OT bad day in Mopar land for me

[Young Ed]

Monday night I noticed on a few left turns that my dakota was making a noise. It sounded like gravel rolling around in the bed. Well there isn't any gravel in there. Pretty sure its something in the rear end going out Guess I have a new weekend project........

[oldmopar]

Bad news maybe you should get rid of the dakota and drive the 46

[Young Ed]

Not with the winters we have. That would be a sure way to ruin it. And the 46 is in storage until the first so I can't even drive it as backup!

[Norm's Coupe]

Could be a wheel bearing too.

[Young Ed]

Update. Pulled the cover off last night. Ring and pinion look good. Side gears have chunks missing. New ones on order which won't be here til early next week

Still have to check bearings and wheel bearings

[Kustom52Mopar]

Ya with chunks of metal missing I hope they didn't get into any of the bearings. That never leads to anything good.

[Young Ed]

Update. Replaced side and spider gears in the diff. No side play detectible in ring and pinion. Noise still there. Figured out the noise is from drum scrapping on backing plate. Causes now are possible slight wear on axle ends or warped drums. Going to try swapping drums left to right and see if the noise changes from left turns to right turns.

[Phil Martin]

I had a 94 Dakota. Making left turns it made a pop noise, drove me crazy. Then I looked under back seat [ club cab] where jack is stored. Clamp holding jack handle was loose. When making left turn the handle would slide over and hit side of the housing.

[Young Ed]

I replaced my jack with stereo equipment a long time ago