I think my bearings are done. It feel like the brakes are on when driving on highway, I won't go over 50. I started up with it cold this morning and after a 10 min. drive at 50mph I stopped and went under truck, the rear center section was to hot to touch, the muffler was cooler.
I had a pinion seal leak and have fixed and refilled fluid, It's full and gets real hot, I don't want to drive more than 10 or 15 min. from home. No farther than I can walk home.
Its an 01 with a 3.9, what rear will interchange. I would rather change it with a junk yard one and hope it's good than try to fix this one.

 

bearings are cheap and relatively easy to replace. I dont understand why you wouldnt replace them.

 

It's the pinion bearing that's gone and I would have to redo shim the gears after I put new one in with new crush collar and all that. If it was just axle bearings I would just change them. I'm looking at another rear for $150. I just want to make sure it will fit. Gear ratio I deal with if it's different, I have 2 wheel drive so I don't have to match front axle.

 

Bad pinion bearings make a howling noise, so are you hearing any noise? If not, what makes you think the pinion bearings are bad? It could be the carrier bearings, which are even easier to change and wouldn't cost much.

If they are bad, who told you that you would have to reshim the pinion? You are using the same gears and the same housing. The point of shims is to locate a specific pinion in a specific housing. New bearings won't change anything. Pull the old bearings off and put the new ones on and reuse the old shim.

For $150, what makes you think the "new" rear axle will last? Its used. Now it may last the rest of the life of your truck, or it may last a month, who knows. You can spend that same amount of money buying a master rebuild kit for your axle and it will last.

 

rear housing gets hot right at the pinion bearing to the point where the housing has discolored. the garage wants $500 to rebuild. and yes it howls, whines and smokes. I need the truck fixed by Monday morning so I'm changing it and if used one is also bad I can shop around and get my original fixed.

 

any 97-03 will swap fine. a RT axle would be a upgrade as it is a 9.25.

 

I swapped it yesterday took all day. new axle bearings and seals and all that.
Mine was a 8 1/4 open with 3.55 gears. The one I bought over the phone without seeing from some one who has 40 ford trucks and only the one dodge to part out for $200 is a 9 1/4 with 3.55 gear and when I opened it up limited slip. That was a nice surprise and made spending the money worth it.
I had to make a bunch of calls and find U bolts to fit and the larger plates to put it in.

 

very cool man!

i was gonna say, if its heating up that bad, it sound like someone replaced that bearing but then set the preload way to high.