Rear Diff Housing damage? From inside? (1 Viewer)

[BajaCruiser94]

So after a whole day off roading with my 94 and 97 '80's while heading back home I noticed the rear diff of my '97 was leaking oil, upon inspection I was very surprised to find the housing damaged; it seems it was from the inside out?
No weird noises, no grinding, nothing, just dripping oil thru the new punctured hole.

Locked '97, stock gears, 305's, no extreme off road conditions, I will be taking the rig into the shop until early January once they open again, in the meanwhile any idea what caused this?

Can't really explain further without images; here are some pics to help me elaborate.

As always, thanks for your inputs.

-Emerson

 

[bajaphile]

Wow, that's a first ... at least for me. Curious on what that is... looks like a bullet!

 

[FJP971]

From the pictures it looks like a plug of some sort.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A

 

[Howard705]

Bolt of some sort maybe-ring gear-stuck in ring gear teeth jammed through. I wouldn't drive it. Maybe even pull rear shaft-lock tc-drive fwd to shop. It may grenade it when that part completely jams in the teeth. I've had it on a Chevy. Old guy I know had pics of himself on the front page of the paper in his upside-down Rambler on the Interstate at rush hour here in the '60s when the rear end locked out out of the blue.

 

[Pin_Head]

It can't be good. Remove the drain plug and see what comes out.

 

[BajaCruiser94]

I agree its weird, its so small, and so round, it almost seems like a casting plug of some sort that popped out; and there's no other deformation on the surrounding are of the housing.
I will have the shop remove the third member and inspect everything, I will live worried for a couple of days until that happens; I juts hope the locker mechanism isn't hurt.