I'm bone stock. I used to have the Wranglers lifted and all but you run into issues that I have now. I have a 09' Sport with 3.92 gears, auto, loaded. I was thinking the truck needed a rear alignment. I've heard of that before. I may switch out the shocks and steering stabilizers. With 45k for a $42k truck you shouldn't be having issues like this IMO.

 

Hey all, just thought i'd share. 2009 1500, 3.55 open 2wd, 60,000miles, no warranty. I use the truck as a daily driver and to tow our boat.. The rearend began a very quiet howling on the highway about a month ago, 2 weeks ago I got the latest recall notice that the parts were available. Within the last week the howling has gotten louder so yesterday I took it to the local dealer for the inspection/retainer installation. The service writer told me it indeed had a loose pinion nut and bearing damage and that parts had to be ordered. They gave me the truck back to drive until the parts arrive and the receipt I got shows only a pinion bearing kit and a pinion bearing shim kit.. I'm hoping they have the other bearings and seals in stock and are planning to replace all of them still? "Recondition rear axle" in my head means all new bearings, seals, and possibly even the ring and pinion gears. How would you guys take this? Oh, and until I get it back for them to fix it I am driving it as little as possible and not with my family in the truck.

 

Your situation sounds similar to mine, except on the first attempt at repair the dealer installed a new pinion nut and retainer but within hours of picking up the truck my rear diff started going out. My assumption is that they didn't put a new crush sleeve in, so bearing preload was wrong. They then did the "Recondition Rear Axle" and the list of parts was: Pinion nut retainer; Pinion nut; Seal - Drive pinion; Spacer; Drive Pinion Bearing; Bearing kit - Drive Pinion; Bearing - Drive Pinion; Bearing kit - Differential side; 75w140 fluid, etc. Work was done 6 or 7 weeks ago and so far so good.

 

Seems odd, they replaced the ring and pinion on my truck and mine never had any indication that something was wrong with it - they found that the nut was loose and rebuilt the whole axle.

 

If that nut works loose, the pinion is unusable. Be glad they did. (:

 

If the nut is loose, the pinion AND ring gear are unusable. Both need replacing as a set.

 

Thanks for the replies fellas, I'm hoping that maybe they had the other parts for the rebuild in stock already and only had to order the pinion bearing and shim kits which would be why only those two are on my receipt. I'll be asking when I drop it off.

 

I had mine in last week and they inspected the ring and pinion in case they needed to replace it. It didn't need it so all they did was install the retainer nut.

 

Here is a follow up to my pinion nut recall / rear axle reconditioning that was done in December.. The day I picked it up from the dealership I could hear a very faint whine still between 40-50mph, it didn't matter whether I was accelerating or decelerating, and it was the same "whirring" type whine. it's progressively gotten worse, I dropped it off again at the dealership this morning and am waiting to hear what they find. This truck has no warranty as I'm not the original owner, but I would imagine it's on the dealer and Chrysler to correct this since they just rebuilt the differential under a recall. I've only put a couple thousand miles on it since the rebuild.

 

Check your paperwork. Most dealers warrant their work for 12 months/12,000 miles.