That is possible for sure but i dont know if that would cause a whine? having mud tires is a good description of the noise. The sound doesnt seem to disappear or get louder when accelerating and decelerating. From searching around the pinion bearing gets quieter as you take your foot off the pedal.

 

Its very possible its a mix of different things. My pinion bearing got louder with speed and acceleration

 

mine doesn't exactly get any louder, it just gets higher pitched and more like a whine if that makes sense. I am hoping it isn't a pinion bearing from what I read these are a PITA

 

if it whines at steady speed or acceleration, and then growls on deceleration - its pinion. it doesn't hurt anything, its just noisy and aggravating.

easiest DIY fix is to replace the entire rear end, housing and all...

 

I will look around for a used rear end for sure. but when you say it doesn't hurt anything, is it okay to drive for a few weeks?

 

If the bearings are whining, you still have time. If the bearings are grinding, you are out of time.

 

you can drive it for months, maybe years.

 

That's why I thought till it took out the entire rear

 

I've got the same whine coming from my rearend, I bought a master bearing set and will tear into it tomorrow. It does sound like narrow mud tires at speed and is worst between 50-65 mph also it is affected by load/unload on the drive train by the gas pedal (pitch change in noise). I will try to post pics of the rebuild, also I bought a crush sleeve eliminator kit from autoplicity(dot)com , didnt know if links were allowed. cheapest I could find on the net after shipping, it came in 2 days as well :-).

I am just nervous about re-using a ring and pinion. I have heard to ignore backlash settings in favor of a good pattern (as close to proper backlash as possible, when reusing a ring/pinion set). I have been driveing it like this for about 3 months, I too had heard from my father ( a mechanic who owns his own shop) that I could drive it for years with no problems, but I am nervous about it doing what dlyter09 's did and taking out the whole diff.

 

Yea I want to get fixed for peace of mind. It is something that will deter my motive to do road trip n what not. My mechanic about 340 for the fix so I am gunna go with that in a few weeks. Thanks for all the help on here everyone!