What do you think?

CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!

JeepnBlake shamed me into taken the locker apart. :wink:


---getting the damn carrier bearings off is real fun :-x ---
There is nothing obviously wrong inside the locker. It is also obvious why this locker is so weak.
Before I tore it apart I started over with diagnostics. On jack stands run in 6th gear: loud noise coming from diff and hear it very well at each rear wheel. Took tires off and noise was remarkable lessened.
Slight application of parking brake noise was right back.
Pulled both rear axles and ran it again noise was almost absent. So it must need a load on the drive train to make it sound off.
Took the carrier out and ran it with just the pinion in--no noise duh!

Demeral tooled the carrier bearings off with the help of a hammer and chisel! Using the impact wrench pulled the locker apart ---Be real sure you remember EXACTLY where everything goes and in what direction.

Nothing! No extreme wear patterns. No chipped teeth, No burned gear edges---nothing! :-x

Slammed on two new carrier bearings on and will shove this SOB back into the case tomorrow and see what happens.

No load= no noise or very much reduced. Load the drive train and you can hear the rig coming three blocks away. Pinion pre load is 25 in lbs with new bearings. Backlash is .07 and tooth pattern is centered. Noise is loudest at the neutral piont: just coming off accel or decel but can be heard under either condition.

Anybody had anything like this before? :?

The shims were still on the pinion but burned and torn. No pieces in the oil. The gears are shiny and show a centered pattern with and without prussian blue.

I just found a very small, and I mean small click in the u-joint on the way to the store now.

New u-joint installed. New brake calipers install because the old ones were corroded and hardly working. Can't put new calipers in with new pads. Two and a half bills later= J.E.E.P.

Rotated the tires and took it for a drive. Noise was still there but at a greatly reduced volume. Think old Kaiser maybe on to something. Mainly because I have eliminated EVERYTHING else I think. Will look at new gears when I get it back from the next trip around the end of October and post the results.


:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: Got to 'cause I'm tired of crying!

Update and lessons learned.
After "trusted mechanic" got done with the new bearings I narrowed down the problem to the locker because HE told me everything else was good. Called Dave and was seriously considering an ARB. In despair and just in case, I pulled the carrier one more time and tore apart the factory locker. I was convinced it had to be that because everything else had been eliminated. Locker was fine. :-x

By now the frustration level was just about out of sight!

My annual salmon fishing trip to the Oregon coast was upon me and the Jeep is our boat launcher. So I called Dave at Northridge on Monday and asked if he had time/room to do a rear end build. He said yes so I said be there Thursday morning. Actually got there Wednesday afternoon and turn the heep over to him. We went thru all the signs and symptoms and what had and had not been done. The possible problems were obvious and all meant $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

We camped in their new shops parking lot for the night (fabulous shop by the way) and the next morning they picked me up and hauled me back to the old shop for a look. HE “trusted mechanic” apparently had not bothered to do a tooth pattern check after putting in new bearings and fixing the shims because what Brian showed me was outrageous. There was an error of .023 in the pinion depth stack and the new wear pattern in the ring gear made it obvious why the noise was louder after the “fix.” Brian, who actually did the rebuild, had my new gears out with the tooth pattern showing perfect. SMILE. Test drive was so quite it was spooky. I am now about 250 miles into the break in and gears are still silent. More accolades for Dave and Brian at Northridge. Super service and a great price.
Long story short: “I have been doing this for 30/40/50 years” does not necessarily mean the customer should not check a mechanics work! When I pulled the carrier to check the locker a quick brush of Prussian blue would have told a damning tale.
:rotflmao: :rotflmao: All is well