What happened to my rear end?
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My rear end just went out. I replaced the whole rear end $1600.00 but got a 3 year 100,000 mile warrenty. I found some from the bone yards for $1000.00 with 30 day warrenty I thought it was worth the extra money
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Okay, I am not much of a mechanic so this has been a learning experience for me and I am sorry for getting all the terms wrong. With the help of some friends, I put everything back together. I did use a new pinion seal, diff cover gasket, and cleaned up all the surfaces.
Once I put the yoke on and tightened everything back up, there was no play in the yoke/pinion and everything seemed to turn okay by hand. Saw no damage in any of the gears, so we filled it up with the grease (the most expensive part of the repair so far) and took it for a test drive. There was a noise coming from it. So I'm guessing the bearing is out. Still trying to decide if I want to try to tackle that one. I've got a buddy that is convinced we can do it.
Once I put the yoke on and tightened everything back up, there was no play in the yoke/pinion and everything seemed to turn okay by hand. Saw no damage in any of the gears, so we filled it up with the grease (the most expensive part of the repair so far) and took it for a test drive. There was a noise coming from it. So I'm guessing the bearing is out. Still trying to decide if I want to try to tackle that one. I've got a buddy that is convinced we can do it.
Last edited by nodnermot; Jun 11, 2012 at 02:23 PM.
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Just a quick recap of everything now that I'm a little more knowledgeable.
Driving down the highway the truck was really bogging down hard anytime I got off the accelerator and there was a loud whining noise. I pulled over to the shoulder and was slowing down in time for there to be a loud bang of the drive shaft hitting the road and the rear wheels locking up.
As it turns out (how I don't know, maybe not tightened enough after the last servicing), the pinion nut loosened, allowing the drive shaft to separate from the rear end. The yoke stayed attached to the u-joint on the drive shaft and trapped the pinion nut between the yoke and the u-joint. Nothing on the u-joint or drive shaft broke or sheared.
I pulled the differential cover off and inspected the gears, seeing no damage and no shavings in the bottom of the housing. There were a few small nicks on the yoke and some small damage to the threads on the pinion, but nothing that worried me. I took the yoke off the drive shaft and reattached it to the pinion after I replaced the pinion seal. There was no up/down or left/right play in the yoke after the pinion nut was tightened. I cleaned off the differential cover gasket surface, applied a new gasket, replaced the differential cover, and filled with the specified gear grease.
There was a noise coming from the rear end on the test drive. The best I could describe the noise would be similar to that of a low or flat tire.
Driving down the highway the truck was really bogging down hard anytime I got off the accelerator and there was a loud whining noise. I pulled over to the shoulder and was slowing down in time for there to be a loud bang of the drive shaft hitting the road and the rear wheels locking up.
As it turns out (how I don't know, maybe not tightened enough after the last servicing), the pinion nut loosened, allowing the drive shaft to separate from the rear end. The yoke stayed attached to the u-joint on the drive shaft and trapped the pinion nut between the yoke and the u-joint. Nothing on the u-joint or drive shaft broke or sheared.
I pulled the differential cover off and inspected the gears, seeing no damage and no shavings in the bottom of the housing. There were a few small nicks on the yoke and some small damage to the threads on the pinion, but nothing that worried me. I took the yoke off the drive shaft and reattached it to the pinion after I replaced the pinion seal. There was no up/down or left/right play in the yoke after the pinion nut was tightened. I cleaned off the differential cover gasket surface, applied a new gasket, replaced the differential cover, and filled with the specified gear grease.
There was a noise coming from the rear end on the test drive. The best I could describe the noise would be similar to that of a low or flat tire.
The pinion bearings could have been damaged from having it at such an extreme angle while moving. I'm less familiar with the Dodge rearends, but if there is a crush sleeve I'm assuming you replaced it when you did the seal. If the pinion depth is set different than it was before, its going to make noise just like a used gear set makes noise.
