Ram 1500 2003
5.7L HEMI
9-1/4 in rear end, 3.91 gears. Track-lok, 93K miles

I recently replaced the clutch retainer clips in the rear end because I found them stuck to the magnet in the bottom of the pumpkin. 3 of the 4 clips had grenaded in pumpkin. No damage to any gears what-so-ever. While I had it apart I went ahead and replaced both wheel bearings and seals, along with the carrier bearings and their cups. (All bearings purchased from Dodge) I did not replace the clutches, just the retainers. Clutches are in good shape.

(And don’t let Dodge tell you you have to purchase the entire carrier, the clutch packs and clutch retainers are noted in the system as an internal problem with this rear end, and there are separate part numbers for each piece. The clutch packs come with new retainers, or the retainers can be purchased separately. The new retainers are beefier than the ones that broke loose. Yeah, a design problem indeed! The new retainers I purchased cost me $7.50 for the set of 4. Mike at Wholesalemopar.com helped me out when my local dealer wouldn’t. Mike, you ROCK! He did the legwork for me and found the note in the system!! The local dealer wanted me to purchase the entire carrier with new spider gears and clutches in it for $834.)

I set the carrier back in, set the backlash to .007 in. per the Dodge shop manual. (Never touched the pinion, so only needed to set up the backlash on the ring and pinion and the preload on the carrier bearings)

The rear end whines now, but it's strange. The pitch changes with speed (gets higher the faster I go, pitch drops as speed falls off). It does it under acceleration as well as coasting. Noise does not change based on load on the gears. It makes the same noise at speed when truck is shifted to neutral also (no load on ring and pinion).

I have taken the cover off 3 times now thinking the preload on the bearings is too tight, and adjusted accordingly maintaining the backlash of .007 in., but that hasn't fixed the problem.

Another note, the Dodge shop manual says the threaded adjusters need to be torqued to 75 ft lbs, but when I removed the carrier from the rear end, the adjusters were nowhere near torqued to 75 ft lbs. (Bearing caps torqued to 100 ft lbs. per the book.)

The sound is coming from the pumpkin and not at the axles, so I know it isn't either wheel bearing.

In hindsight, I didn’t have to drop the carrier to get to the clutches, but not knowing where the pieces were coming from initially or what else might be wrong, I gutted and cleaned the pumpkin.

Any suggestions as how to stop the whine?

HELP!

Thanks, HEMIBat.

 

I can't believe I'm the only person this has ever happend to. Come on guys, some help here please!!

Thanks,
Hemibat

 

I think its gonna be the backlash that was not set properly. This would cause it to whine. I have never done this on my Ram, but I have done it on other rear ends and I got the same thing. So I had a differential shop set the backlash and that solved the problem!

 

Why replace the clips? They're only there to aid in assembly. Gear folks will have to pitch in further. Does the diff cover get hotter than normal?

 

I replaced them because they were lying in the bottom of the pumpkin, and in addition, the gap they left between the carrier and the clutch packs caused the axles to slam into the carrier under acceleration. Jared the truck something fierce. The clutch packs left grooves in the carrier slots too, so it turned out to be a good thing to install the new retainers and fill in the gap.

I think the whine is in the preload of the bearings. I'm thinking I didn't get the threaded adjusters tight enough. Does anyone know who rents the tool for the threaded adjusters? (Checker, autozone, etc.)

 

Lots of folks have removed those clips with no further issues. Sounds like there's more going on here.

 

Have you done a pattern check with the paint/gear dye?
You could see if your current set up is OK, by observing the current contact patch and refering it back to the Dodge manual.
This would be a quick way to tell if your backlash etc has been screwed, with the introduction of your new bits and pieces?
Hope this helps?
Al.

 

I have and I intend to do it again once I get the right tool for the right job! Hopefully 3 will finally be the charm!

 

That you've heard of! removing them and leaving them out causes wear as Hemibat stated that his were because there was space. I have read many, many other guys having the same wear problem with them out. Not a good idea. Trust me, I looked into it thoroughly.

Abarmy, pinion depth has already been set at from the factory and should not need to be changed just for new bearings. Pinion whine is tempermental. Never will you get a consistant hum/whine as you speed up/slow down at any speed.
My guess is he either has a bad bearing or a bad micrometer.

 

Dirty Dog,

Thanks for adding to the thread about removing the retaining clips. I wasn't going to respond because it wasn't worth the aggravation. Unless he's torn his diff apart, he won't know the damage the clutch packs can do to the carrier without the retainers in place.

I know now the preload torque is wrong on the bearings/adjusters. This is my mistake when I set up the rear end. So, this will be my weekend project. I'll know within an hour or so of applying elephant snot to the cover and filing it back up whether I've got any bad bearings or not. I'm really hoping for the not.

I will do something I haven't done yet...check the backlash before tearing anything apart just to see where the measurement is. This should give me a good idea of how loose the bearings still are.

Party on Wayne! Party on Garth!