If I were a betting man...

[ravingmadman]

Hey all. Just getting home, 100 feet from the driveway, when bang, crunch, crunch, crunch, screech. Rear end spider gears just ate themselves. I just drained/filled the diff today, and saw the carnage in the poor thing, but thought I had at least a week (and another paycheck) to get a new (used) rear end together. The rear end decided to turn again after abruptly stopping, so I got it off the road, and then got it home using the brand new front differential in 4wd!!! Yay!!!!

I actually had the differential open today for it's first time, and saw how bad it was. The ring gear looks great, so I'm assuming the pinion gear is good too. No major wear, surprisingly.

Can I just unbolt the differential from the carrier, unbolt the ring gear, and replace the gov-lock unit with a real posi, without having to redo the backspacing?

Redoing the backspacing gives me the creeps, and I've never taken a differential apart before, so i'm really not in the mood to butcher my wife's rig with my first dabblings. I'm now destitute, too, so this needs to be on a budget.

Opinions, please?

Edit: Looking at it in the light, one of the spider gears actually went through the cover, and shot down the road. So I'm looking for a new rear end. Thanks for playing!!!

 

[ravingmadman]

Got the new rear end in last night, late. Went for a really, really ginger drive and checked everything, seems to be doing well now. Checked the fwd, and it now works great too. I took a video of the guts of my rear diff, and detailed the common failure we all have with the gov-lock diff. I need to put it up, but I'm not sure where to put it? Should I just throw it on youtube?

 

[Cdnguy]

ouch. thats all i can say.

 

[96ProCompTahoe]

not something you want to see after a huge BANG....

 

[Davyboy]

I think after reading this, I'm going to go pat my kon on the back in the morning...

 

[ravingmadman]

Funny this thread should come up again. I just lost the sway bar linkage. Lol. Easy cheap fix. Recommend getting the $30 Moog parts. Really improves on the stock setup.

 

[ravingmadman]

Dear diary,
I just spent ~$600 chasing down an electrical fault in the speed sensor wiring, that was causing my speedometer to be all over the place, and causing my truck to shift into odd gears whenever it felt like it. We replaced the speed sensor, but that didn't do it. It was a fault at one of the wiring harnesses. When we unplugged, and plugged the harness, we lost the speedo altogether, so we respliced everything, and seem to have fixed it. The transfer case is getting worse, and I'll need to replace it soon.

I also added a new no-name deck, amp, and a pair of 12" subs from O'Reilly, and it hits really hard. Starting to enjoy driving the truck. I also added smoked headlights and turn signals, cut the old, broken fog lights out of the bumper, and added some cheap, bright yellow ones with a switch overhead. Starting to get the hang of this. I also owe the guys at the shop beer, because it's been over a month since my last major breakdown. Finally made it a month...

 

[branndon_b]

you poor bastard. that's all i can say. get another running total like you had at the start of this thread so we can all pity you in all your glory. that totally sucks man. most people would've just done something dirty like sell it to someone else (which may have been what the p.o. did to you) or go pawn it off on a car lot towards trade. hats off to you to keep fixing the beast. probably got more patience than i have with all that, but i guess you win in experience points, you'll know every nut and bolt on it. i don't know that my love for my yukon runs deep enough to keep wrenching on it like you have if everything that you've had go wrong went wrong with mine. but i guess there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel eventually huh? can't be much left to break on it man, by the time you're done you'll have a new truck. keep wrenching man. branndon.

 

[IRQVET]

Maybe the $1,600 you spent on those slick wheels & tires could have been better spent on getting a mechanic to go through the truck BEFORE you purchased it.

Most older Tahoe's seem to be money pits, some more than others, which is weird because I drove a 1998 GMC half ton for well over 120K without doing a thing but regular oil changes.

Some things are funny like that. Maybe Tahoe production was slotted for production only after 4pm on Friday's or early on Monday morning after a holiday weekend, lol.

 

[destroyer1362]

Most older Tahoe's seem to be money pits, some more than others,

Couldn't agree more.. I thought mine being 71k and one owner meant little to no repairs.. Nope.. I have spent over a grand and still have a list of repairs to do.