Anyone know the insides of Front Differential?

[yieldsign2]

Put a small ding in the bottom forward most part of the front differential offroading the other day. (i know, just get a guard!)

Anyway, this was days ago, and I did not hear any grinding or abnormal noises, and no fluid is leaking from the ding so I havent worried about it. Today backing into a parking spot, at about 2 mph i get a feeling through the wheel / noise almost like when a tire is rubbing on the trailing arm (my steering stops aren't adjusted right). Sounded enough alike to that that i had to second check that my wheels were actually straight and they were. It only does it for 1-2 mph or so, then noise and vibration goes away.

Is there a separate gear in the differential for reverse, or some reason it would rub in reverse and not forward? The dimple from the rock is only about half of a gumball size. I haven't yet opened one of the differentials, so I'm not quite sure what is going on in there.

Any ideas? I have 4 spare axles so even if it goes kaboom i'm not in too much trouble. I'll stay out of reverse as much as possible for now though.

[Rovin4life]

If you dented the inside it would make noise and be damaged regardless.

Its possible you did dislodge something. You would have to tear it apart to see it.

[yieldsign2]

Is the entire casing that tight a fit? It's a small ding, I figured it wasn't enough to touch the gears. I guess my question is what is around this part of the differential. I'll take a picture of the ding tomorrow. The ding is just to the left of center at the bottom looking at it under the front of the car.

[Rovin4life]

Its not about being tight its about transferring vibration thru and the weakest part will not be able to take it.

[TerryS]

Devon, There's about a half inch clearance between the ring gear and the inside of the casing. I'm not sure what Beezel is trying to say, doesn't make that much sence, based upon your description of the ding.
To answer your question, no, there's nothing inside there related to 'reverse. Simply, the ring gear, bolted to the differential, is turned in the opposite direction, and that's all. If you slightly dented the casing exactly at the tooth side of the ring gear, enough to cause it to toush the ring gear, the teeth would simply plane away some metal (not a good thing floating around in the 90wt.) A few revs of the ring gear, and it would not have a clearance (though just) but if you whaled the ring gear right on a tooth edge, you could have chiped that tooth (ring gear is very hard, but not very ductile) and that tooth may be laying in the bottom of the casing. I'd suggest pulling the fill plug and seeing if you can get an eyeball on the problem area. Also might want to drain the diff, and swish a magnet around in the oil to see what you can find. Worse case scenario; pull the member, bang out the ding, and put a spot of weld on it if you 'thinned' it out to the point of leaking.

[yieldsign2]

Terry, thanks for the info that makes sense.

It might have been a false alarm... the sound and feeling seems to be brake related, only in reverse. I went back and forth in the parking lot before i left work and it seems to only do it from the front brakes (possibly only driver side, hard to tell) when braking at 2mph or so. I'll check that out after but it's probably something to do with my old rusty brake rotors.

Good info about the differential to know though. Sometime soon i'll crack one open and check it out. I really doubt i dented it enough to hit anything, but I'll take a picture anyway tomorrow.

[TerryS]

Dragging E-Brake shoes will do pretty much what you're describing when backing up.

[yieldsign2]

hmm. On the range rover teh only Ebrake is at the back of the transfer case I believe.. And shouldnt be effected when I press the brake pedal.

It's probably just dirt or something on my rotor. I need to replace them anyway, I'm just too poor.

[k1w1t1m]

Might be the bushes on the trailing arms (leading in this case).

[yieldsign2]

The top bolt on the caliper had backed out, and the bottom one was not far behind (eek!). Not sure when the last time I had it off was, I guess I forgot the loctite that time.

Spare bolt from parts car and noise is gone... whew.