Catastrophic failure of Rear diff and repair DIY

[wsmeyer]

I realized after I posted that that in advanced mode I can edit the title so I will continue this thread.

First pic is after removing the diff cover.

After I picked all the pieces out of the housing

The carrier put back together so you can see how where it broke apart.

There is some damage to the ring and pinion but my hunch is that is from the failure, not the cause of the failure. I would think that if the damage had happened previously there would be tell tale wear on the gears from the metal bits. To me the wear looks pretty good for 96k miles.