More Problems

[natecompton]

I hear a noise in my rear end when I get a change in direction (forward to reverse and vice versa). At first I thought it was a Universal Joint. But it also makes the noise if I turn the wheel sharply over an uneven surface (much like a sway bar would). I talked to someone that said it sounded like the drive train. He said drain the fluid and check for metal on the plug. He also suggested a certain fluid to replace in it, Lucas Oil something I believe.

 

Either way, I'm going to try and find what it is he recommended and take a look. I was really hoping to not have to crawl under this truck again for quite a while.

[natecompton]

Also please bear in mind in not greatly mechanical, so if you just can't quite understand what I'm trying to say let me know.

[hrspwr]

I hear a noise in my rear end when I get a change in direction (forward to reverse and vice versa). At first I thought it was a Universal Joint. But it also makes the noise if I turn the wheel sharply over an uneven surface (much like a sway bar would). I talked to someone that said it sounded like the drive train. He said drain the fluid and check for metal on the plug. He also suggested a certain fluid to replace in it, Lucas Oil something I believe.

 

Either way, I'm going to try and find what it is he recommended and take a look. I was really hoping to not have to crawl under this truck again for quite a while.

Before you start changing fluids hoping that it cures the problem, try to identify it.

Couple things, is your truck 2wd or 4wd?

Have you changed the U joints?

Has your tranny(transfer case 4wd) ever been flushed before? If not then I would not start now. Friend of mine is a tranny guy and he said that if you do not change the fluid on a regular basis (every 60k km (40k miles)) don't. The tranny gets use to the fluid that it has within it (thicker) and when you change it, it becomes thinner. This will cause it to start slipping.

[natecompton]

It's 4wd, and I haven't changed the U joints.

 

I purchased the truck last summer and have only put 6500 miles on it. I myself have only done an oil change. I don't think the previous owner had put many miles on it. I do remember the carfax said it had at one time been a fleet vehicle, not sure if that means there had been any fluid changes.

[natecompton]

What can a guy do to determine what the problem is?

[kdixer]

Park on a level surface, preferably on a garage floor. Crawl up under it and have someone rock the vehicle by pushing on a rear tire. This is done with the truck off and in park and the parking brake NOT engaged. Check for looseness or popping noise around the u-joint as your assistant rocks the truck back and forth.

[thundercat]

Nate it may help and may not but I just went thru a similar problem check down further in this column under Siverado strange noise I got 200000 kilo,s on my truck and then this noise,just replaced the emergency brakes and attaching hardware and fixed.I finally tracked it down by slightly depressing the emergency brake and moved the vehicle back and forth and their was no noise.Hound

[hrspwr]

The reason I ask about the 4wd is I know some of them have a bit of extra play due to the transfer case. It may seem like you have a bad u joint but its just the nature of the beast.

Put the rear of the truck on the air and spin the tires. See if you can detect the nosie by doing that. As hound suggested see if it is the e-brake(s). But you have to have disc rear to see if the e-brake shoes are shot(very common).

[natecompton]

It may be the parking brake. I had it out in the driveway with the door open backing up and pulling forward making sharp turns. It wouldn't make the noise going strait. Anyway, I pushed the parking brake halfway down and did it again. The noise only happened once in a while, when the wheel was turned hard to the left.

[natecompton]

Well, it's the rear end. I took the cap off and it was painfully obvious. (Pictures to follow). Would I be better off replacing the whole assembly, or doing a rebuild.

 

Also, I have no idea where to find out what my gear ratio is. (I found the ratio, it's a 3.73)

[natecompton]

So this is what I see when I open it up.

 

And this is what seems to be the problem. The differential cross pin just broke off. The spider gears (?) connected to it need to be replaced as well. Everything else seems to be in good shape. Is there more I should look into or take into consideration to repair this, or should I just buy a salvage rear end? The only one I could find was $575.

[hrspwr]

If you get one out of a salvage yard you don't know what you get(yes you can inspect it, but until you put it in and test it). The other is to get a new carrier and gear set. While your at it, you might as well do bearings and seals(piece of mind). Price both out and weight out which is better for you.

[countryboy_db]

This same exact thing happened to my truck a few months ago. It was a fairly simple fix that took me about two hours to complete from start to finish. I bought a spider gear set, new synthetic oil, gasket, and a bunch of brake cleaner. You have to take the axles out a little ways to pull the spider gears but it is a fairly straight forward process. All together it cost me $189 for the spider gear set, and about $60-70 for the oil, gasket, and brake cleaner. The brake cleaner was used to wash out all the metal shavings from the stripped spider gears. If a metal filing gets stuck in the bearings or any other moving part it has the possibility of destroying the whole rear end. Dont let the fix scare you, its not that hard at all. I work on cars and trucks but by no means am i a mechanic. Paying close to $600 bucks sounds crazy to me when you can do it yourself and know its done right if you dont mind spending a few hours and around $250 bucks. Best of luck to you