I've heard of the units being beefed up by caging them in with steel reinforcement. Not sure how it's done exactly. Probably a lot easier and a stronger setup to go with a steel diff from a Vitara.

You can get steel housing from second gen 5 speed grand vitara.

Yeah, can totally do that too. I had to take this apart anyways for my front locker install video. Figured may as well get an exact count on the teeth.

Did you cross through some deep water? There are 6 possible places where water could get in. The two axle seals, the third member gasket, the vent tube and the 2 plugs for draining/filling the gear oil. If you can’t track down where the water got in it would be cheap insurance to replace the seals and gasket.

Probably taking it to a mechanic would be best. Otherwise jack it up so the tire is off the ground and put a jack stand under it for support. Make sure you don't have the jack or the jack stand up against the suspension, you want it all hanging free. Start working the tire back and forth, up and down, in and out ...etc Look for any connections that are obviously loose, wore out and wobbly. Look for rubber bushings that have started to fall apart or cracks in any of the metal. Rust can also be a big problem. A little surface rust isn't too bad but heavy rust could cause a catastrophic failure.

@@pearldragonz Thank you very much.

Yeah, almost all the 5 spd 4wd Trackicks had the 5.12 ratio. Some of the very early units had the 5.38 gearing.

I do have a spare axle shaft. Go to my KZfaq profile and click the About link and you should find my email address linked to the account.

@@pearldragonz thanks, subscribed and will get back to you