The 10 bolt rear axle lost.

I knew this was gonna happen. I did everything possible to re-inforce the housing to give this thing a fighting chance of living for a while.

Usually these things break the ring and pinion first because of deflection in the case under torque. It appears that my re-inforcing helped that problem, but in the end, it appears that the carrier simply wasn't strong enough.

At least it stood up to the car running in the 11s on drag radials for a little while before it gave up.

I have enough spare parts laying around to put the car back on the road, all that I'm gonna need to buy is a new ring and pinion. But I'll be taking it a little easier on it for a couple of months until I can get my 9" ordered.

Sad part is, this didn't happen while I was launching the car from a dead stop. I was on an on-ramp getting onto a highway and rolled into the throttle in first, then grabbed 2nd gear, that was it. As soon as I dropped the clutch in second, it sounded like rice krispies on steroids back there

At least I had enough momentum to coast to the next exit.

 

looks like the axle failed taking out the carrier.

 

Actually, both axles are fine. I looked them over very well. It appears to me that the diff exploded sending chunks into the ring & pinon...which promptly locked up the pinion.

 

What the hell is stuck in the spider gear then?

 

The pin that holds the c-clips in. It was broken and bent out the side. You see in the first pic one of the c-clips and the pile of garbage that fell out. I found it very odd that the axles themselves weren't damaged, especially considering that the only thing that was holding them in was my calipers!

 

I broke my 10 bolt with a Trosen diff case. Cracked the diff case and sheared a tooth off the pinion (3.73:1). I was luckey. The pinion tooth stuck to the magnetic plug. Purchased a Moser 12. (97ss 383 - D1) B.