[bjc]

So I dropped it back off to the dealer and showed them what was going on. Service manager calls me 30 minutes later and asked "what happened?" I tell him I smelled "buring oil" smell and got underneath to take a look - I found diff fluid cooking on the exhaust.

He says he noticed that there's a good bit of play in the yoke when he turns the drive-shaft with his hand. He then says that he noticed the driver's side shock mount appears to be pressed upwards and that there's an "impact mark" on my shock skid plate (the Amstar's they just installed). He wraps up by explaining that he's going to open up the diff and take a look to get more information, but that if he finds a bent axle, I had better contact my insurance.

I admitted to him that I had the truck on the trails since the ring and pinion replacement, but that I didn't see the correlation he was trying to draw between the marks on my shock skids and my rear axle blowing up. (To be clear, there are no impact marks on the rear diff or axle.) I told him that my expectation was that this would be warranty work, and that he had better have a solid explanation as to why it wouldn't be.

Anyway, I don't like where this seems to be headed....stay tuned.