BLWNV10

Hey guys. I was making the trip from Fairfield, CA to Sacramento, CA in my 2000 SS I aquired recently. As I was driving onto the freeway on ramp I hear what sounds to be a whailing noise coming from the rear of the car. The noise seems to get louder with engine speed so first thing that pops into my mind is an issue with the rear-end. I plan to pull over at the very next exit and check it out but while continuing on I begin to smell a strong aroma, some type of fluid burning out back. I hurry up and rush to the next exit, pull over, and to my suprise I see two holes probably a little bit bigger than quarter-size each in my differential cover!!! I think holy crap, what could have caused that. There is also light smoke seeping out from the holes, as well as fluid that looked to have sprayed all underneath the car. Common sense tells me that would be differential fluid? I was so close to Sacramento that I just decided to heck with it, I'll just cruise it home and shut it down and then deal with it later. The thing is despite the rear-end cover having been shot and fluid lossed, the car still drove just fine, nothing out of the ordinary except the whine that wasn't too bad as long as I stayed out of it so I was thinking maybe somehow it was just the cover and when I got to town I would go find another one and replace.

Well here's the result. I'm about 10 minutes away from Sac and downshift to get around two cars that were blocking the lane. The car did something really funny. It acted like it didn't wan't to go into 5th car, so I backed it out and tried to put it into fourth with no success. Finally I dropped speed and got it into gear, only to feel no power being driven to the back wheels. It was like I was in neutral. I've been having issues every once in a while with the car not wanting to go into 5th gear but it only seems to do that when i'm on the gas pretty good and pretty high in speed, and otherwise drives normal. So at this point I have absolutely no power and fortunately by the grace of God I was able to maneuver from the fast lane to the freeway exit in heavy Bay Area traffic and coast off. Now I can hear what sounds to be metal pieces flopping around in something/or somewhere out back. I open my door and immediately am engulfed in smoke coming from the rear of the car, look underneath and now half of the cover is shot and extremely hot, I mean I didn't even know a rear-end could smoke like that. BAD!

What do some of you guys think happened? I know none of you can tell for sure without the car being in front of you but what is normally the result on these cars when something similar to this has happened? The car has the stock 10-bolt on it, stock 3.42's and so on. I'm thinking the differential grenaded, maybe the ring & pinion gears? Then again, I know absolutely nothing about R&R on a rear-end. Sorry for the long story guys and any help will be greatly appreciated. TIA!!

Manic Mechanic

iTrader: (3)

Yes the differential "grenaded" and a couple of the pieces got pushed out throught the cover. All the gear oil leaked out. You burned up what was left. When you downshifted what was left of the differential fell apart and you lost all ability to transmit driveshaft motion to the side axles. Your transmission is still working but the rear isn't. You now will need another rear, it would cost less than rebuilding this one to rebuild a salvage yard rear. Or you could bust the piggy bank and buy a bolt in race rear. Consider yourself lucky you didn't burn the car down driving it like that.

Vernon

BLWNV10

Yeah very lucky. All I could I think about was how easily the car could have caught fire being that hot with all that fluid lying around. Let's just say I know better now!

As for the rear, can't I reuse the stock axles that are on the car now??? Can I just purchase a new differential, ring & pinion gears, a new installation kit and cover and be fine? I'm completely illiterate when it comes to this topic so please bare with me. I've decided a couple of weeks ago to sell this car so I really don't wan't to dump the money into a 9" or 12-bolt.

Manic Mechanic

iTrader: (3)

Yeah it's entirely possible to reuse your axles and housing. In my experience you can find a salvage yard rear ready to bolt in and go for less than what it would cost you to repair that one. Try this search engine: www.car-part.com

Vernon

BLWNV10

Thanks much for the help! I feel a lot better now.