Aftermarket diff cover & bushings lesson

[gtstorey]

Lesson learned this weekend.

I installed an aftermarket diff cover and bushings in early May of this last year. It seemed loud to start with and got louder all summer with only a few thousand miles put on it. A couple of weeks ago it got real loud, to the point that it sounded like the diff was about to fall apart.

I purchased a low mile differential from a local LS breaker and installed it this weekend. The noise was reduced but still there. I had bought rear hubs last winter with some ebay bucks that I needed to spend and knowing that with 90k miles they could go out. Threw those on and noise is gone. The old hubs didn't really feel rough and no play at all.

The harder bushings and load bolts in the new diff cover caused the noise to amplify and sound just like a bad differential. Now, I guess somewhere along the way I need to swap in my old diff with the heavy duty cover and bushings.