I started this thread in the Powertrain / Suspension forum, but it is probably better suited for here. Please read and reply. Thanks. -GO 4D IT

Please follow link to fellow F150 site and give me your reaction and opinions. I am trying to generate lots of buzz about my accident and the responsible party. Thanks.

http://www.fordf150.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50917

 

Good luck. I think the dealer screwed up.

 

First of all, You need to get you're vehicle towed from that dealer before they touch it. Secondly, have an independent source pull the cover off and see why the spider pin came out. Perhaps the dealer over torqued the set screw that retains the spider pin in position, allowing the set screw to fracture and the spider pin to fall out? If this is the case, you have room to stand on.

Assuming the spider pin slid out of the DIFF. carrier (causing the spider pin to come into contact with the bottom of the main differential case), that would conclude why the vehicle went into an uncontrollable slide. If you have access to you're vehicle, look and see if there is external damage to the bottom of the main DIFF. housing? The photos appear the pinion may have fractured when the DIFF locked-up.

It would be interesting to see photos of the complete failure, including tooth surfaces of the ring gear and pinion? P.S. I look at product failures for a living.

 

I had my throttle spring come loose on my Escape and it made me get a ticket for 67 in 30 because the pedal got pushed down like past it's limit.

I presented the DA with what happened, and they only dropped it to a 31 in a 30, and cost me a total of $90... and 3 points on my record.

Ford wouldn't pay for the ticket either...

Not my fault for Ford's faulty engineering.

But the officer should have been more concerned as to what happened. I even asked him to call a tow truck and he wouldn't. Dang cop.

 

 

the pin and bolt and c-clips all look to be in place

all i can say is how the fack. broken pinion and axle....looks like that outer pinion bearing got hella hot. did they forget to put oil in? doesnt look like that much sprayed out when it broke....possibly they mixed the side shims up giving you no backlash which could cause an extream failure like this. to me it looks as if the diff locked up which snaped the pinion and your axle. the question is. why did it lock up?.......

look at the wear on the drive side of the crown gear....something definatly wasnt put together right... i really think they mixed up the shims and you had 0 backlash and some bad binding, take a look at the broken teeth on the crown.

the more i think about it the more things add up. 0 backlash got things very hot expanding the gears untill they were so tight with eachother it was just impossible for them to turn. then bam. diff locked up....also if you look at the 3rd picture up the bearing cap doesnt even appear to be flush against the housing which means the whole damn thing is in there crooked. probably because of the crown and pinion contact during assembly from mixin the shims up. just a theory but either way someone was sleeping when they worked on your truck man

was there any noise b4 the failure? howling, grinding, anything?

 

Some interesting items seen in the photos:
1. Evidence of contaminated lube at the outer BRG. / seal
2. Crowsfooting on the drive side of the ring gear (lube issue)
3. Unseated R/H main cap assembly. Possibly removed for examination, after the failure?
4. Fractured axle shaft (failed in torsional mode when fractured tooth entered the gear set mesh).

What I see here iith the photos provided is rapid contamination of the outer pinion cup / cone which has led to instantaneous high heat at the pinion stem behind the outer pinion bearing. The thermal event has effected the hardness of the pinion and caused it to twist off. In essence, the pinion was like plastic after being exposed to the tremendous thermal event at the outer pinion bearing.

If the technician only replaced the axle seals, there should have been no reason to remove the axle carrier or disturb the main DIFF caps. My question: what type of lube did they install in the axle and what did they leave in the axle that contaminated the bearing?

 

Ouch! glad you are alive.
from what i seen, the temp got up pretty high in the fwd pinion bearing. The axle housing is showing a change in color around where the fwd bearing cup sits. no lube and that thing gets pretty hot. then it shears, slides back into the ring gear and locks up the diff , shears an axle and sends you sliding into a guard rail..
That would be my guess, lack of lube when they changed out the seals.......
Did they change out a pinion seal too?
if they did, too much pre load on the pinion nut will give that result