i have 2nd gen Ram 1500 and i was drivin down the highway and i started to hear a whining sound... i left my foot off the throttle and the truck jerked a little and started makin a ton of grinding noise... im no mechanic but im pretty sure my rear end is on its way out. just wondering how much it will cost me to get it fixed... im a big d.i.y. guy so also wondrin how complicated it would be for me to fix it myself... again im no mechanic so i am not real familiar with doin work like this but if it will save me some money to do it myself im all for it...

 

Please don't just post anywhere. Your post was unrelated to the thread you put it in, so I moved it to it's own thread. Without knowing exactly what's wrong with your axle, it will be hard to give you an accurate estimate. Rear end noises can be caused by something simple to something extremely expensive. As for doing it yourself, if it involves the gears inside, unless you have the proper tools and knowledge, pay someone to fix it. Welcome to DF.

 

grinding and screeching is usually associated with severe damage to the ring/pinion, or at least the spiders. if the ring, pinion, pinion bearings need replacement it'll likely cost about 400 or more in labor plus parts.

you can assess the damage by removing the diff cover and rotating the gears. you might get lucky and remove the shrapnel and continue to drive it. maybe, but i wouldn't count on it.

a do it yourself cheapo approach would be to get an entire rear end assy from the junkyard and swap it out.

 

i replaced a 03 Dakota rear end (9.25 axle, which is te same as ours) on the ground, no air tools, 1 person helping me, and using jackstands. Turned out to be really easy. Its not difficult at all. if you have any problems with bolts, get some MAP gas. This stuff took out every bolt with ease.

I was able to get a complete rear axle assembly with 3.92 gears and 9800 miles on it. all the parts were new (calipers, rotors etc.). We only paid $500 for the entire assembly. And the whole job took about 12 hours. but hey it was me and one other person with no lift/ air tools. id say thats damn good.

 

yeah my plan is to do a swap out from a junkyard. thanks a ton.

 

Sounds like it killed one of the pinion bearings... I have set-up a couple of different rears, but not a 9.25 (yet), all I can say is it is much easier to swap the entire assembly. Though if it were me I like the peace of mind new bearings and gears gives...

 

i know this is goin to sound like a pretty dumb question, but how complicated is it to work on a rear end? just curious. im probably not goin to touch it mainly because idk what im doin. haha

 

Do some google research... It`s different from axle to axle, but yes, it is complicated. Mess up on one aspect of setting up your rear end and it will die a premature death. But here`s the three basics, pinion depth, pinion (bearing) preload, and backlash... Changing bearings requires a press as well.

 

That's very basic. The carrier bearing settings are equally important. Besides knowing how there are also a number of specialized tools required for working on axle gears. Like transmissions, this is work best left to someone that knows what they're doing.

 

There are tricks to working on them without special tools... And yes that is basic, pinion depth sets your contact patch and backlash is adjusted with the carrier bearing shims (swapping them left or right after you get preload)... I guess I did leave out bearing preload on the carrier bearings by implying you only have to worry about the pinion bearing preload...

Anyway, unless you plan on spending the majority of your weekend fighting with it for your first time, I wouldn`t bother tearing into it. The first couple axles you do will literally kick your ***, then once you get the hang of it they`re simple. But, unless you work on drivelines for a living I wouldn`t bother trying to learn...