Thread: OK so i have stuffed my rear diff!

went out driving in Nerrina and Creswick today (ballarat), all was going fine until i tried to tackle a behemoth of a rutted climb, got up it ok besides smashing my front left indicator and bending my guard in, they were deep ruts, i hit the side

then after arriving at a dead end, tried to reverse out, needed like a 9 point turn, the LT77 box i have in it has reverse next to 1st, i thought it was in reverse and i let go of the clutch and BANG dinted my bonnet and smashed my grille (great day!)

then as i was leaving the national park, i had a final climb, then my rear diff was sounding funny, on the drive back home i tried to turn right and all the wheels locked up, then i tried to drive away and it was getting no drive, and a heap of clunking from the rear

i put it into diff lock and limped home (4kms), and am now incredibly ****ed off, i just put my new 235/85 BFG MT's on and neglected to install my TJM bull bar, if i had of done that, i would not have smashed the front in

im assuming the new tyres contributed to the diff problem as all was fine beforehand on stock tyres

the 2" lift combined with the tyres gives a false sense of confidence, that i could tackle anything, clearly i have alot to learn

Rover drive trains are weak - despite what the purests think. They are ok with stock tyres if you don't go off road, unless you treat them gently.

The 2 pinion diffs are the weakest link in the rover drive train. Usually the shaft for the diff pinion gears breaks, or it spits the shaft out.

Fatigue damage, which causes shafts to break, occurs over time at much lower stresses than ultimate strength. So the damage to the diff was probably there before you fitted the new tyres.

Best way to fix the diff strength is to fit a centre with 4 pinions. All of the available diff lockers have 4 pinions. A good alternative is the tru-trac diff centre which uses a different system to side gears and pinions and is amply strong.