Pinion bearing failure update with picture.

I finally got around to removing the pinion gear from my Cuda with the Dana 60, it had broken the rear pinion bearing cage at the local drag race last September when i put it in neutral from low gear and heard a weird noise and the car stop with a little jolt, maybe the rear tire turn less than a 1/16 of wheel rotation and stopped.
It was locked up, so I ended up having to take the rear end apart and remove the spool and ring gear to load it in the trailer with the winch .
The rear pinion bearing cage got torn up badly after the pinion nut came loose and released the preload on the pinion bearings allowing the pinion shaft to slide backwards into the ring gear evidently when I was stopping in the tech inspection lane before racing.is what I found today
I dodge a BIG bullet on this
I can't imagine how bad this could had got if it had failed after letting off at 150+ MPH
i had driven it around on the pits to warm up the trans, engine and rear end lubes before making a pass and going to tech when it locked up
THANKS be to GOD

Cab_Burge,
I see two attachments, looks like both are the same photo though.

FIXED now

So Cab you think the cage came apart then the rollers bound up the pinion ? I have never seen that in 35 years of working on drivelines but as we all know anything can happen in a drag car.

Gus

It must have had one of the bearings get a little sideways when it slowed down after me putting the trans in neutral, I was barely moving when I moved the shifter from low (Powerglide) into neutral
Murphy loves messing us drag racers, all racers and hot rodders, huh

Shoulda had an 8-3/4

I forgot to mention when I went to remove the pinion nut with the air impact wrench yesterday morning, I found the pinion nut was about 2/3 the way loose ready to drop off the pinion shaft
There was no warning or symptoms any drive train issue until it broke, I got lucky on this It could have killed me and wreck the car
Praise God for the help on not having it do worse than it did

I have had the nut come loose before on a big tired 4×4, new gears and nut, was loctited and staked. I now grind the black off the pinion and silver off the nut and give it 4 tacks with a wirefeed.. easy to grind off later and could save your life. I also tack every u-joint cap after the shaft has run up to full rpm loaded if it is steel. Offroad tears sheet up as do racecars. Glad you are still here, that could have gotten nasty.

I know I’m going to check the torque on mine now! 👍

Me too! Cab, you have an angel riding shotgun🙂