CaptainDean wrote:
Dug into the rear end today. It has been howling and I cannot stand it any longer. Got an estimate for $1900 to have my favorite shop set it up -- thought I'd take a stab at it first.
I have watched a few YouTube videos so I got some good information before starting. Two about setting up the rear end, one about a complete rebuild after a bearing failure. My first test was pulling on each axle to see the lateral free play. Notice I could pull one axle out, then pull the other side, then pull the first one again and it moved about 1/8 inch. Woes started building as I knew I was pulling the innards around.
The ink marks show the side play between the loose bearings. The gear is the one that drives the anti skid rear wheel speed sensor.
I will add to this in the morning...
Got interrupted last night while posting this message, now I'll complete it...
Set up the dial indicator and measured 0.090" of slop on the carrier gear. One of the YouTube videos showed a lot more slop and they found pieces of the carrier bearings in the bottom.
There were no chunks of metal in the bottom so this one is still in usable condition. Only some fine metal particles. Cleaned out the pumpkin area and continued on for now. It feels like there is a magnet in the bottom of the pumpkin case.
Made a carrier bearing adjustment tool by assembling a 36mm nut and an old 1/2" drive socket. Initially I just used epoxy to put them together but the epoxy slipped with about 2 ft/lbs torque. Drilled the nut and socket to put a pin through it but I broke a couple drills getting through the case hardened socket. For now, I ended up with a nail through the hole just to get through today. The nail is bent over so it won't fall out in the axle tube. I'm sure I'll have to dig back in here again to set it up correctly.
When I do finish installing the pin I'll use this bolt and a drill 1-size smaller to get a press fit.
This tool worked fine today but I'll finish it later and re-do this job.
With no more lateral movement in the carrier, could then set up for the backlash. Had to loosen the drivers-side and tighten the passenger-side carrier bearings until I got the backlash to 0.006" movement.
Afterward I tightened the passenger-side carrier bearing to a few pounds torque by feel with a ratchet. The videos said to tighten the pinion shaft bearings to get 20-inch pounds when turning the shaft with an inch-pound torque wrench. Then you put the carrier assembly in and adjust the carrier bearings for backlash first, then for an additional 10-inch pounds torque while turning the pinion shaft that is also driving the carrier.
Today I did not mess with the pinion shaft so I just roughed-it-in. I'm sure this will be much better than before, although not completely correct. I'll get back into this later. None of the seals (pinion, wheel bearing) are leaking so I'm not in distress yet. Next time I will get the gear paint to check the mating of the pinion gear to ring gear alignment.
Dean.