The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline rear end problems

I just removed the left axle and re-installed it. i put all spacers, gears and pin in. While rotating the wheels, the ring gear stuck in position. i could not rotate it at all by hand. i was able to move it by hand a few minutes earlier. i started truck, put in gear (with brakes on) and I heard a click. went back to the ring gear and it was free. put pumpkin cover back on, filled with oil and left truck on jack stands. ran the truck in gear to make sure all ok. I kept hearing a click in the rear end (sounds like it atleast). so i stopped, pulled pumkin cover off again and nothing was wrong, except after spinning the wheels again, the ring gear locked in position while truck was in neutral. what could be causing this? could it be u-joint? or is it because there is no weight on the axle? gears look fine in the rear end too. any ideas would be great.

It is very common for the front pinion bearing to fail. What commonly happens is for the balls to become pitted, then the pitting wears out the ball separator and it breaks up and binds the balls. Was this truck making a whining noise on acceleration?