to be the diff, I'm selling a 4.88 lockright'd IFS diff

 

Well i have those ADD hubs so i can't unlock it. like annoyingrob said i think some teath might've broke off and got lodged. but two questions about that.
1) why would nonly one axle lock up if teeth or metal got lodged in the ring and pinion?
2) Wouldn't there be some noise or feeling the gap in teeth? i've broke a tooth off my rear pinion gear before and it was very noticable.

Beaniam- how much are you looking at to get for the diff, since its lockrite though i woulnd't be able to turn anymore cuz of the ADD hubs right?

 

well turns out the major front diff issue is a CV failure. got under there this morning and scooped all the snow out and found it to be broke. thanks for you help guys. i suppose i lost all four wheel drive because the trutrac's require a little bit of resistance to engage so, no cv = no resistance = no three wheel drive if i'm not getting that right someone correct me as this is the first issue i've had so i've never had to think it through before. thanks again buzz