Breaking Differential gears

[jar2187]

Has anyone ever broken the teeth off of the gear inside the differential? What got me thinking was because my brother has an 84 porsche 944(5 speed, cant spin them that easly cause hes got 245s on the rear)and he spun his tires, which snaped a few teeth off of the two big gears in his, I guess you could call a differential cause it looks like one but people dont call it that. I think the gears were on there way out, cause the should have been a little stronger then that. But anyway I was thinking I never read anything about and explorer breaking teeth off their diff gear when spinning their tires. I tired searching but couldnt find anything.

 

[Alec]

The Ford 8.8 is a stout differential. You can still break the gears with either a bad setup or too much torque though. Rarely happens with an 8.8.

 

[AlaskanJack]

Rick's busted some.

 

[the_tool_man]

Hi jar2187:

They can be broken. I've seen an 8.8 Trak-Lok carrier cracked in two from trying to tow too much weight (it was in an F-150).

I'm dealing with a differential failure right now on my '01. I think the carrier cross shaft was not properly hardened from the factory, and the resulting metal shavings killed one of the carrier bearings. Go here for details:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110827

There are probably other ways to kill an 8.8, but they're pretty strong. Lots of my Mustang buddies run them stock on drag cars.

Regards,
John.

 

[Hokie]

The Ford 8.8 is a stout differential. You can still break the gears with either a bad setup or too much torque though. Rarely happens with an 8.8.

you should've seen what boomin' did do his spider gears in his old '95... ouch