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How do these rear diffs on these AWD trucks hold up? Let's say I had 700hp flywheel. I'd assume the rear diff would hold pretty well since it's all wheel drive and the front diff is putting in some work at the same time. I'm about to pop the cover off the rear diff and it's corroded and thought maybe a rear girdle cover like the ones T/A makes may be a good idea for this 8.6" diff. Any experience/consensus out there for this type of thing?
This rear has 2 weak points. Which one is the "weakest", depends on what gears you run, and what tires.
Main one is the axles. I've seen em twist the splines off right past the carrier. The truck had 4.56 gears and some kind of enormous tires, don't recall exactly. That combo puts the max stress on the axles.
Next is the pinion. Shock loading, like big clutch dumps with sticky tires, is what gets those.
Your right there on the edge. I blew mine up and had to go with a Detroit trutrac and new axles at 700 crank. I did a lot of burn outs and power slides though.
Yes, certain of the 8.6".
9.5" came on trucks with max trailering package according to what I've read.
I swapped out diff bearing cap bolts for studs and installed a TA girdle. I had to source my own cover bolts as metric is required and TA supplies the cover with sae fasteners. Filled the rear with Amsoil 75w90 and on to the next thing.