resharp001

I think when a mechanic's advice is "the diff is shot and you need to find a new axle", that person isn't qualified to give a quote. They obviously aren't familiar with regearing or rebuilding internals. My sense has been the "mechanic" is a general auto person that isn't familiar with our stuff.

Mr.T

dblaze -- Crawl under the front and try turning the front drive shaft by hand while in normal 2HI on the xfer case. If it turns there's probably a broken axle. Besides something visual like an oil leak, that's the only test I can think of that the mech could do quickly on the shop floor without taking the cover off

Mguesto

on my ride home after buying my JK I had the misfortune of clicking noises from the front of my jeep. Took it to my dealer i work with and found that one of the universal caps came off the right front outside U Joint. made the joint oblong so i needed a complete axle changed. The dealer i bought it from paid the dealer in full to have it fixed. Seems they replaced the U joints and i surmise that the retaining clip for the cap was not seated properly.
End result was a complete new axle installed for around $700.
While there they also did some Jeep recall work. The front brake hoses showed some softness around the end metal joints and Jeep has a recall on it. So all this work was also done for me.
So yes, have another mechanic look at it before you shell out any money. If you bite the bullet, take it to your local Jeep dealer. Maybe there are some recall work that also needs to be done for you.

Good luck sorting this out.

Matt

dblaze2049

Well Jeepers. Took to a different mechanic. They took the cover off the pumpkin. Roll Pin was out. Literally out and just laying there. Fixed that filled it back up and I’m on the road 145 dollars later vs 3k. Now it’s on to the rear spring issue and it will finally be ready for a whee and tire upgrade. Thanks for all your help!

resharp001

Don't ever go back to that original "mechanic" That is exactly what the original dufus should have done. It is so little effort for someone to remove the cover and put some eyes on what's going on. Glad it was a cheap and easy fix.

barongan

never experienced it. but this is a very interesting discussion to follow

jordy

But why do some actual mechanical investigation when you can just take that "junk" axle off and put a new one in its place? I mean, I could change the oil, but it's easier to just pull the engine out and install a new one instead.