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changing pinion bearing

cconcepts

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Joined
August 30, 2009
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City, State
Myrtle Beach, SC
Year, Model & Trim Level
98 XLT
Is there a writeup on this by chance? Ive searched and havent found anything. I'll be doing a pinion bearing replacement in my 98 awd xlt this weekend, and would love any tips or tricks you guys might know. Thanks!
 



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Yeah, that is a great writeup. Wish I'd had it before I did one a few months ago.

A couple of suggestions though:

1.) You mention pinion bearings. I hope that you intend to replace all bearings/races and seals while its apart. It just doesn't make sense to go through all that work and not do it all now.
2.) It will be ALOT easier if you pull the rear out of from under the truck, instead of doing this with it still in.
3.) Do a little more research. You'll find some threads on here with a little more detail on how to set the pinion bearing preload, both with and without and new crush sleeve. When I did mine, I bought all the pieces individually, so I had a hard time tracking down a new crush sleeve and pinion nut. A new pinion nut is required. I ended up not using the new crush sleeve. I reinstalled the old one, and just torqued till I got the proper rotational torque on pinion flange. I did put it together with the new crush sleeve first, but I found it impossible to get it to crush, and I'm a big guy. I even tried a serious impact gun (yeah, I know.... that's a no-no). Nothing would crush it. Granted, that could have been due to the rear being in the truck, and my limited leverage laying under there. BUt, in the end I put the old crush sleeve back in, and it worked out fine. I drove the truck for about 5 months after, and just sold it 2 days ago. No noise, or any problems. I checked several times along the way to make sure it hadn't lossened up or anything.
4.) Unless you have an actual heavy duty press at home, save yourself a lot of needless headaches. Have a shop press on and press off all the bearings. Bring them the carrier, pinion, and new bearings all together, and it shouldn't cost much than $35-$40. I will save you hours of aggravation.
 






Well I tore into her today, and discovered I have chipped teeth in both the ring gear and pinion gear....so instead of replacing the bearings in the pinion, i am just gonna find a whole rear from a scrap yard and swap her in. Anyone know what years / models are interchangable with my 98 5.0l awd? I know its a posi 8.8 ford rear with 3.73 gears.
 






Well I tore into her today, and discovered I have chipped teeth in both the ring gear and pinion gear....so instead of replacing the bearings in the pinion, i am just gonna find a whole rear from a scrap yard and swap her in. Anyone know what years / models are interchangable with my 98 5.0l awd? I know its a posi 8.8 ford rear with 3.73 gears.

Actually, several shops that know rear ends pretty well, told me that it was pretty common for there to be a few chips as they get older. As long as it's mostly at the outer edges of the teeth, they're probably fine. A junkyard rear is just as likely to have the same thing once you open it up. Can you post some pics? I don't think it's too much to worry about.
 






I will get some pics up tomorrow. I am just trying to eliminate my thumping noise from the diff. The outer pinion bearing wasnt in the best shape, not spinning as freely as it should, but im thinking the noise is coming from the chipped teeth on the gears....
 






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