Frogger

Ive been reading posts about people breaking there rear ends. 10 bolts mainly. But i dont know what happens when it does. does the diff (ring and pinion) lock up? do they no longer contact each other? are the teeth broken off? maybe its teh axle housing that breaks from the diff housing? shed some light please...

also does the car still drive after our must you tow it without moving it from the breaking spot?

Greekey

iTrader: (3)

Ring and Pinion.

tillery

iTrader: (4)

Mine was the driver side axle and carrier that broke. I was most boltons stock tune on drag radials launching at 5000 rpm. I had suspension work to help with wheel hop but I found the limits of the stock rear. My best run was 12.4 @ 114 on it with the 3:42 gearing M6. No it wasn't drivable.

FirstYrLS1Z

iTrader: (4)

99 + up: torsen breakage-assembly bolts and/or internal gears ; ring & pinion teeth failure
98 + down:auburn spider gears ; ring & pinion teeth failure

failure of pinion crush sleeve and distortion of carrier bearing mounts(eliminates proper setting of lash,creates a varying lash condition)

axle breakage/twisting.

many reasons that our little 10 bolts fail.

whether or not is driveable or has to be towed is dependent upon severity of above items.

janaka

iTrader: (7)

I lost my teeth in my rear last fall launching too hard
Datsun rear end though. Crunchy.

Greekey

iTrader: (3)

Why exactly are 10 bolts so weak?

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

Because you put a V6 diff that's got fewer engaged teeth and
all smaller parts than a '70s-'80s "10 bolt", behind a motor /
trans combo with over 2X '70s-'80s driveshaft torque (between
trans ratio, converter mult and motor torque). Sure fix for more
power, using wimpier driveline parts is.

Frogger

I see. thanks for clearing that up. this is kind of a bonus question but would be cool if it was answered as well....is this why torque managment should not be taken off an a4 unless you have replacement rear money on hand? or should i take it off and believe in the autos 'slippage' ability to limit rear end abuse?

jimmyblue

iTrader: (11)

The trans is also a wimp piece in its own right, and trans TM
is primarily for that (only cuts torque during a portion of the
shift cycle). The rear end gets the worst of it while in gear,
especially if you hop (steady torque is bad enough, impact
torque even worse).

jimbo98z

iTrader: (3)

I broke at least one tooth of of each spider gear. I think I remember counting 6 teeth when I pulled the cover. The rear basically turned itself into a spool. I drove the car 15 miles home at about 25 mph

Had a 12 bolt pinion bearing let go and drop the pinion into the ring gear. That was bad.

BlkBird2000

iTrader: (10)

For me, Drivers side axle. I never took the cover off to see the damage inside. I figured when pulling the rotor off and the axle came with it was enough for me to pull the trigger on a 9".

69RS

iTrader: (1)

On my buddies car he actually broke the pinion in half, that was with heads,cam, 150 shot.It was running 11.0's right before it happened.

XtremeDime

iTrader: (16)

I lost several teeth on the 10bolt in my STOCK s10.

CamaroBeau

That isn't cool losing teeth!!!! Joke... Awwww teeth on the 10bolt gear? I am not really that motorhead. How many teeth does it have? Is it still working even if it loses several teeth?

ArkBird96

no, missing several teeth is a bad thing and probably means that they are still in the diff somewhere and will jam it up.

Also, the pinion/carrier bearings have a tendency to go out as well (ask me how I know...) Had that happen to both of the cars in my sig, and both were high mileage, although the v6 was slightly older than my current car, and both were/are my daily driver. Both were auto and never saw the track or any kind of racing/abuse when I owned them at least.

relzbade

Being a mechanic I've seen a few of these rear ends. The most frustrating one is when the housing warps, it is hard to figure out because you can get the preload and backlash right and it will still make noise, the contact pattern may be good, but will usually be skewed a little. When the housing is bent it will leak all the time. If the center section is warped it will make the pinion seal and/or diff cover gasket leak. if the tube is bent, the axle seal will leak. I have a 4.11 pinion i use as a paperweight because it lost about 3 teeth. That one is out of my Z28.

DarkJuggalo

iTrader: (6)

one of the bolts broke off my torsen and got wedged between the cover and a gear and forced it way through lol

ArkBird96

What causes this warping? Old age? Too much torque? I wonder if that isn't what happened to my 3800 'Bird. all of a sudden, it just got the "whine of death" and they told me the whole thing would have to be replaced. I think they were lying.

93M6Formula

I decided take my Formula out for a little drive last winter after being burried in snow for 2 months,and went cruising for a bit and I jumped on it and "PING"! after I pulled it apart I found over half of my pinion laying in the housing and just kinda chipped the ring gear. $500 later I put in 3:73's!

joblo1978

iTrader: (14)

That's why they gave us sloppy hydros that don't push enough fluid to powershift.