Front Differential Bearing Failure at 18,000 miles

[SALEEN961]

Earlier today I removed my front differential to install a Torsen carrier. Before pulling the differential out I knew that my pinion seal was leaking and my axle seals were weeping, but I had absolutely no noise and no reason to suspect a bearing failure.

After pulling the seals out of the differential I found a bunch of metal debris packed against the back of the seals. Ford's factory gear oil normally looks awful and is full of metal after a very short distance as things break-in, but this was bad. There was so much metal floating around I knew I had some sort of bearing failure. In the end I think the root cause was excessive carrier bearing preload, even with a case spreader, the differential carrier was very tight.

Now I have to try to get all the bearings I need on a holiday weekend so I can get my truck back on the road by Monday night. Here are some pictures of what is ruining my weekend:

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[WhiteLightningnshitshadow]

18000 miles, warranty it?

 

[SALEEN961]

18000 miles, warranty it?

The extra bearings I need are only $50 and I already had everything torn down for the Torsen install. At this point the cheapest and easiest option is to just rebuild it myself. My truck is also modified to the point where you could reasonably void the entire powertrain warranty.

 

[SALEEN961]

I have the differential reassembled and in total, the factory carrier bearing shims had an extra 0.017" above and beyond what Ford calls for so that might explain the carrier bearing failure. My bashlash was also too tight from the factory at 0.0075", the spec is 0.008"-0.012". The factory gear pattern looked ok, but it isn't ideal.

I really hope that I don't have any more issues with the front differential after this round of repairs, but if I knew what I was getting into ahead of time, I probably would have ordered a new housing and a new set of gears. My differential clearly wasn't a shining example of Ford's best work.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Earlier today I removed my front differential to install a Torsen carrier. Before pulling the differential out I knew that my pinion seal was leaking and my axle seals were weeping, but I had absolutely no noise and no reason to suspect a bearing failure.

After pulling the seals out of the differential I found a bunch of metal debris packed against the back of the seals. Ford's factory gear oil normally looks awful and is full of metal after a very short distance as things break-in, but this was bad. There was so much metal floating around I knew I had some sort of bearing failure. In the end I think the root cause was excessive carrier bearing preload, even with a case spreader, the differential carrier was very tight.

Now I have to try to get all the bearings I need on a holiday weekend so I can get my truck back on the road by Monday night. Here are some pictures of what is ruining my weekend:

Hi there! Will you send us a message with your VIN and your local Ford dealer? I can look into things on my end.

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