Front 30 went boom

Any help or advice would be appreciated. heres what happened:
Driving down the highway I notice all of a sudden a rythmic grinding that sounds almost like a rock stuck in the rotor. I can here it comming from the front left. I inspect my unit bering and it seemed pretty bad so I put everything back together, head out to the scrap yard to get a new one and the sound gets so loud I have to limp back home @ 10 miles an hour. My buddy listenes to me drive down the ally and says its my diff. I pull the cover and sure enough the fluid is silver with fine metal shavings, but no teeth missing from the gear. I am running an ausie and 4:56's. Without seeing or hearing it drive.......what is the most probable cause?

You said ypurself the unit bearings are bad, so start, there. While you are there check the carrier bearings and axels. also check the ausie for wear on the teeth, when was the locker installed, and has the oil been change since the install? Look for excessive wear on the Ring and pinion. Sounds like you have more than 1 problem to solve, 1 is grinding, the second is the shavings.

A noise that bad is most likely going to be a bearing. If there's metal in the diff oil you have to assume bearings are bad. A pinion bearing noise will change with load, but a carrier bearing will make noise all the time. However, I'd still bet that as bad as the noise is and as fast as it got worse your main problem is the wheel bearing. Replace that and then see what's going on with the diff. It depends on how much metal is in the diff oil whether you have a problem or not. I'd assume the locker and gear install wasn't all that long ago, at least not a few years, and some metal can float in the oil from break in if the diff oil hasn't been changed. Usually no need to change diff oil, but it is good to have a magnet in there to catch particles, or change the oil after a new diff setup.

Replace the unit bearing and then see what you have.

Hmmmm...... if you have no teeth missing off of the ring or the pinion, my guess would be a bad carrier/pinion bearing, or you chewed the teeth off of your aussie. Seen it before, the aussie just ground against itself until all the teeth had rounded edges.

thanks guys...... is there a write up how to se the front up temp. without axle shafts so i can get to work on monday?

You can pull the unit bearings, and remove the axle shafts, but you have to take the shafts apart, and reinstall the outers for it to be safe to drive.

should i pull my front D.S. as well?

x2elite said:

You can pull the unit bearings, and remove the axle shafts, but you have to take the shafts apart, and reinstall the outers for it to be safe to drive.

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Thats what I will do but then will need to find a way to keep the differential housing clean as the shaft's gone so theres 2 holes on each side allowing craps to get in. might pop the cover and stuff some shop towels in the holes for now.

also yes it wont hurt to remove the front driveshaft as it dont take you long to do so

make sure you leave the stub shafts in the hubs or they will separate and your wheel will fall off:gee: