HELLO! advice please!!

i have a 97tj with d30 up front, just bought the jeep two yrs ago.ive recently noticed some drive line play up front,checked the front shaft no loosnes in the joints but when i turn it by hand or engauge in gear it pops loudly in the front pumpkin!!could this be a worn differentual?? or worn ring gears?? just wondering how simple it is to buy new ringpinion gears and mabee a new locker diff throw them in and go. or is this something that i should pay to have a qualified tech put on??

CAMOED TJ,

Take the front cover off of the diff housing and you should see what is broken. My first guess would be the spider gears. A front R&P replacement is a quite inimidating to try and accomplish if your not really mechanicaly inclined. If its the spider gears, then you can replace them with a drop in locker without that much hassle. Your just going to have to make sure the chuncks floating around in there did not trash the R&P or the bearings. The more you drive it damaged like that, the greater the chances are you are damaging the other stuff pretty good.

Otherwise, get ready to smackdown a lot of cash for a shop to do it all. 

JEEPDUDE!

THANKS fer the advice!! i feel i am a little mechanically inclined, i was just worried bout getting in to more than i could handle,or finding out that there is some special gazillion dollar tool i didnt know i needed or could afford. so pretty much i can just open up the diff pop in new locker and gears and go!! but what if im also interested in going for a different ratio at this time dose this mean it would be any harder to accomplish?? i have already installed a procomp 4" lift so i will need to do something any ways to the gears before i pop on the meats!!

 thanks 

                CAMOED TJ

do not attempt a ring and pinion if you haven't done it.  leave the setup to a pro, or have a pro teach you. if the setup isn't right, you're just flushing $ down the drain. it may even take a pro several hours to get it right. it's not as simple as just bolting it in. the gears need to be shimmed perfectly as well as pinion depth, backlash,etc.  

If you are just going to drop in a locker to replace the spider gears only inside of the carrier, such as an EZ-Locker etc, then the task is fairly simple. But if your going to install a locker that replaces the entire carrier like an ARB etc, then you will have to entirly re-set up the R&P (the same as setting up a new set of gears). I agree with vallycat, its a pretty involved job to set up a R&P, the x-tra tools alone you would need cost a few hundred. I would only recommend you do it yourself if you can afford to have the vehicle parked for awhile and learn as you go. If its not your daily driver, then get a good shop manual and tear into it. A good reputable shop is going to charge somewhere between $800.00 to $1200.00 to do the job for you. That alone can buy a lot of tools.

Got to     http://www.ringpinion.com/

Read the tech library if you feel confident tear into it, if not farm it out.  

THANK YOU FER THE ADVICE I WILL FOR SURE CHECK OUT THAT WEB SITE, SOME HOW I THINK I GOT A FEELING THAT SAYES PAY THE EXTRA MONEY!!!! SURE DONT WANT TO THOUGH.  

JEEPDUDE

      THANKS again, sounds like i better have it done by a pro!

 VALLEYCAT

    I think i now have enough info to successfully say man i wish i was in the gears&rears business!!

                                                   thanks again!!  and to all who replied to my message