I was driving my 97 Wrangler home from work last Thursday when I heard a quiet pop and my engine revved up but the Jeep did not move. I thought my clutch, transfer case or tranny went on me. I pulled over to the side of the road and played with the gears to no avail. I popped the thing into 4 wheel drive to see if I could limp the Jeep home and guess what? The front wheels engaged and I was able to make it home. I took the thing to the local transmission shop and they looked at it on Friday...They gave me a call to let me know what the problem was...They said that I have sheared all the ring gear bolts off and it was just spinning free in there. Upon further inspection they found out that I had also damaged the pinion gear and another gear with a name that slips my mind now. They are going to replace the bearings too while they are in there. So this job is going to run me about $600...Yahoo...I am going to have them check out the front diff so this does not happen up there too.
So if you have a Jeep Wrangler do not skip the diff servicing like most of us do...I have only had it done one time since I purchased the heap back in June of 97.
