My front differential blew up. My wife and I had just begun a three-week trip when the ring and pinion made some shrapnel.





Sadly, as soon as we got it home, I popped the cover off and my heart sank -- there was no oil! I had suddenly remembered I went to change the oil in both diffs before the trip and completely missed putting new oil in the front. Be careful as you age!

Furthermore, given it was on the freeway when it happened, the inner shafts had twisted, too.



New gears and chromoly shafts showed up but the old pinion would not come out. The bearing and race were seized and the race was even spinning inside the housing. We tried just about everything to get it out -- hammer, sledge, air hammer, heat, 20-ton press, drills.





Even if we got it all out, the housing was probably shot given the race was freely spinning and marring the housing. Unfortunately, this means a new housing to build. Thankfully, a donor was easily found.



This might be a good time to upgrade to a TJ Dana44, but after some searching and finding nothing but expensive ones, I decided to stick with the Dana30 as I won't really benefit from the bigger ring and pinion since I'm only on 32s.

Remember folks, oil is important...

 

Wow! Glad no one was hurt. I just replaced my diff oil last week, now I might go back to double check that I actually put some in!

 

I can only imagine the jolt it took to twist the axle splines like that... I've had larger differentials grenade and skid me off the road...Quite the rush no matter what the situation... By now you're well versed on what you need to do with the new housing...Good luck on the new axle upgrades...So what oil are you using in this one ??? ... Sorry, had to do it...