Probably a noob question, does this diff sound normal?

[Undergrad-Peso]

Hey guys, noob to DIY and Jeep here. I'm only posting this because I tried to look up normal differential sounds but my results were dozens of videos more along the lines of what noises a poor or dying diff makes. Mostly running. I guess no one is spinning their axle shafts around by hand, and maybe you guys will let me know why I'm an idiot for doing that. But please, if you're going to roast me, I hope you also provide valuable information along with it.

I recently took off my wheel hub to ensure everything was tight and snug after I thought I felt the studs moving behind the brake rotor. Everything is back together and tightened down to spec, but while I was in there and testing to see if the bearing was spinning smooth, I spun the front axle shaft around to see if it made any noise.

Well, it did, but I quickly realized I wasn't sure whether or not I was supposed to be hearing anything so I took a video. Hopefully someone wiser can give me some advice on whether what I'm hearing is normal or not. My differential doesn't howl or grind or make any noise that I could detect so maybe I'm just being overzealous. But I was already in there and I thought I'd take a video just to be sure.

Anyways, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[jac04]

Completely normal.

What you are hearing is the spider gears inside the differential. These gears are not precision-made gears like the ring & pinion gears, so you will hear and 'feel' them when you are spinning one axle while the other is stationary (or while the driveshaft is stationary and the other axle is rotating in the opposite direction).

 

[Undergrad-Peso]

Completely normal.

What you are hearing is the spider gears inside the differential. These gears are not precision-made gears like the ring & pinion gears, so you will hear and 'feel' them when you are spinning one axle while the other is stationary (or while the driveshaft is stationary and the other axle is rotating in the opposite direction).

That's a relief to hear!

It doesn't cause any damage to spin these around by hand? Or in the wrong direction while the other half is stationary? I assume if it can take the forces of driving around it can take whatever my meager arm can crank, but I've come to accept there's always some small (yet important) detail in every aspect of a car so I'd like to be sure

 

[TomH]

That's a relief to hear!

It doesn't cause any damage to spin these around by hand? Or in the wrong direction while the other half is stationary? I assume if it can take the forces of driving around it can take whatever my meager arm can crank, but I've come to accept there's always some small (yet important) detail in every aspect of a car so I'd like to be sure

You won't cause any damage spinning them like that.

 

[jac04]

That's a relief to hear!

It doesn't cause any damage to spin these around by hand? Or in the wrong direction while the other half is stationary? I assume if it can take the forces of driving around it can take whatever my meager arm can crank, but I've come to accept there's always some small (yet important) detail in every aspect of a car so I'd like to be sure

No issues, like Tom stated.

Just remember, in 2WD your FAD (front axle disconnect) de-couples the RH side inner axle shaft from the RH outer axle shaft (which is connected to the wheel hub) and the driveshaft remains stationary. So, the LH axle shaft is turning forward and the RH inner axle shaft is spinning backward. This means that those little spider gears are whizzing around like crazy by design (although most of us agree it's a cr@p design).

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