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- #41
I enjoy asking and answering questions...
98-99 do not have ATRAC. Diff-Lock was switched on and the rear locker was engaged. Medium throttle, light snow. Granite rocks under snow.
The only difference in the 99 vs 00 is the spline count on the pinion, which does make it stronger, but not enough that you could have avoided the same fate in the same conditions. (Correct me if I'm wrong on the spline count. I replaced my ring a pinion with one out of a 2001 while doing the rebuild.)
Other than the hassle I was happy to replace the factory diff. The factory cage is weak, along with the spider and side gears, and cannot keep from expanding and snapping under moderate HP and pre-loaded stress. Perfect storm.
In the image below, parts labeled 8, 11 and 12 are the weakest point in the LC100 running gear. The ARB locker I used to rebuild the diff is both stronger and cheaper all told, unless you can find a used complete diff to swap out.
Details:
We were in light to medium weight snow, most of it about 4ft deep except where the wind had blown it around. Where I tore gears apart was in a section that was about 16" deep. I am not a heavy throttled driver, prefering to finesse through difficult sections. I was using a medium throttle and progressing slowly through a drift but could not see well enough to know where the granite rocks were underneath. (I have driven the section about a dozen times with and without snow.) The straw that broke the camel's back was, when with a bit of wheel spin it caught the edge of one of those boulders. Banging and popping ensued. I immediately backed off and worked on getting us back down the mountain.
As a matter of advice: Initially I assumed that I had broken a CV axle, so I switched off the Diff-Lock. The banging occured with greater frequence. I then switched the DL back on and it almost entirely went away. (It makes sense now.)
