gold buggy

We we riding the Majove Trail this past weekend (on old wagon trail running thru the Majove desert in California) when one rib of my alternator belt deceided to shread off. I was able to cut off the one rib and continue on my way. Unknown to me the belt had pulled on the rear end locker cable and engaged it. Part of the route back was over asphalt and then a hard u-turn down a sand enbankment. Just as I made the transistion from the asphalt to the sand downhill there was a large BANG from the rear of the trooper. Sitting in about 2ft of sand at the bottom of the hill, I punched the throttle and the buggy leaped out of the sand and on to a hard pack two track. The final few miles back to the staging area everything seemed normal, no additional noise except for the fact that I could tell the locker was in when backing it onto the trailer. Next day I located the locker cable problem and unlocked the differental, installed a new belt, jacked up the rear end and turned the tires by hand listening for any noise or grinding. Drove it around the neighborhood forward and backward with a friend listening for noise. There was none, but I believe that I had to have damaged the unit and that it's got to come apart. I have not drained the oil to check for metal, but will when I return to Arizona next week.

Do you think the differential is still serviceable or will it have to be replaced/repaired?

I had the loud bang. turned out to be upper differential mount tore loose from the tubing. Had to replace the tubing that the mount was welded to. As the welder said "its American strong now" hope this helps