strange rear diff issue

[Max Power]

So sometime late summer I started to notice an occasional knocking noise in the driveline when shifting gears. It seemed to only happen at low speeds and "casual" shifting. I thought it was a U-joint somewhere in the drive shaft. I replaced those, still having the issue. Then this fall I dropped $3500 on a new clutch, pressure plate, input shaft and bearings for the tranny. The clutch and plate were regular maintenance (about 100K on the truck) and the input shaft was damaged thanks to a destroyed bearing. I STILL have the noise. So today I drained the rear diff and took the cover off and I find this. The side of the carrier is worn/grooved pretty badly. So badly that you can see through it. Only I can't see or hear or feel what is hitting it. The pinion doesn't appear to be hitting it as I can't see any wear on it.

WTH is happening?

I did talk with Pdavey and I'm going to take it to his recommended shop in Richmond when I get some down time in about two weeks.

[waldo]

I've seen carrier pics like that before. Been a while. I'm not sure that those cuts were an issue. Honestly don't remember.

[Reloaderguy]

What is it supposed to look like?

[Pit Slave]

Those are normal. Mine has the same appearance/exposed gears in the carrier. I was concerned too about that before I learned that it was a normal exposure of the gears in the housing. My guess for that is to allow oil to pass through and minimize dead spots that retain wear material to allow for longer life and better cooling. Your noise could be drive line slop caused by normal age, wear on the pinion bearing, or other issues starting to rise. Check your leaf springs and bushings as well.

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[RustyPW]

Like Pit said. That's normal. We had a discussion about this awhile back. You still have the paint stripe on it.

[Max Power]

Thanks everyone! After a couple of replies I did some more digging on the net and finally found a stock photo that shows the milling marks. It seems like everything is going on out me around the 100k mark so my first thought was this was just something else to add to the $$$.

AAM 10.5 differential.jpg (46.54 KiB) Viewed 1984 times

[flattire]

Yes , normal. But the first time you see it will be quite a shock.

[TwinStick]

Yes, normal mine has the same. But, maybe someone with more knowledge than me can chime in here: the gear teeth look to me like there is more wear on the top than the bottom. I would check your pinion bearing. (but I am looking at the back side of the teeth & not sure which side is forward vs reverse) If it is not centered or the crush sleeve is not set properly, it could cause an issue down the road.

[Rodeoflyer]

The abnormal wear pattern would cause audible whine if it was off enough. I'm guessing suspension noise like the op said.