SO as some you may have read....I had a very interesting drive home from work the other day in my bronco. Cruising down the highway at about 50 m.p.h. in the middle lane when it starts pulling right(never has pulled since I put the ram assist steering on it) and almost instantly, crunch, bang and the rear tires lock up in the dry! Slide it gracefully off to the side of the highway and jump the shoulder in 4wd to get off the highway. I had my right front hub locked in just in case I needed 4wd. It was screaming badly. I thought the transfer case had just died since that is the absolute only thing I have not been into on my Bronco yet. Start digging around yesterday and find it is actually the front diff! So I just popped the cover tonight.....tons of metal shavings come out. The pinion bearings have to be absolutely gone! Great news though...The 5.13 gears I installed less than a year ago look perfect!! My carrier looks perfect too(welded spiders)! It means I can throw a quick rebuild on it and be ready to go again!

I am very long winded tonight so if you have made it this far you are very patient! The lesson: When you install new gears, replace the stock 1972 bearings! Even if they look ok just do it! I knew I should have when I installed the gears....I was just being a cheap ass(I had just finished the EFI conversion so I was kind of bronco fund broke too). But my Bronco must love me as when you think about the forces at work here they are huge!! All the of the force originated from the right front tire so when the front diff locked temporarily on the highway it locked the right front tire(force transmitted through axle shaft and welded carrier!) then the ring and pinion were transmitting the force up the front diveshaft into the transfer case, through the transfer case, down the rear driveshaft into the rear ring and pinion, through the full spool and into the rear axle shafts. All at 50 m.p.h. on the dry asphalt! I guess I can finally trust my front axle shafts to hold up as well as my front welded diff! The ring and pinion are Yukon and the most force went through them so I am extremely impressed with the quality of them!

Thanks for your reading!

Holy crap!! ur lucky to be alive man! glad to at least to hear that no major damage was done to the front diff. You got lucky!

You got lucky. thats awesome.