Rear end whining

My 97 Sport has a whine in the rear end...ring and pinion I suspect.

I changed the rear end oil with Lucas Synthetic 85x140....the original fluid was actually gritty.

The new fluid did quiet it down some, but the whine is still there...

It seems like this is a common problem with the Explorer rear ends. Many folks seem to have the whining re-occur after changing rring and pinion gears or swapping entire rear end assemblies...

Question is, how long will it run with the whine??? seems like it should go for a long time without problems, except for the noise....

Any ideas or experience??? A neighbor with a whining f150 has been driving it for 5 years with the noise....ugh

Any and all information would be appreciated...thanks

:roll:

U p d a t e ! ! !

I switched the gear oil with Lucas Synthetic 85/140 for three reasons...

1 - I was hoping to do the cheap fix (knowing it was a waste of time) rather than repair the rear end.

2 - The Lucas bottle says it will quiet whining rear ends....did not really believe it

3 - the guy at Advance auto swears by Lucas and Seafoam....always says he won't suggest anything that he does not believe in....

So, I switched the gear oil after washing out the rear end with two cans of brake cleaner. Pumped in 3 qts of Lucas and went for a ride....there was a noticeable decrease in the whine, but not really enough to matter....

I went back to Advance Auto Parts for something else, and the guy asks about the rear end .....I said "not too much better".... He said go about 100 miles and see...the rearend is "splash fed" and not pressure fed like the motor...it takes a while for the oil to reach all the bearings, especially the front pinion bearing...

Well, son-of-a-gun!!! At about 97 miles, I turned down the radio because there was something missing....the rear end noise!! I thought this must be a fluke, or the rear end fell out of the truck!! HA HA

There is just a hint of the whining that was originally extremely loud, with a tad of grinding which is also gone....at least for now....

Don't know how long it will last, but it is sure nice to be able to hear the radio without the volume all the way up.....wow :roll::roll::roll:

I just picked up my '98 Sport from the mechanic after replacing the bearings in the rear diff. I too changed the oil hoping that would quiet it down enough to not bother me...but after a few months I couldn't take it anymore.

Word of caution...I ended up having to replace the axles as well since the bearings were so far gone that it actually damaged the axles. I would feel it "catch" under heavy acceleration and thought it was the clutch...it was the axles "bouncing" in the rear end. So that cost me another $400 by waiting. YMMV