[panhead george]

I can't tell if I have tire noise or a problem with wheel bearings.
I would think tire noise will have a higher pitch the faster you go.

The noise I have does not change. I hear it only when I am moving.
I have jacked up the front end and spun the wheels but I do not hear any noise.

Does any one have any thoughts?

 

[Steve83]

Rotate the suspect tire with the spare.

 

[panhead george]

I don't hear one tire.
Noise is not defined at front or rear.

Could it be the center bearing?

 

[Steve83]

Chock BOTH front tires fore&aft, put the rear axle on jack stands, have an assistant run it up to speed while you listen underneath with a stethoscope.

 

[panhead george]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I will have to do as you suggest and lift the truck up.

I guess I was being lazy and trying to avoid lifting the truck.

 

[panhead george]

I jacked up the truck and put the rear end on jack stands. With the motor running in drive, I could hear noise at the rear of the truck. Crawled under neath to make sure the drive shaft u joints or center bearings were not making any noise.

Noise is in the pumpkin.

I turned off motor drove the truck to pick up some stuff. When I came back and jacked it up again, I heard clicking in the pumpkin. It is as if a piece of metal is getting knocked around.
After almost a minute the clicking noise went away.

WIld guess on the problem?

 

[Steve83]

Not exactly a "wild guess"... These are from different trucks:

. . .

I would NOT drive the truck again until you look inside & remove any loose chunks. If one of them goes into the R&P on a bad bump, it could lock the rear wheels, or explode the diff.

 

[panhead george]

I pulled the cover off the rear end. drained the fluid through a rag. There were no metal chunks. I have a magnet on the inside of the cover. The metal collected was very fine. When I inspected the teeth of the gears, I noticed the edges on the teeth of the ring gear felt like a serrated steak knife. You could see it on the teeth.

Will I have to replace the ring gear?
Or just replace and shim the bearings?

 

[Steve83]

Post pics, including the embossed text on the edge of the ring gear. But in general: when the R&P gears wear down enough to detect, everything needs to be replaced. A complete used axle assembly is usually the cheapest, quickest, & best solution.

 

[panhead george]

Thanks for your help. It took a while to figure out how to upload the picture.
I have some one looking for a wrecked truck with the rear end and a utility bed.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

George, where are you seeing serrations?

 

[Steve83]

I see them along the ridges of every ring tooth. But I also see strikes on the carrier, which tells me the pinion nut is loose. Pull the driveshaft off the rear axle, remove the pinion nut, wash the pinion & nut threads with carb/brake cleaner, apply RED threadlocker, and torque the old nut to ~190 lb-ft. That will NOT repair any damage, or save the gears/axle, but it's nearly free, and it will make the truck reasonably-safe to drive for a couple thousand miles while you source a permanent repair.

The way I post pics is described in this thread:
http://www.supermotors.net/forums/thid-5972-how-do-i-post-pictures-sounds-and-or-videos

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

I see, it's like chipping at very top of the wear pattern.

 

[panhead george]

Thank you very much for the advice.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

Hi George, if the nut came loose as suggested, the pinion depth changed, allowing the contact pattern to be to high up on the tooth and if you set the pinion height back to where it was you might be ok if this has not been going on long. The pinion will n longer be that high so it won't be touching the tooth up there anymore. It's worth a shot.

 

[panhead george]

Giving an update ....

Today I finally dropped the drive shaft and tried to tighten the pinion nut. I don't have a torque wrench for the 1 7/8" nut. Everything I have read about the dana 80 says 470 or so ft. lbs.
I used and impact. I wasn't able to see much movement of the socket.

I still have the noise.

I have read on the internet about people having problems with the bearings flaking apart.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

Dang George.
Can it be down long enough to pull it ot and rebuild it or have it rebuilt? Have you googled: Ebay the axle, your town local pick up? Might be one right around the corner.

 

[Steve83]

Well, if the pinion isn't moving back into the carrier, the carrier has to be moving forward into the pinion. Those are the only 2 ways for the pinion to engrave those stripes onto the carrier. So check the carrier bearings & cap bolts.

 

[panhead george]

UPDATE

A ford diesel mech came over to my garage and looked at my dually rear end. We disassembled it and made a list of the bearings etc.

I bought the parts. pinion inner and outer bearings/cups and seal. Also carriage bearings/ cups

Today he assembled it and the problem is taken care of.

Cost me about $180. for the parts and $400. for labor