Hey guys. The vehicle in question is my 02 2wd. I am recognizing a increased noise lately. It sounds like I am constantly driving on cement, not the typical wheel bearing "whomp whomp". The front bearings were already changed, and I had a bit of problems with the passengers side hub until they were recalled and then I had no more problems with it. I am 90% sure this noise is coming from the passenger rear of the truck though. I jacked up the truck a few days ago and checked for slack, all wheels are tight at all 4 corners. I have no idea how to check for bad rear bearings or pinion bearings. Road surface does not matter. Other relavent information, the exhaust is magnaflow dumped just in front of axle, tires are 33" Terra Grapplers with approx 15k on them, they have also been rotated- no change in noise. The diff fluid was changed less then 5k miles ago. Anyone who has ever run a gator back belt will know what the noise I am trying to describe is, like the first 500 miles on a new gator back belt. Also no change in noise steering around curves either left or right. Thanks for any ideas.

 

Oookkkaaayy. Took it to the Dodge house today to get the alignment checked. Was planning on doing this anyhow due to the accident I was in a few weeks ago. I asked them to check the bearings as well, they said they were fine. The tech heard the noise as well, said tires. There is no slack in the u joints, but I gave them a few shots of grease anyway until fresh grease came out, also checked the gear fluid, it was fine. The noise is still there.

The alignment was off, and adjusted. Noise is still there though not as bad. Still sounds like its coming from the rear though. Im at a loss, thinking it could be the pinion bearing or something. I googled and read on the tires I have on there, and they are not known to be noisy, even when worn. Possible that the alignment issue caused some funny wear making them noisy? I cant see anything abnormal.

 

pinion bearing noise will increase with rpm and if you take your foot off the petal it will almost quiet right down. Do you have any fluid leaking from around the pinion?

 

No fluid, and the noise stays constant from 15 mph on up, and back down to 15 mph. It does it whether under acceleration, slowing down or coasting in neutral.

 

Okay guys, I still haven't found an answer for this. I took a video to see if that may help some. The video runs from a stop up to 60 mph and back to a stop. The noise is downright horrible slowing down the last 15 mph or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tVyumDjunY
I have no slack in the pinion flange with the wheels off the ground and truck in neutral, no slack at both rear wheels, and no gear oil loss or leaks. The truck also rides a bit rougher in te rear, not like a shake or vibration but I can feel the bumps a whole lot more. Thanks in advance for any more ideas.

 

I had a horrendous whine coming from the passenger side of my truck. Seemed to get worse with time. Fixed it by getting a divorce...








Sorry BigDaddy, I couldn't resist. LOL...

 

Im fairly certain by now after speaking with several shops today that it is either the pinion bearing or carrier bearings. Dosent matter, either way itll be about $800 to fix. Thats for both because it doesnt make sense to rip the gears out to change one and not the other.
The one variance that I have heard from one shop is the bearing in the tailshaft of the transmission, which would actually be cheaper to fix then one of the diff bearings. We will see Wednesday or Thursday when I get off of work.

 

I was going to vote for the pinion bearing also

 

Hammer...ha ha ha ha class!! Really laughed at that one.
Al.

 

Heres a pic of a bad pinion bearing race I just took out of a rear end I rebuilt.