I know! We were hunting last week at the ranch and wasn't sure if we were going to make it back to camp. Sounds like I have some broken teeth floating around back there. I backed up and it was okay for a little while then stated again. Sounded horrible. Going to open it up tomorrow.
How can you replace the pinion bearings without removing the pinion shaft? And how can you remove the pinion shaft without removing the carrier?
It's been a while since having it apart, so I couldn't remember. I suppose I could pull the yoke and seal and inspect the outer first, if nothing else just to verify it is indeed the pinion bearing. I'm leaning hard to the outer being starved as a result of pinion angle and not enough oil in there. Oh, and my rear drive shaft rear ujoint has 3 nice gouges in one of the cap spiders. I felt the roughness when spinning the bearing cap. Pulling the cap off verified it. New Spicer 1310X on order. It never ends with this turd!
The last one I did was a buddies 44. He stopped by because the pinion seal was leaking and the rear sounded horrible. I pulled the outer bearing and it was toast. Replaced it and the seal. It solved his problem. That was 3 years ago and all is still good.
Did your gear installer reuse bearings, or just a bad bearing? I don’t think my OEM looked that worn when I did my regear in the spring.
They definitely used new bearings. They were Koyos. My previous were timkens. Junk chinese crap bearings bites me in the ass! I had no control over the installer's choice, but didn't much matter since I'm not taking it back there. The race had some minor pitting, but didn't have the proper puller to remove the race from that end, so I did a two fold fauxpah and replaced the bearing with a Napa Auto garbage bearing and left the race as is so I could button it up and drive it home. It was wisper quiet for the drive home. It'll buy me some time.
I understand why shops have their preference and don’t let you provide equipment - glad you found this! I sincerely hope this is a step forward in your saga.
Not my first rodeo with this. Thankfully my mechanic at work is helping me, and has most of the cool tools. I purchased a case spreader in anticipation, so when the stars align and we both have time we'll be replacing both inner/outer pinion bearings with some quality shit.
I order one from Northridge 4x4 last month. They're $50 less than buying direct from ORO and they're running a 10% off with code JULY10. Also free shipping.
