I had 5.13 gears “professionally” installed in my Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in late August 2019. Warranty was 12k/12mos. The responsible company with locations in several Western states closed up shop in Denver in early 2021.
We never had an indication of any sort problem until the rear end locked up in a parking lot a few weeks ago. The gear set was silent, proper break in was done, 500 mile fluid change as required.
Not a good sign when the gear lube draining looks legitimately like liquid metal.
Pop the cover, it’s stomach turning.
Everything is junk. Gears, junk, bearings, junk, carrier, axle shaft bearings and seals. Everything is junk….even the side and spider gears in the carrier.
Even the thick ARB modular iron cover is suspect…
Got it to where I can work on it and started tearing it down. Driveshaft bolts secured with RTV instead of blue LocTite. 
F’n kidding me?!
While housing damage might look bad, thankfully It’s not. Just some battle scars.
Oh, look here, the missing ring gear bolts hiding in the pinion snout of the housing. While I didn’t test for value, pinion nut seemed way UNDER torqued.
Housing stripped, and we actually had to pressure wash it out three separate times to get rid of the metal shavings.
When I could push 5 clean white rags through each axle tube without picking up a single shaving, I considered the housing clean.
New 5.13 gear set. I actually have two sets, two different brands. This is the set I’ll use unless I can’t get a proper pattern. Master install kit, and the most aggressive LSD I could find. I’d of preferred a selectable locker such as an ARB, but with the front still unknown, I didn’t want to lay out the extra cash. Also have complete new axle shaft bearings and seal kits.
Installation is set for Tuesday, with PLENTY of pictures of the new parts install coming. I’ve got a buddy helping me out.
This is the last D44 gear set I installed. That’s about as perfect a pattern as you can get. Yes it’s tedious, yes it’s complicated, but if you have mechanical aptitude, the required tools, anyone can do this work if done responsibly and methodically.
Yukon gear has the best instructions that I’ve found, and can be downloaded
5.13 gearset had approximately 30k miles.
Properly installed and torqued ring gear bolts don’t back out. Ever. No evidence of ANY LocTite used on the ring gear bolts…
That sucks!! @rockymountainjeep to have to deal with that, Good luck!
How in the world did all those loose bolts wind up there? Not knowing anything about building something like that, I’ll still say that it looks purposely done. No wonder the shop closed.
I was in the auto repair industry for close to 40 years. I always hated rear end work! Not because of the work, but because it took a couple of days to get rid of the gear oil smell.
Those boots are supposed to hold the ring gear to the carrier.
All ten bolts backed out. No LocTite on the bolts. This was the last bolt holding the gear in place.
I did a rebuild on a Dana 35 once. It was a Jeep Comanchee pickup I bought new in 1988. In 2007 the spider gears cratered. Replaced those only to have them go out again about 6 months later. Seems the carrier had gotten distorted and would’nt let the spiders mesh properly.
Complete rebuild was actually kind of fun and ran great for 4 yrs till a guy ran a stop sign and totaled that truck.
My first Jeep had a D35. It chewed through side and spider gears too.
I replaced it with a factory TracLoc limited slip. Problem went away.
1937 US Army Training Film about differentials:
My mechanical knowledge is minimal, but enough to hurt for you on that one. Sounds like you have the solution you need but sucks to have to go through that. Hope its smooth sailing going forward.
sadly poor workmanship is very prevalent in the repair business. as a diesel tech did I torque everything? no, I did torque everything that was going to cause catastrophic damage? yes.
way to many people either think their elbow is calibrated for torque or they just run in with an impact.
Lol I was watching a power block off-road show once that was about differential builds. The host hammered the pinion gear nut with an impact and called it good.
i’ve never been one to try rebuilding my rear end it always seemed too much for me to undertake as i have been worrried i’d do it improperly. this is an interesting thread and i hope you continue to update it. i hate that it happened to you though… and that is a crappy ass mechanic that did that in the first place.
I will have updates and more photos starting tomorrow
There’s only one thing I wish I was doing differently, but I couldn’t get the part in time
I’ll explain in the updates
