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Q: Can you drive with a piece of your pinion gears tooth off?

asked by on December 10, 2016

So my axles keeper came out and destroyed my differential cover no biggie. But I then noticed it took one of the teeth of the rear pinion gear off but it was lower down on the tooth so nothing Is touching it. I drove it and 3rd gear to 5th it makes this growling sound, not sure if the tranny or the axle, but once I push the clutch down; nothing. I think I'm asking two questions, what's the sound? And can I drive with a damaged pinion gear tooth?

My car has 179000 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.

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Hi there. If the tooth is broken then the pinion needs to be replaced and the rear differential needs to be readjusted. Once that is done then it can be determined if there is a transmission issue. It is possible that when this issue occurred that it damaged the clutch or the transmission. You need to rebuild the differential first. It is best to have a transmission specialist take a look at this.

Ford
V8-5.0L
F-150
1994
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