Community Forums

JohnLoves2Sk · 06-09-2022, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponytl

I have built many rearends and set up many ring and pinions, from race cars to heavy equipment, to drop teeth from the ring gear... on a low impact lite wear application such as an RV (compared to a race car or a dump truck) I can only think of 2 things.. foreign object got caught between the teeth... ie part of a failed bearing?.... or it was flawed from the factory... and one failed tooth lead to the next failed tooth... I'd want to see the broken teeth... fairly easy to see if there was a casting or forging flaw... if it had been present for a while... I doubt there is anything you could have done to cause this... even low fluid would burn up the bearings first... the wear pattern will tell your mechanic if it was set up correctly from the factory... (rare and it would usually have a "whine" if so)... 90% says it was a bad part from day one.

I agree 100%.

Would you ask your mechanic to look for a failed bearing (missing a ball), and please take a bunch of pictures of the broken teeth, wearing surface as well as broken side, so we curious armchair quarterbacks can see what happened?

So sorry you got stuck with a big $$ repair. I am confident that you didn't cause it.

DicknBambi · 06-10-2022, 09:45 AM

If it isn’t to late ask your mechanic if he can flush out the wheel or axle bearings cause they are in the same oil as the differential uses. If the differential oil was contaminated the outer bearings were also. Good luck with the repair

mjariano · 06-12-2022, 06:38 AM

Whatever the cause, 5 days and about $3.5K and we're rolling again. I suspect the labor charges were a little excessive but the mechanic did what I couldn't and he did it on site. Even if i knew what was needed, I couldnt lift the differential out of the trunk. The mechanic lifted it from the trunk and installed it onto the axle housing alone.

No towing or hotel stays required. Fortunately, we broke down in a nice campground in a beautiful area and had some well needed but forced relaxation.

rgvtexan · 06-12-2022, 09:51 AM

A little off topic.
A friend, who has a dump truck business, knocked on the door one day. Mike asked if I could help him move a broke truck. He was backed up on a pile of gravel, when the differential blew. I took the backhoe and pulled him forward about 10 feet.
The next day he had replaced it by himself, and was back on the road.

DJJ · 06-12-2022, 12:06 PM

Curious as to what CG you were in and who did the work? I’m at Bull Run regional park at least twice a year.

Jeff

153stars · 06-12-2022, 01:57 PM

My friend paid over 2k for 3/4 or 1 ton diff rebuilt. He dropped it off at shop.
I don't think you did too bad.

Boomper · 06-13-2022, 02:34 AM

I've been going over this in my head. Very glad to hear the OP is rolling again.
I cannot picture planetary gears in the rear diff as mentioned by the OP.

I used to work in a truck shop many years ago but still cannot picture a planetary gear set in a medium duty chassis such as most of us have.

Thank you for someone enlightening me!

mjariano · 06-13-2022, 09:31 AM

What I called planetary gears I've since learned are ring and pinion gears. The teeth were missing from the ring gear. The pinion gear was galled.

I'd attach pictures but I'm not sure how. Site is looking for a url to upload from. But I'm not seeing any way to put them into a url location.

mjariano · 06-13-2022, 09:36 AM

We used the shop that Good Sam's road-side assistance recommended, Clarissa Multi Services in Manassas. They worked with us. I know I was bring a nuisance to them but they never gave any indication of being perturbed by it.

HarryStone · 06-13-2022, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjariano

What I called planetary gears I've since learned are ring and pinion gears. The teeth were missing from the ring gear. The pinion gear was galled.

I'd attach pictures but I'm not sure how. Site is looking for a url to upload from. But I'm not seeing any way to put them into a url location.

As long as the pictures are on the same device you are using to access the forum, just click the paper clip and it will get you to where you select the files (pictures)

mjariano · 06-13-2022, 07:44 PM

I think I uploaded some pictures.

Unrelated, your rig is a 2006 Damon Daybreak? I have an older rig that I haven't sold yet. A few repairs yet to complete. It's a 2003 Damon Daybreak.

jacwjames · 06-14-2022, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjariano

What I called planetary gears I've since learned are ring and pinion gears. The teeth were missing from the ring gear. The pinion gear was galled. .

With this type of failure you were lucky that it happened where you were parked (or at least you were in a good spot when it finally gave up the ghost).
The ring, pinion, and housing can be heavy to deal with and if you had a mechanic who did the work himself you got lucky.

One suggestion would be to do a differential oil change ASAP. I assume the mechanic did what he could to clean any contamination out when he put the new chunk in but there may be some residual left. The drain plug should be magnetic and should catch any remaining metal but an oil change may be a good idea.

mjariano · 06-15-2022, 07:29 AM

Good thought. Thanks.

NCC-1701A · 06-15-2022, 10:05 AM

"From the Freightliner 24-hour line, I learned that the recommended frequency to change differential fluid is annually."

I have owned multiple DPs on Freightliner chassis and none of the recommended maintenance schedules required differential fluid change on an annual basis. Checking fluid level and the breather operation...yes, but not a fluid change.

Makes me wonder if they had HD semi-truck application in mind vs relatively light/medium duty motorhome. My SIL is a HD diesel mechanic with over 20 years experience and I chuckle once in a while as his mindset is always the semi truck world....he'll think a certain part or product is junk because it only lasts 800,000 miles! :-)

Has anyone else seen an annual differential fluid change requirement in the Freightliner RV chassis documentation?