hello,

i had my 2000 silverado in a wrack about a month ago.
keep long story short, it was "repaired" by insurance shop, and i was stupid enough not to go through "check everything you can check" procedure, as truck did fine in 2wd.
so i took it back on wednesday and signed waver.

friday i put it into 4wd. loud, grawling/grinding noise coming from the front kicked in right on. damage was to the passenger side front, wheel went back and hit the tirewell, plus body damage. they replaced body parts and adjusted "upper control arm and torsion bar". i even started amazing over apperantly superb strength of that truck.

so, my assumption is - if the wheel went so far back, it slammed driveshaft into differential(no leaks at all, fluid replaced with synth 15K miles back). just in case my insurance will throw a towel on this, and i have to do this myself:
1. where can i buy differential online? i do not want to consider junk yard items.
2. anyone knows front differential part number for 2000 silverado, 5.3L V8, 4wd, automatic, extended, 3 door cab? so i can get it off gmpartsdirect?

thank you

 

You'll have to take your VIN # with you to the parts department and see is an assebled unit is available. If so, you're gonna pay a ****tload for it. If I were you, I would check out www.car-part.com and see if there any low mileaged units somewhat close to you, and just go buy it. You may find one at a slavage yard with 0-100 miles on it. Hell, we just found a 4.3L for a 2001 Sonoma at a salvage yard, has 0 miles on it.

 

well, i'll try to press this through insurance 1st. they have 7 vehicles and 2 houses with them through us, so they may decide to save the customer, or places else i go. accident was 100% not at my fault, the other insurance accepted 100% responsibility, so let them sharks fight each other.

i looked into your link, thank you, they don't have it listed but i sent them email. replacement does not look too bad, i am somewhat worried about diconnecting pitman from trailing rod, but i'll manage, from that on - it's just several bolts to disconnect. will, probably, replace driveshaft on the same tocken, have no doubt it's damaged either.

i learned my lesson - should have done what my kin here does - take the money and fix it myself. instead of having it for 23 days in body shop, and them outsourcing truck to tire shop for alignment.

 

ahhll be darned!!

so, i took this truck back to the alignment shop that worked on it, as insurance/adjuster were adamant about them fixing whatever else was wrong and following on the repairs.

we had pleasent "man's" chat with mechanic, he listened to my assumptions, took the key and came back after test drive in about 15 minutes.

looks me into the eyes, has that jovial smile on him, and utters: did you realize you have 75s in the back and 70s in the front? ( i have toyo in the front and micheline in the back; toyos were put on the truck while it was in repair shop, as the passenger side tire blew a bubble in it after the car wrack; and i do not like michelins on steering wheels, they hydroplane).

so, i have 265/70/16 in the front and 265/75/16 in the back.
per mechanic, it amounts to about 1.5 inch difference in total tire diameter. that resulting, when differential is locked, in front tires spinning faster than the rear ones. that resulting in gears mashed into malalignment and growling noise coming from differential.

we will have it up on the rack wednesday morning, to run it with tires up in the air, but so far - several folks agreed right on, that "that'll do it". tire shop was "no questions", they have already ordered 75s for the front end at no cost to me. we'll have them swapped wednesday morning.

like i said - i'll be darned. also, somehow i am missing viscous central differential. apperently, the mechanical locking ones are sensitive not even to slight variation in tread ware but, also, even to different tread pattern.

 

That'll do it. The tread difference and brand difference on the same vehicle is more noticable on all wheel drive vehicles, like the Bravada and the Rainier, seen a ton do this. But yeah, 2 different sizes on a 4X4 is a bad idea and will cause premature wear in the front diferential and Transfer case. You should also request them to flush out the fluid in the front diff and T-case, and add new fluid to them.

 

all fluids changed to synth around 12K miles ago. i do not drive on anything else but synth. both diff-s, transfer case, and trannie. engine is running on amsoil. i do not save on oils and gas, not worth the money. i can pay now, or i will pay later.

 

it's all good now. we matched size on the front, to
265/75/16, and it's all good.

got my lesson. like they say - wonna have things done right - check on others do for you yourself.