Blew up my truetrac
11-28-2010, 06:58 PM
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Blew up my truetrac
Well just about two weeks ago I put my built trans back in my truck and everything was great. After I put a lot of miles on the trans to make sure it was running right and broken in I did a few dig runs. All was cool until I went to show Nick (M3SRT) how much better the truck felt blah blah. Went from a 30 and on the decel I heard a nasty whining sound. Nothing too crazy, but it almost sounded like a person way behind me had a train horn on or something. I pulled over and all was fine. The trans shifted fine and fluid temp was good so I thought maybe something in the trans messed up and I needed to pull it. Well I pulled it out and the trans guy went through everything and it was spotless. I figured maybe my converter was bad so when we put the trans back in I put in a brand new ATI converter. Well it still made the damn noise.
We proceeded to diagnose the truck and figure out where the noise was coming from. We pulled the rear part of the driveshaft out and the noise went away. The next morning I pulled the diff cover off and out came a chocolate milkshake of gear oil and metal shavings. The magnet had about an inch of material on it. I was bummed and relieved at the same time. I had it towed to a local shop for them to look at it. Upon removing the ring/plate they discovered that the axles were binding upon the billet block that goes in between the axle ends. It actually mushroomed out the end of the axles to where they had to chisel one out and use a torch to cut out the other axle. I ended up putting a complete pullout stock rearend with 3.42's and I think a G80 in my truck for the time being. I plan to rebuild the old rearend with disc brakes, new lines, different gears, and probably a detroit locker.
Here's some pics:
Ring/Pinion were fine thank god
The drive gear that had the c-clip practically welded to it.
The other side looked fine:
I thought it was odd that the worm gears all on the side that was really bad had these weird little grooves in them that were from some kind of wear.
All three from the passenger side. All had similar grooves, just a little different on each.
Worm gear from the Driver side. No grooves.
You can see the edges around where the worm gear rolls is kinda messed up.
Better shot of that.
Drive side looked fine. The side that wasn't as bad, just had to chisel the c-clip a bit to get it loose.
Passenger side axle that had to be cut with a torch to pull out.
Driver side where you could see how the block in the middle either pushed out on the axle or the axle got pushed into the block.
Overall, interesting finds in the differential itself. No wonder it was making a noise.
The gears/truetrac only had about 30k miles on the setup and I'd beat on the truck pretty good with them in there with no hiccups. The diff tracked perfect all the way until I had this problem.
Also, the warranty is only one year coverage against defects (my case definitely) and when this happened it was about 16 months. It's the price I pay to beat on my truck and have fun with it, but it's the last thing that I expected to go out on my truck since they're "bulletproof". Oh well, **** happens!
We proceeded to diagnose the truck and figure out where the noise was coming from. We pulled the rear part of the driveshaft out and the noise went away. The next morning I pulled the diff cover off and out came a chocolate milkshake of gear oil and metal shavings. The magnet had about an inch of material on it. I was bummed and relieved at the same time. I had it towed to a local shop for them to look at it. Upon removing the ring/plate they discovered that the axles were binding upon the billet block that goes in between the axle ends. It actually mushroomed out the end of the axles to where they had to chisel one out and use a torch to cut out the other axle. I ended up putting a complete pullout stock rearend with 3.42's and I think a G80 in my truck for the time being. I plan to rebuild the old rearend with disc brakes, new lines, different gears, and probably a detroit locker.
Here's some pics:
Ring/Pinion were fine thank god
The drive gear that had the c-clip practically welded to it.
The other side looked fine:
I thought it was odd that the worm gears all on the side that was really bad had these weird little grooves in them that were from some kind of wear.
All three from the passenger side. All had similar grooves, just a little different on each.
Worm gear from the Driver side. No grooves.
You can see the edges around where the worm gear rolls is kinda messed up.
Better shot of that.
Drive side looked fine. The side that wasn't as bad, just had to chisel the c-clip a bit to get it loose.
Passenger side axle that had to be cut with a torch to pull out.
Driver side where you could see how the block in the middle either pushed out on the axle or the axle got pushed into the block.
Overall, interesting finds in the differential itself. No wonder it was making a noise.
The gears/truetrac only had about 30k miles on the setup and I'd beat on the truck pretty good with them in there with no hiccups. The diff tracked perfect all the way until I had this problem.
Also, the warranty is only one year coverage against defects (my case definitely) and when this happened it was about 16 months. It's the price I pay to beat on my truck and have fun with it, but it's the last thing that I expected to go out on my truck since they're "bulletproof". Oh well, **** happens!
11-28-2010, 07:16 PM
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Ouch. No problems when it was installed like tight axles or hard to get In block? By the looks of it, it would have been a problem easily seen on the install. 120k on mine and still great.
11-28-2010, 07:21 PM
#3
i went through the same issue, i was lucky i caught it before it got to bad, only do to another gear swap, then i noticed the issues of the tru trac, it was under warranty and Eaton repaced/refunded me 
it didnt get near that bad but has all potiental to:
it didnt get near that bad but has all potiental to:
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11-28-2010, 08:53 PM
#9
i thought the tru tracks were bullet proof i just got mine done about 800mls ago it works great but kn ow iam affraid its my 4th diff and iam not trying to spend another 1k on a re-build rear end ! so how should i maintain it ? how often due yall check them ? and change fluids?
