When you say diff teeth, do you mean R&P or parts out of the LSD Tru Trac or whatever was used?Hi Neil yeah it looks like the diff has destroyed itself as the drain plug is directly under it and the broken teeth look like diff teeth, luckily he was braking for the hair pin and going from 2nd back to 1st when it locked up so speed was moderate, but enough to spin him around, just lucky he didn't hit anything, so that was a sizeable amount of money down the toilet, now we have the enviable task of finding something to replace it, have spoken to Fran and he has a box that will do the job so all is not lost, just another set back we didn't need. but on a plus the ole girl certainly got plenty of attention apparently, so that's a good sign.
When a Hypoid gear set suddenly gets a situation where the pinion backs out of mesh ( say for example the taper roller bearing nearest the pinion moves or wears quickly ) the tooth curvature will result in high point loadings as the two curves of R&P will now not be in phase- Ive seen this happen on 9'' R&P where the pinion retainer bolts are removed and an attempt to pull pinion assy from housing without moving ring gear out of mesh first. Thats with the trans/rear axle on bench, I can only guess at how much damage would ensue under load in service.Hi Jac, looks like crown wheel teeth apparently the diff is a Detroit locker.
cheers John