Eaton Clutch missing teeth

[bigrockk]

1996 K1500 Pickup 5.7 147K Miles

Well I decicded to change most of the fluids on the truck (Trans,Frt Axle,Transfer Case,Cooling system and Rear diff).

All was going well until I popped the cover on the rear diff and noticed some small metal pieces on the magnet. I did a good inspection looking for the source of the metal and noticed a fine tooth gear just to the left of the flywieghts on the Eaton clutch is missing some teeth.
( Hope I got that right, don't know alot about Diffs)

This hasn't caused me any troubles so far but I was wondering if it is dangerous to just ignore this. If this will only cause me to lose the "locking" feature of the rear end, then I am not to worried.

I guess my question is could this cause more damage to the rear end if I just refill it with gear lube and ignore it?
The rest of the Diff looks to be in great shape.

[MT-2500]

If you do not need or want the anti/spin lock.
You could leave it as is or.
To be on the safe side you could pull out the little barrel shaped flipper and the small shaft.
MT

[bigrockk]

Thanks for the info and such a quick reply MT, that definitely puts my mind at ease.
Much appreciated !!