250es Big Red broken differential

[BigFrednR]

Went out with a bunch of friends today to ride the lost trails in PA. Big red was just not made for the rocky terrain. I ended up busting my differential houseing in half. It was a long tow back to the truck.
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[atcmatt]

Wow! Never seen that before. I was convinced the driveline was absolutely bullet proof. Mine has been put through absolute hell and is fine. How long ago was the unit rebuilt? (Seals, bearings, oil?) no chance that the oil ran out and the old girl seized up??

[Flyingw]

I have a rebuilt ES diff ready to bolt on. It was disassembled, bead blasted, powder coated, and a complete set of bearings and seals installed. I could use the money right now so for my triker brothers, its 325.00 shipped.

[BigFrednR]

I'm not sure when the last time it saw any maintenance. I haven't had it in my possession for very long. Not sure what the cause was. It certainly didn't have any oil when I found what broke. I did have the gaurd on and that didn't receive any damge. I was missing a bolt but that could have dropped out when the case split.

Trails were extremly rough and I was getting beat up pretty bad. Lol

[BigFrednR]

Apprently this isn't going to be a cheap fix.

[Flyingw]

If you think about it, without the diff you have a 400lb paper weight. You can buy a used diff off Ebay for a couple hundred bucks but you really have no idea what you're buying. The single most point of failure in the diff is the pinion shaft needle bearing. Id say 99.9% of the diffs out there still have the original bearings in them. Once the needle bearing go, the ring and pinion gears destroy themselves quickly. In your case the cases failed. It could have been an impact injury to the cases or the cases could have had a stress fracture, or even a defect in the casting. The disassembly of the diff requires special tools so even if you found a set of cases, you still have to prep the cases and assemble. Buy a used one and gamble on its condition, fix yours, or BUY MINE!!!!!!! Seriously though, I have rebuilt many of these and I am tooled up for it and I have seen all kinds of nasty. Ya mine is a little more but you know exactly what you're buying. Its here if you want it. You can checkout my tutorial on rebuilding the diff and It will show you what's involved with repairing/rebuilding one and that may help guide you in your decision.

http://www.3wheelerworld.com/showthread.php/164483-ATC-250SX-and-250ES-Differential-Rebuild-Tutorial?p=1282554#post1282554

[Jmoozy27]

Apprently this isn't going to be a cheap fix.

Dude, buy the diff from flyingw. If you think that $325 is high... Try rebuilding one yourself. Your looking at $500 without BB & PC. It's kind of important to keep the diff lubed and happy. Do that and the next diff will last longer than every quad in the pic you posted.

[BigFrednR]

A few more pictures of destruction after removal.

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More damage was found, the round tubing that braces the inside of the swingarm.

I couldn't really tell what was broke on the trail Or what failed first . Just heard clunking while in gear and not going anywhere. The tow back down wasn't easy either. So things could have been breaking while in tow. I was able to put the trans in neutral to coast.

[YTZ drew]

From the look of it, I would say there hasn't been any significant mount of oil in there for quite a while. If it were me, I would take FlyingW up on his offer. He's first class all the way and his workmanship is outstanding. Just my .02.

[jeswinehart]

From the look of it, I would say there hasn't been any significant mount of oil in there for quite a while. If it were me, I would take FlyingW up on his offer. He's first class all the way and his workmanship is outstanding. Just my .02.

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