Hopefully, the title gets lots of people in here.

Yes, I have a couple ring gear teeth that are broken. I discovered this when I had the cover off my rear housing to find the cause of a noise. There are 2 teeth that are broken, and about 1/3 of the 2 teeth is gone on the outside of the gear. The 2 teeth are right next to each other.

Now, I know that's not a good thing, but that's not the main thing I'm posting about. The differential is an open unit. How much clearence can there be between the pinion (differential pinion) gears, and the carrier? It seems as like there is too much play there.

Now for the real question, would the teeth being broken make more noise, or the spider gear clearence? The noise is a sort of a combination of a whine/thunk, or clunk, and it occurs mainly on deceleration, or coast. When accelerating, it seems to be pretty quiet. My reasoning for asking is that I would like to leave it in there for a while and keep driving the car while getting a new setup ready to replace it. I also had a friends van doing the same thing, but without the teeth missing.

Any help is greatly appreciated.


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Working on:
'84 Z28 LG4 305 with 208,000 original miles!
Dual electric fans (from a formula).
145 MPH IROC Speedo
430 HP 350 (ZZ430) Coming soon! (Building it myself, so I don't get those AWESOME valve covers!)

Starting to look like the Kicker poster child!

ASE Certified Master Tech
+ L1 Advanced Engine Performance
+ X1 Undercar Specialist

And....A sig. that's getting way too long!

 

Driving it like that can be summed up in two words: "Borrowed time".

Stop driving it until you get it fixed or replace the rear. The next tooth to break could very likely lock the diff up, meaning one wheel will lock and the other free-wheel. If this happens at 65 mph or more, you're doing 360's down the road (at best).

Get that thing off the road before you hurt yourself or someone else.

(Granted, this is a worst-case scenerio. You probably aren't going to permanently screw up the space/time continuum, and it may just stop moving for you. But why take that chance?)

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82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R4. 2.93 limited slip. Cat-back from '91 GTA, Accel HEI SuperCoil. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily driver, work-in-progress (LG4 w/'87 LB9 block, ZZ3 cam and intake, World 305 heads, Hooker headers & y-pipe, 3" Catco cat & 3" cat-back).
57 Bel Air, my 1st car. '66 396, 9.7 CR forged TRWs, Weiand Action+, Edelbrock 1901 Q-Jet, GK 270 cam, Magnum rockers, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" Hedders & 3" Warlocks, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & Trans-Scat shift kit, MegaShifter, 3.08 8.2" 10-bolt w/Powertrax, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Idles smooth @ 600 RPM in D. Best 15.02/95.06 @ 5800' Bandimere (corrected 13.93/102.4 @ sea level).

 

Yeah, I know it's just a matter of time, and I haven't been driving it much at all. I do have to admit, it seem to be pretty decent other then the teeth. Backlash checked out at around .015 in. Not bad for 208,000 miles! I'm just hoping it will hold up until I get the tires on my "beater car!"

Any comments on how loose the spider gears can get before they start causing a problem, or even just make noise?