So I don't really know exactly what is wrong with my truck so I'm hoping maybe one you guys might have an explanation or hypothesis as to what might be wrong. As of now, the truck is sitting at the local dealer. We had a strong storm come through town and I had to pull a tree to the side of my road (it wasn't that big of a tree and it was already uprooted). I had a strap hooked up to it and started pulling. In the middle of the pull it sounded as though I blew apart my gears. The tree was far enough out of the way so I decided to just leave it there for now. Once I unhooked the strap, I figured now I would be able to tell if my gears were blown. Drove perfectly fine, couldn't hear anything. Figured it might be a load issue so I hooked the truck up to the trailer when I got home and sure enough, from a standstill, with some weight behind the truck, it sounds like my gears are ripping apart. I only have 220 miles left till my warranty is gone so I decided to take it right down to have it checked out. I don't really have an explanation but why, only with a significant load behind it, would my gears sound like they are skipping? I'm only guessing it is gears. Could it be tranny? Transfer case? I just don't understand it. Any guesses?

 

I would bet you knocked gears off the ring or pinion. Had the exact same thing happen to a friends Z-71 pulling a 8k trailer. It would grind like something was slipping under load, but still drive. Pulled the rear cover and found teeth floating around. Good news is if this happens to be the problem its not a huge deal and not really all the expensive, esp in comparison to a new trans

 

I figured I would just add that it is a 4x4 with 3.55 open diffs

 

did you try it in 4wd? I bet it would reduce the noise under load

 

No I didn't try that...I guess I'll just have to wait and see what the dealer says

 

My guess would be the side gears or spider gears in the carrier in the differential. There may be a couple of teeth broken off the gears. During normal acceleration, it may pop a little until the teeth line up with teeth and hold from there, but if put under a load the pop will be louder until you get teeth to teeth again. This will repeat several times. Like I said, my guess. I've busted these out before, several times but it's been years ago.

 

so i guess technically...it's a 2 wheel drive truck huh?

 

If you have a cracked differential carrier and load it, it will spread apart and allow the gears to grind. What can cause the carrier to crack? Broken teeth floating around get caught in the teeth between the pinions and side gears. Been there, bought the t-shirt.

JMC

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. I got the truck back and I broke something within the transmission. I'm not sure exactly what it was but it was some type of rod going to the gears. All fixed under warranty