Yes, I had that bearing go out the first time. Since I did not want to mess with it, I paid a shop to have a look at it. They ended up replacing the carrier, ring gear and pinion at the time. The ring gear showed some wear. The bearing on the ring gear side of the carrier showed movement. At that point, it was still functional, but knowing the history of weakness in the diff, I thought it best to just have it rebuilt before it came apart. The Dana 70 is notorious for the bearing on the ring gear side slipping on carrier. It is a pressed fit. The area is weak, which allows the press fit to slip. Once that happens, the constant movement wears the carrier till you loose mesh and break teeth. If I were inspecting it, I would want to look at two things. One would be inspecting the gear for dual wear lines. This would be marks from on throttle to off throttle. If it moves, the gear may show two different imprints of wear. Secondly, I'd want to look at it under torque. Hold the brake and go from drive to reverse and verify any movement in the bearing. You want to be confident that it is not going to leave you stranded somewhere. Lyle tells the story of dropping the differential in a campground. I can't imaging doing that, but then again, you do what you have to.
_________________ Dave
The Flying Fortress '83 Revcon Prince 31' FWD 502 w/Howell/GM 16197427 ECM/Edelbrock MPFI,Thorley's & Magnaflows, 4L85E 4 speed, KoniFSD, Yes it is SOLD
FMCA F298817
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