lol well my goal here is to not pay for anything.

Are you going to elaborate on the bolt specs you requested?

 

Keep this thread updated as to what the outcome is and what was to blame...interesting thread for sure.

Props to you Zuk for the offer.

Good luck getting it all fixed to your satisfaction J!

 

Yes, I appreciate it. lol sorry forgot to mention it.
and thanks Brian!

 

The offer stays open and the RA 10.9 bolt is a very high quality bolt. I have some of those. Most of the bolts that come with master install kits are....softer and have a smooth head(no marks or writing). That ring gear doesn't say "Sportsman series" on it does it? Just checking.

 

Zuk is the man, he is detting 2 diffs for me right now. I didn't know it put the kid I got the elocker from was missing a few peices. Zuk took care of it for me. Take him up on his offer you wont be dissapointed.

 

I just got back from speaking with Andy. I watched him take it apart and we looked around the locker and the gears for about 30 minutes. We found loctite residue in the bolt holes.

His argument is based on us finding loctite in the bolt holes and he said that due to my axle wrap and shock something (impact maybe) caused the failure. He also said something about the detroit maybe being at fault. I will have some pictures here in a couple of minutes.

*EDIT* - LOL almost forgot the most important thing. He said he will set it up for free and offered to get me the parts at cost. I still am debating on what to do.

 

Sorry to hear that. I really dont think that is the cause at all. the pinion would go before the bolts backed out. There is no reason for them to back out unless he didn't clean the holes and the oil never let the locktite work. Was there evidence of the locktite in all the holes? Even "if"the locker failed and locked up the ring gear bolts would not be the first to go.

Sorry about that man. hope you get it all worked out. Hopefully Andy will do what is right. I am now beginning to think he isnt going to do that.

 

metal fragments on the ring gear


bearings on not so ruined side. metal is still warped though (bottom)


warped seal/cover (whatever it is) on one side of locker


ruined holes on one side of locker

 

rust on pinion


those 4 rectangular holes have been hit by something. edges are no longer smooth and have fragments of metal hanging in them. (the fragments are still attached so something must have hit it)


outer ring of locker. (notice the rectangular hole on the right that jagged piece is attached.)


other portion of outer ring of locker. (same side of cover) notice that rectangular hole.



:cry: :cry:

 

Jason---after looking at all those pics....It looks like the locker is re-usable. I see 8 GOOD holes....check the ring mounting surface for run-out and you are good to go. All those other scrape marks are cosmetic.
Oh ya, needs new bearings(Cages shot to hell). The pinion appears to have some nasty scuffing....might replace those. Take a pic of the identifying marks on the ring gear. thanks ZUK

 

I dont trust 8 out of 15 holes. I can get the numbers or whatever off the ring gear?

 

If it was low on fluid, the ring and pinion gears would have a very nice blue hue to them from overheating.

What brand gears? Richmond does NOT use metric threads... They are close, but they are not metric, so using the factory bolts = bad juju.

Bottom line, no keepers = installer error.

 

They are Yukon gears.

Zuk - there is TV6488 and then about an inch or two to the right 069.

rockota - Richmond = ?

 

Low fluid would have taken the pinion bearing out which would have resulted in a lot of gear whine when driving.

This is the second time I have seen this failure occur. Granted this is 2X over say a 5 year period but I'm yet to see any hardware back out that has had the retaining clips installed. If shops are going to trust Loctite, they need to take responsibility when it does not work.

I would settle for nothing less than have that diff returned to you in the condition it was in when you first had the work done.

Frank

 

OK......there's 15 holes total.......10 for the ring gear and 5 flathead phillips to hold the 2 case halves together. The 5 phillips are a don't care application for strength. All they do is keep the guts together until the real 10 ring gear bolts are clamping it.
It looks like 1 ring gear bolt hole is toast.....one more is a little chingered but the rest are ok. Grade 10.9 bolts can easily handle the loads. They are 11mmx1.0mm pitch.....impossible to get them at a hardware store. They come in the GENUINE master install kits I believe. who would ever believe Genuine would have a nice master kit

The TV6488...... I have delt with before. I have had good luck with them....but I wouldn't put it past Richmond to be second sourcing and supplying them that way. Does anyone remember the small batch of 488 Sportsman Richmond gears that had shallow/no threads in the ring gear?

 

found the old post....
http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showfl...ev=#Post700886

 

Ah. Thanks for the info man. You've done some research. He did offer to do the labor for free. I did have some rebuttles based on the stuff you guys told me on this thread which I would have drowned without. I greatly appreciate it. For some reason this guy I went to for advice about it told me that he didn't expect him to replace the gears and for some reason I'm not so pissed off about it anymore. I dont know what happened.


also, the new detroit came today! =D

 

The dents on the side gear bearing cages are from using the wrong tool to tighten the side gears. I did this once too. I had to grind down the pegs on my homemade side gear adjuster so they couldn't touch the bearing cages.

 

Honestly, I don't know the answer. I found out when I put new gears in the Rockota truck - we had a bad pinion bearing, so I rebuilt everything. The richmonds that were in it had a few stripped bolt holes when we took it apart. The installer told me they are not metric threads and to never use the stock bolts with Richmonds. I replaced front and rear with Yukons. I'll see if I can dig up some more info.

 

Tell him to use the keepers and torque to to the proper spec so this doesn't happen again.