z71gmc06

This sounds like a problem I had with my 06 this summer. It started with some snapping and popping in the front end and then some intermittent moaning grinding sounds. Sometime it would not do it for miles at a time and I thought it was cured but it was not as it kept coming back. Likr you guyd we also thought it was hubs and other front end parts.

Luckily my cousin is a professional mechanic and he has access to drivetrain experts. The key is the large amount of metal filings on the plug in the front diff, mine was covered with it. You can have a few filings normally, but a big wad is not normal. Turns out that some of these trucks have defective carrier bearings and the plating start to chip off the races. You can drive it for a while, but if you keep it up eventually the bearing will fail and your ring and pinion will walk apart and break your gears destroying your front end. The snapping noise was the gears skipping.

I took out my front axle and took it to a guy that rebuild differentials and transmissions and he said he sees a lot of this same problem. He did a complete rebuild replacing all bearings and seals and I have been golden ever since.

Hope this helps someone avoid a broken front diff.

dave