Diff ring gears is the only thing I still brake often at this car, so good that you made this topic, I thought I was the only one seeing this... Every time a little chunk is missing at the outside corner of a tooth. Last week I even received a new one in a bag which was missing a corner at the inside of a tooth.
It was replaced free of charge without a problem, but still weird…
Like probably most of you, first I’ve concentrated on shimming and meshing the diff sideways more carefully, but without success. Now I’m also focusing on the slop on the bevel gear. I noticed that one of my cases had no slop sideways, but some up/downwards. Also I believe that up/down movement of the bevel gear could explain more why I always loose the outer corners of teeth on the ring gear.
So I’ve put a tape longitudinally in the bottom of the case where the bevel-bearings go, so a 5 mm wide tape from just not touching the bevel gear till sticking out at the other side. This both in the up and down half of the case. That took care of the slop for me. Let’s see how this goes.
That the plastic sidepods have an effect is possible, if your rear axis touches your slipper (or hooks in a worn slipper outdrive) at extreme flex, and puts some stress on your bevel axis, shifting it up or down.
But don’t get me wrong, besides this, I’m verrrry happy with my DEX !!!
Maybe another option is that Durango designs a case with bevel bearings the size of the big wheel bearings?