Hey guys. I recently got my truck stuck in the mud offroading and some serious wheelspin occurred when trying to get out. Some nasty clanks/shaking noises happened once or twice, which made me cringe at the time. In any case I got around to changing the diff fluids this weekend, and the results were less than awesome. The rear seemed fine for the most part, however the front had some definite chunks of something in there. I was able to look at a few in a paper towel, and they strangely appeared to be tan in color, and hard like metal. There weren't a ton of chunks, and virtually nothing on the magnet - but it still worried me. I cleaned the pumpkin and as much of the gear assembly as I could with carb cleaner and rags. What do you guys think the chunks are and what the possible long term implications are?

 

depending on the size of the chunks you are talking about, some metal shavings and small small chunks of metal can be normal... how many mils on your rig?

 

You should have tried to pick them up with a magnet to see if they were infact metal
As long as you cleaned it good and refilled to the proper level then you should be OK. You said that you inspected the gears and didn't see anything obvious right

 

You may be seeing the bushings from the spider gears. If you get a chance, pull the spiders out to inspect the gears, bushings, and shaft. Another way some use to determine spider slop is to engage the front axle, jack up one front wheel and turn it foreward and reverse to see how much rotation you have in the gears.

 

I don't think I'm mechanically competent enough to remove any 'spiders' or any other parts in the gear assembly. It was only a few chunks, not a ton. I did look over everything as best as I could and nothing looked abnormal or worn. 46k on the truck. I guess all I can really do is ride it out at this point. I'm sure if I went in to the dealer talking about warranty on the diff they'd start yelling about the kore and big tires etc.