Hey all….question about the front diff. I’ve seen all the pix of blown apart pinion covers and what, but I have a different issue. I was doing a moderately steep climb yesterday and was in low with awd engaged. Almost to the top I gave about 1/2 – 2/3 throttle and got some front end hop prior to the crest. I herd an odd sound and now my awd doesn’t work.

My rig is a 09 850 xp, stock motor and suspension with 27" swamplites. I have a little over 1200 miles on her. I bought it new in April 2010 and have had basically no issues since new.

I jacked up the rear of the quad and put it in awd. My rear tires spin as they should, I see the front drive shaft spinning, but my front tires do absolutely nothing. I then sat the rear down and jacked up the front up. I left it run with awd still engaged and can manually turn both wheels independently. I then put it in park and can still free wheel the front tires. The cv shaft doesn’t appear to have any abnormal play. I do notice the front pinion tail has some up and down movement when manually spinning the front wheels.

I’m not 100% familiar with the front ends of these as I’ve never had it apart, but any thoughts on frequently broken parts or areas to check first? I’m guessing since I have a front pinion that I can see spinning, but nothing from each side of the diff, that I have something in the diff that is blown apart?

Any help is greatly appreciated!