In 2016, the gears in my front diff on my 99 disintegrated. I got new gears and an ARB, pulled the diff, and brought it to Tucson Differential (I lived in Tucson at the time) to install the gears and ARB. Boy, did they **** up.
Fast-forward to labor day weekend. I now live in the Central Valley of CA, and I went on a trip to the Lost Coast. On the way home, we pulled into a one of the state parks to look at the trees. At one point, I need to turn the car around, so I put the car in reverse. The front wheels lock up for just a second, and then break free. "Weird, I think, maybe I bumped it into park or something."
We are slowly driving out of the little campground we had entered, and I am getting strong whiffs of gear oil. I stop at the exit gate, and figure, probably nothing, but I'll just check underneath the car to see if I can spot any leaks. I take a peak, and gear oil is pouring out of my front diff onto the ground. That looks bad.
I pull out of the way, and pull the front skid plate. As you can see below there is a nice hole fairly high on the diff. Extremely unlikely it is from smacking it with a rock, plus the metal is jutting out, suggesting something internally forced the metal out.
I make a quick call to my brother to brainstorm some trail fix. He brilliantly figures out pulling the front drive shaft and the flange on the hub that connects the axle to the wheel. This way the front differential won't spin in any way. Flange off in the photo below.
I put the wheels back on, lock the center differential, and drive home without an incident.
A few days later, I pull the front diff and CV axles to take a look at what happened. I pull the front cover off the front diff and notice a lot of copper shards, the airline had been shredded somehow, and what's that in there... A BOLT. I spin the gears and notice one of the bolts holding the ring gear has fallen out. The remaining bolts are easy to loosen BY HAND. I inspect the bolts, and there is absolutely no trace of thread locker (lock tite) on the bolts, which is required so the bolts don't loosen while you drive and lock up the diff. Tucson Differential had neglected to put thread locker on the bolts!! I called them, and they assured my they usually put thread locker on. There wasn't much I could do without being able to show them the bolts without any thread locker.
There should be a bolt in there...
The bolt spent a little time being worn down before it blew a hole in my diff.
Remnants of my air line.
So the bolt is what caused my front end to lock up and the hole in the front diff. I'm very lucky it happened when I was going so slowly.
I figure I should have the whole thing inspected and re-installed. I decide to ship the whole diff off to my brother who can make sure there is no damage and can install it properly. I pick up a nice reinforced plastic bin and pack it up in a ton of bubble wrap. And off it goes.
Well, while the folks at UPS are chucking my 80 lb diff around the pack cracks and eventually breaks leading the diff with installed ARB to fall out. Apparently, no one noticed an 80 lb piece of metal rolling around because UPS called and told me they lost my diff. They spend a week or two looking for it, and did not find it.
I have submitted a claim for to replace it. With a replacement price of $3k from Toyota and an extra 1,000 for the ARB, I am not super hopeful UPS is going to shell out the $4k to replace it.
I only have the one vehicle, so I am just driving around a 2WD Landcruiser with the center diff. locked.
Fast-forward to labor day weekend. I now live in the Central Valley of CA, and I went on a trip to the Lost Coast. On the way home, we pulled into a one of the state parks to look at the trees. At one point, I need to turn the car around, so I put the car in reverse. The front wheels lock up for just a second, and then break free. "Weird, I think, maybe I bumped it into park or something."
We are slowly driving out of the little campground we had entered, and I am getting strong whiffs of gear oil. I stop at the exit gate, and figure, probably nothing, but I'll just check underneath the car to see if I can spot any leaks. I take a peak, and gear oil is pouring out of my front diff onto the ground. That looks bad.
I pull out of the way, and pull the front skid plate. As you can see below there is a nice hole fairly high on the diff. Extremely unlikely it is from smacking it with a rock, plus the metal is jutting out, suggesting something internally forced the metal out.
I make a quick call to my brother to brainstorm some trail fix. He brilliantly figures out pulling the front drive shaft and the flange on the hub that connects the axle to the wheel. This way the front differential won't spin in any way. Flange off in the photo below.
I put the wheels back on, lock the center differential, and drive home without an incident.
A few days later, I pull the front diff and CV axles to take a look at what happened. I pull the front cover off the front diff and notice a lot of copper shards, the airline had been shredded somehow, and what's that in there... A BOLT. I spin the gears and notice one of the bolts holding the ring gear has fallen out. The remaining bolts are easy to loosen BY HAND. I inspect the bolts, and there is absolutely no trace of thread locker (lock tite) on the bolts, which is required so the bolts don't loosen while you drive and lock up the diff. Tucson Differential had neglected to put thread locker on the bolts!! I called them, and they assured my they usually put thread locker on. There wasn't much I could do without being able to show them the bolts without any thread locker.
There should be a bolt in there...
The bolt spent a little time being worn down before it blew a hole in my diff.
Remnants of my air line.
So the bolt is what caused my front end to lock up and the hole in the front diff. I'm very lucky it happened when I was going so slowly.
I figure I should have the whole thing inspected and re-installed. I decide to ship the whole diff off to my brother who can make sure there is no damage and can install it properly. I pick up a nice reinforced plastic bin and pack it up in a ton of bubble wrap. And off it goes.
Well, while the folks at UPS are chucking my 80 lb diff around the pack cracks and eventually breaks leading the diff with installed ARB to fall out. Apparently, no one noticed an 80 lb piece of metal rolling around because UPS called and told me they lost my diff. They spend a week or two looking for it, and did not find it.
I have submitted a claim for to replace it. With a replacement price of $3k from Toyota and an extra 1,000 for the ARB, I am not super hopeful UPS is going to shell out the $4k to replace it.
I only have the one vehicle, so I am just driving around a 2WD Landcruiser with the center diff. locked.